Omdia: In April 2022, more and more brands will consider equipping their VR devices with OLEDoS display panels

Key Points

• Display panels for virtual reality (VR) applications have evolved from AMOLED to Fast LCD and then to Fast LCD with Mini LED backlight . The technology is now moving towards OLED on silicon (OLEDoS) .

Evolution of display technology for VR applications

There are three stages of technological evolution in display panels for VR applications.

Phase 1: Start-up

The first phase lasted from 2015 to 2018. During this period, almost all brands had no experience in VR applications, so they could only design and produce VR devices based on the experience of consumer devices. Since AMOLED has a faster response speed and higher color saturation, most brands tend to equip VR devices with AMOLED display panels.

Phase 2: Promotion period

The second phase began in 2019. Early in this phase, brands realized that price was the most important factor in increasing the popularity of VR hardware: only low prices could attract consumers to try new things. In order to quickly reduce the price of VR hardware, brands decided to reduce the cost of display panels.

At the same time, brands found that AMOLED was limited by pixel arrangement and it was difficult to further increase pixel density, that is, the number of pixels per inch (PPI) , and it was also difficult to improve the screen door effect of AMOLED . Therefore, since 2018 , brands have gradually shifted their display panel choices from AMOLED to Fast LCD . Compared with AMOLED , Fast LCD can achieve better PPI and has a more advantageous price. It will eventually replace AMOLED as the mainstream display technology from 2018 to 2021 .

The third stage: User experience improvement period

The third stage has just begun. When the number of active users on the platform increases to a certain level, improving the user experience becomes an inevitable result, including enhancing the resolution, color saturation, and response speed of VR display panels. Since 2022 , leading brands have begun to use fast LCD panels with Mini LED backlights, or use silicon-based OLED (OLEDoS) to improve display performance. Omdia predicts that Fast LCD and OLEDoS with Mini LED backlights will become the mainstream display panels for VR applications in the next few years.

Figure 1 : VR display technology application trends