LG and Samsung resume talks on their OLED panel deal

Image credit : eCoustics The Korean tech giants LG and Samsung have experienced a rollercoaster of a ride. It was stated that a significant business agreement involving OLED panels was set to be reached in 2021, but it appeared that the negotiations broke down in 2022. In 2023, the discussions may have picked back up. According to The Elec, conversations between Samsung Electronics and LG Display have resumed. Under the terms of the agreement, LG will provide more than 200,000 white OLED (WOLED) panels to Samsung for a new line of TVs bearing the Samsung name that may go on sale as early as 2024. That sum might only be the beginning of a longer partnership. When news of the talks first surfaced a couple of years ago, it was claimed that the South Korean government had prompted the discussion in response to a global situation where LCD panel-producing Chinese firms like BOE were driving up the price of LCD panels and endangering Samsung's TV hegemony. In order to compete with LG's growing emphasis on OLED at the time, Samsung was fully committed to using LCD technology in its TVs. Due to these market shifts and the fact that OLED has, overall, attracted a larger share of consumer display expenditure than LCD, Samsung must continue to diversify with OLED in order to ensure its continued success—at least until Micro LED becomes an accessible OLED substitute. [caption id="attachment_151335" align="aligncenter" width="2400"] Image credit : FlatpanelsHD[/caption] Compared to OLED, LCD panels have a number of fundamental flaws in its picture quality, chief among them the fact that each pixel is not individually emissive, making it challenging to produce high contrast ratios or deep black depths on a per-pixel basis. To overcome these flaws, Samsung and others have developed a number of advancements in recent years, but OLED has consistently prevailed in reviews. OLED still has several drawbacks. OLED panels are more difficult to get exceptionally bright than LCD screens, which is essential for viewing in bright rooms and producing striking HDR highlights. OLED panels have a history of burn-in, of course. LG has come up with several creative solutions that have lessened the likelihood of OLED burn-in, much as how Samsung has worked to address the fundamental picture quality flaws of LCD screens. In order to prevent pixels from burning in too quickly, LG TVs, for instance, may automatically recognize persistent network logos and darken or even relocate the pixels of certain sections of the screen. These answers, however, are not final. The best of both worlds would be provided by Micro LED if it lives up to its promise: individually emissive pixels with high potential brightness and absolute blacks, as well as no burn-in risk. Although companies and researchers are working on micro LED technology, it is still too expensive for the mainstream market. Also read : How to Clean a TV Screen the Best Way? To compete, Samsung must at least ship more OLED TVs in the interim. In this agreement, LG and Samsung will work together to allow Samsung to introduce new WOLED TV models over the following few years. Samsung currently offers QD-OLED displays in expensive TVs. However, the company might be able to replace LCD screens in the mid-range market with WOLED panels, which would significantly reduce its reliance on Chinese suppliers and give it greater negotiating power. LG has recently experienced significant operating losses. Depending on the specifics of the agreement, this might aid LG in narrowing the deficit.