Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Tandem OLED ! awing , right-hand ? hold off … hold the speech sound . tandem bicycle OLED ? What in the what ?
Did Apple geniuses just boom together two OLED panels and , et voilà , a brand novel , unprecedentedly awesome showing is born , exclusive tothe new iPad Pro ? Well , not precisely . There ’s more to it than that , and in the end , it ’s swell news for all of us .
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Digging into the world of Tandem OLED
I first heard about Tandem OLED from fellow journalist and admirer Jaron Schneider over at PetaPixel . He texted me , “ Please do a video recording that explains how WD - OLED and Tandem OLED disagree and what makes each special . ”
To which I replied : “ Uhhhhh … Tandem WHAT ? ”
I ’m a video expert – which does n’t necessarily mean I ’m adisplayexpert , but maybe a presentation expert - contiguous ? I expend a lot of time on the hemorrhage edge of display technology , specially anything regard organic light-emitting diode . So , guess my surprisal when Jaron – and then a legion of others – started texting me questions about Apple ’s Modern Tandem OLED tech on the 2024 iPad Pro .
Not knowing anything about it , I immediately began calculate into it , starting with Apple ’s own description . AsApple explain : “ We developed a Department of State - of - the - art showing that use two OLED instrument panel and commingle the light from both to deliver phenomenal full - screenland brightness level . No other equipment of its form delivers this level of display quality . ”
Apple then goes on to explain all the benefits constitutional to OLED presentation technical school and announces it as “ Ultra Retina XDR . ”
So , nerve saddlery : What makes the promise performance of this covert so noteworthy is its gamey light – 1,000 nits full - screen and 1,600 nits eyeshade brightness for HDR high spot . That is awesome , indeed . But is it the best OLED video display you may get in a consumer twist ? And how in the world does using two OLED panels work ? Is it an OLED sandwich of some sorting ? And did Apple really invent this ?
To better understand Tandem OLED applied science , let ’s start at its offset – which did not take place in an Apple laboratory .
Apple didn’t invent this
I founda white newspaper give in in 2009as part of the Society for Information Display ( SID ) Display Week Symposium , an inside industry trade show for the latest in display technical school . Tandem organic light-emitting diode , or at least the concept of it , was modernize 15 years ago — about two old age before LG introduced the first consumer OLED TV .
Since then , numerous ontogenesis have been made to make it more efficient , and several more bloodless papers have been issued talking about its advance into a in full adust engineering science .
So , if the technical school has been around for so long , why have n’t we seen Tandem OLED in a gadget before ? Let ’s make out back to that . First , permit ’s talk about the two most popular types of OLED panel used in gadget today .
One is called W - OLED , or WRGB OLED – also referred to as white OLED . This board use constituent compounds to make red , unripe , and down in the mouth pixels that produce their own visible radiation – no backlight needed . Then , a bloodless OLED subpixel is added to supercharge brightness . LG Display has pioneered this technology , and for years , it was the only kind of OLED panel you ’d discover in TVs and PC monitor .
A couple of age ago , Samsung Display come out with a new type of OLED jury called QD - OLED . This uses just one bluish OLED pixel to make light and then total cherry-red and green quantum Elvis , which are lilliputian nanoparticles that glow when you shine light on them . QD - OLED panel make more pure ruby-red , green , and blue lighting than W - OLED panel , so they tend to have better color cleverness and color purity .
Apple delineate the advantages of OLED tech as perfect calamitous levels , awful contrast , incredible pixel response time , and rich , precise colour . twelvemonth after yr , OLED TVs are mention as have the good motion picture lineament .
Why Tandem OLED is such a big deal
If OLED is so awe-inspiring , why is n’t it used in everything ? It ’s because OLED ’s Achilles ’ heel is that it ’s an constitutional stuff , so it wears out quicker the intemperate — or brighter — you repulse it . That being the instance , to protect OLED panels from cauterise out too before long — or combust in — TV manufacturer have to crest how intemperately they beat back them .
Also , the prominent an OLED show is , the more power it gobbles up . In a portable machine like a tablet , that means it ’s going to eat up the battery pretty quickly . So , while an OLED show might knead just fine in a earpiece , it ’s going to be a bit too power hungry to work in a larger assault and battery - powered twist like an iPad .
put down Tandem OLED . It is a W - RGB OLED panel type , but it usestwolight - emitting layers , each driven with a comparatively modest amount of power , so we ’re not hold up to don those OLED pixels out . Since there are two ignitor - give off level , that also cause Tandem OLED subject of getting super burnished . All the smartness without all the drawback . mastermind !
Now , one affair I can not help demystify for you ( because I do n’t understand it myself ) is how the luminousness from one level of this OLED sandwich buy the farm through with the light of another layer . For that information , I ’m going to have to chat with some display engineers conversant with the technical school , and I ’m already reaching out .
Where has this tech been all these years?
If Tandem OLED is such a bright idea , why have n’t we seen it in a equipment before ? Why is n’t it on boob tube and microcomputer monitor ? Why have n’t we ascertain it on a tablet before ?
Well , for a couple of reasons , I mistrust . I say “ I suspect ” because I involve to aver this with a showing engineer , but I call up it ’s good to theorize that , for one , Tandem OLED is clearly fairly expensive to cook up . If it was n’t , I ’m certain LG Display would be make them in size we could put in TV and PC monitors already . TVs can offer all the power that is require , but these turgid - sized Tandem OLED venire are probably just too expensive to put in a TV .
The 2nd reasonableness is that they need more exponent than fluid machine could drive home – at least until now . The battery in the tablet or phone would have had to be moderately sturdy to support the processorandthe presentation for any meaningful amount of clock time .
And that , my friends , is whereApple ’s monolithic power , geminate with its innovation , comes together to bring us the first Tandem organic light-emitting diode displays .
Tandem organic light-emitting diode needed a cash - rich partner to push it into the actual world . You do n’t make this sort of thing at a small plate — that ’s a surefire way to go belly-up . You need to make display gore at a magnanimous shell , and throw already expensive raw jury at a great scale takes the kind of money very few arrangement have — but Apple ’s make it .
But you also need a space to put it , and an iPad is the perfect one to put something like an expensive new display . OLED panels start their life asa jumbo tabloid of what ’s called mother glass . From this monolithic sheet of mother glass , you may cut any number of combinations of large and small presentation .
For example , you could rationalize out one 88 - column inch big screen , and not have a whole bunch leave over . Or you could cut out three 65 - inch diagonal CRT screen and have enough leave behind to cut out six 32 - in sloping screens .
So you may easily suppose that the return for something the sizing of an iPad Pro is going to be exponentially higher than it would be for TVs . Now , it ’s still expensive to make , but the production is much higher , so Apple can recoup a good great deal of its monetary value by work up a healthy gross profit margin into each iPad .
The other problem only Apple could solve was the mightiness issue . I think that ’s where the M4 poker chip amount in . The M4 is such an effective chipthat Apple can give to feed in the Tandem OLED video display what it involve to make that 1,000 nit of full - cover brightness and 1,600 nits of peak HDR highlighting luminousness .
But Apple probably did more than that . There were some low luminosity efficiency issues Apple ’s resources likely helped solve . And who have intercourse what else Apple ’s mighty engineering musculus did to make put a Tandem OLED screen into a equipment a reality .
Apple created something special
So … while Apple did not invent Tandem OLED , I think it is sightly to credit Apple for convey Tandem OLED out of the lab at a display corporation and into a machine . And I retrieve we can also credit Apple for making the Tandem OLED screen what it is today .
And now that itisin a consumer gimmick ? Well , let ’s just say it ’s a secure bet that Tandem OLED wo n’t last solely in the iPad Pro for long . When folks get their heart on the new Ultra Retina XDR , they are going to require that kind of picture quality from every screen they have to look at . That need will ram the innovation we need to see supply go up and price go down .
And , believe me , you ’re about to get slap in the case with a gang of reviews speak about how incredible the newfangled iPad Pro ’s Ultra Retina XDR presentation is . While there are TVs out now that can do 1,600 nits top out HDR brightness , there is n’t a consumer OLED on the market place that can do 1,000 nit sustain full - screen luminosity .
There are , however , professional mastering displays at use in Hollywood that can deliver that kind of picture – I ’ve seen them – and they are nothing short of stunning .
What Apple has done here is a really big deal . The 1,000 nits of mediocre word-painting level mean you’re able to use the new iPad Pro in just about any environment – even outside . And 1,600 nits top out HDR brightness level means that the iPad Pro is going to match even the very best television receiver on the market in terms of picture quality . And knowing Apple , it might turn out to be the best - looking consumer display on the mart . I , for one , ca n’t hold off to get my hands on it .
