Samsung extends its OLED TV panel deal with LG
Last year, Samsung signed a historic deal with LG Display for its OLED TVs. Samsung’s TV division decided to use LG Display’s WRGB OLED panels in some of its OLED TVs, and that is a huge deal, as the two companies have been adversaries for a few decades. Now, they appear to have extended their deal.
Samsung may use LG’s OLED panels in its TVs for at least five years
DigiTimes reports that Samsung has signed a five-year deal with LG Display. Samsung DX, the division of Samsung Electronics that makes and sells TVs, will reportedly use LG Display’s WRGB OLED panels in some of its TVs for at least five years. While Samsung Display, the company’s display panel manufacturing unit, also makes QD-OLED panels, it doesn’t have as many panel size options as LG Display does. So, to fill up the gap that Samsung Display can’t fulfill right now, Samsung DX is using LG’s OLED panels.
Last year, Samsung introduced the 83-inch version of the S95C, and it uses LG’s WRGB OLED panel, while the 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch versions of the TV use Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panel. This year, Samsung has unveiled three OLED TVs: S85D, S90D, and S95D. It is possible that some ultra-small and ultra-large variants of these TVs use LG’s OLED panels. It is still unclear if Samsung has used LG’s newest OLED panels with MLA (Micro Lens Array), which improves the brightness levels.
You can watch our hands-on video of Samsung’s new OLED TV lineup below.
There is a fundamental difference between the OLED panels made by LG Display and Samsung Display. While LG Display’s OLED panel uses four sub-pixels—red, green, blue, and white—for each pixel, Samsung’s QD-OLED panel uses three sub-pixels: red, green, and blue. Samsung’s panel can display deeper colors, as the pixel is not muddied by the white color that is used as a hack for increased brightness. However, Samsung is new to the OLED TV panel market, and its panels aren’t as reliable as LG’s in certain tests.
You can read more about the differences between LG Display’s and Samsung Display’s OLED TV panels in our detailed article.
