The Society for Information Display (SID) has picked Samsung and Sony's microLED displays along with the OLED display in Apple Watch Series 4 as its 'Display of the Year' winners.
Displays of the Year
The winners of SID's 25th annual industry award have been announced and will formally be honored on May 15, 2019, during the Display Week conference in San Jose, California.
- "The annual Display Industry Awards luncheon is always a much-anticipated highlight of Display Week because it allows us to showcase the high-quality, innovative work that is taking place in the display industry at every level – from components to end products," said Dr. Wei Chen, Chair of the Display Industry Awards Committee for SID. "This year's winners reflect the breadth and depth of recent product development and technology innovation necessary to support the relentless pace of consumer and industrial electronics evolution."
Photo: FlatpanelsHD - Sony CLEDIS at CES 2017
To be considered for the award, a product must have been available for purchase during the preceding year. Apple Watch Series 4 is widely available on the consumer market. Samsung The Wall and Sony Crystal LED, both based on modular microLED screens, are available on the commercial market but not yet the consumer market.
Also read: An introduction to MicroLED; a new self-emitting display technology
A handful of industry players see microLED as a potential competitor to OLED. The self-emitting display technology delivers deep blacks, high brightness, and very saturated colors. However, microLED poses a new set of challenges. Skeptics argue that microLED will be very difficult to mass produce at a competitive cost. Another challenge with microLED is to shrink the pixel gap to make living room sized TVs feasible.
Photo: FlatpanelsHD - Samsung The Wall at CES 2018
- "We are honored to be recognized with such a prestigious industry award," said Seog-gi Kim, EVP of Visual Display, Samsung. "We are very proud of the technological advancement and innovation embodied by The Wall and see this display really pushing the entire industry forward."
SID has provided a brief description of why it has chosen these three displays as the winners of its 2019 'Display of the Year' award.
SID's 2019 Display of the Year Awards
Apple's LTPO OLED Display for Apple Watch Series 4
While retaining the original signature design, the fourth-generation Apple Watch has been refined, combining new hardware and software enhancements into a singular, unified form. The striking display, which is more than 30 percent larger at 40 mm or 44 mm, depending on the model, seamlessly integrates into the thinner, smaller case, while the new interface provides more information with richer detail. The display is the defining feature of Apple Watch, and Series 4 pushes that feature farther than ever. The challenge for designers was to make the display bigger without noticeably increasing the size of the case or compromising the battery life. Narrower borders enable a viewing area that's more than 30 percent larger, while a new display technology called LTPO improves power efficiency, helping users get through the day on a single charge. |
Samsung Electronics' Modular MicroLED Display (The Wall)
The Wall is a display based on microLED technology. It is made up of millions of individual pixels of self-emitting inorganic red, green, and blue microscopic LED chips to produce brilliant colors and deep blacks onscreen for striking picture quality. The display is immune to burn-in and has a lifespan of 100,000 hours. Along with its microLED-based technology, Samsung's Quantum Processor Modular and AI-Upscaling help The Wall achieve pristine picture quality up to 8K resolution, as well as pure colors, stunning high-dynamic range (HDR) 10+, and a peak luminance of up to 2,000 nits. MicroLED technology is a desirable alternative to other display technologies because, while it is made up of self-emitting pixels that turn on and off individually, its inorganic materials won't degrade or cause screen burn-in over time. Additionally, Samsung's unique Black Seal technology that is applied to each microLED creates a seamless, uniform canvas with deeper blacks than ever before. The Wall is a large-format modular display ideal for both luxury living and business. |
Sony Corp.'s Crystal LED Display System
The Crystal LED Display System from Sony consists of a display controller and modular display units made from ultrafine microLEDs. This technology creates spectacular, large-scale video walls with lifelike realism. Crystal LED brings imagery to life with awe-inspiring visuals in any environment, with applications ranging from industrial product design and manufacturing to theme parks and museums, corporate meeting rooms and lobbies, retail showrooms, lecture theaters, and broadcast studios. In addition to high contrast, this display supports high-dynamic range (HDR), with 10-bit color depth and enormous color gamut. Sony has also developed active-matrix pixel-drive circuitry with micro ICs, which achieves an ultra-fast video response time with a 120-Hz refresh rate --ideal for sports, concerts, or training simulations requiring large-screen visuals with no delay or blur. The bezel-free design of the display unit ensures no visible seam between multiple display units and makes it possible to create impressive large-scale displays of virtually any dimension and aspect ratio. |
