Author: Zhou Yuan Wall Street News.
Apple's stock price has risen from an all-time high of 199 on December 14, 2023$38, down to 169 on March 6, 2024$12, down nearly 15% (14.).47%), and was downgraded three times in January 2024.
The iPhone16 series that will be launched in September this year, according to the current **chain news, the upgrade of this new model is not obvious. The iPhone 17 in 2025, in terms of screen, will have a major upgrade that can be perceived compared to all previous models: the whole line supports LTPO (Low-temperature polymer) OLED 120Hz high refresh rate.
What is LTPO? Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, posted on Weibo on November 7, 2023, "The LTPO function is currently very expensive. is the hallmark of a top-of-the-line screen. ”
It's not news that Apple's smartphones have been innovating in the last five years.
Although Apple began to use LTPO technology on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, it will have to wait until the iPhone 17 series in 2025 to support this high brush (120Hz) technology across the board.
This is the first time in the history of Apple's smartphones.
Currently, LTPO technology is only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max flagship models, and the biggest benefit is that it can achieve a smoother high refresh rate. In addition, the most significant technical advantage of LTPO is that it can achieve lower power consumption compared to LTPS technology.
Starting from the iPhone 13 series in 2021, Apple has equipped two Pro models in the current series with LTPO variable refresh rate screens; On the other two standard versions, the LTPS (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) screen remains the same. According to **chain news, Apple's iPhone 16 series, which was launched in September this year, will still follow this approach.
Until 2025, Apple will still keep the 60Hz refresh rate unchanged in terms of the standard version, except for the high-spec version. 60Hz refresh rate, Apple can be described as "can't put it down", has been used for many years. On the other hand, domestic counterparts, in this direction, have long been large-scale rolled into the norm.
For example, the Xiaomi 14Ultra (including the previous generation Xiaomi 13Ultra) that has just been released recently, the screen is jointly developed by TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics and Xiaomi, and the LTPO 1Hz-120Hz adaptive refresh rate OLED screen is used. In addition, Huawei Mate60 series, Honor Magic6 series, OPPO Find X7 series, Vivo X100 series, IQOO12 series, Realme GT5 Pro, OnePlus 12 and Ace3, etc., all use LTPO technology OLED screens.
The leading domestic LTPO technology screen manufacturers, the higher appearance rate is BOE, Visionox and Huaxing Optoelectronics. Among them, BOE has even entered the Apple smartphone ** chain.
According to ** reports, BOE and other screen manufacturers are currently providing LTPO panel samples to Apple, and related technical tests are being stepped up.
In the field of LTPO technology, BOE has released more information recently.
On January 19, BOE A said on the interactive platform that the company's flexible AMOLED shipments in 2023 will be nearly 1200 million pieces, a new high in a single annual shipment, and the annual target was basically achieved.
In terms of production line layout, BOE continued to consolidate its leading edge in semiconductor display products and technology. In the field of AMOLED, the company invested in the construction of the 8thThe 6th generation AMOLED production line, the production line intends to apply the upgraded display technology on the basis of the technical capabilities accumulated in the 6th generation flexible AMOLED production line, focusing on high-end IT products, and unite many well-known brands at home and abroad to jointly develop a broad market for medium-sized OLED screen products.
In the field of the metaverse, BOE invested in the construction of a 6th-generation new semiconductor display device production line, applying LTPO technology, focusing on AR VR-related products. The layout of new technologies and new production lines will help BOE to position in the high-end market and continue to enhance the company's overall competitiveness.
On December 28, 2023, BOE A said on the interactive platform that BOE's investment in the construction of the 6th generation of new semiconductor display device production line project is compatible with LTPO LCD technology and LTPS LCD technology.
Recently, the company has announced that it intends to invest in the construction of the 8thThe 6th generation AMOLED production line project, which further improves the preparation process of backplane and OLED light-emitting devices on the basis of the existing 6th generation AMOLED production line process technology. "Products using this technology have lower power consumption and longer life than the previous generation." ”
Lei Jun posted a Weibo post on November 23 last year, and then on January 4 this year, it was quoted by Li Jie, president of OnePlus China, when he released OnePlus Ace3.
Lei Jun said on Weibo, "The LTPO function is currently very expensive. is the hallmark of a top-of-the-line screen. ”
LTPO, the scientific name of low-temperature polycrystalline oxide, the full name of "low-temperature polymer" in English. The giant of this technology is also Apple, which is used in two high-spec versions of the flagship iPhone 13 in 2021.
From a technical point of view, LTPO is one of the many solutions for OLED screen TFT (Thin Film Transistor) backplane technology. As far as the screen itself is concerned, LTPO is not a new type of screen, but an improvement on OLED screen driver technology.
At present, TFT technologies for smartphone screens are mainly divided into A-Si (amorphous silicon), LTPS (low-temperature polysilicon), and IGZO (Indium gallium zinc oxide).
Before the launch of LTPO in 2021, the high-end version of iPhone13, the mainstream high-brush screen mostly uses LTPS technology, which is led by Sharp.
The advantage of LTPS technology is that liquid crystal molecules can be switched in a faster and more efficient way, so as to achieve a higher screen refresh rate; At the same time, due to the special crystal structure, the response speed of each pixel is improved, so the screen color is extremely vivid, and the picture presents a delicate and realistic effect.
However, LTPS has a serious leakage phenomenon, so the power consumption is also high, and the refresh rate cannot be automatically switched. LGZO technology, with low electron mobility and driving voltage, high resolution, low power consumption and good light transmittance, but has a short service life and high use requirements, is mainly used in tablet computers and high-end notebooks.
LTPO is a combination of LTPS and LGZO, and Apple has several patented technologies from LTPO.
The benefits of this technology, first of all, are that the redesigned crystal structure allows each pixel to adjust the switching state independently, so an adaptive refresh rate is realized. This is different from the drawback that LTPS cannot automatically adjust according to the environment and application scale.
This benefit means that when displaying static, dynamic or real-time response images, the LTPO screen can automatically improve and reduce the refresh rate to save power, extend the battery life of the terminal, and maintain the smoothness of the picture to improve the application experience.
Apple has taken advantage of IGZO's fast switching and low leakage characteristics to improve the LTPS backplane technology, so as to combine LTPS and IGZO lines into a new LTPO backplane technology.
In September 2019, Apple successfully applied it to the new generation of Apple Watch Apple Watch Series 5 for the first time, achieving a balance between display and power consumption.
In layman's terms, smartphone screens equipped with LTPO technology have the advantages of high refresh rate and lower power consumption (in layman's terms, the mobile phone screen consumes less power); The advantage of LTPS is that it has a high brush, and the screen color is bright and delicate.
It is worth mentioning that the OnePlus Ace3, released in early January this year, is a flagship that is positioned in the mid-range, but uses the high-end flagship's 8T LTPO screen (15k）。Li Jie, president of OnePlus China, said that the popularity of flagship screens should not stay in the era of parameters, but should return to users and experience. Li Jie thinks that "8T LTPO must be the trend, but also the future".
Even the mid-range machine directly uses the OLED screen of LTPO technology, but Apple will not be able to decentralize this technology to the iPhone17 standard version until 2025, which can no longer be described as squeezing toothpaste.