LG Display steps up efforts in foldable laptop screen market foray

It is mass-producing flexible OLED panels for 17-inch laptops, which are brighter and more durable than previous models

LG Display's 17-inch laptop a uses foldable OLED panel (Courtesy of LG)

Jeong-Soo Hwang 1

2023-09-24 18:05:12 hjs@hankyung.com

Tech, Media & Telecom

South Korea’s LG Display Co. is accelerating its foray into the market of foldable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays for laptops with high-luminance technology and more durability.

The display maker said on Sunday it has started mass production of OLED panels for 17-inch foldable laptops. The laptops, unveiled at CES 2023 in January of this year for the first time, are using the company’s Tandem OLED, which adds an extra organic emitting layer for a brighter screen.

Tandem OLED also effectively disperses energy across OLED components for more stability and longer lifespan than its previous models, LG Display said.

The display maker has reduced the curvature of the folding part to 3R, or the bending degree of a circle with a radius of 3 millimeters. It can create a slim design of the foldable display that minimizes creases and delivers a very high resolution and contrast ratio, the company said.

With the screen fully extended, the new product can be used as a 17-inch laptop with a 4:3 aspect ratio. When folded in half, it can be used as a 12.3-inch monitor with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

LG Display has expanded the foldable display with the 17-inch laptop, after launching the industry’s first foldable OLED display for a 13.3-inch laptop in 2020.

The company will bolster supplies of foldable OLED displays with innovative technologies in Tandem OLED and special folding structures, an LG Display official said.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.