According to Samsung Display, the company’s display manufacturing arm, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 uses a new low-power smartphone OLED panel that reduces power consumption by 25 percent over the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The South Korean firm calls it “Eco OLED” and it features a new panel laminated structure for improved power efficiency. This technology doesn’t require a polarizer to prevent external light reflection. The new structure also increases the light transmittance by 33 percent.
Galaxy Z Fold 3 uses a more power-efficient foldable AMOLED display
A polarizer is a “core material” of a conventional smartphone OLED. It is an opaque plastic plate that sits above the OLED panel and prevents external light from reflecting off the panel. This increases the visibility of the display. But this also means the light from the display has to pass through an extra layer of plastic. This effectively results in reduced light efficiency. Samsung claims it decreases the brightness of the display by more than 50 percent. With its new panel laminated structure, the company has overcome this shortcoming. For the first time in the industry, it has “internalized” the polarizer function to improve light efficiency which, in turn, reduces the power consumption of the display. Improved light transmittance means this technology also helps in a more efficient implementation of the UPC (Under Panel Camera). It allows for more light to reach the camera module, enabling improved picture quality. Samsung has trademarked this Eco OLED technology in seven countries including South Korea, the US, the UK, China, and Japan. It uses more eco-friendly components that reduce the use of plastic, hence the “Eco” name. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the first smartphone to use the new display technology from Samsung. More Galaxy devices will likely use it in the future. “Eco OLED is a groundbreaking technology that improves the light efficiency of the panel and also improves power consumption by changing the basic structure of OLED. In line with this, we plan to continue our efforts to reduce the power consumption of the panel through innovative driving technology and optimization of organic materials,” said Kim Seong-cheol, Head of Samsung’s Mobile Display Business.
