iPhone Battery Life Could Be Improved Due to Samsung Switching to New OLED Material: Report

Apple’s future iPhone models could offer greater power efficiency, due to a change in how Samsung produces the OLED panels used on Apple’s smartphones, according to a report. The South Korean tech firm is reportedly planning on introducing a new material while manufacturing its OLED panels that could lower their power consumption. The technology is expected to be ready by 2026, which means the iPhone 18 might be the first iPhone that will feature the modified OLED panel from Samsung.

The Elec reports (in Korean) that UBI Research Deputy Director Daejeong Yoon stated that the Samsung’s display division was “actively developing” blue phosphorescent materials that are expected to increase light production from the company’s OLED panels. The analyst was speaking at the H2 2023 UBI Research Analyst Seminar held in Seoul on Tuesday.

The new blue phosphorescent materials have reportedly been added to a set of components called B1 — Samsung Display’s components currently include red and green phosphorous materials, and the use of blue phosphorescent materials in place of fluorescent materials could increase the brightness and power efficiency of OLED panels manufactured in the future.

However, it could be a while before an OLED panel, manufactured with components that use the new blue phosphorescent material, is released. The analyst estimates that the B1 component set will be used in the OLED material set M15 — to be used to manufacture foldable displays.

The analyst suggests that the iPhone 16 could be equipped with OLED panel created using Samsung’s material set M14 in 2024, and the Cupertino company could launch the iPhone 17 with a display made from the same components. As a result, the iPhone 18 — expected to debut in the second half of 2026 — could be the first iPhone model to feature the company’s OLED technology that is currently in development.