Both LG and Samsung could supply OLED screens to Apple for future iPhones

Samsung may have been behind Apple’s debut OLED display, but for the 2018 lineup, Apple may go with a different chaebol.

According to a report from The Investor, LG is pretty close to finalizing the deal with Apple to provide the OLED display in the latter half of this year for the 2018 lineup.

However, that doesn’t mean Apple will completely do away with Samsung’s OLED screens. As per the report, in the current year, Apple plans to launch two screen sizes for the OLED display iPhones. LG Display is likely to produce the OLED display for a larger variant of expected screen size 6.5-inch, while Samsung Display will be producing the screens for the smaller variant of 5.8- or 6-inch display.
According to the same report, LG Display will produce about 15-16 million panels in 2018, but for readers’ information, Samsung is currently producing more than 10 million screens per month. However, since Apple is well-known to keep its cards close to its chest, all speculations and rumours should be taken with a pinch of salt.

This report aligns with the recent prediction from KGI Securities Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is working on two OLED iPhones for 2018 – a 5.8-inch variant and a 6.5-inch iPhone. He also revealed some information about the battery of these upcoming handsets. The 2018 iPhone X model may have a 10% more powerful battery as compared to this year’s variant. The 10% more powerful battery is said to come if Apple and LG Chem are ‘able to deploy a one-cell design for the device’s L-shaped battery’.

Besides these two, Apple is also expected to launch a 6.1-inch model with a LCD panel. This year, Apple is rumoured to launch an upgrade to the iPhone SE 2 as well by March 2018. But nothing concrete is known for that handset now.

Kuo also suggested that from 2018, all iPhone models will sport the FaceID as that is a major selling point for the company.