We have a new rumor. There are many months until Tim Cook takes the stage in a new Apple keynote to introduce the company's new smartphones, but those devices are designed a year earlier.
Supply contracts for the new components have already been concluded with the different suppliers. Some are even building new production plants to meet that demand, and start manufacturing in no time. Although Apple tries to avoid giving clues to its competitors, it is practically impossible that there are not leaks about the new designs of the parts that make up a new iPhone. Today the "tip" is about new screens.
According to the Korean website The Elec, Several models of iPhones launching this year will feature integrated touchscreens supplied by LG. Comment the article that LG display aims to upgrade its production facilities for flexible Gen-6 OLED panels, for smaller screens in its E-6 lines at the Paju factory in Gyeonggi province. To this end, the firm will add new equipment in early 2020 to produce integrated touchpads, while switching to LTPO backplate technology.
As these E-6 production lines are exclusive for Apple components, the integrated touchscreens will be delivered to the new iPhones that will be released in 2020. This is explained in a recent report from the Korean website. ETNews, which claims that the so-called iPhone 12 Pro models will adopt technology that allows the touchscreen circuitry to be modeled directly on the OLED panel without the need for a separate layer, resulting in a thinner screen and lower production costs. .
It's unclear if these thinner screens will translate to thinner iPhones as a whole this year. It should be noted that iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are actually slightly thicker and heavier than iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, respectively, as Apple has included bigger batteries are its latest iPhones.
Today's report from The Elec also states that LG is preparing to switch to LTPO backplane technology by the second half of 2020. The backplane is responsible for turning individual pixels on and off on the screen.
LTPO, or Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide, has a TFT oxide structure that uses up to 15% less energy than LTPS or Low Temperature Polysicylic, the backplate technology Apple uses today. Naturally that's going to contribute to more efficient displays and longer battery life on 2020 iPhones.
Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5 models already have LTPO displays. Apple says that this technology allows the Series 5 models to have the same battery life of up to 18 hours as the Series 4 models, despite having the screen always on.
It's unclear if LG is ready to mass produce LTPO displays in time for Apple's 2020 smartphones. This is expected to be a great year for the iPhone, with rumors pointing to new screen sizes and technologies, a redesigned iPhone 4-like frame, 5G network, up to 6GB of RAM, etc. We'll see….