I wrote a piece not long ago that advocated for screens with higher refresh rates on Chromebooks, and there’s a chance we’re one step closer to reality than before. Do not get me wrong, I do not think the latest news is necessarily intended for Chromebooks, but it’s a step closer to seeing the reality that’s very refreshing.
As reported today by Ars Technica, Samsung is apparently preparing a very large amount of their 14-inch OLED screens for use in laptops this year. As a reference, Samsung makes screens for a ton of electronics that you see around you every day, including phones from Apple, Google, Samsung and OnePlus, so it’s not strange to see production increase for manufacturing beyond itself.
These screens look absolutely incredible, but the bigger news here is the fact that we’re probably going to see more options for higher refresh and OLED in laptops. As you probably already know, OLED is easily the most beautiful display type you can get. They tend to be a little more expensive and can be a big hit on the battery, but there are ways to avoid it. While OLED is very good at saving batteries with darker pixels, the white and lighter colors on your screen really draw in the battery, as evidenced by the declining battery life on the original Samsung Galaxy Chromebook.
However, as Ron Amadeo points out in his article, over time, Samsung has come up with batteries with OLED screens on phones and will probably do so in time with laptops. It is unclear at this time whether the latest exhibits will utilize any new technology to assist in this section, so we will just have to wait and see. However, based on the video above, I tend to feel that Samsung is very proud of these new panels and is ready to normalize OLED laptops in the market.
What about Chromebooks?
So does this mean with these large quantities of OLED laptops that we were able to see our first 90Hz OLED Chromebook this year? It’s really someone’s guess, but I’m not letting my hope rise yet. Screen technology tends to roll out on Windows laptops first and then to Chromebooks, so it may take a while before we see these panels on a Chromebook.
The logic is reinforced by the fact that Samsung opted for the 4K OLED panel on the original Galaxy Chromebook a full year ago. At a time when very few OLED laptops existed, we got the Galaxy Chromebook and all its $ 1000 extravagance. If it can be linked to a larger battery and better optimization, there’s no reason why one of these panels could not end up on a Chromebook in 2021 to easily become the best panel we’ve ever seen on a Chrome laptop. OS not. There is already built-in support for higher refresh rates, so why not?
At this point, we have not found any evidence that this is the case, but the exact display panel is not always clear when we dig into the Chromium Repositories, so it is not an indication either. While I’ve been hoping to see a 90Hz OLED Chromebook this year, my bet is that first we’ll see Windows laptops arrive with this display technology, the market will normalize a bit around the idea of standard, non-game laptops. with high refresh rates and OLED screens, and then we’re starting to see it on Chromebooks. But this is one step closer, anyway?
