At the ongoing Gamescom 2024 event in the US, Samsung unveiled its new Odyssey gaming monitors: Odyssey 3D, Odyssey OLED G8, and Odyssey OLED G9. The Odyssey 3D is the company's first glasses-free 3D gaming monitor, and you can read about it here. The Odyssey OLED G8 now comes in a new size, while the Odyssey OLED G9 has a variant that doesn't have a Smart Hub.

Samsung expands Odyssey OLED G8 and Odyssey OLED G9 gaming monitor lineups

Samsung unveiled the Odyssey OLED G8 (G85SD) at Gamescom 2024. It has a 34-inch QD-OLED curved screen with an ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio and an 1800R curvature. It has a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 pixels, a 175Hz variable refresh rate, a 0.03s grey-to-grey response time, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro for tear-free gaming.

It also features Samsung Gaming Hub and Samsung Smart Hub. This means that the gaming monitor runs Tizen OS, so you can use it as a smart TV to stream movies, music, and TV shows using apps like Apple Music, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube. You can also mirror your laptop's, PC's, smartphone's, or tablet's screen to the monitor using AirPlay 2, Miracast, or Smart View.

Using Samsung's Gaming Hub, you can stream games directly from the cloud. Samsung Gaming Hub has Amazon Luna, Microsoft Xbox Cloud, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Utomik. It comes bundled with a remote controller, so you can use its smart features without a laptop or PC.

The Odyssey OLED G9 has two variants: G93SD and G95SD. Both variants have a 49-inch QD-OLED screen with dual-QHD (5,120 x 1,440 pixels) resolution, a 32:9 ultrawide aspect ratio, and a curvature of 1,800R. They have a 240Hz variable refresh rate (with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro) and a 0.03ms response time.

The G95SD has the Gaming Hub and Smart Hub, so you can stream games, movies, music, and TV shows. You can also control smart home devices using the SmartThings app or mirror your laptop's or phone's screen wirelessly using AirPlay 2, Miracast, and Smart View, depending on the model of your device.

The G93SD lacks Samsung's Gaming Hub and Smart Hub features. All these Odyssey gaming monitors feature Samsung OLED Safeguard, an algorithm that prevents pixel burn-in, and OLED Glare Free, a coating on the screen that minimizes glare and light reflections. Samsung's flagship S95D OLED TV also has this matte finish. They also have RGB lighting on the rear and plenty of ports.

Samsung will expand the availability of these new gaming monitors to major global markets, including Australia, Europe, and North America. The G93SD and the S95SD were earlier only available in some Asian markets, including South Korea.

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The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming PC that ships with a Linux-based operating system called SteamOS. And that operating system is something of a mixed blessing: on the one hand, it’s designed from the ground up for handhelds, which has led many to conclude that the SteamOS offers a better user experience than Windows […]

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Gaming monitors are turning out to be a lucrative business and Samsung is fully engaged in making the most of this opportunity. The company leads the gaming monitor market as it continues to release new models that provide superior performance and quality.

Samsung is running a new promotion in the United States, providing customers with a chance to win the 49-inch Odyssey G9 gaming monitor, one of the best products in this lineup, in addition to offering up to $1,200 off many top monitors.

Who wouldn't want a free Odyssey G9 gaming monitor?

This deal is being offered as part of Samsung's Gaming Week promotion which is available until Sunday, August 18. It's offering discounts of up to $1,200 on some of its most popular gaming monitors, including:

• 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9
• 55-inch Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen
• 49-inch Odyssey OLED G9
• 49-inch Odyssey G9
• 32/34-inch Odyssey OLED G8
• 27-inch Odyssey OLED G6
• 32-inch Odyssey Neo G8
• 32/27-inch Odyssey G5
• 32-inch Odyssey Neo G7

Further promotions will be announced for each monitor during the promotion period, which will be revealed on Monday, August 12. Aside from offering big discounts on these models, Samsung is also giving customers a gift card of up to $100 which can be used to purchase anything on Samsung.com.

Customers in the United States who buy any of these monitors from Samsung.com will automatically be entered into the Unlock Your Inner Champion sweepstakes. Samsung will announce three winners who will all have the choice to receive a free 49-inch Odyssey G9 (G95C) or Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC) gaming monitor.

It's best to familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions of this sweepstakes offer to ensure that you're complying with the rules and have the best chance to pick up one of Samsung's best gaming monitors for free.

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Samsung has announced that it will bring some exciting offers on its AI TVs in India. During the company's ‘AI-Powered Freedom‘ sale, the South Korean firm aims to democratize AI and make its latest premium TV range more accessible to consumers in the country.

Samsung India's ‘AI-Powered Freedom' sale to bring offers and discounts on its premium TVs

Samsung has announced the ‘AI-Powered Freedom' sale event for the Indian market. During this upcoming event ahead of India's 78th Independence Day, the company will offer cashback discounts of up to 20% on select TVs and easy EMIs starting at just INR 2,777 (~$33) per month for up to 36 months. This event will start on August 3, 2024, and end on August 31, 2024.

The company's AI-equipped TVs include its new Neo QLED 8K TVs, Neo QLED TVs (4K), OLED TVs, and Crystal 4K UHD TVs. These TVs are secured by Samsung Knox to protect sensitive data with multiple layers of software and hardware. Depending on the model, buyers who buy select premium AI TVs can get a free Serif TV worth INR 89,990 (~ $1,073) or a free soundbar worth INR 47,990 (~$573).

Samsung hasn't announced the rest of the offers and discounts yet, and they will be revealed in the coming days.

Samsung's latest Neo QLED, Neo QLED 8K, and OLED TVs feature processors that have built-in neural processing units (NPUs) for faster AI processing. This processing is used for improved audio and picture quality, depending on the scene and picture that is being displayed.

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A transparent television might seem like magic, but both LG and Samsung demonstrated such displays this past January in Las Vegas at CES 2024. And those large transparent TVs, which attracted countless spectators peeking through video images dancing on their screens, were showstoppers.

Although they are indeed impressive, transparent TVs are not likely to appear—or disappear—in your living room any time soon. Samsung and LG have taken two very different approaches to achieve a similar end—LG is betting on OLED displays, while Samsung is pursuing microLED screens—and neither technology is quite ready for prime time. Understanding the hurdles that still need to be overcome, though, requires a deeper dive into each of these display technologies.

How does LG’s see-through OLED work?

OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, and that pretty much describes how it works. OLED materials are carbon-based compounds that emit light when energized with an electrical current. Different compounds produce different colors, which can be combined to create full-color images.

To construct a display from these materials, manufacturers deposit them as thin films on some sort of substrate. The most common approach arranges red-, green-, and blue-emitting (RGB) materials in patterns to create a dense array of full-color pixels. A display with what is known as 4K resolution contains a matrix of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels—8.3 million pixels in all, formed from nearly 25 million red, green, and blue subpixels.

The timing and amount of electrical current sent to each subpixel determines how much light it emits. So by controlling these currents properly, you can create the desired image on the screen. To accomplish this, each subpixel must be electrically connected to two or more transistors, which act as switches. Traditional wires wouldn’t do for this, though: They’d block the light. You need to use transparent (or largely transparent) conductive traces.

LG’s demonstration of transparent OLED displays at CES 2024 seemed almost magical. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

A display has thousands of such traces arranged in a series of rows and columns to provide the necessary electrical connections to each subpixel. The transistor switches are also fabricated on the same substrate. That all adds up to a lot of materials that must be part of each display. And those materials must be carefully chosen for the OLED display to appear transparent.

The conductive traces are the easy part. The display industry has long used indium tin oxide as a thin-film conductor. A typical layer of this material is only 135 nanometers thick but allows about 80 percent of the light impinging on it to pass through.

The transistors are more of a problem, because the materials used to fabricate them are inherently opaque. The solution is to make the transistors as small as you can, so that they block the least amount of light. The amorphous silicon layer used for transistors in most LCD displays is inexpensive, but its low electron mobility means that transistors composed of this material can only be made so small. This silicon layer can be annealed with lasers to create low-temperature polysilicon, a crystallized form of silicon, which improves electron mobility, reducing the size of each transistor. But this process works only for small sheets of glass substrate.

Faced with this challenge, designers of transparent OLED displays have turned to indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). This material has high enough electron mobility to allow for smaller transistors than is possible with amorphous silicon, meaning that IGZO transistors block less light.

These tactics help solve the transparency problem, but OLEDs have some other challenges. For one, exposure to oxygen or water vapor destroys the light-emissive materials. So these displays need an encapsulating layer, something to cover their surfaces and edges. Because this layer creates a visible gap when two panels are placed edge to edge, you can’t tile a set of smaller displays to create a larger one. If you want a big OLED display, you need to fabricate a single large panel.

The result of even the best engineering here is a “transparent” display that still blocks some light. You won’t mistake LG’s transparent TV for window glass: People and objects behind the screen appear noticeably darker than when viewed directly. According to one informed observer, the LG prototype appears to have 45 percent transparency.

How does Samsung’s magical MicroLED work?

For its transparent displays, Samsung is using inorganic LEDs. These devices, which are very efficient at converting electricity into light, are commonplace today: in household lightbulbs, in automobile headlights and taillights, and in electronic gear, where they often show that the unit is turned on.

In LED displays, each pixel contains three LEDs, one red, one green, and one blue. This works great for the giant digital displays used in highway billboards or in sports-stadium jumbotrons, whose images are meant to be viewed from a good distance. But up close, these LED pixel arrays are noticeable.

TV displays, on the other hand, are meant to be viewed from modest distances and thus require far smaller LEDs than the chips used in, say, power-indicator lights. Two years ago, these “microLED” displays used chips that were just 30 by 50 micrometers. (A typical sheet of paper is 100 micrometers thick.) Today, such displays use chips less than half that size: 12 by 27 micrometers.

While transparent displays are stunning, they might not be practical for home use as televisions. Expect to see them adopted first as signage in retail settings. AUO

These tiny LED chips block very little light, making the display more transparent. The Taiwanese display maker AUO recently demonstrated a microLED display with more than 60 percent transparency.

Oxygen and moisture don’t affect microLEDs, so they don’t need to be encapsulated. This makes it possible to tile smaller panels to create a seamless larger display. And the silicon coating on such small panels can be annealed to create polysilicon, which performs better than IGZO, so the transistors can be even smaller and block less light.

But the microLED approach has its own problems. Indeed, the technology is still in its infancy, with costing a great deal to manufacture and requiring some contortions to get uniform brightness and color across the entire display.

For example, individual OLED materials emit a well-defined color, but that’s not the case for LEDs. Minute variations in the physical characteristics of an LED chip can alter the wavelength of light it emits by a measurable—and noticeable—amount. Manufacturers have typically addressed this challenge by using a binning process: They test thousands of chips and then group them into bins of similar wavelengths, discarding those that don’t fit the desired ranges. This explains in part why those large digital LED screens are so expensive: Many LEDs created for their construction must be discarded.

But binning doesn’t really work when dealing with microLEDs. The tiny chips are difficult to test and are so expensive that costs would be astronomical if too many had to be rejected.

Though you can see through today’s transparent displays, they do block a noticeable amount of light, making the background darker than when viewed directly. Tekla S. Perry

Instead, manufacturers test microLED displays for uniformity after they’re assembled, then calibrate them to adjust the current applied to each subpixel so that color and brightness are uniform across the display. This calibration process, which involves scanning an image on the panel and then reprogramming the control circuitry, can sometimes require thousands of iterations.

Then there’s the problem of assembling the panels. Remember those 25 million microLED chips that make up a 4K display? Each must be positioned precisely, and each must be connected to the correct electrical contacts.

The LED chips are initially fabricated on sapphire wafers, each of which contains chips of only one color. These chips must be transferred from the wafer to a carrier to hold them temporarily before applying them to the panel backplane. The Taiwanese microLED company PlayNitride has developed a process for creating large tiles with chips spaced less than 2 micrometers apart. Its process for positioning these tiny chips has better than 99.9 percent yields. But even at a 99.9 percent yield, you can expect about 25,000 defective subpixels in a 4K display. They might be positioned incorrectly so that no electrical contact is made, or the wrong color chip is placed in the pattern, or a subpixel chip might be defective. While correcting these defects is sometimes possible, doing so just adds to the already high cost.

Samsung’s microLED technology allows the image to extend right up to the edge of the glass panel, making it possible to create larger displays by tiling smaller panels together. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Could MicroLEDs still be the future of flat-panel displays? “Every display analyst I know believes that microLEDs should be the ‘next big thing’ because of their brightness, efficiency, color, viewing angles, response times, and lifetime, “ says Bob Raikes, editor of the 8K Monitor newsletter. “However, the practical hurdles of bringing them to market remain huge. That Apple, which has the deepest pockets of all, has abandoned microLEDs, at least for now, and after billions of dollars in investment, suggests that mass production for consumer markets is still a long way off.”

At this juncture, even though microLED technology offers some clear advantages, OLED is more cost-effective and holds the early lead for practical applications of transparent displays.

But what is a transparent display good for?

Samsung and LG aren’t the only companies to have demonstrated transparent panels recently.

AUO’s 60-inch transparent display, made of tiled panels, won the People’s Choice Award for Best MicroLED-Based Technology at the Society for Information Display’s Display Week, held in May in San Jose, Calif. And the Chinese company BOE Technology Group demonstrated a 49-inch transparent OLED display at CES 2024.

These transparent displays all have one feature in common: They will be insanely expensive. Only LG’s transparent OLED display has been announced as a commercial product. It’s without a price or a ship date at this point, but it’s not hard to guess how costly it will be, given that nontransparent versions are expensive enough. For example, LG prices its top-end 77-inch OLED TV at US $4,500.

Displays using both microLED technology [above] and OLED technology have some components in each pixel that block light coming from the background. These include the red, green, and blue emissive materials along with the transistors required to switch them on and off. Smaller components mean that you can have a larger transmissive space that will provide greater transparency. Illustration: Mark Montgomery; Source: Samsung

Thanks to seamless tiling, transparent microLED displays can be larger than their OLED counterparts. But their production costs are larger as well. Much larger. And that is reflected in prices. For example, Samsung’s nontransparent 114-inch microLED TV sells for $150,000. We can reasonably expect transparent models to cost even more.

Seeing these prices, you really have to ask: What are the practical applications of transparent displays?

Don’t expect these displays to show up in many living rooms as televisions. And high price is not the only reason. After all, who wants to see their bookshelves showing through in the background while they’re watching Dune? That’s why the transparent OLED TV LG demonstrated at CES 2024 included a “contrast layer”—basically, a black cloth—that unrolls and covers the back of the display on demand.

Transparent displays could have a place on the desktop—not so you can see through them, but so that a camera can sit behind the display, capturing your image while you’re looking directly at the screen. This would help you maintain eye contact during a Zoom call. One company—Veeo—demonstrated a prototype of such a product at CES 2024, and it plans to release a 30-inch model for about $3,000 and a 55-inch model for about $8,500 later this year. Veeo’s products use LG’s transparent OLED technology.

Transparent screens are already showing up as signage and other public-information displays. LG has installed transparent 55-inch OLED panels in the windows of Seoul’s new high-speed underground rail cars, which are part of a system known as the Great Train eXpress. Riders can browse maps and other information on these displays, which can be made clear when needed for passengers to see what’s outside.

LG transparent panels have also been featured in an E35e excavator prototype by Doosan Bobcat. This touchscreen display can act as the operator’s front or side window, showing important machine data or displaying real-time images from cameras mounted on the vehicle. Such transparent displays can serve a similar function as the head-up displays in some aircraft windshields.

And so, while the large transparent displays are striking, you’ll be more likely to see them initially as displays for machinery operators, public entertainment, retail signage, and even car windshields. The early adopters might cover the costs of developing mass-production processes, which in turn could drive prices down. But even if costs eventually reach reasonable levels, whether the average consumer really want a transparent TV in their home is something that remains to be seen—unlike the device itself, whose whole point is not to be.

One of the biggest developments in OLED displays in the last couple of years is the tandem OLED technology, which uses two layers of OLED panels to offer higher brightness and increased longevity. Honor’s Magic 6 Ultimate was the first mass-market device to offer an OLED display with this technology. However, tandem OLED was popularised by the recently launched iPad Pro, the first tablet to use a screen with this tech.

Currently, three companies are mass producing OLED displays with the tandem OLED tech, BOE, LG Display, and Samsung Display. While BOE is making this type of screen for phones, LG Display and Samsung Display are making it for tablets, namely, the iPad Pro. Well, LG Display has now started mass manufacturing OLED displays with the tandem OLED technology for laptops as well, leaving BOE and Samsung Display behind.

LG starts mass manufacturing tandem OLED displays for laptops

LG Display has announced that it has started the mass production of OLED displays with tandem OLED technology for laptops. According to the company, the first tandem OLED panel for laptops that it is mass producing is a 13-inch unit with 2,880 x 1,800 pixels resolution, touch functionality, and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

LG says that it offers three times higher brightness and two times better durability than conventional single-layer OLED displays for laptops while consuming a 40% lower amount of power and being 40% thinner and 28% lighter than typical OLED screens for laptops today. Those are very impressive figures and something to look forward to.

Next Dell XPS 13 will be the first laptop with LG's tandem OLED panel

According to LG Display, Dell’s next XPS 13 model will be the first laptop to use LG’s tandem OLED panel and should be the first laptop in the world to feature a tandem OLED screen. However, the display in Dell's upcoming XPS 13 laptop will have a higher resolution than the panel that LG Display has started mass manufacturing. LG Display will supply around 100,000 units of tandem OLED panels to Dell in the initial stage.

The story continues after the video…

With the latest development, LG Display is leaving Samsung Display behind in the tandem OLED market. However, Samsung Display has the upper hand in the OLED market for monitors, as the majority of (gaming) monitors with OLED displays nowadays use Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels. Samsung is also giving a tough fight to LG when it comes to OLED TVs with the company’s QD-OLED TVs, such as the S95D.

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Qualcomm and Microsoft have made big claims for the new Snapdragon X Elite processors that power some of the first Copilot+ PCs that are available starting today. Now that the first reviews are starting to arrive, do they live up to the promise? In some ways yes. In others? No. Or at least not yet. […]

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Whether you want to buy a new smartphone, smartwatch, laptop, TV, tablet, or monitor, learning the display configuration plays a crucial role in your purchase decision. However, checking the display specs sheet may be confusing. Terms like OLED, AMOLED, Super AMOLED, Dynamic AMOLED, POLED, QLED, Neo LED, QD-OLED, and more don't tell the whole story. But, when it comes to the top displays, OLED displays are popular. Surprisingly, they're not limited to high-end devices. Most budget Android smartphones have OLED screens.

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled its latest generation of iPads at its “Let Loose” event. Showcasing upgrades to both the iPad Air and iPad Pro alongside ...

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We're in the middle of a bit of a monitor revolution that comes around once every few years, as new panel types take hold and wow the crowds. That's certainly the case in 2024 with a slew of new monitors based around Samsung's third-gen QD-OLED panels.

We've been focusing on the 32-inch 4K 240Hz offerings, which include the sublime Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDM, which we lauded as the best gaming monitor we've ever tested, while the Alienware AW3225QF is the best value option for UK buyers.

Since then, I've been testing MSI's competitor to both of these, the catchily-named MPG 321URX, and it's also a fantastic gaming monitor - and one that looks like the best option for those in the US, given a lower introductory price on the opposite side of the Atlantic. But how does it compare to the Dell and Asus models we've tested already?

Read more

Enlarge / Streaming Fallout 4 from GeForce Now might seem unnecessary, unless you know how running it natively has been going. (credit: Kevin Purdy)

The Steam Deck is a Linux computer. There is, technically, very little you cannot get running on it, given enough knowledge, time, and patience. That said, it's never a bad thing when someone has done all the work for you, leaving you to focus on what matters: sneaking game time on the couch.

GeForce Now, Nvidia's game-streaming service that uses your own PC gaming libraries, has made it easier for Steam Deck owners to get its service set up on their Deck. On the service's Download page, there is now a section for Gaming Handheld Devices. Most of the device links provide the service's Windows installer, since devices like the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go run Windows. Some note that GeForce Now is already installed on devices like the Razer Edge and Logitech G Cloud.

But Steam Deck types are special. We get a Unix-style executable script, a folder with all the necessary Steam icon image assets, and a README.md file.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Over the past couple of years, Sony has been using Samsung Display's QD-OLED panels in its flagship TV models. However, that isn't the case this year, and Sony has switched to a Mini LED panel for its flagship TV mode for 2024. While it still uses LG's WRGB OLED panel in this year's model, it isn't pegged as the Japanese firm's top-of-the-line TV.

Sony's flagship TV for 2024 uses Mini LED panel instead of a Samsung QD-OLED

Sony's new TV lineup for 2024 includes just four TV models: BRAVIA 3, BRAVIA 7, BRAVIA 8, and BRAVIA 9. These model names are much simpler to remember and understand than Sony's previous naming scheme. The BRAVIA 3 is a regular LED-backlit (Direct LIT) LCD TV with no full array local dimming. The step-up is BRAVIA 7, which is a Mini LED TV, and it will be available in 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch sizes.

The next step up is the BRAVIA 8, which comes in 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch sizes and uses LG Display's WRGB OLED panel. Compared to its predecessor (last year's A80L), it has thinner bezels, and that's about it. The BRAVIA 9 is Sony's top-of-the-line TV for 2024, and it uses a higher-end Mini LED panel with a lot more local dimming zones, higher brightness, and better colors. It comes in 65-inch ($3,299), 75-inch ($3,999), and 85-inch ($5,499) sizes.

You can watch our hands-on video of Samsung's QD-OLED TV lineup for 2024 below. It will compete with Sony's BRAVIA 8 and BRAVIA 9 TVs this year.

Sony will continue selling last year's A95L, which uses Samsung Display's QD-OLED panel, but it isn't clear if its stocks will last the entire year. So, if you want to get the Sony A95L, you should consider buying it sooner rather than later. As an alternative, you can buy Samsung's S95C or the new S95D QD-OLED TV. The S95C is a lot cheaper than Sony's A95L, while the S95D is cheaper and has a Glare-Free coating to prevent reflections.

The Japanese firm also launched two new soundbars, a five-speaker home theater unit, and a neckband “portable theater” called BRAVIA Theater U. Sony is using the term BRAVIA for its home theater and soundbar names for the first time. Its new soundbars have copied a few features from Samsung's soundbars, including Active Voice Amplifier, SpaceFit Sound, and Q-Symphony.

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Enlarge (credit: Getty)

What comes after OLED?

With OLED-equipped TVs, monitors, and other gadgets slowly becoming more readily available at lower prices, attention is turning to what the next landmark consumer display tech will be.

Micro LED often features in such discussions, but the tech is not expected to start hitting consumer devices until the 2030s. Display makers are also playing with other futuristic ideas, like transparent and foldable screens. But when it comes to technology that could seriously address top user concerns—like image quality, price, and longevity—quantum dots seem the most pertinent at the moment.

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Last month, Samsung unveiled its new lineup of smart TVs that includes QLED TVs, Neo QLED TVs, OLED TVs, and Micro LED TVs. All these new TVs run a new version of Tizen (7.0) that brings new content, connectivity options, and features. They also feature Samsung Daily+, which is a central hub where users can find non-content apps, including live shopping, remote PC, telehealth, and video calling. To improve its telehealth services, Samsung has partnered with FlexIt.

Health, fitness, and wellness training content from FlexIt will be available on Samsung TVs with Samsung Daily+

Samsung announced today that it has partnered with FlexIt, a health and wellness solutions provider, to make exercise more accessible and convenient. The company will bring personal trainer-based fitness content to Samsung TVs that feature Samsung Daily+. Users can register, book, and pay for one-on-one workout sessions with personal trainers from FlexIt. The TVs can be paired with a compatible webcam or a Galaxy smartphone, and FlexIt trainers can offer users real-time feedback. Since the form is of utmost importance during workouts, personal trainers can offer form corrections and modifications.

In addition to workouts, FlexIt also offers information about diet and nutrition. Low-impact workouts like meditation and yoga are also offered in FlexIt's app. With Samsung Daily+, the South Korean TV maker wants to offer more than just content to users. The company's new TVs can control smart home devices and offer cloud-based work solutions, video meeting options, and even cloud-based gaming. Data from a Galaxy Watch, including heart rate and calories burned, is also displayed on a compatible Samsung TV. Last month, the company offered visitors an early look at Samsung Daily+ and FlexIt content at the CES 2024 expo in Las Vegas, USA.

Demian Hyun, VP and Head of the Experience Planning Group at Samsung Visual Display, said, “Wellness should be central to our routines, so building healthy habits through Samsung Daily+ makes it convenient to incorporate health and wellness into all different aspects of daily life. This new partnership underscores Samsung’s commitment as the leader in the global display industry to promoting thoughtful, interconnected health experiences aimed at bettering the lives of consumers.”

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One very unexpected side effect of using the Galaxy S24+ for the past few weeks is that I'm no longer interested in Samsung's vivid display mode. I know! The vivid mode is iconic among Galaxy phone users, and like many others, I have used it exclusively for years. It was my default setting for Samsung's AMOLED panels, even if it made them unrealistically colorful.

At some point, using Vivid mode was a way to show off the uniqueness of AMOLED and remind yourself that you're using a Galaxy phone rather than an iPhone or a boring Android device. Vivid wasn't necessarily better than the natural screen mode but stood out in a world of Android phones whose LCD panels were neither vivid nor natural but only dull.

However, many things have changed over the past half a decade, and that time's long gone. I must admit I feel like I've been stuck in an obsolete mindset for the past few years without even realizing it, and I am just now, ahem, recalibrating my perception, all because Samsung's Galaxy S24 series does things differently.

Natural is more beautiful

Samsung calibrated the vivid mode differently on the Galaxy S24 series, making it look less vibrant. And after weeks of using the Plus model, I feel like I've seen the light and snapped out of a colorful fever dream.

Whether willingly or by mistake, Samsung converted me to using more natural colors on my Galaxy phone after years of staring into oversaturated tones. And even though the company has been working on recalibrating the S24 series' vivid mode for customers who miss those accentuated colors, I'm no longer among those interested.

I'm not suggesting Samsung should not update the vivid mode for Galaxy S24 users who want their displays to have an extra splash of color, but I am saying that Samsung (willingly or not) tricked me into not caring about vivid mode any longer. And I think it's for the better.

Within my sphere of natural colors rendered by my Neo QLED TV, PC monitor, laptop screen, and even smartwatch, it's hard to understand why I thought the vivid color mode on my Galaxy phone was the only reasonable option. I now realize that it was probably out of force of habit more than anything else. And, let's face it, Samsung's marketing magic from many years ago may have also lingered in my subconscious and played a role.

Nevertheless, it feels as though the Galaxy S24+ dispelled that magic for me. And now that I have used the latest flagship with a more natural color profile, I am not looking forward to reusing bright and vivid tones. I won't. I have already switched to the natural color mode on the Galaxy S24+. And once the vivid color mode firmware update reaches my phone, it won't make a lick of difference to my user experience.

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Samsung is getting ready for springtime and has announced a new Discover sales event for the season. The company says spring is “the perfect time to gear up and get moving on your goals,” and wants to help its customers on that task with new deals, starting the week after next.

For the first time, this year's Discover Spring Sale event will offer “Mystery Deals” across four categories — mobile, monitors, home entertainment, and monitors. But today, the company also offered a sneak preview of some of the deals you can expect during the week starting March 4.

Regarding Mystery Deals, Samsung will host four hidden images on its official website every day, starting at 9 am ET. Visitors will be able to click these images to discover that day's Mystery Deals before they expire the following morning at 8:59 am ET.

Discover Spring Sale — what discounts can you expect?

Samsung is offering a glimpse of some of the deals it has prepared for the upcoming Discover Spring Sale event, including discounts on Bespoke home appliances, smart TVs, and even the Galaxy S24+.

• Throughout the entire week, starting March 4, Samsung will cut $500 off Bespoke Ultra Capacity Electric Dryer and Ultra Capacity Front Load Washer.
• On March 4, the Bespoke 4-door French Door Refrigerator in Charcoal Glass and Matte Black Steel will cost $1,500 less.
• March 4-10: 50-inch The Frame TV gets $200 cheaper.
• On March 9, the 49-inch Odyssey G9 Curved Gaming Monitor will be $500 cheaper.
• The 65-inch S90C OLED TV gets a $900 discount for the entire week starting March 4.
• March 4-10 the Q900C 7.1.2 Wireless Dolby Atmos soundbar gets a $400 discount.
• On March 6, you'll be able to save up to 73% on the 512GB Galaxy S24+ through an enhanced trade-in offer, $50 Samsung Credit, and a free memory upgrade.

If you're planning on gearing up this spring and want to save some cash while you're at it, stick around. We'll keep our eyes peeled on Samsung's online store for more Discover Spring Sale 2024 offers and bring you extra details as soon as they become available.

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Samsung and LG are both major Korean conglomerates that also compete against each other in various industries, such as component manufacturing, electronics, and home appliances. LG used to make phones back in the day as well but has since given up on that business.

Samsung Display and LG Display are the leading South Korean display makers. As you'd expect, they're tough competitors, but there's recently been an improvement in their relationship. This has likely come from a realization that China's relentless pursuit of OLED dominance is a threat to the Korean OLED industry.

China's OLED onslaught is concerning for the Koreans

Samsung recently confirmed that it would source OLED panels from LG Display. As many as 5 million panels may be sourced in the coming years, with the number expected to grow if there's consistent demand.

Since Samsung has also shut down its last LCD panel production facility in China, it's also sourcing LCD panels from LG. Reports suggest that LG is also looking to shut down its remaining LCD factory in China. It's no secret that Chinese display manufacturers have flooded the market with cheaper LCD panels and now have their sights firmly on the last bastion of Korean display technology superiority: OLED.

BOE, China's state-owned display manufacturer, is building a $9 billion OLED manufacturing plant that will produce OLED substrates on the latest 8.6-generation technology, putting it squarely against Samsung Display in the race to supply panels for Apple's upcoming OLED MacBooks and iPads.

Even though the quality of Korean OLED panels may be better, China's will be much cheaper, and it will aggressively price them to gain market share, even if it loses money in the process. It will effectively force competitors to exit the market due to loss pressures, like it has already done in the LCD segment. China is poised to overtake Korea in the OLED market if the likes of Samsung and LG Display don't take steps to hold on to their dominance.

Industry watchers feel that both Samsung and LG need each other to counter the onslaught from China's in the lucrative OLED business. The Chinese manufacturers will not stop until they achieve their goal, so it's up to these Korean conglomerates to compete more effectively and retain their leading position.

The post Fear of China’s OLED gains sparked Samsung and LG’s budding romance appeared first on SamMobile.

The best OLED monitors will change the way you view your digital world for the better, whether it involves gaming, creativity, development, or other professional work. Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screens offer truly deep contrast thanks to their ability to turn off individual LEDs, as well as plenty of brightness without the need for a separate backlight. They have the low response time and high refresh rate that PC gamers crave, and they can produce accurate color across gamuts for professional purposes.