Apple’s newest iPad Pros are using Tandem OLED display panels provided primarily by LG Display, and the Korean company has been trying to convince Apple to take the same tech and put it into future iPhones.
It hasn’t succeeded thus far, but according to a new report, Apple might incorporate Tandem OLED panels in the 2028 iPhones (so presumably the iPhone 20 family – or will that be XX?).
No decision has been made by Apple so far, but of course LG would like the Cupertino company to choose this tech, since that would mean it would either be the sole supplier for displays for the 2028 iPhones, or its share would grow substantially vs. Samsung Display, Apple’s other main supplier of displays. LG holds 348 patents in the US in the Tandem OLED field.
Tandem OLEDs stack two OLED layers on top of each other, thus improving brightness and extending the lifespan of the display, while somehow also improving power efficiency in the process.
According to a previous report, Apple is open to the idea, but for iPhones it only wants to stack two layers for the blue subpixels, not the entire matrix – so the red and green subpixels would remain on a single layer. The industry refers to this as “simplified tandem” and it’s a more cost-effective solution to blue subpixel degradation.
Source (in Korean)