Customized screens for domestic mobile phones have begun to roll back to Samsung. . .

Thank you for the invitation. I am in South Korea and just visited the headquarters of Samsung Display in South Korea.

This time Tony was actually invited by iQOO to visit Samsung Display’s Korean headquarters. Please remember to type the word “pai noodle” in the comment area for me.

But in the final analysis, iQOO called us here this time, not just for a visit. The real focus is actually the screen on iQOO 16. This time they directly engaged Samsung Display and made in-depth customization. Even this “technical communication meeting”, Samsung Display specially arranged it on its own territory. Put “Pai Nian” in。。。

This incident is actually quite consistent with the changes in iQOO in recent years——

When iQOO was mentioned before, the first thing that everyone thought of might be performance, running scores, and games. But in the past few years, while they have continued to focus on the basics of “e-sports chips” and “game performance”, they have also begun to strengthen flagship configurations such as screens, all the way to “higher”.

To figure out why iQOO is making such a big splash on the screen this time, we still have to take a look at the current high-end screens and see what they are rolling out——

I think everyone has the impression of previous slogans such as “No 2K, no flagship” and “Good dimming means a good screen.” The reason why manufacturers like to use this kind of promotional slogan is actually to let you get the advantages of the product at once through simple comparison logic.

But today’s competition for high-end OLEDs no longer only focuses on single subjects such as “resolution”, “peak brightness”, or “dimming frequency”, but has begun to “enhance the dimension”.

To put it bluntly, high-end players are beginning to compete with the entire technical system, including luminescent materials, screen structures, etc., and “scoring points” in a single subject is somewhat insufficient. . .

For example, Samsung Display has always had a strong say in high-end OLED. Its M series of luminescent materials has always been given priority to Apple’s flagship models, and this year it has also been updated to the latest M16.

As we all know, after the “light-emitting system” of the screen is replaced, the supporting panel structure will often be iterated.

This is also easy to understand. The effect of the screen is not determined by one link alone. Samsung Display has also updated the LEAD technology responsible for “light transmission” to 2K LEAD™ 2.0.

To put it simply, when previous OLED screens emitted light, a lot of electricity was wasted on “driving light through the polarizer.” Samsung Display’s LEAD technology removes the polarizing layer of traditional OLED, reducing loss during light transmission and achieving higher light utilization. Using a “power-hungry” phone like a 2K screen can actually save more power.

So you can see that Apple’s latest generation of high-end folding screen iPhone Duo uses Samsung’s M16 luminescent material and new generation LEAD display technology; next year’s Samsung flagship Galaxy S27 Ultra will also use its own M16 luminescent material.

The upcoming iQOO 16 will also become the first model in the Android camp to implement M16+2K LEAD™ 2.0.

Hey, you might say, isn’t this just the classic trick of domestic manufacturers using “the same screen from Apple and Samsung”. . .

In fact, things are not that simple. Why do you say that?

First of all, iQOO implemented LEAD technology earlier than Apple. Last year’s iQOO 15 used LEAD technology.

In addition, iQOO is a mobile phone brand that started in China. Facing domestic rivals who are constantly coming up with new technologies, it is definitely not convincing to directly copy existing technologies. . .

And the needs of users themselves are very diverse——

I don’t know what your habits are, but Tony uses all his mobile phones at full resolution and refresh rate. This does not include the power consumption of various game visual effects and video display effects. . .

This is actually the trade-off issue that manufacturers have to face when making screens now: when there are too many features, the power consumption cannot be reduced, resulting in many mobile phones that can only answer multiple-choice questions.

Therefore, iQOO simply changed its approach to solving the problem this time. Instead of “tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall” within the existing technical framework, it asked Samsung to customize a new solution and engage in “joint research and development.”

So where is this customization embodied?

Let’s put it this way, the screen of iQOO 16 is a bit “hexagonal warrior” – this time iQOO brought Samsung Display together to stuff 2K resolution, 165Hz ultra-high refresh rate, and low power consumption into the same screen.

But the problem is that these abilities may not be useful individually. If you want them to be established at the same time, the difficulty is actually doubled. iQOO has solved a long-standing problem in the industry this time.

Just like the 165Hz ultra-high brush, this year’s high-performance mobile phones are almost “one for everyone”, but if you want to achieve 2K+165Hz, you have to achieve it through a thicker metal film layer and an exclusive customized high-brush IC – a thicker metal film layer can reduce the circuit resistance and make the pixel drive faster and more stable; the customized high-brush IC is responsible for completing the charging, discharging and scanning of the pixels in a shorter time, and completing the refresh of each frame.

Someone I heard from Samsung Display said that in order to build this screen, iQOO and Samsung Display invested a total of more than 300 development, quality and manufacturing engineers, jointly researched and developed for more than 300 days, and used more than 13W evaluation samples for verification. I don’t doubt it. . .

Because in addition to the above parameters, iQOO 16 also increases the global peak brightness to 2800nits and the local peak brightness to 10000nits (no need to count, it is 10,000…

Moreover, this screen also supports full-brightness DC dimming, and even reserves high-frequency PWM dimming up to 3300Hz in the settings, and the power consumption is even lower. He really made me cry to death. . .

In general, this screen is not only beautiful in terms of parameters, but you can feel it in many places as soon as you use it. The sliding is smoother, the picture is more transparent, and the power consumption can even be lowered.

I don’t know if you have this feeling. This style of play is a bit like iQOO’s early approach to gaming performance. Don’t be afraid to drop big news and slowly let everyone form a habit – in this way, when you mention the iQOO flagship in the future, you will default to the screen as one of its strengths.

And this is really not Tony’s own subjective impression——

The three major global brands currently using Samsung’s flagship luminescent materials are Apple, Samsung and iQOO. This also shows that iQOO has actually put itself into the first echelon when it comes to high-end displays. . .

An additional mention here is that although the three companies share some of Samsung Display’s technologies, the final effects are actually different –

On Apple’s side, there are many “Family Bucket” users, largely because its ecology and full-link adjustment are more mature. Whether you are using a mobile phone, tablet or Mac, the overall screen look and feel can be as consistent as possible;

Samsung, you can think of it as the “native hardware adjustment school”. From materials, panels, to whole machine adjustment, many of the core screen technologies are in its own hands, and it can work directly from the bottom up. In recent years, Samsung’s flagships have gone through so much trouble to remove polarizers, anti-reflection, and hardware privacy protection, which is essentially a reflection of their “vertical integration capabilities”;

iQOO is taking a different path, focusing more on performance and gaming scenarios. It first looks at what players are lacking in scenarios such as high frames, high image quality, touch control and power consumption, and then uses these demand scenarios to define what capabilities the screen should have.

A very important reason why iQOO dared to do this is that it was deeply involved in the definition of this screen from the beginning, and worked with Samsung Display to solve problems that arose in the process until mass production was completed.

Let’s put it this way, iQOO is directly involved this time, even from the luminescent material, Panel, and driver IC stages. . .

Moreover, the Samsung Display and iQOO teams also have a dedicated human factors testing team to study how users perceive a screen – with the same 165Hz high refresh rate, how do the response speed, touch and display cooperate so that players will feel “following”? Another example is how to quantify color reproduction and comfort during long-term viewing in low-brightness environments? All need to be supported by human factor data and actual experience.

Including saying that after this generation of 165Hz products is ready, Samsung Display and iQOO are also beginning to make relevant technical reserves for higher refresh rates such as 185Hz or even 240Hz in the future.

This is why I say that although the limelight of this screen technology communication meeting was stolen by the screen on iQOO 16, the highlight was actually the “Samsung Display × iQOO Future Display Exploration Plan” released by both parties. After this in-depth cooperation model is implemented, the subsequent generations of iQOO flagships will be able to explore more possibilities in terms of screen experience.

Tony’s experience at the scene in South Korea this time was particularly obvious – the cooperation methods between domestic mobile phone manufacturers and Samsung Display are also changing.

In the past, domestic mobile phone manufacturers mostly “purchased screens” in the supply chain; later, they gradually changed to “customizing screens” for different product needs; and now, Chinese mobile phone brands have begun to enter the front-end research and development process, exploring next-generation display technology with Samsung Display.

After so many years of accumulation, iQOO has become the manufacturer that can “define a good screen”.