LG is one of the companies that at the time opted to equip their televisions with OLED screens . Since 2013, the year in which their mass production began, we have seen an interesting evolution in this type of panel. However, we have always encountered a defect that seemed to have no solution: that the general brightness level was not good when compared to other display technologies considered less sophisticated, such as LED. But the South Korean company now promises to provide an answer with OLED EX .
We are talking about the new technology with which LG Display hopes to make a very interesting leap in its next devices with OLED screens. As explained in the announcement, OLED EX “improves brightness by up to 30 percent compared to conventional OLED displays” . Undoubtedly it is a hopeful data, although it will still be necessary to wait a while before seeing it applied in the market; The company will implement it in all OLED televisions manufactured in its plants in South Korea and China from the second quarter of 2022.
Why is OLED EX important to LG's future? As we mentioned before, the maximum brightness level of OLED panels has been a historical reason for complaint among users. As Engadget explains, currently a screen of this type offers a maximum peak of brightness that is located between 500 and 600 nits ; this is considerably lower than what is offered by other technologies.
If we compare it with the mini LED screens, we will see that the renewed MacBook Pro offer a brightness of up to 1,600 nits ; while the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 monitor offers up to 2,000 nits, just to mention a couple of examples.
LG puts chips to the new OLED EX technology
The South Korean firm explains that the OLED EX name comes from “evolution and experience.” But beyond the poetic part, the technical background of this new technology is interesting. According to LG Display, they have been able to combine custom algorithms, based on machine learning, and deuterium compounds .
Deuterium compounds are used to create highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes that emit stronger light. LG Display has successfully converted the hydrogen elements present in light-emitting organic elements into stable deuterium and succeeded in applying the compounds to OLED EX for the first time.
LG Display, on the new OLED EX technology An important fact in this story is that deuterium is very scarce; For every 6,000 ordinary hydrogen atoms there is only one deuterium. For this reason, LG mentions that it has developed a system to extract it from the water and apply it to its new technology for next-generation OLED screens.
But the novelties of OLED EX are not limited to having more brightness and more accurate colors compared to current OLED panels. From LG Display they assure that they have also managed to reduce the edges of the screens to only 4 millimeters (from the current 6 mm), and that they have reduced the overall thickness by 30%. It is worth noting that these data are based on 65-inch OLED screens.
We will see if OLED EX is as revolutionary as LG presents it. In any case, let us remember that until well into 2022 we will not see a real application of this new technology in the market.
