TCL Touts Inkjet OLED Display Tech With A Big Cost Advantage Over Samsung And LG

TCL has been having a fantastic year so far, not merely in terms of earnings, but in showcasing industry firsts. At one of its conferences this week, TCL unveiled plans to mass produce inkjet printed (IJP) display panels, including a 14-inch unit for laptops and another 21.6-inch for professional applications, among others. The company believes that its IJP process and products will undercut the standard OLED competition by a significant margin, thus being of greater appeal to customers.

At the TCL CSOT Global Display Tech-ecosystem Conference this week, the company revealed that it has plans on mass-producing inkjet printed displays under a new brand called Apex, bringing its 11 years of development to the fore. The company hopes to introduce IJP panels for laptops, standalone monitors, and televisions. Two displays that were highlighted were a 14-inch 2.8K QD-EL panel for laptops and a 21.6-inch 4K OLED professional display.

The 14-inch laptop display isn't actually OLED, by the way, but—as the name suggests—is an electronically-stimulated quantum dot unit. QD-EL has previously been known by more popular acronyms such as QLED and NanoLED. Nonetheless, the panel promises wider viewing angles, over 85% BT.2020 color coverage, and supports a 30-120Hz variable refresh rate. 

The darling of the show was probably the first mass-produced 21.6-inch 4K IJP OLED professional display that boasts a Delta-E value of less than 1, 10-bit color support, and 99% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. The monitor will initially target the professional market, such as medical, research, education, etc.

TCL also unveiled a 27-inch 4K IJP OLED prototype which has side-by-side RGB OLED pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, and 250 operational nits (with 600 nit peak). The latter is on the low side, but we're just picking nits (get it?) at this early stage.

Inkjet printed displays have been promised for quite some time now, hailed supposedly as the next evolution over current OLED tech. Part of the attraction of IJP displays is that manufacturing costs will be drastically lowered, while production lines can quickly adapt to oddball sizes without as much retooling as standard OLEDs do. Moreover, IJP panels promise at least equal performance to their OLED cousin, only more energy efficient and greener to make.

Photo credits: TCL via DTC2024