Yet another OLED TV panel technology is on the way: is PHOLED the future?

By Tom Parsons
published

Fully phosphorescent OLEDs could be even brighter

LG G3 vs LG G2
(Image credit: Future)

We're only just getting used to QD-OLED and MLA OLED TVs, but another OLED TV panel technology has already appeared on the radar. So-called PHOLED involves an upgrade to phosphorescent materials for blue. Currently, all OLED TVs already use phosphorescence for red and green, but fluorescence for blue.

The company behind these fully phosphorescent panels, Universal Display Corporation, has told ETNews (thanks, FlatpanelsHD) that the upgrade to the blue OLED "can increase the luminous efficiency by 4 times". In other words, these panels should be capable of going brighter than current OLEDs.

There appears to be no reason that this new technology can't be combined with the new QD-OLED and MLA technology that's now allowing OLED TVs to hit vastly brighter peaks than ever before, which means we could be looking at yet another big jump in brightness in the near future.

How near? It could be as soon as next year, though Universal Display's Mike Hack told ETNews that ultimately the timescale will be determined by LG Display and Samsung Display, who currently manufacture all of the OLED panels used in current OLED TVs and who Universal Display will sell its technology to.

Whether these new fully phosphorescent OLED TVs will cost more is another unknown, with Mike Hack saying only that his company will provide its technology at "a reasonable price", which could mean anything really.

As ever, stay tuned for more info as we get it, and in the meantime check out our review of the LG G3, the world's first MLA-boosted OLED TV.

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Tom Parsons
Tom Parsons

Tom Parsons has been writing about TV, AV and hi-fi products (not to mention plenty of other 'gadgets' and even cars) for over 15 years. He began his career as What Hi-Fi?'s Staff Writer and is now the TV and AV Editor. In between, he worked as Reviews Editor and then Deputy Editor at Stuff, and over the years has had his work featured in publications such as T3, The Telegraph and Louder. He's also appeared on BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Swipe. In his spare time Tom is a runner and gamer.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Friesiansam
    I couldn't care less about a TV being able to go to uncomfortable brightness levels. What matters is whether it can still suffer from image retention and, will it still deteriorate in the same way as existing OLEDs in long term use, with the accompanying colour shift?
    Reply
  • podknocker
    Yay! Another panel technology. There must be a dozen now and nobody knows which will be the most reliable and actually corner the market.

    I remember a chat with an LG rep, in a John Lewis 2 or 3 years ago and he said the blue does suffer fade much earlier and their panels use white, with red and green filters, so blue is retained. I must read more about this.

    It does appear that the blues are difficult to get right, with any panel technology.

    With anything OLED related, image retention will be an issue and screen burn probable.

    I know there is software to 'reset' the panel and clear much of this, but it still feels there's a long way to go.

    TV stuff is exhausting now.
    Reply
  • 12th Monkey
    podknocker said:
    With anything OLED related, image retention will be an issue and screen burn probable.
    I've had mine for a couple of years now, and not a hint of either. Previous plasmas didn't get burn but did have some image retention.

    Two years isn't a long time (and I watch almost nothing with static images), but I think OLED has been a step forward with these issues in comparison with plasma, as well as being a significant jump in PQ.

    Time will tell.
    Reply
  • podknocker
    12th Monkey said:
    I've had mine for a couple of years now, and not a hint of either. Previous plasmas didn't get burn but did have some image retention.

    Two years isn't a long time (and I watch almost nothing with static images), but I think OLED has been a step forward with these issues in comparison with plasma, as well as being a significant jump in PQ.

    Time will tell.
    Yep. Watching constantly moving images will increase the life of the panel. Having static images at very high brightness is going to be an issue. The thing is, you shouldn't need to worry about this. We never did with CRTs.
    Reply
  • Friesiansam
    podknocker said:
    Yep. Watching constantly moving images will increase the life of the panel. Having static images at very high brightness is going to be an issue. The thing is, you shouldn't need to worry about this. We never did with CRTs.
    Stay with LCD, you’ll never get image retention, ever.

    Whatever marketing name they are given, LED, QLED etc, the underlying display panel will be an IPS or VA (eg Samsung QLED) LCD panel and, LCD will not suffer retention.
    Reply