Samsung has been known for quite a while to be working on a next generation of TV panels, known as QD-OLED. The technology, which is based on traditional OLED also includes a quantum-dot layer, similar to Samsung’s QLED TVs.

Last year, it was reported that Samsung Display was showing the technology to potential manufacturing partners, including Samsung’s own TV production division.

Now, a new report says Samsung will launch the first such displays later in 2021, although when they will appear in actual products available for purchase is unclear.

According to Sam Mobile, “it appears that Samsung Display is on track to release its QD-OLED panels in the second half of this year.

Samsung is planning to send pilot products based on the new panels, and send them to manufacturers “for analysis,” the report said. The panels are being made at Samsung’s Q1 plant in Asan, South Korea.

Other reports in early 2021, including one from CNET, stated that the new TVs would be called the “Q1 Line,” and that the switch to the line would also mean the end of LCD production by the end of 2021. Those reports saw the arrival of the TVs as about a year away. 

A planned 2022 arrival would allow for a debut at CES next January for the first QD-OLED TVs, which has traditionally been Samsung’s way of introducing new technologies. 

“Samsung Electronics plans to receive ‘QD (Quantum Dot) display’ panels from Samsung Display next year while Samsung Display will extend its supply of LCDs to Samsung Electronics,” the English-language version of the early 2021 story said. 

“The agreement was reached as Samsung Electronics needs a supply of LCDs while Samsung Display needs a customer for its QD display panels. What is more special about the agreement is that President Han Jong-hee at Samsung Electronics and President Choi Joo-seon of Samsung Display are all in on the agreement.”

Samsung Display had announced in 2019 that it was investing 13.1 trillion won, or $10.9 billion, into what was described as “the world’s first production line for quantum dot-based display panels over the next five years.”

“It is important to maintain the top spot of the global display market with game-changing technologies,”  Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, said at the time. “Following LG Display’s 3 trillion-won investment in large OLED panel production in July, Samsung Display’s latest investment plan brightens prospects further.”

TCL, a rival of Samsung, is said to be working on something similar, using inkjet printing (IJP) technology. Among the suppliers is JOLED, the Japanese joint venture formed from the former LED divisions of Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.