The Apple iPhone 13 seems to be on track for its launch this year as sources in the industry indicate that Samsung and LG Display have begun production of OLED panels for it. This is about a month earlier than last year, where the iPhone 12 was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this year, the iPhone 13 series is said to 4 models again. The two higher-end models will reportedly use Samsung’s low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistor (TFT) OLED panels. These panels support high refresh-rates at up to 120Hz, which means Apple will be finally introducing high-refresh rate displays to the iPhone line up.
LG Display on the other hand, will be supplying their low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) TFT OLED panels for the lower-end models of the iPhone 13 series, and will likely remain at 60Hz.
According to industry sources, Samsung is planning to manufacture 80 million units of OLED panel for the iPhone 13 series, while LG Display is planning to make 30 million units.
Last year, Apple faced significant delays during production in their supply chain, which led to the iPhone 12 being launched much later in 2020. Apple was also a little unprepared for the high-demand of the iPhone 12 series. To ensure that does not repeat this year, Apple has already requested manufacturers in their supply chain to begin production for various parts of the iPhone 13.