Samsung Display is developing new material for OLED panels to increase battery life

As smartphones are getting powerful, there’s an ongoing concern around battery life as there’s only so much capacity a phone may have. To boost battery life, South Korean tech giant Samsung’s display wing, aptly dubbed Samsung Display is planning to add blue phosphorescent material to their OLED screens that would allow optimum output while reducing the amount of power the panels would need. With the current timeline in place, we could see these new OLED panels in iPhone 18 slated for release in 2026.

Samsung Display to use blue phosphorescent materials in OLED panels

As of now, both red and green phosphorescent materials found in OLED panels have an internal luminous efficiency of 100%. Samsung Display uses blue fluorescent materials in their OLED panels that have an efficiency of 25%. Switching to a blue phosphorescent material in OLED panels would translate into lower power consumption as compared to blue fluorescent. According to Daejeong Yoon – UBI Research deputy director, Samsung is working on creating the blue phosphorescent material. 

Once developed, the blue phosphorescent material has a lifespan of 55% compared to the blue fluorescent material used in the M11 OLED material set on iPhone 13. Yoon mentions that Samsung Display is planning on using the new material starting the second half of 2025 although there are differences in terms of timeline.

Samsung was originally planning to use the new material in OLED panels for its foldable smartphones in 2024. However, the plan has been pushed further due to complications in the development. The South Korean giant is looking for ways to increase the luminous efficiency of its materials by more than 65% when compared to the M13 OLED material set used in the Galaxy S24 series (upcoming) and Google Pixel 8 Pro. It means that the new material won’t be ready to use until the M15 material set which is somewhere around 2025.

Note that Samsung Display uses nomenclature to dictate material sets. For instance, even numbers go to Apple and odd numbers are reserved for Samsung and other Chinese smartphone manufacturers with each set lasting up to two years.

Speculations are doing the rounds according to which, Apple iPhone 16 and 17 series would get the new OLED material set with blue phosphorescent. If it does, these models will see a spike in battery life as planned. However, some reports suggest the new OLED material set won’t be ready until 2026 which means iPhone 18 series would see the new material in action. 

Earlier this year, we heard about Apple’s intention to use microLED displays to de-stress its reliance on Samsung and get overall control over its supply chain. There are also Apple’s modem and chipsets in the making that would allow Apple to exercise greater control over the parts, however, these would still take a few years to materialize if we aren’t wrong. 

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