Apple 'Aggressively Testing' OLED Displays From China's BOE for 2020 iPhone Lineup

[sw1tcher]

The iPhone 6 was released 5 years ago on Sept 19th, 2014.

iPhone 5S (released in Sept. 2013) got support for 5 iOS upgrades

iOS 7 is what it shipped with

Upgrade #1: iOS 8 released in 2014
Upgrade #2: iOS 9 released in 2015
Upgrade #3: iOS 10 released in 2016
Upgrade #4: iOS 11 released in 2017
Upgrade #5: iOS 12 released in 2018

I'm sure someone will come along and say iPhone 5S ran poorly or super slow with iOS 12, but that's not the point. Apple had supported 5 iOS upgrades.

 

[tooltalk]

Samsung is not the only company on this earth to make good oled panels. Good move by “Tim Apple.”

But who else is really out there? JDI is pretty much dead man walking at this point as is the rest of Japan's tech industry, which is fairly ironic considering that Samsung Display used to buy a lot of OLED manufacturing machines and chemicals from Japan. LG can't blatantly poach Samsung Display engineers, or steal their equipment and IP the way BOE does now. And BOE is still known to be 2-3 generations behind.

It's just too bad that "aggressively testing" won't improve the underlying component, especially for those who still believe that Apple makes, or "designs," their own display (ahem, duck).

 

[ColdShadow]

You are assuming they are bad quality? On what basis?

Apple has high standards as they have not put on LG as a 2nd OLED supplier due to issues. Why would Apple suddenly accept substandard displays from China... for all we know they may end up being the same as Samsung’s.

so much for "high standards"..have you by any chance owned a newer Macbook with that god awful flawed keyboard? I'm sure they "aggressively" tested those keyboard too and it certainly passed their high standard..(as I'm writing this I'm on 3rd KB replacement/repair and guess what after 1 week same problem again..I gave up).

back to the display...,in case you don't know display technology specially OLED is very sensitive technology and relatively new and exclusive.it requires alot of experience and patents and knowhow.
Samsung is the go to brand,they simply are the best,everyone knows that.
LG also makes good ones but they specialize in larger ones.
then from nowhere this cheap,Chinese brand BOE comes out and you think they will match the quality and expertise of Samsung OLED? no way! why no one else is using their OLED panels?

in case you are not aware,Apple in the past had inconsitency and quality difference between different panels they put in same model of their laptops,I've seen that with my own eyes.
if you browse this forum,people were trying to find out which panel their laptop had (Samsung or LG) by doing weird things such as serial number comparing/guessing etc and relying on "panel lottery".
all of those passed Apple's so called "high standard" too but certain characteristics and qualities are simply different between brands and can never be the same.

 

[msp3]

Small correction: LG is South Korean. Japan Display is the only company with Japanese ties and it's essentially owned by Apple and Chinese investors.

Just watch as the Chinese investors loot Japan Display for all its worth in IP (as they've already said they wanted to do), then lay everyone off and shut the entire thing down. The real sucker here is the Japanese government that gave them bailout after bailout, thinking a mature industry where economic rents are going to zero and no economic profits are left is a good thing to sink tax dollars into

 

[Val-kyrie]

Cutting costs again,and switching from high quality OLED panels made by Samsung to China brand..it’s sad.
and what happened to Apple’s investment in Japan Display company?? why change to Chinese brand??

Apple changed probably due to low price, not better quality (see below).

You are assuming they are bad quality? On what basis?

Apple has high standards as they have not put on LG as a 2nd OLED supplier due to issues. Why would Apple suddenly accept substandard displays from China... for all we know they may end up being the same as Samsung’s.

Samsung provides the best OLED panels for laptops in the market, according to notebookcheck.com.

If BOE’s low power FHD panels provide any indication of the quality of their OLED panels, you will not want them. In the low power FHD panel category, BOE makes the worst panels. In order of quality from best to worst according to notebookcheck (for low power FHD panels) are: Innolux, LG, AUO, and BOE.

Albeit, that is a problem for some, I think that’s a tangent pretty much for any OLED display for those affected. It’s not just Samsungs OLED panels Apple is using, that seems to be prevalent amongst other OLED panels as well. {FTR, there’s a pretty massive thread on the iPhone forum where others are suffering from PWM with Apples LCD displays used on the XR.}

51% of phones tested by notebookcheck.com do not use PWM and many only use PWM under 50% brightness. Apple uses PWM at all brightness settings up to and equal to 99%.

The flickering also occurs at a relatively low frequency of 240Hz (the average is 9418Hz), meaning “sensitive users will likely notice flickering and experience eyestrain at the stated brightness setting and below,” according to notebookcheck.com.

Unfortunately all OLED panels use PWM to dim the screen; there is no other option currently.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Cutting costs again,and switching from high quality OLED panels made by Samsung to China brand..it’s sad.
and what happened to Apple’s investment in Japan Display company?? why change to Chinese brand??

What's wrong with a Chinese brand? If Apple decides to use the component the quality is obviously on par with a Samsung display.
[doublepost=1566443549][/doublepost]

Errr LG panels are pretty bad .... for mobile displays . Just look at the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL where LG made the XL. That display had issues where the HTC made Pixel 2 which used a Samsung display did not .

Which is probably why their displays never made it to iPhones.

 

[mi7chy]

If Apple decides to use the component the quality is obviously on par with a Samsung display.

Tim Cook chooses what's cheap and profitable and not necessarily the best quality. Just look at the problem prone bufferfly keyboard.

 

[bobob]

Smartphone technology has plateaued - - no one needs to buy a new phone every year.

Plus, if you buy a quality device like an iPhone, which comes with 5 years of OS and security updates, your pro-rated annual cost is very reasonable.

Maybe Tim Apple will realize that Apple can shorten those 5 years to 4 years. They're doing so with the iPhone 6 and no support for iOS 13.

The iPhone 6 was released 5 years ago on Sept 19th, 2014.

iPhone 5S (released in Sept. 2013) got support for 5 iOS upgrades

I think you said it best...

but that's not the point.

You stated that Apple was shortening support on the iPhone 6 from 5 years to 4 years.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Maybe Tim Apple will realize that Apple can shorten those 5 years to 4 years. They're doing so with the iPhone 6 and no support for iOS 13. Will help to get those people into a newer iPhone.

Or maybe Apple will mirror Android One and only guarantee OS updates for 2 years and bug fixes and security updates for 3 years, then charge people something like $2.99 per month if they want OS updates and bug fixes and security updates beyond that. Another way for Apple to grow their Services business.

Hmmm, it seems Mr. Apple is doing neither of the things you fear “maybe will” happen. Aren’t there enough rumors to discuss without making up these baseless speculations?

Personally, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the longevity of my 6s. iOS 11 wasn’t slow by any means, but with iOS 12 it flies! It’s pretty amazing. I’m getting ready to begin my fifth year, and really looking forward to iOS 13.

Thanks Tim Apple! So awesome you gave new life to older iPhones (and my Mini 4 too) by optimizing iOS for older devices. Three cheers for Tim Apple!!

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Tim Cook chooses what's cheap and profitable and not necessarily the best quality. Just look at the problem prone bufferfly keyboard.

That was a design flaw, not a manufacturing defect. The supplier made it to Apple’s spec. Nothing to do with the quality of the manufacturer. It probably cost Apple more for the butterfly than the old scissor style since Apple was the only buyer.

 

[mi7chy]

That was a design flaw, not a manufacturing defect. The supplier made it to Apple’s spec. Nothing to do with the quality of the manufacturer. It probably cost Apple more for the butterfly than the old scissor style since Apple was the only buyer.

Do your research. The manufacturer of the problematic butterfly keyboard is Acer subsidiary Wistron which is considered a low end brand. Apple is switching to Sunrex scissor keyboard which is one of the manufacturers of reputed Thinkpad keyboards.

 

[ColdShadow]

If Apple decides to use the component the quality is obviously on par with a Samsung display.
[doublepost=1566443549][/doublepost]

what makes you think it's "obviously" on par with a Samsung? how much do you know about OLED technology? do you know it's a highly "patented" and very "experience" dependant tecchnologuy and that Samsung is the only expert in that field in the world? their OLED phone display technology cannot simply be matched by a random China company.

what Apple is doing is just sacrificing some refinement and quality to save costs and ruduce depedency on Samsung.ofcourse the quality won't be trash,it will be good but not as good as Samsung.
did you know in the past Apple used different displays from different manufactureres (same specs) in Macbooks and there was real,visible differences in sharpness,color etc and people were relying on "panel lottery" and checking serial numbers to find out if their has LG or Samsung display? same goes for some SSD they used by differnt manfacturers some faster that others resulting in better performance (same model laptop).
there are manye examples..
just because Apple uses something and apprves it doesn't mean it's the ideal option.fact

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Do your research. The manufacturer of the problematic butterfly keyboard is Acer subsidiary Wistron which is considered a low end brand. Apple is switching to Sunrex scissor keyboard which is one of the manufacturers of reputed Thinkpad keyboards.

The fact that Apple keeps switching the rubber in the dome is indicative of the fact that Apple thinks that it was a design issue, not a manufacturing one. Otherwise they would have changed the manufacturer without changing the design.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

what makes you think it's "obviously" on par with a Samsung? how much do you know about OLED technology? do you know it's a highly "patented" and very "experience" dependant tecchnologuy and that Samsung is the only expert in that field in the world? their OLED phone display technology cannot simply be matched by a random China company.

what Apple is doing is just sacrificing some refinement and quality to save costs and ruduce depedency on Samsung.ofcourse the quality won't be trash,it will be good but not as good as Samsung.
did you know in the past Apple used different displays from different manufactureres (same specs) in Macbooks and there was real,visible differences in sharpness,color etc and people were relying on "panel lottery" and checking serial numbers to find out if their has LG or Samsung display? same goes for some SSD they used by differnt manfacturers some faster that others resulting in better performance (same model laptop).
there are manye examples..
just because Apple uses something and apprves it doesn't mean it's the ideal option.fact

Yes, I do know. In fact, I had the LG display in my 2012 Macbook Air. It was slightly duller than the Samsung model. But the difference was not really noticeable without side by side comparison and it was still an excellent panel. These supplier differences are not usually noticeable in real world usage and people rarely even realize it unless a tech site reports it.

Also, just because you haven't heard of something doesn't make it bad. BOE is one of the biggest display manufacturers in the world and supplies a lot of panels to companies like HP and Lenovo. In fact, BOE displays are currently used in the iPad and Macbooks (a fact that you are obviously not aware of).

 

[Degerz]

what makes you think it's "obviously" on par with a Samsung? how much do you know about OLED technology? do you know it's a highly "patented" and very "experience" dependant tecchnologuy and that Samsung is the only expert in that field in the world? their OLED phone display technology cannot simply be matched by a random China company.

what Apple is doing is just sacrificing some refinement and quality to save costs and ruduce depedency on Samsung.ofcourse the quality won't be trash,it will be good but not as good as Samsung.
did you know in the past Apple used different displays from different manufactureres (same specs) in Macbooks and there was real,visible differences in sharpness,color etc and people were relying on "panel lottery" and checking serial numbers to find out if their has LG or Samsung display? same goes for some SSD they used by differnt manfacturers some faster that others resulting in better performance (same model laptop).
there are manye examples..
just because Apple uses something and apprves it doesn't mean it's the ideal option.fact

@Bold Except they aren't and BOE isn't some random Chinese supplier since they're known to supply OLED panels to internationally recognized handset manufacturers like Huawei's P30 series ?

LG is irrelevant anyways since their own handset division is seeking to replace their own in-house sourced OLED panels with BOE's and whatever Japan Display Inc. has so far is lame garbage.

You're just mad because of the fact that Apple's only option to even remotely second source reliably is from a Chinese supplier since they are the only competent ones left outside of Samsung. You wishing that BOE not succeeding means that nobody else but Samsung should succeed and that even includes Apple as well. If you don't want BOE supplying Apple then maybe you should just go and buy Samsung phones instead since you look up to their prowess in display technology so much ?

With the way things were going, Japan Display has shown nothing but utter incompetence and with LG being a South Korean company, there's no telling if LG wouldn't have engaged in de-facto price fixing just like we see with Samsung/SK Hynix in the DRAM market. BOE is the only that's both not incompetent and have no national conflicts of interest so they are probably the only viable supplier that's interested in genuine competition ...

 

[ColdShadow]

BOE is the only that have no national conflicts of interest

You probably mixed up Boe’s nationality with Samsung’s.