A recent report claims that LG will be supplying 6.5-inch OLED panels for its upcoming iPhone X Plus model in 2018. The report resulted in the LG’s shares surging to a one-month high on Wednesday. Apple will reportedly launch three iPhone variants in 2017; 5.8-inch OLED iPhone X, 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, and a 6.5-inch iPhone X Plus.
According to the report, LG will make more than 15 million OLED panels for Apple’s 2018 iPhone lineup. Currently, LG is responsible for supplying LCD panels used in iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, but Samsung won the majority OLED panel orders for the 5.8-inch iPhone X. LG revealed in a regulatory filing that the company is not supplying any OLED panel for the iPhone X.
Reports surrounding Apple’s investment in LG worth billions of dollars have been trickling out since July 2017. The investment was said to empower LG’s OLED production capabilities, but many thought at the time that the fruit of this investment to be some ways off.
While LG seems to have substantially improved its OLED production lineup, the quality of its OLED panels will still remain a cause for concern. The company was recently criticized for the quality of its OLED panels supplied to Google for Pixel 2 XL smartphone. The phone’s display was reportedly prone to screen burn-in or image retention issues. It remains unclear whether the problem stemmed from LG or there were other factors involved. However, Google’s smaller Pixel 2 and the original Pixel variants – both rocking Samsung OLED displays – performed very well and have experienced far fewer issues.
It is worth noting that even Apple has mentioned that OLED displays can show “slight visual changes” when used for an extended time and minor screen-burn is considered normal. The new iPhone X and the iPhone X Plus will likely launch at the end of usual iPhone life cycle i.e. from September to October.
[Via Financial Times]