LG Display is rumored to be introducing a brighter, more efficient 4-layer OLED TV panel, while Samsung Display is said to be working on an improved QD-OLED TV panel.
CES 2025 is just 10 days away. In Las Vegas, multiple TV makers are expected to unveil their 2025 TV models, including new OLED models, and FlatpanelsHD will be on-site to report the latest developments.
Rumors have already surfaced about 83-inch QD-OLED and 165Hz support for LG G5, but CES may hold even more surprises.
Even brighter, more efficient OLED
We first heard about LG Display's new 4-layer OLED TV panel, up from 3 layers currently, in early January 2024, as reported in our future of displays article.
Recently at the Display 360 Summit held in Silicon Valley in California, Ross Young, co-founder and CEO of display market research firm DSCC, shared the following information, according to a report by Display Daily.
- "LGD has been continuously developing a 4-stack WOLED solution, which could potentially allow them to remove MLA due to the high cost of the MLA materials," said Ross Young with reference to LG DIsplay's TV panels. "It is expected in 2025 with a peak brightness of 3,700 nits."
LG Display unveiled this next-generation OLED technology, with a smaller prototype, publicly at the IMID conference in South Korea in August, where it told reporters to expect 25% increased brightness, longer lifetime and higher efficiency.
- "The existing WOLED panel stacks light-emitting layers in three layers (3-stack), but the newly introduced technology stacks one more layer and improves light-emitting elements and blue light-emitting materials," an LG Display official said according to ETNews (machine translated).
It is unclear if the new panel uses micro lenses (MLA) and/or blue PHOLED.
Also read: LG Display develops 'dream' OLED with blue PHOLED
Supported by energy consumption figures
All of the above was known information, but interestingly LG's 2025 G5 has just been certified for sale in Hong Kong with energy consumption figures that support the idea of a significantly improved OLED TV panel.
G5 has been certified as consuming 132W and 164W in 55 and 65 inches, respectively, which compares to 161W and 209W for G4 from 2024. This represents an up to 21% decrease in power consumption, in other words a significantly more efficient panel.
For comparison, Hong Kong's official power consumption figures for the C5 are just a few percent lower than last year's C4.
What's next for QD-OLED in 2025?
As for Samsung Display's QD-OLED in 2025, we do not have much to go on yet, but at the Display 360 Summit Ross Young shared the following tidbit, according to Display Daily:
- "In 2025/2026 – QD-OLED eliminating the separate CF/QD substrate. QD would be printed on the encapsulation layer with just 1 substrate used. It would boost brightness to 3,600 nits+ as targeting 4,000 nits in 2025."
The 2024 WOLED and QD-OLED TV panels were both specified to 3000 nits, but the actual TVs did not hit those numbers. FlatpanelsHD measured LG G4 to 1650 nits peak in calibrated mode and 2400 nits in Vivid mode, and 239 nits in full-screen. We measured Samsung S95D to 1600 nits peak in calibrated mode and 1900 nits in Vivid, and 314 nits in full-screen.
Samsung Display will exhibit at CES 2025, but LG Display will not, according to CES' exhibitor list.
- Source: Display Daily, EMSD, ETNews, via AVSForum, tipsters
