LG Display Could Supply OLED Displays for This Year's 'iPhone X Plus'

LG Display saw its shares surge to a one-month high on Wednesday following a report that the company will begin supplying OLED panels to Apple's new range of iPhones this year (via Financial Times).

LG's stock rallied on an Electronic Times report that the South Korean firm would make over 15 million OLED panels for Apple's 2018 range of iPhones. LG is already a supplier of LCD panels, currently used in the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, but Samsung dominates supply of OLED displays for Apple's flagship iPhone X. Indeed, last week LG Display revealed in a regulatory filing that it didn't supply any of the OLED panels currently used in the iPhone X.

iphone x plus idrop

iPhone X Plus mockup by Benjamin Geskin via iDrop News

However, that could change this year, since Apple is expected to launch two new 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch iPhone models with OLED displays in 2018. According to today's report, LG Display will supply Apple with the 6.5-inch OLED panels, while Samsung will supply the 5.8-inch or 6-inch OLED panels.

Reports have been trickling out since July 2017 that Apple has invested billions of dollars in LG's OLED production capability for smartphones, but the fruits of its investment were thought to be some ways off. LG was initially reported to have secured 45,000 panels per month for future iPhones from 2019, while as recently as September it was suggested that Apple would have to wait until at least next year before it could move beyond Samsung for significant supplies of OLED panels. However, Wednesday's report suggests LG could secure its position as the number two supplier of OLED screens for Apple's iPhones as early as the second half of 2018. LG is said to be planning to mass-produce the panels for Apple at its Gen 6 flexible OLED production line located in Paju, South Korea.

LG came in for scrutiny recently after it emerged that the firm supplied Google with the Pixel 2 XL's OLED displays, some of which were reportedly prone to screen burn-in or image retention issues. It remains unclear whether the problems stemmed from LG or other factors were involved, although the smaller Pixel 2 and original Pixel phones – both with Samsung-supplied OLED displays – have experienced far fewer issues. It's also worth noting that Apple says OLED displays can show "slight visual changes" after extended long-term use and minor screen burn-in is considered normal.

The new iPhone X and iPhone X Plus will likely launch around the usual timeframe of September to October, potentially alongside a new 6.1-inch mid-range model with an LCD display.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...

Top Rated Comments

Quu Avatar
95 months ago
LG make great TV panels but their phone OLED's have not got a good reputation at all.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nviz22 Avatar
95 months ago
Seeing as LG had issues with the Pixel XL 2 and V30? Not too confident as a consumer.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
5105973 Avatar
95 months ago
Google had also made a heavy investment in LG. Some of their display issues had to with how they calibrated the display. But the quality of the panels themselves has been, shall we say, not up to the standard people have been used to from seeing Samsung’s best on the market for the last three years.

The blue shift was really strong on most of the ones I’ve seen, including the one my husband had.

It’s been interesting comparing the Samsung made panels between my iPhone X and that of my husband’s X. They look completely different and have very different characteristics. My display had pure blinding whites with a slight pink cast and no blue shift when tilting the display off axis. My husband’s X has pretty strong blue shift that lends a teal color to the display off axis. But his whites are less harsh and look almost like the soft whites of an e-ink reader.

I am returning my X because reading text on it just kills my eyes after a few minutes. The flicker from pulse width modulation doesn’t affect everyone, but for a few of us it makes the text appear to jitter enough it’s hard to focus on. Still, I can put up with it if the whites of my display weren’t so harsh. Even on the low brightness settings theres a glare like looking at snow in sunlight. I’ll take my husband’s X when he’s ready to pass it down.

I’ve always known since owning my first Samsung phone that there was a variance in the looks and quality of the OLED displays even by the same manufacturer. But this was the biggest variance I’ve seen so far.

I was planning on staying with my IPhone 7 Plus, but if the future is as it is being rumored, I might trade it in for a IPhone 8 Plus to buy myself a little more time with iOS and a really good LCD panel.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Xgm541 Avatar
95 months ago
Is LG better than Samsung?

Samsung does produce very good panels.
Previous years have shown that they're not better. Queue "is my phone Samsung or LG" posts when the new phone drops.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
otternonsense Avatar
95 months ago
Be it LG or Samsung, I instantly lose interest as soon as I see that notch :(
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RamalTheCamel Avatar
95 months ago
Pixel 2 XL V2 incoming...
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)