Apple is looking to LG and Samsung to supply micro-OLED displays for its cheaper Vision headphones, a South Korean media outlet reports.
Elec claims that Apple sent a request for information (RFI) to the two companies asking for “technical information necessary for product development”. The leak further claims that Apple specified a 2 to 2.1-inch display with a pixel density of 1,700 pixels per inch (PPI).
By comparison, the Sony-supplied micro-OLED screens on the Apple Vision Pro are 1.42 inches with a pixel density of around 3386 PPI, providing a resolution of 3660×3200.
Assuming the panels have the same aspect ratio, that means the new screens have a resolution of somewhere around 2600×2300, or around 2500×2500 if they were square.
This lower-resolution display could be easier to manufacture at scale and thus cheaper, lowering the cost of the cheaper Apple Vision headset that many outlets have reported that Apple is currently focused on shipping up to end of next year.
Micro-OLED displays are manufactured using a very different process than regular OLED and offer much higher pixel density than any existing production-ready display technology. This enables ultra-high resolution headphones with relatively thin designs and of course OLED’s signature infinite contrast.
Currently, BigScreen Beyond uses 2.5K micro OLED displays from Chinese startup SeeYa Technology, and 3.7K micro OLED displays from Sony are used in the Apple Vision Pro.
Sony’s micro-OLED displays enable the Apple Vision Pro to have the highest resolution than any other Varjo XR-4 headset, which is much thicker. However, it’s also a big contributor to the price of headphones, because according to The Information, The Financial Times and The Elec Sony can produce enough for less than half a million headphones a year and has no plans to expand its production capacity.
Last year, before the Vision Pro launched, The Information’s Wayne Ma reported that Apple was testing new micro-OLED displays from two Chinese suppliers, SeeYa and BOE, in an effort to lower the cost of the upcoming Vision headset, though reports more recent ones have suggested both companies are struggling to meet Apple’s strict quality standards.
Bringing in LG Display and/or Samsung Display, which are generally considered to produce the highest quality mass-produced displays, could enable Apple to achieve this goal of lowering the cost of the Vision headset without compromising quality, especially if the display it has lower resolution and therefore cheaper and easier to manufacture.
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