Flashback: the story of OLED displays on mobile phones

24 October 2021
From modest beginnings as the secondary screen on flip phones to the premiere display technology for high-end smartphones today.

Sort by:

No where apple mentioned. Innovation and the fruit are on different boats

    Berserker, 24 Oct 2021phones with character with 2cm thickness. low brightness d... moremost of these are not true though
    -micro usb was standard before
    -phones had up to 8gb which was enough with sd card slot
    -weak signal? you are joking right? current smartphone with alluminium and other materials are no where near those old candybar phones when it come to signal reception.
    -emulation and gaming also was there, we could emulate psx, gba, nes, snes etc in those phones.
    -some of those phones had very good camera and xenon flash which can blow away today led flash.
    -some phones were under 1cm just look phone like Nokia 6500c

      Berserker, 24 Oct 2021phones with character with 2cm thickness. low brightness d... moreExactly, some just don't remove their nostslgia glasses.
      The old for these type of people was perfect and never had an issue.

        KondriX, 24 Oct 2021Take a look at these phones, every one had a style, every o... morephones with character with 2cm thickness.
        low brightness displays with terrible colour.
        different tiny buttons made from plastic that worn out after a year with no option for remaping.
        potato cameras with weak flash.
        barely usable Software.
        battery that lasts only a couple of hours.
        small memory capacity.
        weak signal reception.
        proprietary charging cables.
        proprietary headphone connectors.
        i agree, that era was fun but im very glad it's long gone.
        now you can use your photo for everything.
        multimedia, gaming, productivity, photography, emulation, banking.
        excellent display quality, fast performance, polished os, excellent cameras, long lasting battery, good speakers, fast charging, unified peripherals,
        FUNTINGTON OVER FORM.
        many people forget about that.

          • D
          • AnonD-1001048
          • U{0
          • 24 Oct 2021

          KondriX, 24 Oct 2021Take a look at these phones, every one had a style, every o... moreWell said. I agree with your points. And I would like to add that Smartphones companies are rebranding their phones, selling two similar phones with different names. This is the trend lately and I no longer find any smartphone interesting. Most every brand is doing the same thing so yes smartphone industry is definitely going the wrong way.

            • D
            • AnonD-1001048
            • U{0
            • 24 Oct 2021

            Sorry but I beg to differ. I don't prefer punchy colours.. for a display, I value colour accuracy more than anything else and in this regard, AMOLED Fails. Also OLED Displays have flickering issues. That's why, I would take a good calibrated IPS LCD display over AMOLED anyday but unfortunately, people these days want AMOLED so that leaves us LCD lovers in minority.

              jayDAWG, 24 Oct 2021Pretty much all major phone companies are making phones wit... moreXiaomi, Nokia, and Motorola still make smartphones with an LCD screen in 2021. Even Oppo, Vivo, and Honor also do the same.

                KondriX, 24 Oct 2021Take a look at these phones, every one had a style, every o... moreCouldn't agree more. That is why I looked at less popular brands like LG and Sony as they still commit to giving hardware features that popular top brands have removed. Even with the case of Xenon flash, I haven't seen anyone use it since the Nokia Lumia 1020. That is single-handedly the most useful feature I have ever used for mobile photography. The fact that I can easily connect any DSLR-grade slave flash to that phone is a complete no-brainer.

                  • R
                  • Rkm
                  • ypc
                  • 24 Oct 2021

                  rizki1, 24 Oct 2021😅🤣 Ok gsmarena has explained to us a little what is the dif... moreLOL, that means you simply refuse to accept new information and have learned nothing new. It isn't difficult to dig up what you said because the number of motorola phones reviews are very few. I would have been screwed if that was under a realme or xiaomi review 🤣.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • LkB
                    • 24 Oct 2021

                    rizki1, 24 Oct 2021😅🤣 Ok gsmarena has explained to us a little what is the dif... moreAll phones use amoled.
                    But LG, Apple and Sony just do not use the name amoled, despite the panels are amoled.
                    No phone use passive matrix oled like TVs.

                    It is all oled in the end.

                      • T
                      • Tio
                      • KiP
                      • 24 Oct 2021

                      Meanwhile the allegedly leak new iphone SE will still use lcd..... Such a shame

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • LkB
                        • 24 Oct 2021

                        jayDAWG, 24 Oct 2021Pretty much all major phone companies are making phones wit... moreSamsung does not care about accuracy because samsung knows their costumers like punchy. Warm colours are not correct. Nothing has changed since S.

                        Unlike other phones, no matter what setting you use, results are same.
                        You are tied to warm yellowish whites and greens.
                        Impossible to escape.

                          Rkm, 24 Oct 2021Ah, that was with me iirc. You were confusing modern mobile... more😅🤣 Ok gsmarena has explained to us a little what is the difference between OLED and AMOLED. I'm not making up anything but that's the difference.

                            • R
                            • Rkm
                            • ypc
                            • 24 Oct 2021

                            rizki1, 24 Oct 2021I had a debate with people who said OLED and AMOLED are the... moreAh, that was with me iirc. You were confusing modern mobile displays and saying one of the Samsung super amoled was better than one of the moto's 'just oled'.

                            All mobile oled displays are now super amoleds, period. Otherwise those displays would be thick af and you would not get the feeling of images on the top most layer.

                              KondriX, 24 Oct 2021Take a look at these phones, every one had a style, every o... morethats why i hate expensive/flagship phones, at least mid range phones still have many things from 3.5mm jack to microsd slot. and every year is nothing exciting anymore, flagship phones just camera camera and camera following removed every important feature.

                                Anonymous, 24 Oct 2021Still has. Because samsung does on purpose to satisfy clien... morePretty much all major phone companies are making phones with oled screens, but I guess you and your friends are still stuck in 2013.

                                  Take a look at these phones, every one had a style, every one was unique and full of features. We had audio jack, microSD, FM radio and transmitter, camera button, xenon flash, stereo speakers, led notification light, removable batteries, good audio DAC's and no notches and punch-holes. But now what? Every damn phone looks the same, removed features and sealed batteries, gimmicks like virtual RAM, no charger and the cancer of mobile phones phones like notches and holes in the display, while all this costing more and more every year. And some people still continue to defend some companies for doing all these dirty practices? Just wake up people, stop filling these companies pockets. I feel that the whole mobile industry is going in the wrong way..

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 043
                                    • 24 Oct 2021

                                    „Despite sounding similar, the two are (literally) as different as LCD and OLED. Indeed, mini-LED is just an LCD with smaller LEDs used in the backlight, enabling a greater number of dimming zones. Micro-LED is basically OLED without the organic compounds in the LED make-up – these will be brighter, more efficient and won’t suffer from burn in.“

                                    Wow, one of the few people that actually knows the difference between mini-LED and micro-LED. Props to the author

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • LkB
                                      • 24 Oct 2021

                                      jayDAWG, 24 Oct 2021I still remember the old days of Sony and Apple fanboys mak... moreStill has. Because samsung does on purpose to satisfy clients and bias youtubers.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • LkB
                                        • 24 Oct 2021

                                        Almand, 24 Oct 2021AMOLED is an OLED display with some improvements to it.Amoled is active matrix oled.
                                        TVs do not use because they are always connected to power source.

                                        There is no amoled is better than oled. Also, all panels for mobile are amoled.
                                        Not all brands and suppliers use name amoled.

                                          4 of 5