Samsung Shows Off OLED Tech for Virtual Reality at 5,000 Pixels Per Inch

A new OLED panel from Samsung Display can dramatically increase the visual quality on a VR headset to 5,000 pixels per inch—more than four times what’s possible on the Meta Quest 3. 

At the SID Display Week show in San Jose, Samsung showed off a bite-sized, 1.4-inch panel that’s compact enough to fit inside VR products. This RGB OLED on Silicon (OLEDoS) tech promises to offer even more lifelike visuals and resolutions higher than 8K, the company says. At 5,000ppi, the panel can reach a brightness up to 15,000 nits at a 120Hz refresh rate, while offering up to 99% color gamut coverage. 

(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)

(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)

Although small, the panel can beam exceptionally sharp and bright images. The pixel density was so high that we couldn’t even see the grainy individual pixels across the screen, thus eliminating the “screen door effect” in VR. 

In another demo, Samsung showed that the OLEDoS panel can reach more than 20,000 nits in brightness, though it reduces pixel density to 4,200ppi. In addition to VR, Samsung notes that the 1.4-inch panel is the equivalent of a standard smartwatch screen.   

(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)

(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)

The OLEDoS technology works by placing the OLED panel on a silicon wafer, which suggests Samsung is using today’s chip manufacturing technology to miniaturize and place the tiny pixels. 

If all goes well, Samsung could begin mass producing the OLEDoS panel for VR by year’s end. So it’s possible the technology could arrive on high-end VR headsets, such as Apple’s Vision Pro, which currently displays 3,386ppi.

Rival LG Display has been working on a similar technology. It showed off its own “micro OLED” panel featuring an extremely high 4,175ppi density at last year’s Display Week show.