If you’re looking to shop for some weekend tech bargains, you’ve come to the right place. Best Buy just launched a huge sale with deals on best-selling TVs, laptops, headphones, and tablets from brands like Apple, LG, Samsung, Sony, and HP.
I’ve gone through today’s sale and hand-picked the 15 best deals, which include record-low prices and outstanding value on everything from premium OLED displays to cheap laptops and our best-rated headphones.
Some of today’s Best Buy deals require a My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total membership, which I’ve noted below. The good news is that you can sign up for a membership that starts at $49.99 and enjoy the perks of a My Best Buy membership, such as free two-day shipping, 24/7 tech support, and AppleCare Plus protection plans with the purchase of an Apple device.
Whether you’re a Best Buy member looking for exclusive savings or just browsing for tech bargains, Best Buy’s weekend sale (which ends Sunday at midnight) offers plenty of fantastic deals for everyone.
Sony made a special occasion of its 2024 TV launch, holding it at the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Los Angeles. At the event, attendees, myself included, were treated to demos of Foley effects and soundtrack mixing, plus other striking examples of behind-the-scenes movie magic that happens at the studio. Sony’s message was that the technology that goes into movie and TV creation via its studio and professional camera and display divisions trickles down into consumer products, and it was made loud and clear at the event.
The Sony Bravia 9 is the flagship model of the new Bravia series TVs, taking that crown from the Sony A95L OLED TV, which will continue in the lineup for 2024. Interestingly, the Bravia 9 is a mini-LED TV. That marks a change in direction for Sony, a brand that in the past had regularly positioned OLED as the most premium technology in its TV lineup.
Sony’s re-positioning of mini-LED at the top of the TV food chain results from two tech developments at the company. The first is the creation of the BVM-HX3110, a professional mastering monitor capable of 4,000 nits peak brightness. The BVM-HX3110 was introduced in late 2023, and replaces the BVM-HX310, a standard model for movie post-production that tops out at 1,000 nits peak brightness.
The backlight LED driver panel used in Sony’s Bravia 9 TVs. Those tiny black stripes are the mini-LED modules. (Image credit: Future)
The second development is XR Backlight Master Drive with High Peak Luminance, a new TV backlight technology used exclusively in the Sony Bravia 9 mini-LED TV. According to Sony, its next-gen backlight tech is responsible for a 50% brightness boost in the Bravia 9 over the company’s previous flagship mini-LED model, the Sony X95L, along with a 325% increase in local dimming zones – something it accomplishes through a new, highly miniaturized 22-bit LED driver.
Along with increasing the number of LED modules that can be positioned in a backlight, the new driver’s higher resolution (other TV makers use 10- or 12-bit drivers, according to Sony) in combination with advanced dimming control algorithms lets it display images with a greater level of refinement than previously available in the best TVs. And that’s where Sony’s demo of the new Bravia 9 TV I attended comes in.
Brightness refined
There were two components to Sony’s demonstration of the Bravia 9’s XR Backlight Master Drive with High Peak Luminance tech. The first was a comparison of the new Sony BVM-HX3110 monitor with the older BVM-HX310 using movie scenes mastered at 4,000 nits peak brightness. While most movies are mastered at 1,000 nits peak brightness, according to Sony that has mainly been a technology limitation – one now removed by the BVM-HX3110. When viewing the 4,000 nits footage on both monitors side by side, a clear increase in highlight detail on the new BVM-HX3110 made images look notably more dynamic.
Sony’s Bravia 9 mini-LED TV in a bright room setting. (Image credit: Future)
The second component was a stacked pair of Sony Bravia 9 TVs set alongside a stacked pair of Samsung QN90C TVs, that company’s flagship 2023 mini-LED model in the US. The TVs arrayed at the top had their LCD panels removed so we could see the “raw” mini-LED backlight (see pic at top). Viewing a series of video clips, the Sony’s backlight had notably higher “resolution” owing to the XR Backlight Master Drive’s more granular local dimming performance. It also had a punchier level of brightness that could be seen in images displayed on the normal, non-butchered versions of both TVs located below. That brightness made highlights pop more dramatically and colors look brighter and richer.
Equally impressive in the demo was the virtual absence of backlight blooming effects in the transitions between bright and dark parts of images on the Bravia 9. Backlight blooming is a common visual artifact with LED-based TVs, even ones that use mini-LED tech, and it’s a key reason why OLED TVs, which have panels with self-emissive pixels that generate their own light, have retained a picture quality advantage over LED TVs.
Mini-LED mastered
Another picture quality comparison conducted by Sony at the event put the Bravia 9 alongside the Sony X95L and Samsung S95C, that company’s 2023 flagship QD-OLED model. The comparison also used Sony’s BVM-HX3110 displaying the same images as a reference point, and of the three TVs, the Bravia 9 most closely tracked the picture on the professional mastering monitor.
While Sony hasn’t revealed peak brightness specs for the Bravia 9 TV, its ability to accurately reproduce highlight and shadow details in movies mastered at 4,000 nits makes it a statement piece for HDR. As Sony’s new mastering monitor makes its way into more production facilities and movie directors and cinematographers start pushing the limits of what the format is capable of, any TV that can handle that will have an advantage.
Sony’s shift to mini-LED for its flagship TV signals its confidence in the tech, and with developments such as XR Backlight Master Drive, its ability to compete effectively with OLED. The 2024 crop of OLED TVs is turning out to be the brightest yet, with the new Samsung S95D measuring just under 1,800 nits peak brightness in our tests. But the new Samsung QN90D mini-LED model is even brighter, topping out at around 2,000 nits.
There’s only so much more that OLED makers can do to increase brightness beyond current levels, and the display tech may have hit its peak in the latest generation of TVs. And while we’ve yet to measure the Bravia 9, mini-LED is capable of higher brightness than OLED tech, and that’s something Sony clearly had in mind when planning its new flagship. In the future, we can expect to see movies with even wider dynamic range, and mini-LED with its high peak brightness capability will be well-positioned to handle it.
Pimax has unveiled two new VR headsets with the top of the line Pimax Crystal Super seemingly set to put the best VR headsets to shame – even the Apple Vision Pro – with some phenomenal specs. It also has one of most unique display features we’ve ever seen: you can swap between an OLED and QLED display engine to get the most out of your virtual experience.
Are you playing a frightening horror adventure that has you exploring dark spaces filled with monsters? Then an OLED screen’s excellent dark contrast will be just what you need. If you’re instead kicking back with a vibrant VR social app then you could swap in the QLED screen to be dazzled by the colors it can produce.
No matter which screen type you choose, the Pimax Crystal Super will deliver 29.5 million pixels across its dual, 3,840 x 3,840 pixels per eye displays, each with 200 nits of brightness. The QLED display system has a max refresh rate of 120Hz and uses glass aspheric lenses, while the OLED one has a 90Hz max refresh rate and uses less bulky pancake lenses.
You’ll also find neat features like eye-tracking, dynamic foveated rendering, and inside-out tracking – so there’s no need for lighthouses.
As you’d expect, this swappable display design doesn’t come cheap. If you want a Pimax Crystal Super with both the OLED and QLED display engines you’ll be paying $2,399 (around £1,925 / AU$3,700) for the headset. Alternatively if you’d rather get just one type of display the QLED model will set you back $1,799 (around £1,450 / AU$2,800 ) while the OLED version costs $1,999 (around £1,600 / AU$3,100).
No precise release date has been given yet but Pimax estimates the Crystal super will launch in Q4 2024 (so October, November or December).
The Pimax Crystal Light (Image credit: Pimax)
If this is all still too much to pay for a VR headset – especially one that requires you to have a similarly high-end PC gaming rig so you can get the most out of your headset’s capabilities – or you want a headset that’ll arrive sooner, you could instead opt for the Crystal Light.
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.
The crystal light boasts less sharp displays – boasting just 2,880 x 2,880 pixels per eye – though its QLED screen can get up to 120Hz. However, it uses aspheric lenses so will be bulkier than headsets using pancake lenses, and it lacks eye-tracking, and dynamic foveated rendering capabilities.
The upshot is it’s a heck of a lot cheaper starting at just $699 (around £550 / AU$1,100) and it should launch in May according to Pimax.
As impressive as these news Pimax headsets sound, I’m disappointed that they’re locked into the PCVR ecosystem, and aren’t at least adopting Pimax’s own wireless tech.
Analysis: Several steps forward, several steps back
A big issue with PCVR headsets are the cables that tether you to a PC – or a console in the case of PSVR 2 – that limit your movement, and that you can catch yourself on as your flail about in virtual reality.
However, as we’ve seen from the displays in Pimax’s headset, the advantage of PCVR is you can enjoy a super high level of graphics and performance that outshines standalone devices – like the Meta Quest 3 and even Apple Vision Pro (provided you have a great PC, that is).
This is where a wireless module can come in like the Pimax Crystal 60G Airlink device as they allow you to enjoy PCVR without being tethered. We’ve known that this device has been coming for a while – it was demoed at CES 2024 already – but we finally know exactly what the Crystal 60G can do with official specs straight from Pimax.
Specifically it boasts wireless PCVR with a 2,880 x 2,880 pixel resolution per eye, 90Hz max refresh rate, and “ultra low latency” – though exactly what this means hasn’t been revealed.
The Pimax Crystal 60G Airlink module (Image credit: Pimax)
Unfortunately, neither of Pimax’s new headsets – the Crystal Super or Crystal Light – will support the 60G Airlink module.
What’s more, they strip out the batteries and Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset that the base Pimax Crystal headset included, which allowed it to support both wireless PCVR and a standalone VR experience.
To this end, you might find the base Crystal model is the better option for you – or a non-Pimax model like a Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro – thanks to the versatility offered by a standalone headset. Not only are you freer to use the headset wherever you want but also, with the exception of the Vision Pro, you can very easily use these headsets for wireless VR and for wired PCVR – giving you the best of both worlds.
This versatility is one of the reasons why Quest headsets have been topping the Steam VR usage charts for years.
Considering how impressive Pimax’s machines are I’d love for it to have kept pushing into the world of standalone VR. Improving its software catalogue or partnering with a company with a great VR OS to jumpstart its app store – ideally the amazing Quest ecosystem, though are others out there from the likes of HTC – would also have been great.
I’ll have to try the latest Pimax headset out for myself before giving my final verdict, but as it stands I don’t think these are VR gadgets I can see most people using – nor do I think most people should use them. Which is a real shame because otherwise I feel Pimax’s machines could be a slam dunk on pricey competitors like the Vision Pro – for now, though, I feel relative newcomer Apple has Pimax’s Crystal Super beat, on paper.
We might only be a couple of weeks in to the 2024 TV hardware season, but it’s already looking set to be a transformative year for the once humble gogglebox. One where we could see the long-established best TV landscape transformed so much by a battle over brightness that a once-key premium TV technology may find itself fighting for survival.
This sounds like pretty apocalyptic talk, I realise, at a time when most AV fans (apart from a few middle aged CRT fans, maybe) would likely say that when it comes to TV technology, we’ve never had it so good. Intense rivalries between the world’s biggest manufacturers and, increasingly, competing technologies have propelled the TV world forward over the past 10 years at an unprecedented rate, leaving us spoilt for choice like never before.
This cheerful place of TV excellence we’ve arrived at, though, has been built around key principles that have remained more or less steady (there are always exceptions, of course) throughout this accelerated period of TV evolution. Namely that OLED TVs tend to be thought of as the premium option for serious movie fans who like to watch their TV in dark rooms, while LCD TVs appeal for their cheapness at the lower end of the market, and their much higher, living room friendly brightness at the premium end of the market. It’s this premium LCD market, though, that’s suddenly starting to feel squeezed.
QD-OLED: A big brightness boost
(Image credit: Future)
Exhibit A in this redrawn battle for TV supremacy comes, ironically, in the shape of the Samsung S95D OLED TVs. I’ve been lucky enough to spend a few days in the company of these flagship models from Samsung’s 2024 Quantum Dot OLED TV range, and I’m still reeling from what I witnessed. In particular, easily the most brightness I’ve ever seen from an OLED screen.
My own measurements recorded a light output over a small 2% white test area on the S95D of more than 2,100 nits, and nearly 1800 nits on a 10% test window. This latter measurement was up nearly 400 nits on Samsung’s previous flagship QD OLED TV, which itself tied for the brightest OLED TV ever with LG’s G3 series (a series which introduced new micro lens array technology to better focus the light output emerging from their WRGB OLED panels).
We don’t have exact figures yet on how the new LG G4 Micro Lens Array OLEDs might be shaping up, but we’ve seen enough of it to know that it is going to be brighter than the G3 was. As, almost certainly, will be other OLED TVs from other brands that use either Quantum Dot or micro lens array OLED technologies. Long gone are the days when it was exciting if an OLED TV hit 600 nits.
What all this means is that there’s suddenly an army of OLED TVs starting to push well and truly into brightness territory that was once exclusively the domain of light living room-friendly premium LCD TVs. I’ve watched the Samsung S95D in a bright day lit room, and believe me: It remains very watchable indeed. Especially as this series also happens to feature a remarkably effective reflection-rejecting filter on the front of its screen.
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.
OLED closes the gap with LCD
(Image credit: Future)
The new-found brightness of OLED TVs joins their legendary contrast-enhancing self-emissive design, where every pixel in their screens produce its own light, rather than external backlighting having to be shared across many thousands of pixels as happens with all LCD TVs.
OLED TVs also more readily deliver realistic wide viewing angles than LCD TVs can. And while LCD TVs used to command an (on paper, at least) a brightness-based colour volume advantage, the pure RGB approach of Samsung’s Quantum Dot OLED approach and first impressions of a startling processing inspired colour saturation boost to LG’s new G4 OLED series suggest that this LCD colour volume advantage is also sliding away.
While the new OLED generation undermines premium LCD TVs’ traditional appeal, though, it’s not game over just yet. For instance, they still boast immunity to screen burn – an issue where prolonged exposure to static image elements can cause areas of the organic elements in OLED screens to fade faster than their neighbours, causing onscreen logos and the like to gradually leave a permanent image of themselves on the screen.
Here again, though, recent OLED panels seem to have seriously started to tackle their old burn-in nemesis, with reports of it occurring on relatively recent OLED TVs dwindling to almost nothing – despite the OLED panels also getting significantly brighter.
Premium LCD’s consistency issues
(Image credit: Future)
Another case in favour of premium LCD TVs is their potential brightness consistency. While OLED TVs can now get dramatically bright over a certain amount of their screen area, they still come up significantly short of premium LCDs with images that fill the whole screen with brightness.
Even the ‘light cannon’ Samsung S95D QD OLEDs can only hit around 330 nits of brightness with a full-screen white HDR test screen, while Samsung’s latest flagship LCD TV, the QE75QN900D, can muster almost twice as much luminance(639 nits) in the same conditions. So in theory, at least, premium LCD TVs have a better chance of delivering a more consistent bright HDR experience.
There’s a problem here too, though. Premium LCD TVs (which inevitably use local dimming systems these days) have consistency issues of their own. This can appear as blooming, where extraneous light spills out around bright objects when they appear against a dark backdrop, or it can appear in dimming down of small stand-out bright objects as the TV tries to avoid backlight blooming.
All the main LCD brands are consistently working to resolve these issues, including, especially, Sony, with new LCD backlight technology it showed off at this year’s CES. But no consumer TV yet has fully nailed it yet.
Keeping LCD relevant
(Image credit: Future)
This leaves trying to keep ahead of OLED with their brightness as perhaps the best or, at least, most obvious hope for premium LCD TVs to keep themselves relevant. Samsung seems to have grasped this, as you might have expected with a brand that ranges similarly priced premium LCD and OLED TVs in its range.
As we discovered in a recent hands on, Samsung’s QN90D is hitting 2000 nits on a 10% HDR window, while Samsung’s QN900D8K models are getting right up to more than 2400 nits (a big improvement on their predecessors, which got caught in the 2023 drama surrounding the introduction of unexpectedly harsh EU TV power consumption rules).
TCL has launched an LCD TV with 5000 nits of brightness to go with 5000 local dimming zones, while Hisense let the nits rip at the 2024 CES with a 110-inch screen capable of delivering a claimed 10,000 nits.
Sony, too, seems to understand the need for brightness speed with its LCD TVs – not just because that’s where the difference with OLED lies, either, but also based on a long-running philosophical belief that brightness is fundamentally important to delivering high dynamic range video convincingly. Sony’s debut 8K TVs remarkably punched up to 4000 nits way back in 2019, and nobody who saw it will quickly forget the 10,000-nit render of Gran Turismo playing on a prototype 8K LCD display on Sony’s 2018 CES stand.
Plus, as mentioned earlier, Sony also showed off a new ultra bright LCD backlight design with much more light control and power efficiency at 2024’s CES, which appears to be a potential consumer response to the new 4000-nit capable BVM-HX3110 mastering monitor Sony’s professional division rolled out at the end of 2023.
Can LCD deliver a brigher future?
(Image credit: TCL)
All these big numbers sounds pretty promising for premium LCD, to be fair. I personally love lots of brightness myself for HDR viewing too, for whatever that’s worth. But just as that mention of Sony’s new high-brightness mastering monitor maybe points to a bright, shining, OLED-duffing future, it also brings us to one final big problem: Creatives currently don’t seem to be embracing the sort of brightness premium LCD supporters are going to need to chase to retain an OLED ‘gap’.
I’ve met a few professional colourists in recent times who all seem more than content to work within 1000-nit limits (apart from maybe a brief sunlight bloom here or spotlight there). In which case, all those extra nits of brightness premium LCD TVs are chasing might not end up having much real-world value.
Obviously Sony hopes its new mastering monitor might start to shift the dial on filmmaker’s relationship with brightness. Especially when there are premium LCD TVs out there in the consumer world capable of handling all those nits. I hope that happens too, actually.
But until or unless that happens – and at best I predict it will be a pretty long process – premium LCD TVs look like they’re going to have to work harder than they ever have before to hold off the challenge of the OLEDs now starting to aggressively park their tanks on premium LCD’s brightness-based lawn.
In 2024, Samsung is introducing its first OLED TVs smaller than 55-inches, as part of the Samsung S90D model range. These 42-inch (US only) and 48-inch (US & UK) TVs won’t use the bright QD-OLED panel type that earned the Samsung S90C our TV of the Year Award for 2023, but instead will use the same kind of OLED panel you’ll find in LG’s OLEDs. And as with all Samsung TVs, these models will lack Dolby Vision HDR, which is a real concern for us, because Dolby Vision’s biggest advantage is making HDR look great on less bright screens.
After spending some time the 48-inch Samsung S90D, I needn’t have worried. Not only do its images feel bright and rich, the screen seems to be able to handle challenging HDR scenes well, and even offers impressive sound. Given the other impressive specs on offer as well, it looks like it could be an extremely strong challenger to the best 48-inch TVs.
I was able to test the 48-inch S90D armed with my own own choice of movies, plus the Spears & Munsill test disc that we can’t live without when testing TVs. Throwing on Alien, I could immediately see that the TV has a lot of talent with nuance in dark scenes. As Kane descends into the threatening bowels of the alien spaceship, the parts that should be truly inky black hit that mark (as you’d expect from an OLED), but you can subtle, very dark texture in the areas near the light patches.
And speaking of the light patches, the 48-inch S90D certainly felt bright enough to deliver high-quality HDR. Typically, 42- and 48-inch OLEDs are always less bright than 55-inch and larger OLEDs, due the tight fit of the pixels – but we’ve already heard that the smaller models in this year’s LG C4 OLED TV will be brighter than previous years, and given that the Samsung uses the same screen, I’m guessing this is similarly bright.
It’s rich in color with big, bold tones – but the colors also feel controlled and realistic. Vibrant and punchy, but comfortably on the right side of natural – skin tones in Oppenheimer looked true-to-life, and the level of detail did justice to that 70mm original film.
(Image credit: Future)
No Dolby Vision, no problem?
I really worried about the lack of Dolby Vision on this TVs, but I threw some especially challenging HDR video at it to try to show its flaws, and it borderline made a fool of me.
First, some background on why Dolby Vision is important, and what I was worrying about in the first place. When films are mastered for release, the look is perfected for a particular brightness. This can be as high as 10,000 nits, though 1,000 nits is the most common for home video release. What this means is that if you have a video mastered for 1,000 nits playing on a screen capable of 1,000 nits of brightness, you’ll see the video’s HDR as was intended.
(Image credit: Future)
So what happens if you play a video mastered for 1,000 nits on TV with a maximum brightness of around 700 nits (which is probably roughly what we’re talking for this Samsung)? The full HDR range has to be compressed into a smaller HDR range, and this process is called ‘tone mapping’.
Tone mapping can be done smartly, or dumbly. The dumb version would be to just take everything above a certain HDR level and squish it all down to the maximum of what the TV can handle. This results in lots of lost nuance in highlights – so, for example, what should be a fluffy, layered cloud becomes just a big smear of uniform white.
The smart approach is adjust down the brightness of tones across the whole range, but it’s easy to get this wrong and end up with lost detail in dark tones, or to still lose convincing highlights. The most advanced processing in the best TVs can actually adjust tone mapping on different parts of the screen at the same time, to avoid these problems.
A huge advantage of Dolby Vision, HDR10+ (which the Samsung S90D supports, but is less commonly used) and HDR formats is that they include tone mapping data, to ensure results closer to the original intention. That’s why we’ve always considered it so important to have Dolby Vision on the best OLED TVs – because most models still struggle to hit 1,000 nits of brightness, so they’ll need to perform tone mapping with more HDR content.
(Image credit: Future)
Which is a lot of build-up for me to say: from my experience so far, the tone mapping on the S90D appears to be so good, Dolby Vision is unnecessary. I tested it with the same video being shown in 10,000-nit HDR10 (which requires aggressive tone mapping), 1,000-nit HDR10 (which requires more gentle tone mapping), and 10,000-nit HDR10+ (where the tone mapping is handled by the HDR format for best results).
The difference between all three was minimal. Not quite zero – the 10,000-nit HDR10 video did has slightly more washed out white tones in difficult circumstances (like the clouds example above, or snowy scenes) – but close enough to quell my concerns about this aspect of the TVs.
Obviously, we’ll reserve final judgment until we can get this model in for an in-depth review, and ideally we’ll compare it directly with the Dolby Vision-supporting LG C4 at the same size, since they use the same underlying screen tech. But for me, the lack of Dolby Vision doesn’t seem to be an issue at all.
It all sounds good
I was also impressed with the sound of the TV. It doesn’t have a fancy array of speakers around the edge, in the way that the larger S90D models, or the Samsung S95D and Samsung QN90D, do – but I found it to be capable of impressive height, solid chest-out depth, and a surprising dynamic range with the ‘Amplify’ mode turned on, while still feeling fairly natural. It didn’t have a ton of width, but that’s forgivable. It certainly felt like you could get away without a soundbar from my first listen.
(Image credit: Future)
Other useful info to know about the Samsung S90D includes that it has a 144Hz screen, with support for 4K 120Hz or 144Hz gaming on all four HDMI ports, as well as variable refresh rate and auto low latency mode. It has Samsung’s Game Bar menu to make it easy to customizing the settings, too – it will likely be a strong contender for our list of the best gaming TVs.
Samsung’s new processor is included, and it supports a wireless connection to certain Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbars, and includes Samsung Q-Symphony support to combine its speakers with the soundbar’s, if you do choose to add one.
We don’t have prices yet – it appears that this size is launching a little after the larger models in the range. But I’m looking forward to spending more time with it.
The OLED iPad Pro should ship with slimmer bezels. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple’s new iPad Pro could launch in early May with updated internals and a refreshed design. All rumors surrounding Apple’s next premium tablet indicate it will feature OLED displays.
The first iPadOS 17.5 beta seems to confirm this, as it contains four new display firmware for unreleased iPad models.
iPadOS 17.5 beta contains new display firmware for unreleased iPads
9to5Mac did some code digging in the recently released iPadOS 17.5 beta and found multiple references to unreleased iPads. Additionally, they found four new display firmware for iPad16,3, iPad16,4, iPad16,5, and iPad16,6. Apparently, these four models are the upcoming iPad Pro, separated by cellular and Wi-Fi options.
Based on the references, the report says Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro lineup will use OLED displays, with different suppliers for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch models.
Apple seemingly had to delay the launch of its new iPad Pro lineup due to the complex OLED panels. The tablets are now apparently scheduled for launch in the second week of May. Apple will soon start shipping marketing materials to its retail stores to prepare for the new iPad’s launch.
The 2024 iPad Pro’s OLED panels should provide higher brightness levels with better colors, contrast, and clarity.
12.9-inch iPad Air might also launch soon
Apple should also unveil a new 12.9-inch iPad Air alongside the OLED iPad Pro. Rumors suggest the OLED iPad Pros will cost significantly more than their predecessors, so a 12.9-inch Air should fill the gap caused by the price hike.
In addition to the new iPad Pro, Apple is working on a refresh for the iPad mini and low-cost iPad. The two models could launch towards the end of the year and sport minor internal spec bumps.
Apple plans to use new low-energy OLED panel technology in the next Apple Watch to further reduce the power consumption of its always-on display, claims a new report out of Korea.
According to The Elec, Apple will adopt new low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistor (TFT) technology for its upcoming Apple Watch, which is scheduled to be released in the second half of this year.
LPTO TFT is a method of applying oxide on the driving TFT and the switching transistors behind each pixel. Switching transistors control the voltage applied to the liquid crystal cells, allowing precise control of the amount of light that passes through each pixel.
Existing Apple Watch OLED displays use LPTO TFT in only a few switching transistors, and rely on low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) technology for the majority of transistors as well as the driving TFT.
Using oxide instead of LTPS for the driving TFT and more of the switching transistors means that oxide alone is responsible for the current running through the majority of transistors that connect directly to the OLED pixel. In the new LTPO OLED application, increased use of oxide means lower leakage current and more stable operation at low refresh rates, resulting in overall power savings.
The downside is that the technique means more complication in the manufacturing of the TFT substrates. According to the report, LG Display is expected to take the lead in the development of the new LPTO OLED technology. Meanwhile, Samsung is participating in a development project that should see it join Apple’s LPTO OLED supply chain in time for next year’s Apple Watch.
This has led to industry speculation that Apple is planning to expand the use of LPTO OLED technology to other products such as the iPhone. The current iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus use LTPS panels, while Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro models use the more advanced LTPO panels, which support variable refresh rates.
Apple is expected to retain the use of the less advanced LTPS panels in this year’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus to maintain differentiation between its standard and Pro models. However, next year’s iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Plus are expected to adopt the same technology, which would mean Apple’s 2025 iPhone series will be the first of its kind to feature ProMotion and always-on displays across the lineup.
The Samsung S90C OLED takes the top spot on TechRadar’s best TV list, and you can save a massive $1,000 on the 65-inch model right now. The retailer has the Samsung 65-inch S90C OLED TV on sale for $1,599 (was $2,599), which is the lowest price you can find and an incredible deal for a gorgeous, feature-packed OLED TV.
We awarded this TV five stars in our Samsung S90C review, praising its gorgeous picture, excellent gaming features, and fantastic value for money. While it’s not as bright as the flagship S95C, the OLED display still delivers an exceptional picture with vibrant colors and spectacular contrast. You also get an impressive sound system, Samsung’s Tizen operating system, and a paper-thin design, resulting in the ultimate home-cinema setup.
Samsung is releasing its 2024 TV lineup for pre-orders, which is why you can score such an incredible deal on the 2023 Samsung S90C OLED TV. If you are interested in a 2024 Samsung TV, you can score a free 65-inch 4K TV right now, which I’ve listed further down the page, along with more Samsung TV deals.
Today’s best TV deal
More Samsung TV deals
Shop more TV offers with our roundup of the best cheap TV deals, and see more premium options with our best OLED TV deals roundup.
Samsung added several new features and optimizations with the One UI 6.0 update. However, it removed one crucial feature for phones and tablets with OLED screens: screen burn-in protection. It promised to bring that feature with a software update, and the company seems to delivered on that front with the One UI 6.1 update.
One UI 6.1 brings back OLED screen burn-in protection to older Galaxy phones
The folks at Toranji have tested One UI 6.1, and the screen burn-in protection feature works as intended. As you can see in the GIF image above, the UI elements in the status bar and the navigation bar on the Galaxy S23 Ultra move slightly every few minutes.
While this feature has been tested only on the Galaxy S23 series as of now, it isn’t clear if it is also present on the Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy Z Fold 5, and Galaxy Tab S9 series. However, we don’t have a reason to doubt that Samsung would have included this feature in the Galaxy S23 but not other devices.
Watch our in-depth videos below to see all the new features that One UI 6.1 brings to older Galaxy devices.
OLED panel supply issues may be partly behind Apple’s iPad Pro launch delay, based on reports coming out of Korea.
Apple’s original plan was to rely on different OLED display suppliers for the upcoming iPad Pro models, with Samsung Display exclusively producing ~11-inch panels and LG Display responsible for the required ~13-inch panels.
The division of labor was reportedly due to changes in Apple’s demand outlook for OLED iPad Pro models, as well as the unstable production capacity and yield of the two suppliers, which are both still getting to grips with Apple’s requirement for new panel technologies.
Early reports suggested the new models could arrive as soon as this month. However, according to Korean news site hankooki.com, Samsung has recently faced poor yields of the ~11-inch OLED panels, and it has been unable to meet Apple’s order quantity. The shortfall has led Apple to transfer some orders for the smaller panel to LG Display. The latter is subsequently expected to increase its order by hundreds of thousands of units going into next month.
Given the reallocation, LG Display is now likely to supply 60% of the panels for the upcoming iPad Pro models. The company has invested millions of dollars into its sixth-generation small- and medium-sized OLED production line, and has now passed Apple’s quality control standards for the larger panels, enabling it to take up the slack from Samsung.
Apple earlier this month ordered an initial 8.5 million OLED display panels from the South Korean suppliers. Apple’s latest shipments forecast is said to have been a decrease from the 10 million units that were projected for 2024 last year.
Apple is rumored to be aiming for “unrivaled” display quality with the new iPad Pro models, which will use a tandem OLED structure. The tandem structure is a method of stacking two layers of OLED light-emitting layers. It is superior to the luminance (screen brightness) and lifespan of a single OLED structure with one light-emitting layer. The iPhone currently uses a single stack OLED display with one light-emitting layer.
Apple will now introduce new iPad Pro models alongside new iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. Apple is apparently working to “finish software for the new devices,” and the iPad Pro models also need “complex new manufacturing techniques,” which Gurman says has contributed to the delay.
