It took an extra six months, but Samsung Display has started mass production of new OLED panels for laptops that boast a 90Hz refresh rate.
The OLED displays will first arrive in Asus’s new Zenbook 14X and Vivobook Pro models, which are launching later this year. Samsung Display also counts Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung Electronics as customers, so you can expect the new 90Hz panel to end up in a variety of upcoming products.
The higher refresh rate should translate into smoother images on the display, especially for gaming. The company’s OLED technology also promises to rival LCD panels capable of a higher 120Hz refresh rate.
“According to Samsung Display’s internal tests, its 90Hz OLED panel showed a blur length of 0.9mm, a 10% improvement when compared to a 120Hz LCD panel’s blur length in video playback. Shorter blur length means less motion blur and clearer movement when watching videos,” the Korean manufacturer said.
That said, a downside to a 90Hz refresh rate is potentially higher battery drain. OLED panels also tend to inflate the cost to a laptop.
It remains unclear why Samsung Display delayed jump-starting the 90Hz OLED panels until now. The company originally planned to kick off mass production in March.
Samsung Display didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the delay occurs as the entire PC industry has been struggling with component shortages for the past year.
“We are selling everything that we build,” HP’s CEO Enrique Lores told The Wall Street Journal last month. “Demand continues to be strong and the backlog continues to grow.” As a result, the supply chain problems could constrain laptop production in the coming months.
