In 1973, Martin Cooper dialed the first phone from a portable mobile device at the Motorola Laboratory in Manhattan, New York, which opened the era of consumer mobile communications. In the twinkling of an eye, decades have passed, and the mobile phone is no longer a simple communication tool. It has taken on a variety of needs such as entertainment, consumption, and social networking. "The mobile phone does not leave the hand" has become the consensus of most people.
The transition of mobile phones from communication tools to integrated intelligent devices stems from the change of interaction mode. The physical keys are replaced by touch and slide, which brings more innovation space for developers and users. When it comes to changes in interaction, the screen is naturally the top priority: on the one hand, the screen is responsible for the core output of content. You should know that more than 90% of human information comes from vision; On the other hand, touch screen has long replaced keyboard as the core carrier of input. It can be said that the screen carries most of the I (input)/O (output) of the phone. The main line of screen evolution, to a large extent, revolves around the transformation of display technology itself.
Change from retinal LCD to high-end OLED
When iPhone changed the world, it was basically the upgrading of the screen: the touch screen replaced the keyboard and stylus, refreshing the human-computer interaction mode; At the same time, the high-definition of "Retina retinal screen" has also made the display level of mobile phone screen qualitatively changed.
(Source: Cellular Sale)
Retina LCD touch screen is not the starting point or the end point of mobile phone screen upgrade.
In 2017, Apple, which has been using LCD for a long time, installed OLED screen on the "next generation" product iPhone X. Since then, OLED has become the "sweet spot" in the mobile phone market. With high plasticity, good display quality and other characteristics, it has become the standard configuration of flagship models. The background at that time was that OLED display has been popularized on smart TV and other devices, the corresponding display technology has become mature, and the cost has reached the stage of being people friendly.
Everyone raised their eyebrows. In addition to Apple, Android phone giants embraced OLED screens. In the past two years, high-quality OLED display panels have moved from the flagship market to the mid market, and more consumers have experienced a completely different visual experience.
Not long ago, Glory released the world's first smartphone equipped with a double-layer serial OLED display panel - Glory Magic6 RSR Porsche Design Edition at the flagship launch of its new spring products. Its ultra-high brightness and longer service life left a deep impression on users. Lei Technology also had a hands-on experience in this activity, and came to the conclusion that the next era of mobile phone screens has arrived.
With the increasingly mature form of mobile phone products, most manufacturers are facing the "innovator dilemma", and product innovation is increasingly difficult. In 2024, AI will become the hot spot for mobile phone manufacturers. meanwhile, Image, screen, material, communication, battery, charging and other core function points still show the momentum of innovation（ There have been a lot of systematic reports, evaluations and analyses on this Lei Technology focusing on AI hard technology). Now, the screen has become the highland for military strategists.
Crazy volume brightness: no brightest, only brighter
OLED panel features higher brightness, contrast and better color performance, which is undoubtedly a huge advantage for small mobile devices, such as smart phones, smart watches, etc. Among them, brightness, as one of the most intuitive parameters of the screen, has become the focus of mobile phone manufacturers.
(Source: Xiaomi)
In January 2023, Samsung exhibited its new small size OLED display panel, whose peak brightness can reach 2000 nits, creating a new record in the industry at that time. However, this record has been broken in the past year. For example, the Xiaomi 14 series equipped with CSOT C8 luminescent material has a peak brightness of 3000 nits; The "Oriental Screen" jointly customized by OnePlus 12 and BOE has a brightness of 4500 nits.
(Source: Yijia)
In Xiaolei's opinion, the "rolling" brightness of mobile phone manufacturers is quite the right direction. On the one hand, smart phones have become an essential tool in our life, which means that the use frequency will increase in high light scenes. The ultra-high excitation brightness can solve the problem of "unclear" mobile phones in these scenes; On the other hand, as more and more platforms support HDR content, the viewing experience of mobile phone users on these platforms has also become a very important indicator. By constantly improving the brightness to match the needs of HDR content, users can bring better viewing experience.
A few days ago, I held an online media communication meeting and invited Lei Technology to witness the arrival of a new generation of peerless screens. The local peak brightness of this screen breaks through to 6000 nits, and the bright light excitation brightness reaches 1600 nits. Even if it is manually activated, the brightness can remain above 1000 nits.
(Source: True Self)
We have reason to believe that the new generation of non dual screen is not the limit of the brightness of the OLED panel, and there may be more new technologies coming this year, such as double-layer serial OLED technology.
The double-layer serial OLED technology first launched on the Magic6 RSR Porsche Design Edition is actually a combination of multiple traditional OLED devices through the superposition of connecting layers to achieve higher brightness and better display effect. In addition, the biggest advantage of double-layer serial OLED is that when the excitation brightness doubles, the power consumption is controlled to less than 30% to obtain longer brightness excitation time.
(Source: Glory)
With higher brightness, lower power consumption, and longer service life, it is difficult for the double-layer serial OLED technology not to become a vane in the mobile phone market. It is reported that Samsung has also made a breakthrough in the double-layer serial OLED technology, and is expected to cooperate with Apple to launch the screen using this technology for the first time on the next generation iPad Pro, so as to improve the market recognition of the iPad Pro from LED to OLED panel.
(Source: Digital Trends)
In addition to the double-layer series OLED technology, Samsung also plans to shift its QD-OLED production line to the field of small and medium-sized panels. Korean media KIPOST reported that Samsung Display has suspended investment in large QD-OLED panels (TVs, professional displays), turned to small and medium-sized (mobile phones, PCs) fields, or will display corresponding display solutions in the near future. Compared with traditional OLED panels, QD-OLED panels have higher brightness, longer life, and better color accuracy.
Of course, for an excellent screen, brightness is only one of the important indicators, as well as contrast, color performance, refresh rate and eye protection effect. Among them, refresh rate is also one of the directions of "rolling" in the mobile phone screen.
Constantly improve the refresh rate, only to "fool" users
In 2017, Sharp released the first 120 Hz refresh rate mobile phone AQUOS R, which popularized "high refresh rate" as the standard configuration item of smart phones, and once became one of the most serious hardware parameters of manufacturers. The high refresh rate also used to be a "volume" parameter like today's screen peak brightness. In the first two years, it went from 90Hz, 120Hz, to 144Hz, and 240Hz, which is comparable to PC video games. However, consumers are beginning to find that high refresh rates lead to higher power consumption, which is unacceptable.
In order to meet the consumers' "must have" idea, panel semiconductor manufacturers began to apply LPTO technology in the mobile phone field. This technology is characterized by providing different gear refresh rate options to enable mobile phones to switch in different use scenarios, so as to achieve the effect of power saving.
Today, in addition to the standard version of the iPhone, screens that support high refresh rate technology have appeared on smartphones at all price points, and even 100 yuan phones such as the Redmi 13C, priced at 699 yuan, have used 90Hz high refresh. But in fact, the high refresh rate is not the end of the volume.
(Source: Xiaomi)
Xiaomi 14 Ultra launched the C8 display panel jointly customized with CSOT. The color depth, brightness and eye protection effect of this panel rank first in the industry, but what's more surprising is that, This screen goes further in LTPO technology and supports more levels of variable refresh rates. LTPO technology, that is, there are both LTPS and IGZO in the drive circuit, which enables the screen to automatically transform multiple refresh rates as required to achieve the effect of power saving.
Generally speaking, because of the complex structure of LTPO devices and technical difficulties, most manufacturers only provide a few gears for changes. For example, the iPhone Pro series provides 13 gears from 1Hz to 120Hz, and the mobile phone screen changes gears with different refresh rates according to the user's finger sliding.
Although enough gears are covered, the process of changing between different refresh rates is still easy to be found by sharp users, and the touch response speed between different refresh rates is also different, which causes consumers to have a sense of "pause" when sliding the screen. On this screen, Xiaomi 14Ultra provides richer gear shifting, which reduces visual and tactile dullness and improves overall smoothness.
At present, most customized systems have provided enough rich system animations. Even the glorious MagicOS 8.0 has added exquisite interruption animations. What still hinders the visual fluency experience of the system is the variable refresh rate that is not "smart" enough. As Xiaomi 14Ultra brings this technology to the market, more manufacturers will enter the market in the future to achieve "no high brush", so that users' visual and tactile experience will be more satisfied.
With better and better screens, stronger and stronger mobile phones, more and more users rely on them and use them more and more. How to protect users' eyes has become a new problem that more and more manufacturers are thinking about and solving. As a result, "eye protection" has become another direction of mobile phone screen upgrade.
Embrace digital health, screen eye protection enters the AI era
Because LCD panel adopts DC dimming mode, it is inherently less harmful to human eyes than OLED panel, which is one of the reasons why OLED is obviously more advantageous, but LCD panel phones are also in demand.
In the past two years, almost every manufacturer has emphasized the key word "eye care", such as the glorious oasis screen, Yijia's eye care technology, etc. In the final analysis, there are three kinds of OLED panel dimming technologies: high-frequency PWM dimming, DC like dimming, and low-frequency PWM. The manufacturers' "eye protection technology" is to reasonably match the three dimming technologies to achieve better results.
(Source: Xiaomi)
High frequency PWM dimming is the eye protection focus that all mobile phone manufacturers are paying attention to. For example, Xiaomi's Qingshan eye protection technology, the high frequency dimming can reach 3840Hz, while the Glory Oasis eye protection screen raises the frequency to 4320Hz. Generally, the higher the value of high-frequency PWM dimming is, the less harm it will do to the eyes. However, the critical value recognized by the industry is about 1250Hz. As long as it exceeds this value, the eye protection effect can be considered qualified.
Of course, as the hardware conditions and algorithms required for high-frequency PWM dimming are relatively complex, the cost is also higher than that of ordinary dimming technology, which is why only some flagship models can be used at the beginning of the technology. Recently, like Ace 3V and Neo 6 series to be released by True Self, the latest eye protection technology has been applied, Eye protection will also become one of the mainstream screen technologies in the future.
(Source: official website of Yijia Mobile)
As mentioned above, the hybrid scheme of dimming technology is a compromise scheme at present, taking full account of the applicable conditions of mobile phones in different brightness scenes. However, how to customize a reasonable hybrid mode is also a big question for manufacturers. On the Redmi K70 series, Xiaomi handed over the full scene AI dimming strategy, and used AI to adjust the most suitable dimming strategy in different scenes; On the new generation of peerless screens, the true self is to hand over part of the work to the AI big model to make decisions. Its "Green Field AI Eye Care" system can intelligently judge according to the user's fatigue state, human body state and use scenarios to achieve the effect of active eye care.
In the last year, the AI big model has been widely used on mobile phones, such as Xiaomi and video, Glory and Smart Internet, OPPO/vivo and Smart Assistant, etc. At the same time, interesting functions such as AIGC elimination have been developed. With the development of big model technology, AI will also enter into various subdivisions of mobile phones. Just as Xiaomi and True Self combine AI with dimming algorithm, this will also be a new trend in the future.
Mobile phone mania "rolls" the screen to satisfy human visual "greed"
From traditional mobile phones to smart phones, we can't live without this small handheld device in all aspects of our lives. With the arrival of mobile phones like folding screens, the mode of "mobile office" has been redefined. The AI big model makes mobile phones the most effective assistant for users, and the importance of mobile phones has been magnified infinitely.
This leads us to pay attention to a problem: cell phone addiction.
According to the report of the market research organization Election Hub, the Philippines is the country/region with the most serious smartphone addiction in the world, and their daily time spent staring at the mobile phone screen accounts for 32.53%; The country with the largest average use of smart phones is China, with 19.54% of the time spent using mobile phones to deal with life and work every day.
This means that we spend nearly 5 hours staring at the screen every day. If the screen display quality is poor, such as stroboscopic, blue light and other problems, it is more likely to induce users' eye diseases and cause irreversible damage.
(Source: Glory)
It has to be said that the "rolling" screen is the most thankless solution for mobile phone manufacturers. It is not like the image, which allows users to feel the gap once they get started in the experience store; It is also different from the performance and heat dissipation of Mengdui, where you can get a pleasant experience in running points and hand games. However, the quality of a mobile phone can largely determine consumers' desire to purchase, which may explain why mobile phone manufacturers are keen on "rolling" screen technology.
(Source: OPPO official website)
In addition, with the continuous improvement of mobile phone imaging technology, screen quality naturally needs to be upgraded simultaneously. Taking OPPO as an example, as early as 2023, OPPO Find X6 series launched ProXDR technology, that is, when the mobile phone shoots HDR content, it completely records the scene lighting, light and dark information, and then presents the screen with HDR technology. Since the development of ProXDR, it has shown a downward inclusive trend, and the recently released 1000 yuan plus Ace 3V also supports this function.
(Source: Xiaomi)
In addition to the HDR support brought by the high brightness, the professional primary color display of the screen panel is also the key direction to improve the quality of the screen. Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which launched the "Master Portrait" and "AISP", supports professional primary color display on the CSOT C8 panel, which can not only better restore the color of the photo, but also reduce the color difference between it and the professional display, so that the imaging ability of the mobile phone is recognized by professionals.
Therefore, the "rolling" screen is not purely for the purpose of competing parameters, but is progressing with the actual needs of consumers and the improvement of other configurations of mobile phones. Both users themselves and mobile phone manufacturers are the beneficiaries of these new technologies.
To what extent should mobile phone screens be "rolled" to reach the saturation point of the market? In the view of Lei Technology, there may be no answer to this question.
First of all, in terms of display technology, new display technologies such as Mini LED, Micro LED and AI display are still refreshing the display quality. Over time, when the corresponding technologies are mature, mobile phones will continue to usher in screen innovation.
Secondly, how to make the screen "small and large"? Users want both large screens and portability. Display technologies such as "folding screen" and "holographic projection screen" are expected to be high, and people need more and better display expansion schemes.
Finally, in addition to the plane display, the wave of space computing triggered by devices such as Vision Pro, people need new display solutions that can blend the real world and the virtual world. The essence of XR also changes the display and human-computer interaction mode. Therefore, 3D space display will also be an important direction for mobile phone screen upgrade in the future.
Human beings have endless greed for vision. As long as the screen display of electronic products is not 100% comparable to the real world (including high-definition, color, reality, brightness and health), the screen technology still needs to be upgraded. The upgrade of mobile phone screen is only in progress, but not completed.
