Rumored 5.4-Inch iPhone May Have OLED Display Supplied by China's BOE

Tuesday March 17, 2020 10:42 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Chinese display maker BOE has partnered with touch panel maker General Interface Solutions as both companies aim to become suppliers of Apple's rumored 5.4-inch iPhone, according to a paywalled report from DigiTimes.

2020 iphone triad
Apple plans to release four so-called iPhone 12 models with OLED displays in the fall, including one 5.4-inch model, two 6.1-inch models, and one 6.7-inch model, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. All of the devices are expected to support 5G and they may sport a new design that includes more of a flat edged metal frame like the iPad Pro or iPhone 4.

The new 5.4-inch iPhone would be the smallest iPhone that Apple has ever offered with a notched display. By comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro has a 5.8-inch display and the iPhone 11 Pro Max has a 6.5-inch display. With a notch, slim bezels, and lack of a home button, the 5.4-inch iPhone would have an even smaller footprint than the 4.7-inch iPhone 8.

Whereas the highest-end iPhone 12 models are expected to sport triple-lens rear camera systems with a time-of-flight sensor for 3D sensing, mid-range models like the 5.4-inch iPhone are said to have a dual-lens array and, according to 9to5Mac, may lack 3D sensing.

Tag: DigiTimes

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Top Rated Comments

Icaras

46 months ago

With a notch, slim bezels, and lack of a home button, the 5.4-inch iPhone would have an even smaller footprint than the 4.7-inch iPhone 8.

I love hearing this every time. This cannot come out soon enough!

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Jack Delgado

The writing is on the wall here--the 5.4 inch iPhone will be a part of the 'lesser' set of iPhones and as such, they can manage being sourced by BOE because they will be comparable to the iPhone 11 OLEDs.

What's not being said is that the 2020 Pro iPhones will have more cutting-edge technology in the form of 120hz OLED displays which are not able to be sourced by BOE.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

thadoggfather

Better be nice quality.. sick of panel lottery games especially as I get older. Makes me less likely to want to shuffle up iPhones every year and stick with what I got.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

12643

I don’t know what the global OLED supply chain looks like, but it’s pretty disappointing to hear of yet another Chinese supplier added to the mix. Apple, and the rest of the world, should be attempting to diversify away from China at all costs, not become more reliant on them.

turbineseaplane

The "real" SE2

Bring it on!

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

JPack

Pretty safe to say BOE is already locked in as the supplier at this point.

I'd expect BOE to supply 5.4" and 6.1" models, shared with LG. While Samsung gets an exclusive contract for 6.7".

BOE ranks #2 globally in terms of OLED supply capacity. It will never make sense to diversify given China holds the largest supply chain and consumer market.

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