Korea’s biggest display exhibition, the International Meeting on Information Display (‘IMID 2021’), took place at Coex Convention & Exhibition Center on August 25, 2021. Unlike IMID 2020, which was only able to conduct academic conferences due to COVID19, IMID 2021 was able to resume its offline exhibitions. 240 exhibition participants showcased their latest display technology and products: Samsung Display joined the excitement with its Eco² OLED™ and UPC technology. Curious to see what Samsung Display’s exhibition booth was like at IMID 2021? Discover the latest OLED technologies in this article.

Step into Our Botanical Haven, “Eco² OLED” Sustainable Display Zone

Once visitors walk past the refreshingly green entrance of Samsung’s booth - reminiscent of a cozy forest - the first thing they would notice was the showcase for Eco2 OLED™, a polarizer-integrated OLED technology. Eco2 OLED is a new technology which removed the polarizer found in most existing panels and innovatively restructured the panel structure in order to achieve better display performance. The polarizer, which was originally thought to be essential for OLED, was used to prevent the display panel from reflecting external light. Samsung Display figured out a way to remove the polarizer and still minimize reflection while increasing contrast and improving visibility. When viewed at the same brightness, the display uses about 25% less power than before, giving it the advantage of eco-friendly low power consumption.

Eco2 OLED™ technology has been the latest buzzword as it was implemented for the first time on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3. With the elimination of the polarizer, foldable phone users can experience brighter, vividly enhanced displays overall.

OLED for laptops, which was showcased near the Eco2 OLED™ section, highlighted its key difference from LCD laptop displays: It doesn’t have a backlight unit composed of a plastic film layer, so no emission of VOCs take place as a result of the heat from the backlight. Samsung Display's OLED panels for laptops have achieved UL's GREENGUARD Gold Certification for low chemical emissions for the first time in the industry.

Better Life through Samsung OLED

What was the rest of the exhibition booth like past the entrance? With the overall theme ‘Better Life through Samsung OLED’, Samsung Display created three sub-themed spaces. (1) Human Friendly, (2) Authentic Experience, and (3) Future Life with OLED were designed distinctively to give a glimpse of Samsung’s OLED current technologies and future innovations. This almost gave a "tech museum" vibe to booth visitors, where they could compare and contrast the past with present technologies, as well as foretell the excitement of future displays.

‘Display technology’ Meant for Convenience and Senses

Next to the Eco2 OLED™ section was the Human Friendly Zone. ‘Extreme Durability’ technology for enhanced durability immediately captured people’s attention the minute they walked in.

With polar bears and penguins as decorations to signify extreme cold conditions, the Human Friendly Zone had a foldable OLED folding and unfolding in action, demonstrating robustness comparable to that of a gymnast at the Olympics. Following the room temperature folding tests of 200,000 times, Samsung Display’s foldable OLED also passed the durability test of 30,000 times in -20°C (-4°F). No need to worry about folding your foldable devices even in the worst of snowstorms!

Blue light protection technology also won the hearts of visitors. Samsung OLED, which reduces harmful blue light wavelengths by about 70% compared to standard LCDs, has also received Eye Care certification from global certification company SGS. In the 5G era where mobile devices and laptops are used for longer periods of time, there is no doubt that this will be the exemplary use of display technology protecting user vision.

Brighter, Clearer Displays

After passing through the blue light technology section, Samsung OLED’s signature ‘Samsung Diamond Pixel™’ was on display. In the latest foldable OLED, ‘Round Diamond Pixel' structure was implemented, curving the corners of each pixel to make the screen even more vivid.

One side glance took the visitors to another product showcase of Eco2 OLED™, which they initially saw at the booth entrance. Eco2 OLED has a higher light transmittance of 57% than traditional OLEDs, and panel power consumption is reduced by more than 25%, making it a very energy-efficient display. At the same time, the display's color purity has been increased by 15%, allowing it to display more natural colors. Because Eco2 OLED can express up to 90% of Rec. 2020 (the standard of Ultra-High Definition broadcasting), it realizes the widest range of color gamut among existing mobile displays. With its performance nearly twice as good as that of LCD displays’, let it be known as the ‘Wizard of Color.’

Elimination of Camera Holes with Under Panel Camera (UPC) Technology

A large crowd gathered in the Human Friendly Zone in front of the display that used the ‘Under Panel Camera (UPC)' technology, which is considered a complete full-screen technology. UPC is the most recent technology that allows the camera module to be placed at the bottom of the display panel, allowing the full screen to be used. When using the screen in full screen mode (ex: when watching a video), the camera hole used to be a distracting element with previous foldable phones. Samsung Display created and implemented this new technology to help users minimize any inconvenience caused by the camera hole. You might have guessed it, but it’s no secret that UPC is a clear outcome made possible by integrating the polarizer-less Eco2 OLED™ technology!

Are you concerned that perhaps color variations between the camera hole and the surrounding area will seem obvious? As evaluated by UL, a global certification agency, Samsung’s technology is set to be less than ‘JNCD 1’, a standard in which the human eyes can barely notice the color deviation between a Samsung UPC and its peripheral panel.

Experience Color Accuracy, Contrast Ratio and Motion Speed on Another Level with the Latest OLED 

With the recent trend of the OLED market expanding from smartphones to other types of IT devices such as laptops, the ‘Authentic Experience' exhibition space was where visitors could experience immediate difference in quality on OLED laptops vs. conventional laptops. As the name implies, the audience was thrilled by the ‘authentic' viewing experience of various products in different angles.

The 'Dark Mode' technology in Samsung OLED reduces power consumption by up to 50% and significantly reduces blue light that is harmful to the eyes.

Pixel Dimming technology added another layer of OLED excellence by drastically reducing the power consumption of laptops without losing image quality.

In addition, Samsung OLED, which has excellent features such as Blur length and video response speed (MPRT) of less than 1.4mm and 15.4ms (milliseconds), is applied to laptops and reveals its true value. The fast response time that shows clear picture quality even when playing high-end games and the excellent contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1 were sufficient to obtain the Gaming performance certification from SGS, a global certification company.

Also, the color reproducibility of 'Cinematic', which expresses a wide range of colors exceeding 120% based on the DCI-P3 color volume, which is the color gamut for digital movies, and 0.0005 nits of close to true black, is like bringing a theater into the room.

Folding and Unfolding Future Display: Foldable OLED

At Samsung’s Display’s ‘Future Life with OLED’ zone, people could experience and foresee the future of next-generation foldables, which captivated the most attention at the exhibition booth.

A S-foldable prototype called ‘Flex In & OutTM,’ especially folding in and out of three distinct displays with different multi-tasking functions running on each screen, captivated the crowd with its portability and big screen compared to folded once smartphones.

‘Flex Note’ is a product concept where a laptop consists of one display for both top and bottom screens. The gaming keyboard/pad that you see in the image above is a mockup: Meant as a large-scale foldable display (17.3 inch screen with 4:3 aspect ratio) that can be used both as a monitor when completely unfolded and as a laptop when half-folded, ‘Flex Note’ was yet another future innovation packed with product optimizations like ultra-thin body, low power consumption, exceptional display quality and user-centered design.

Multi Frequency, Flexible AI Speaker

With ‘Multi Frequency’ technology, we can divide a single display screen into two parts and have each side operating on different frequencies. If there's video playing, that side will operate at a high-frequency level whereas the rest of the screen will run at a low-frequency, demonstrating efficient use of energy.

One of the most popular products that garnered a lot of attention at the exhibition was the AI speaker - a sophisticated device with a 12.4 inch flexible OLED display wrapped around it. The way the speaker display screen “flapped” itself in and out was almost too entertaining for bypassers to miss. Integrating flexible OLED on an AI speaker like this showed infinite possibilities of usage ranging from video calls to interactive interface. It was a product concept exhibiting a realistic imagination that future displays will soon unfold.

Building a More Sustainable Future with Samsung’s OLED

Samsung Display’s next-generation technologies demonstrated not only exceptional image quality but also human-centered and environmentally friendly technologies/platforms. It’s hard not to feel anticipation towards the future Samsung Display has helped us envision through the IMID 2021 exhibition.