Samsung - MicroLED status

At CES 2025, Samsung is showing an interesting microLED application, a smart mirror device. The idea is to provide a mirror with a display on top, that can scan your face and recommend treatment solutions to tailor your skin. 

Samsung said that it employed a "aluminium and niobium micro-patterned mirror structure" to provide a 80% mirror-level reflectance. The mirror (and display) is 21-inch in size. It seems as if this is just a demonstration project, it is not likely to turn into a commercial product anytime soon.

Samsung is showing an interesting new TV prototype at CES 2025, a 98-inch 8K microLED-backlit LCD TV. Moving forward from miniLED backlighting to microLED backlighting enables even more dimming zones (at least 3X as many LEDs as its miniLED TVs) - and so increase energy efficiency and contrast.

Samsung calls the new TV an "RGB MicroLED", which continues the company tradition of unfortunate LED TV naming, although what samsung tries to say is that it uses RGB microLEDs as opposed to its miniLED platform which uses blue LEDs with QD color conversion. These new native RGB microLEDs are also supposed to be brighter than Samsung's miniLEDs, another advantage.

Samsung Display is demonstrating its first microLED wearable display prototype, at CES 2025. The company did not share many specifications, beyond saying that the brightness is 4,000 nits peak, which makes it brighter than the 3,000 nits Apple Watch OLED display.

Samsung started developing wearable microLED displays back in 2023, hoping that Samsung Electronics will release a first product by the end of 2025. This was delayed, but it is great to see SDC showing this display publicly for the first time.

During the IFA 2024 tradeshow, Samsung demonstrated a 65-inch microLED TV. We do not have any technical detail, but it's likely this is a 4K display.

Samsung currently offers a range of microLED TVs, from 89-inch to 114-inch. It will be interesting to know whether Samsung aims to soon launch a 65-inch model, although it seems unlikely this will happen soon as the cost will be very high for such a size. 

Samsung Display is showcasing its latest display prototypes and technologies at the International Meeting on Information Display (iMID 2024) conference on Jeju Island, Korea. One of the displays is a new stretchable microLED display.

While we know that SDC is developing stretchable microLED display technologies, this is the first time it has demonstrated a prototype publicly. Samsung did not detail much about the display, beyond saying that it has a 120 PPI and can stretch up to 125% of its original size (i.e. a 25% increase in size). The company says that this is the highest resolution stretchable display ever demonstrated, and the one that has the highest elongation rate.

According to reports from Korea and Taiwan, both Samsung Display and LG Display have decided to slow down their microLED business plans. The main reasons behind this are the high production costs of microLEDs and high competition which is seen to lead to low profitability. 

Samsung Display will continue to invest in microLED R&D, but has delayed plans to expand production. LG Display has already reduced the size of its microLED R&D teams and is looking into deploying some of its microLED developers into the OLED side of its business.

Samsung Electronics launched two new MicroLED TVs, in sizes 89-inch and 101-inch. Samsung's "consumer" microLED TV range now includes 89", 101", 110” and 114" sizes.

The price of the 89-inch model is $110,000, and the 101-inch model costs $130,000. Samsung's largest consumer MicroLED TV costs $150,000 at 114-inches.

Samsung Electronics launched a new 114" microLED TV in Korea, with a price tag of 180 million Won (about $132,600). 

Interestingly, a couple of months ago Samsung introduced four new microLED TVs in China, including the 114-inch model, but it quoted a price of $173,000 - or about 30% higher than the price in Korea. 

An interesting video surfaced, showing a small (reportedly 38-inch) microLED monitor prototype by Samsung, shown at a trade show:

We do not have any more information, but this is an interesting demo by Samsung. It is estimated that the monitor has a resolution of FHD (1920x1080), if Samsung is using the same tiles as the ones used in its TVs. It could be that this is not a tiled display, but we simply do not know at this stage.