If you thought all the ‘LED’ acronyms that you’re confronted with while buying TVs and smartphones were confusing enough, get ready for some more bedlam in LED-land in the not-so-distant future. That’s because several of the world’s largest tech companies are apparently working on a technology called ‘Micro LED’ that’s expected to find its way into consumer devices next year. While Apple is said to be working with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) on ‘next-gen’ Micro-LED displays that are speculated to be used in future Apple Watches as well as its rumored Mixed Reality headset, Samsung is also apparently betting big on the technology and, has announced its intention to unveil an all-new Micro-LED television at the CES 2018 trade show in January.
It’s important to note here that as a technology, Micro LED is not exactly new. It has been around for several years, with Samsung originally showing off its first such TV with a 55-inch display way back in 2012. However, it is yet to be adopted into the mainstream mostly because of the high costs involved in the production of such panels because of the difficulties in making LEDs measuring less than 100 micrometers, which is thinner than the width of a human hair. Samsung has already showed off a massive 34-foot 4K HDR display panel in South Korea, and is believed to be readying a 150″ TV to show off at the CES next January.
Even if Samsung is able to commercialize Micro LED next year, it is unlikely that it will upstage current technologies any time soon. However, researchers and industry insiders are already calling it the next-gen display technology thanks to all the advantages it has over OLED. First off, it doesn’t apparently suffer from the same ‘burn-in’ issues as their more established counterparts, but still comes with high contrast ratios and deep blacks. It is also believed to consume a lot less power and radiate a lower amount of heat than OLED panels. So if all that indeed checks out, it isn’t difficult to understand why the technology is being heralded as the next big thing in display tech by many.
