Reports indicate that LG Display (LGD) is readying mid-sized WOLED panels for both TVs and gaming monitors, responding to falling demand. The displays should become available sometime in 2023. The first of the new LGD panels will be a 27-inch WOLED from LG Electronics (LGE), usable as a TV or a computer monitor. Entering production before the end of October, the display will launch in Q1 2023. LGD will also start manufacturing a 32-inch WOLED screen around the end of this year, for release sometime after the 27-inch model. So far, no one has revealed the screens’ prices, resolutions, or refresh rates. The upcoming panels differ from LGE’s current mid-sized OLEDs, which use JOLED panels. WOLED displays contrast with other OLEDs in that instead of sending light through traditional RGB emitters, they emit white light through colored filters, similarly to LCDs.
The upcoming displays would contrast significantly with many gaming monitors introduced in 2022. Companies like LG, Asus, Alienware, Samsung, and Corsair have introduced 4K ultrawide OLEDs that exceed 40 inches, 120Hz, and $1,000, most featuring curved screens. Alienware managed to shave a bit of cost from its entry by forsaking G-Sync Ultimate, but at $1,000, it’s still mainly for high-end customers. These items indicate great advances in monitor production, but the market may start dictating smaller, cheaper options. Like most other computer components, monitors are facing a downturn due to the post-pandemic economic hangover. Boosted production to meet rising pandemic-era demand has become overproduction as inflation and falling demand set in. The IDC reported positive monitor shipments in Q2 2022, but Trendforce reported the first-ever decline in gaming monitor shipments in 2022. However, both groups also expect budget-friendly monitors with lower prices to help inspire a market turnaround in 2023. Eventually, LGD plans to increase its production of over-40-inch OLED panels, possibly increasing the supply of the large high-end monitors that companies introduced in 2022.
