Samsung nearing launch of first 27-inch 1440p OLED display with 500Hz refresh rate
HDR Potato: Samsung stopped manufacturing LCD panels in 2022, focusing exclusively on OLED panels instead. Now, the company is apparently ready to up the ante once more, making a next-generation display designed with esports applications in mind.
Samsung Display, the subsidiary company established by the South Korean giant in 2012, has been working on a new OLED display capable of achieving a record refresh rate. According to unnamed industry sources quoted by Korean media, the display is in the final stage of development as Samsung seeks potential partners in the gaming monitor business.
The panel is a 27-inch unit with a QHD/1440p resolution, or 2560×1440 pixels. Samsung combined quantum dot and OLED technologies for a richer, more pleasant viewing experience, achieving a 500Hz refresh rate for the first time ever in an OLED display. The first commercial monitors based on the new panel should arrive during the first half of 2025, according to the sources.
Ultra-fast panels have long been a common occurrence in the gaming monitor market, and I can personally attest that they are worth the premium price manufacturers are asking for. In a short number of years, I went from a 60Hz laptop display to a 144Hz TN monitor, and finally to a 240Hz IPS model by Alienware. Higher display refresh rates are definitely one of the biggest computer technology improvements I have experienced in recent times.
Samsung already lost the race for the first 500Hz quality panel to ever appear in stores, as Dell (Alienware) and AU Optronics introduced the first IPS display with a 500Hz refresh in 2023. However, the new panel should be the first OLED display with a 1440p resolution capable of achieving that kind of refresh rate.
Samsung Display was able to implement a 500Hz refresh and a QHD resolution in an OLED panel at the same time, the sources explained. Despite the potential burn-in issues related to organic display technology, OLED monitors are all the rage now. Shipments are soaring, and customers are spending their hard-earned money to get richer blacks, vivid colors, and higher visual fidelity levels compared to traditional panel technologies.
A recent study by market research company Omdia estimates that the global monitor market will experience a 1 percent average growth every year, from 2023 to 2028. Meanwhile, OLED displays are expected to grow by 34 percent every year on average during the same time frame.
