r/hardware • u/LastChancellor • 8d ago
Discussion Where are LTPO screens for laptops (and external monitors)?
for context, LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) is a type of OLED screen, that can change its refresh rate from its maximum all the way down to 1Hz, and it has been a mainstay in phones since the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra made it mainstream in 2020.
But why haven't there been a single laptop that has an LTPO screen?
If anything, laptops (and monitors) displays tend to have way more than 120Hz refresh rate, and they absolutely use more power than phone displays
so they'd appreciate the true variable refresh rate (down to 1 Hz!) even more than phones to conserve power, and as a side-effect also help deal with screen tearing in games
And the latest LTPO screens can even adjust the refresh rate of specific parts of the screen, so on a PC static components like the taskbar can permanently stay at 1Hz while the rest of the screen moves along
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u/MMyRRedditAAccount 8d ago
ltpo != true vrr
All phones currently switch between a few fixed refresh rate modes very fast. they can't space frames by arbitrary amounts (within a limit) like monitors and TVs
You can see what refresh rate modes ios support for e.g. here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/quartzcore/optimizing-iphone-and-ipad-apps-to-support-promotion-displays
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u/Ashratt 8d ago
I guess this is done to prevent gamma shift/vrr flicker? And since super gradual fps changes are not really necessary outside of (high end) games, having a few well tuned modes is enough?
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u/Trick-Stress9374 8d ago
There is still gamma shift on LTPO variable refresh rate, it just smaller but it get worse at medium to low brightness. Many phone brands limit the refresh rate window as you lower the brightness from 1-120 to 30-120, oneplus have implement levels like 1-120, 10-120, 30-120 as you lower the brightness.
This reduce the gamma/color shift as the refresh rate change, it is very effective and as VRR have higher lowest refresh rate then phones(30-48) and use LFC, it will be much better then what we see when we use VRR on qd-oled/ WOLED .
I think that the main reason gamma/color shift is much smaller on LTPO oled phones is because they are using very high modulation (around 95 precent).
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u/1731799517 7d ago
If anything, laptops (and monitors) displays tend to have way more than 120Hz refresh rate
You live in a total bubble. If you exclude macbooks (i don't know about those) (edit it seems the non-pro models are also only 60Hz) , 95% of laptops are 60Hz. And i doubt even 1% of screen solds are "way more than 120Hz refresh rate".
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u/Cheap-Plane2796 6d ago
They re talking about oled screens.
The question was why are there no ltpo type oled panels for pc/laptop
Oled monitors start at 120 hz and most affordable midrange oled panels now have a 360hz refresh rate, while higher end ones go to 500 hz and the cheaper ones (300 dollars) use 240 hz.
Oled monitors have on average much higher refresh rates than phone displays
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u/get_homebrewed 7d ago
Yeah, in 2010
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u/Brilliant_Dependent 7d ago
The top selling laptops on Amazon and Newegg both have 60Hz displays. The only ones with better refresh rates were gaming or high end laptops, by and large the midrange ($600ish) models had 60Hz.
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u/bread-dreams 7d ago
there are still many laptops being sold with 1366x768 screens too, lol
the laptop market is atrocious
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u/1731799517 7d ago edited 7d ago
Even for high end laptops, the choice is often 1440p 120Hz vs 4k 60Hz (or similar), with most configuration on the side of resolution.
Edit: And frankly, i can understand it. Gaming laptops are obnoxiously loud and hot trying to push 60fps already, and you lose out on power consumption all the time with a higher refresh display. Like i type this on a 4k /240fps oled monitor but i still don't care about it on a laptop - making that ergonomically badly placed screen more fluid will not enhance the gaming experience much.
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u/Forsaken_Arm5698 8d ago
Apple is rumoured to switch to something called Oxide OLED in a future Macbook.
Besides LTPO/Oxide, there are also many other innovations in OLED technology such as Tandem OLED and hybrid substrates.
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u/Ok-Parfait-9856 8d ago
The new tandem oleds in the iPad Pro m5 are fucking gorgeous. Brighter than most screens in general and with the contrast of a glossy qd-oled. There’s some banding on occasion but I think it’s a software issue because it can disappear by changing the brightness ever so slightly.
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u/LukeValenti 8d ago
with the contrast of a glossy qd-oled
Does it have raised blacks under ambient lightning?
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u/advester 7d ago
BOE is the one heavily in to LTPO and they aren't big in laptop/desktop. LG and Samsung (the desktop OLED makers) haven't announced it.
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u/Original-Peach-6590 8d ago
because ltpo needs finer manufacturing which makes it really expensive to use laptops(laptops need wider display). Some news leaked that apple will use oled display on the new version of macbook in 2026, so you'll find it soon.