Apple Watch May Switch to Micro-LED Display in Mid 2017 or Later

[zombierunner]

Let's just replace our eyes with oled displays and put wifi antennas in our ears.

 

[BlueMoon63]

Goodbye infinite contrasts.

Also, I own an Apple Watch, and the fact that it's OLED is one of the most enjoyable parts about its hardware.

The only benefit I see from Apple adopting this "micro-LED" mumbo jumbo is brightness will be increased, but it doesn't outweigh the disadvantages (worse color gamut, worse contrasts, worse efficiency).

But it's cheaper for them, so I guess they'll go along with it anyway.

Nice step backwards, Apple.

I completely agree with what you wrote on every part. The Apple Watch Display is superior to any other smartwatch that I have seen, but I think they are going for a 2 for 1 with Micro-LED. Even more brightness with a new technology that supposedly uses far less power/battery.

If I keep the watch screen on to for a few minutes straight, you can just watch the battery percentage drop. Five minutes on drops 5% of battery +/_).

 

[BvizioN]

I wouldn't expect a version 3 to be as early as mid-2017. Watches aren't phones.

I don't think we will see apple watch 2 this year. Si chances are it will be spring next year ( 2 years cycle)

 

[Analog Kid]

Yes it does. Do your research.

Instead of just contradicting and giving commands, perhaps a link and a metric you're using to decide what is "better".

 

[Keirasplace]

I completely agree with what you wrote on every part. The Apple Watch Display is superior to any other smartwatch that I have seen, but I think they are going for a 2 for 1 with Micro-LED. Even more brightness with a new technology that supposedly uses far less power/battery.

If I keep the watch screen on to for a few minutes straight, you can just watch the battery percentage drop. Five minutes on drops 5% of battery +/_).

Isn't the advantage of micro led the ability to have huge variation in luminosity in the same image (with a very high maximum), this is not possible with OLED and leads to bleeds and reduced contrast with a backlight.

 

[iUnix]

i think AppleWatch 3 has 3 versions AppleWatch 3(OLED), AppleWatch 3 Plus(OLED) and AppleWatch 3 Pro(mLED)

 

[imola.zhp]

Sounds like AW2 is more like AW1S and AW3 is more like AW2.

 

[Carlanga]

first time I heard about micro led, will have to compare it to oled, if prices come down fast for and is better than oled then it can kill oled before it even has a start in the big markets

 

[GoodWheaties]

Goodbye infinite contrasts.

Also, I own an Apple Watch, and the fact that it's OLED is one of the most enjoyable parts about its hardware.

The only benefit I see from Apple adopting this "micro-LED" mumbo jumbo is brightness will be increased, but it doesn't outweigh the disadvantages (worse color gamut, worse contrasts, worse efficiency).

But it's cheaper for them, so I guess they'll go along with it anyway.

Nice step backwards, Apple.

Bro, please do some research on mLED. It has all of the advantages of OLED with all the advantages of LCD. The only reason it hasn't been adopted yet is because apparently it is bloody difficult and expensive to manufacture. If Apple can change that it will be awesome.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Funny how everyone talks about Apple's need to switch to OLED, while Apple has what might be a better alternative. Certainly micro-led will be a differentiator until Samsung reads this and decides to start work on copying Apple.

Just imagine how much better what comes after micro led will be. That will be a better alternative.

 

[vertsix]

Bro, please do some research on mLED. It has all of the advantages of OLED with all the advantages of LCD. The only reason it hasn't been adopted yet is because apparently it is bloody difficult and expensive to manufacture. If Apple can change that it will be awesome.

Yeah, I obliterated my post because I didn't do research.

Ahem.

Now that I actually did some, microLED is actually really awesome. If Apple does manage to mass produce them, it will be revolutionary.

I encourage everyone to check these websites out regarding mLED.

TL;DR:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroLED

Other:

http://www.mled-ltd.com/

http://www.oled-info.com/will-micro-leds-disrupt-oleds

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...arrays-display-achieves-1000000-cdm2-2015-06/

 

[MacBH928]

I thought OLED was already the next huge step in display technology that has an extremely long life and can be so thin it can curl and bend

 

[KidAKidB]

Funny how everyone talks about Apple's need to switch to OLED, while Apple has what might be a better alternative. Certainly micro-led will be a differentiator until Samsung reads this and decides to start work on copying Apple.

Samsung is all in with SAMOLED. They're making the best displays on the market right now. Say what you will, but they have no reason to switch.

 

[kdarling]

Micro-LEDs seem to be like Liquid Metal... a neat product, but impossible or uneconomical to mass produce yet... or any time soon.

Apple's apparently looking forward many years with this kind of technology. It'll be cool if they succeed, but there's always the possibility that it'll be old hat by the time it becomes feasible to use.

 

[Keirasplace]

Samsung is all in with SAMOLED. They're making the best displays on the market right now. Say what you will, but they have no reason to switch.

The Ipad pros LCD's are not OLEDs and yet were rated tops overall, slightly behind on some thing, but better on others.
Color management in Android is still pretty horrible.
The difference at this level though is starting to be so small that calling one better than the other is a bit pointless though.

 

[American Hero]

The "pop" you're referring to is probably over-saturation. To quote DisplayMate's S7 review:

Highly saturated colors seldom occur in nature so the colors that are outside of the Standard Gamut are seldom needed and are unlikely to be noticed or missed in the overwhelming majority of real images.

Note that current consumer content does not include colors outside of the Standard Gamut, so a display with a wider Color Gamut cannot show colors that are not in the original content, and will only produce inaccurate exaggerated on-screen colors.​

Apple, on the other hand, targets accuracy-- making sure that the image you're looking at will look the same on all displays. Quoting DisplayMate's iPad Pro 9.7" review:

Both of the measured Color Gamuts for the Pad Pro 9.7 are almost exactly on top of the standard sRGB / Rec.709 and DCI-P3 Gamuts, so they are mostly obscured in the figure.​

And the "accuracy" you're referring to looks washed out compared to the colors on an AMOLED display.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

​

will release its first OLED-based iPhone as early as September 2017.

Well, better late than never; I'm a huge fan of OLED, hve a LG 55" OLED 4K HDR TV and wow it's amazing. Would also love an OLED 5k IMAC. OLED and HDR for movies are exception.

 

[Jakexb]

MicroLED is supposedly what Apple is doing at their display research department in Taiwan.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...open-secret-lab-in-taiwan-to-develop-displays

 

[Analog Kid]

And the "accuracy" you're referring to looks washed out compared to the colors on an AMOLED display.

That's the nice thing about instrumented measurements: you can take the quotes off of "accuracy" and just say accuracy.

There's no accounting for taste, obviously, and you're not the only one who craves the excitement of overly-saturated colors-- that's why Samsung makes "adaptive" the default. We're biologically tuned to notice saturated colors and high contrasts, so it gets attention on the store shelf. Just keep in mind that what you're seeing on the screen when viewed under "adaptive" mode doesn't match the data in the file so if you're planning to share an image with someone who isn't using an equally distorted display you need to make sure it looks outright garish on your screen so that it will look normal on a well calibrated display.

 

[American Hero]

There's no accounting for taste, obviously, and you're not the only one who craves the excitement of overly-saturated colors-- that's why Samsung makes "adaptive" the default. We're biologically tuned to notice saturated colors and high contrasts, so it gets attention on the store shelf. Just keep in mind that what you're seeing on the screen when viewed under "adaptive" mode doesn't match the data in the file so if you're planning to share an image with someone who isn't using an equally distorted display you need to make sure it looks outright garish on your screen so that it will look normal on a well calibrated display.

That is a good point. When I send an image from a Galaxy to an iPhone, it typically looks washed out on the iPhone too, but still relatively similar to what a picture taken directly on the iPhone would look like, so it's not a big deal to me. Those who want a "less-poppy" screen can vote for iPhone, but for myself, I prefer having a screen with vivid colors.

 

[ges]

mLED is as yet unused commercially. If it has advantages over OLED, then Apple needs to use it first to help regain its innovation credentials.

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

I just wish my AW was more visible when the sun is on it.

Well, good news! microLED is for you!

Another good news: Apple not just bought a microLED company but also Qualcoms Mirasol sunlight-readable color-"eINK" Displays.
Too bad Sony gave up on CrystalLED too early. Especially on large screens it would have been market ready years ago with a fraction of the budget used to research overrated OLED technology. Now, if Apple brings microLED to the Apple Watch, there is no point in OLED anymore...

 

[mi7chy]

I'd be concerned about visible inter-pixel gap between micro LEDs but considering it's for a watch Apple are probably factoring in that people will be less critical than on phone. Personally, after experiencing SAMOLED any visible inter-pixel gap would annoy me.

 

[44267547]

This is proof that the AW is a flop

I encourage anyone to read 'ThaRulers' Posts. He has states this for every article and his posts have zero credibility.