LG Display has decided that the time is ripe for a rebrand of its OLED display technologies, which will henceforth be divided into two categories known as “Tandem WOLED” and “Tandem OLED”.
The company, which once totally dominated the industry for large-sized OLED panels used in TVs, said that its largest displays will now fall under the Tandem WOLED banner.
In a Korean language press release that was translated to English with the help of Google, the company said it chose to use the word “Tandem” because it highlights the strengths of its OLED panels for televisions and computer monitors. Those strengths include the panel’s “increased durability and performance, long life, high brightness, and low power consumption through the laminated OLED structure,” the company explained.
LG Display’s TV and monitor panels have for a long time unofficially been referred to as “WOLED” displays, and they’re commonly found in OLED TVs from LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Hisense, Philips, Loewe, Bang & Olufsen, Vizio and many other brands. But there are a number of distinct WOLED technologies too, with the most recent generation known as “Primary RGB Tandem OLED” and the previous generation called “OLED EX”.
Now, LG Display is making the WOLED monicker official. It’s adding the “W” because it represents the white light source used in its OLED panels, which is a unique feature. The “Tandem” in this case refers to the “laminated structure of R (red), G (green), and B (blue) elements stacked in independent layers, respectively,” the company said.
Meanwhile, smaller OLED displays will now be called “Tandem OLED”, without the “W”. These displays are used in smartphones, tablets, laptops and cars, and the name “reflects the technical features of stacking two RGB element layers, hence 'Tandem OLED'," the company explained.
LG Display supplies its Tandem OLED panels to brands including Apple, LG Electronics, Asus, Acer and many others.
LG Display’s main rival is Samsung Display, which manufactures its own variant of OLED display technology for TVs, monitors and smaller devices. Samsung Display’s larger panels are known as QD-OLED displays and they have a different structure, but the difference in picture quality is mostly a subjective thing.
