Apple on Tuesday announced Apple Watch Series 5, debuting an Always-On Retina display that never sleeps, so it’s easy to see the time and other important information, without raising or tapping the display. Several advanced technologies work together to deliver this new feature, including the industry’s only low-temperature polysilicone and oxide display (LTPO), ultra-low power display driver, efficient power management integrated circuit and new ambient light sensor.
Fergus Halliday for (PC World:
A low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) display is a special kind of backplane technology designed for OLED screens and developed by Apple.
Basically, normal LCD and OLED displays rely on low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin-film-transistors (TFTs) when it comes to the construction of the backplane… However, the LTPO display tech found in the new Apple Watch opts for a mix of both LTPS TFTs and Oxide TFTs. The latter leverages IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) TFTs instead…
In the case of the Series 5 Apple Watch, having an LTPO display is good because it lets apple dynamically change the refresh rate on the wearable’s screen. If you’re looking at an interacting with it, they crank it up. If it’s idle, they only really need to refresh it once a minute or so. The end result of this tinkering is an Apple Watch that’s always on but doesn’t always eat away at your battery life.
MacDailyNews Take: Imagine an iPhone with an Always-On Retina LTPO display!
I still wonder if this wasn’t possible on a series 4. I regularly end the day with 60% battery and would love the option of keeping just the time visible full time.
It is absolutely possible to do this on a Series 4, but your watch battery would go dead after two or three hours. It takes significant energy to light up a traditional OLED display.
Powering an OLED display that is mostly black still takes a lot less energy than LCD displays.
Completely different display tech on 5 vs 4-0
What about the infamous screen burn in on oled displays? Will ‘always on’ albeit dimmed, be a factor now?
Is this even an OLED based screen, or some new kind of LCD tech?
Did you read the article?
“A low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) display is a special kind of backplane technology designed for OLED screens and developed by Apple.”