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- BOE has started mass production at its huge new factory in China
- It's cranking out OLED panels for use in monitors, laptops and other devices
- These OLEDs will be more affordable, and provide competition to drive down pricing with the dominant players, LG and Samsung
In a move that's set to usher in more affordable OLED monitors and laptops, BOE has officially flicked the switch to crank the production lines into action for its Generation 8.6 panels.
The Elec reports that mass production of Generation 8.6 OLEDs began this week at BOE over in China, with the manufacturer holding an event in Chengdu to celebrate the milestone.
This was attended by some notably major laptop and monitor players, including Asus, Lenovo and MSI. As you might guess, big names from the smartphone world were present too, with Honor, Nothing, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE among them.
Chen Yanshun, chairman of BOE, said: "We will meet the growing demand for premium displays from customers in China and overseas and become a trusted partner through advanced technologies and high-quality products."
The factory is capable of producing 32,000 substrates per month, were are large slabs of glass that are cut into multiple individual OLED panels.
Wondering what the first product off the assembly line was? The Elec informs us that it was a 14-inch OLED for Lenovo notebooks with a 2.8K resolution (as shown above).
Analysis: competition for LG and Samsung
What's the big deal about BOE's new Generation 8.6 panels? This tech allows for the production of much larger substrates than before, and that means a lot more OLED screens can be cut out of that big sheet, with less overall waste (the extraneous bits around the edges). Therefore, production is more economical, and the cost of the OLED panel is decreased, with that saving passed on to the manufacturer and consumer in turn.
The end result is cheaper OLED monitors, and notebooks (or tablets and other devices) with OLED screens, for us all going forward. Especially as this competition from BOE, which is taking a major move forward in the OLED space, will eventually force LG Display and Samsung to be more competitive with their pricing.
Those two companies are the dominant players in OLED displays, so it's good to see them being challenged in this way. And not just by BOE, but also TCL CSOT and inkjet-printed OLEDs – although that tech is still some way off (with mass production not expected to kick off until late in 2027).
BOE's new panels aren't just about cost savings, either, as the facility is producing a tandem OLED (with two layers) boasting a longer lifespan than a single-layer panel, to the tune of three to four times longer, and better power efficiency. (It consumes 20% to 30% less power, which is obviously crucial for laptops and battery life in particular).
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