Apple’s MicroLED dream: What it means for the Apple Watch and beyond

by Janice Allen
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Apple is reportedly planning to incorporate MicroLED displays into future Apple Watch models — according to a January 10, 2024 or 2025 post. report Bloomberg. The move would continue Apple’s progress toward using the company’s own parts in all of its products without relying on third-party components. Another report from Mark Gurman just this week said that Apple is currently working on an all-in-one chip that will handle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular networks. The company’s proprietary silicon already powers the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

With all of these efforts, the ultimate goal for Apple is to have more control over future products with less risk of delays and setbacks beyond the company’s control. With displays in particular, such a shift could impact the financial outlook for vendors like Samsung Display and LG Display, which supply the bulk of Apple’s current panels.

But as it stands, whether you buy the Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra, or SE, you are already get a smartwatch with a bright, vibrant screen. So it’s worth exploring what benefits this next-generation MicroLED technology would bring to Apple’s wearables and other devices.

A close-up photo of Samsung's MicroLED module.

Samsung shows a module of MicroLEDs at CES 2019.
Photo by Chris Welch/The Verge

What is MicroLED?

Often hailed as the next big leap for display technology after OLED, MicroLED displays offer many of the same benefits. The image is generated by millions of individual light-emitting diodes that enable pixel-by-pixel dimming; they can all be turned off to produce perfect blacks. This results in the unparalleled contrast we’ve enjoyed for years from OLED TVs and smartphones; more recently, OLED is increasingly being used in tablets, laptops and desktop monitors.

But the O in OLED stands for ‘organic’ and that actually turns out to be one of the downsides. The organic compound in OLED displays has a limited lifespan and still comes with a minimum some chance of permanent burn-in – even though it’s hardly a factor on modern high-end TVs. Overall brightness has also lagged behind the best LCD TVs which use Mini LED backlighting and local dimming to try to get within striking distance of OLED’s excellent contrast at higher sustained brightness.

Samsung Display and LG Display have both made significant strides in recent years with brighter OLED panels – QD-OLED in Samsung’s case – but MicroLED promises even greater brightness without burn-in or panel degradation issues. Samsung has shown off MicroLED displays that reach a peak brightness of 4,000 nits, which is about double what the best OLED and LCD TVs can do right now. That’s a level of pop that would hold up each environment. Like the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, the Apple Watch Ultra manages 2000 nits in bright outdoor environments. That’s still plenty bright and perfectly visible in sunny conditions, but MicroLED could up the game even further.

If there is one company that has led the way with MicroLED so far, it is Samsung. The company has provided an update on the state of play at CES 2023. If you’re a display geek or a general technology enthusiast, the video below is definitely worth checking out to learn more about the benefits of MicroLED, the modularity and how it all comes together. You learn a lot in less than eight minutes.

In that voice-over you hear this main line: “MicroLEDs have unlimited scalability, because they are resolution-free, borderless, ratio-free and even size-free. This means that the screen can be freely adjusted in any shape for whatever you use it for – just like a building block. MicroLEDs are placed on modules that can be seamlessly combined in any desired shape or size. In addition to being self-emissive, microLEDs produce red, green and blue colors separately without requiring the same backlight or color filters as conventional displays. The displays can therefore display perfect colors and improved color brightness. As with QD-OLED, that superior color brightness makes the entire screen look brighter to your eyes.

Because MicroLED technology is still so fresh, it’s insanely expensive for early adopters. Do you want to install The Wall from Samsung in your home? You’re looking at $800,000. So it is critical that these displays spread and reach more products to reduce costs – both for the manufacturer and the consumer.

Will Apple actually produce MicroLED screens in-house?

Not exactly. Bloomberg reports that the MicroLED screens will be “Apple’s first screens designed and developed entirely in-house,” but that doesn’t mean the company will suddenly make tens of millions of these panels itself. As always, Apple will turn to manufacturing partners to produce what is currently in development. The company is “testing production of the screens” at a factory in Santa Clara, California, according to the report, but eventually mass production will go to a supplier. It works the same way with the company’s other displays. For example, Apple comes up with a design and specifications for its iPhone panels and passes them on to Samsung Display and LG Display.

In fact, when I visited LG Display’s suite at CES in Las Vegas last week, there was an iPhone 14 Pro Max in plain sight as an example of the company’s OLED manufacturing capabilities. My first thought was “uh, did Apple approve this?” Secrecy and all. And my second thought was, “Nobody’s even coy about this stuff anymore.”

A photo of an iPhone 14 Pro Max on a table.

Apple’s plan to design and develop its own displays could reduce reliance on Samsung Display and LG Display. The latter showed off an iPhone 14 Pro Max OLED display at its CES 2023 suite.
Photo by Chris Welch/The Verge

But since MicroLED is such a new and advanced technology, it brings new challenges that are not present with traditional LCD and OLED panels. Apple has been working on this for a while now, and apparently the original goal was to include MicroLED displays in Apple products as early as 2020. “But the project languished due to high costs and technical challenges,” per Bloomberg. Apple also originally planned to start with larger screens, but shrunk those ambitions (literally) when faced with technical hurdles. There are only a few companies with the resources and know-how to mass-produce MicroLED displays: I wouldn’t be surprised if Samsung and LG end up in the mix somewhere anyway.

We also haven’t demonstrated MicroLED very often in small form factors like smartwatches. Samsung’s idea of ​​shrinking the technology is to put it in a screen the size of a TV. But given that Apple is unlikely to introduce MicroLED displays until 2024 (or even 2025), there’s plenty of time to get there. Wearables and head-worn displays will eventually become the main use case for MicroLED, according to Display Supply Chain Consultantsthat estimates that revenues around the display technology will grow to $1.3 billion by 2027.

Woman leaning on the edge of the pool with an Apple Watch Ultra next to a no diving sign.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/The Verge

What exactly do we win?

This to me is the most curious aspect of the whole thing. These are the benefits that Bloomberg says MicroLED will bring to the Apple Watch:

Compared to current Apple Watches, next-generation displays are designed to offer brighter, more vibrant colors and be more visible from an angle. The displays make the contents look like they were painted on the glass, according to people who have seen them, who have asked not to be identified because the project is still classified.

I would argue that all of these things are true of today’s current Apple Watch lineup. The screens are already readable in intense sunlight (as in the photo above), they’re vibrant and colorful, and since all of Apple’s OLED panels are bonded to the screen glass, I’m not sure how much closer to the surface the content could appear . I don’t hear anyone complaining about viewing angles or reduced brightness from recent Apple Watches. But MicroLED’s more efficient screen tech could certainly help stretch battery life to new highs, and it does all important.

It’s possible that MicroLED’s natural RGB colors add more saturation and increase the overall color brightness (which in turn will increase the perceived brightness of the overall device), but I wouldn’t expect any radical visual improvements for MicroLED in the wearable category. Whenever these screens make their way to iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Pros, the upgrades will be much more apparent to our eyes. In the end, we’re just taking the inevitable step from today’s display technology to the future. And Apple is moving forward in its relentless pursuit of becoming fully self-sufficient.

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