The Samsung S95B employs a next-gen ‘QD-OLED’ screen to compete with the greatest OLED TVs. Combining Samsung’s Quantum Dot colour technology with OLED’s pixel-precise contrast provides “groundbreaking” and “sensational” visuals.
QD-OLED technology is expensive and only available in 55- and 65-inch sizes.
Samsung Display may fix both concerns with next year’s models. Samsung Display has increased its yield rate to 85%, and it plans to produce 30% more QD-OLED panels by the end of the year.
The ‘yield rate’ refers to how many Samsung Display TV screens are usable. In 2021, QD-yield OLED’s rate was 50%, meaning half of its screens were waste. A low yield rate raises the price of the screen due of all the wasted material and energy. This efficiency boost means QD-OLED panels can be priced lower.
Increasing screen production by 30% can help reduce costs due to economies of scale (meaning: the more you make of something, the cheaper each individual one becomes to produce).
Samsung will be able to create 49-inch and 77-inch QD-OLED screens with these new facilities. That’s not as exciting for mid-size TV aficionados, though. The Elec suggests the 49-inch panel will be a monitor rather than a TV — expect a super-sized 32:9 version of the 34-inch Alienware QD-OLED monitor rather than a 4K TV. Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 and Philips Brilliance 499P9H (without OLED) are similar.
Samsung Display is hesitating to invest in new production facilities until it hears if Samsung Electronics will launch more QD-OLED products.
Samsung and LG haven’t agreed on a pricing for Samsung to utilise conventional (non-QD) OLED screens for its TVs, so it makes sense for Samsung to push its own form of OLED as an alternative.
The price may decline after 2024
A second study in The Elec is likewise positive for QD-OLED pricing, but it’s further off. Samsung Display has been collaborating with ETRI on a smaller approach to create QD-OLED screens, according to a report.
Because of aesthetics (have you seen contemporary OLED TVs? Samsung and ETRI seek to reduce screen thickness by removing a lamination layer. This would streamline production, making it more efficient and cheaper per-panel over time.
The paper indicates commercialisation won’t occur until “beyond 2024.”
Samsung Display is one of the leading centres of OLED product research, and has been researching ways to improve the efficiency of the blue OLED pixels that QD-OLED screens rely on to generate light, which would also help bring down the price of QD-OLED, but appears to be several years away.