LG makes the most jaw-dropping OLED TVs on earth, so why the heck don't they use OLED screens in their phones? That's a question I've been asking myself for the last couple years, but I don't have to wonder any longer.
The upcoming LG V30, which is being unveiled August 31 at the IFA show in Berlin, will be the first phone since the LG Flex 2 in 2015 to sport an OLED display in the company's lineup. And this won't be any ordinary 6-inch screen, which LG revealed in its announcement. In fact, it sounds like this panel could surpass the Galaxy S8's Infinity Display.
For starters, the V30 will feature a P-OLED panel or plastic OLED, which will allow the edges to be curved. More important, LG claims that placing the pixels on a plastic substrate is much stronger than a glass base. Adding to the durability factor is that the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 5's shatter-resistant technology.
I've never noticed an issue with burn-in on OLED screens, but LG says that the "advanced encapsulation and pixel-scanning technology" all but eliminates that problem. What's encapsulation, you ask? It's designed to reduce the oxidation of pixels, which in combination with LG's pixel-scanning tech should also lead to longer battery life. That's because less energy will be applied to each pixel.
MORE: LG V30 Rumors: What to Expect From LG's Next Flagship
The picture quality itself should also be stellar. LG's so-called FullVision Display will deliver the perfect blacks you've come to expect from OLED along with a sharp 2880 x 1440-pixel resolution. The display also promises to deliver 148 percent of the sRGB color space and 109 percent of the more demanding DCI-P3 color space. And, just like LG's TVs, the V30's panel supports HDR10 for the best possible contrast.
Following in the footsteps of the LG G6, the V30 will also see less bezel around the screen. In fact, LG reduced the upper and lower bezels by 20 and 50 percent, respectively, compared to the LG V20. This means you'll get a 6-inch screen in a body that's smaller than the 5.7-inch V20.
The LG V30 faces stiff competition from the Galaxy S8, whose Infinity Display covered even more of the sRGB color gamut in our testing and turned in a nearly perfect Delta-E color accuracy score. And, like the V30, the S8's screen has almost no bezel around it.
Other rumored features of the V30 include a Snapdragon 835 processor, a powerful quad DAC (digital audio converter) for the best possible sound quality and Google Daydream support for VR. Stay tuned for our hands-on impressions of the V30 to see how it measures up.
