Will There Be Other OLED Panels Developed in the Monitor Space from New Manufacturers?

April 14, 2023April 15, 2023 Simon Baker

Share this content

Are more OLED technology panels coming to the desktop monitor market soon? It seems this space is going to be heating up in the coming years. We brought you loads of exciting news about LG.Display’s WOLED and Samsung’s QD-OLED plans in our recent OLED roadmap update. We already know they have a wide range of new panel sizes, resolutions, pixel densities and refresh rates planned and in production. Make sure you check out that news piece for loads more information. There also appears to be some other OLED panel manufacturers looking to enter the monitor market, hopefully helping to improve competition, push innovation and drive down costs.

EverDisplay Optronics (EDO) and their AMOLED Panels

EverDisplay Optronics (aka “EDO”), a panel manufacturer based in Shanghai, have been producing AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED) panels for use in mobile, notebook and automotive applications for a while now. They’re not a panel manufacturer we would be familiar with in the desktop monitor space, but it appears that they are venturing in to this market now as well.

According to panel data listed on Panelook.com they have a couple of 27″ sized OLED panels already in production. These panels offer a 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution and a high pixel density, beyond that currently available from any LG.Display or Samsung monitor OLED panel. The panels are listed as having an RGB sub-pixel layout but only have a 60Hz refresh rate. They are therefore similar in positioning to the OLED panels manufactured by JOLED, who have now filed for bankruptcy unfortunately. These kind of panels could be used in more professional grade screens, but perhaps could help drive down the retail price of these kind of screens. The early JOLED panel monitors like the LG Ultrafine 32EP950 Pro that we reviewed for instance are still over £3000 GBP to buy!

The EDO ET00UBA61.A (production since Q1 2022) and ET00UBA62.A (production since Q3 2022) have largely the same specs. They have a 3840 x 2160 “4K” resolution, 1ms rated response time, 100,000:1 listed contrast ratio, 400 cd/m² brightness, 1.07b colour depth and a wide colour gamut covering 100% of the DCI-P3 space.

Whether or not EDO start to develop other sized panels, or perhaps some with higher refresh rates aimed at gaming and more general uses remains to be seen, but it’s always good to see new manufacturers entering the market to mix things up.

Japan Display Inc. (JDI) and China-based HKC to produce new eLEAP OLED Technology?

As reported recently by our friends over at FlatpanelsHD, Japan Display Inc. (JDI) and China-based HKC are forming a strategic alliance to start producing a new form of OLED technology which they’ve called eLEAP OLED. This has a ridiculously long and questionable definition which is “Environment positive, Lithography with maskless deposition, Extreme long life, low power, and high luminance, Any shape Patterning” but let’s just stick with “eLEAP” for now shall we?

BASED ON 600 NITS, 3H/DAY, 300PPI OLED, ACCORDING TO JDI Image courtesy of JDI

When it was first unveiled last year by JDI they promoted it’s supposed 2x efficiency, 2x peak brightness and 3x lifetime of existing OLED panels. Compared with which panels and from which manufacturer is not clear, but given LG.Display are pretty dominant in this space, it’s likely they are comparing to their WOLED panels.

Japan Display Inc (JDI) have some impressive pedigree as well, being a merger of Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi’s display panel businesses. They’ve then partnered with China-based HKC for this venture. The new factories will be located in China and are targeting mass production in 2025. According to Flatpanels, “JDI and HKC are planning to produce eLEAP OLED panels for monitors, notebooks, tablets, VR, wearables and automotive”. They have an aspiration to be global leaders in shipments and market share by 2028 in the monitor space too, suggesting some aggressive production plans. If they’re going to out-do LG.Display and Samsung, they’re going to need some impressive panel options!

As Flatpanels put it though, “However, plans could still fall through as the strategic partnership contract has yet to be signed. The parties intend to do so in June 2023. Hopefully it amounts to more than just good intentions.”

Some more info on eLEAP OLED is available on the j-display.com website here.

We may earn a commission if you purchase from our affiliate links in this news piece – TFTCentral is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.ca and other Amazon stores worldwide. We also participate in a similar scheme for Overclockers.co.uk, Newegg, Bestbuy and some manufacturers.

Stay up to date