Apple Watch Series 10 advanced display tech likely coming to iPhone

A new supply-chain report notes that the Apple Watch Series 10 advanced display technology is expected to be adopted in future iPhones.

Apple’s trickle-down approach means that the Apple Watch always gets the most advanced display tech first before it later rolls out to other devices, and the S10 tech is likely to be later used for iPhones – but not next year …

Apple Watch S10 advanced display tech

The Apple Watch Series 4 was the first device in Apple’s product line-up to use a form of OLED display technology known as a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin film transistor (TFT).

The main advantage of this is lower power consumption, making it ideal for a device dependant on a tiny battery. Apple later adopted LTPO tech in iPhone displays.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 got the second generation of this display, known as LTPO2, while the Apple Watch S10 got the very latest version, LTPO3.

Likely to be used in future iPhones

The Elec reports that supply-chain observers expect LTPO3 to be used in future iPhones, to further boost battery life.

The core of LTPO3, which was first applied to Apple Watch 10 this year, is that the drive TFT was changed from the existing LTPS to oxide. The drive TFT directly controls the current to emit light on the OLED device […]

The industry is paying attention to the possibility that LTPO3 will also be applied to Apple iPhone in the future. Apple first applied LTPO OLED to Apple Watch 4 in 2018 and then applied LTPO OLED to the iPhone 13 Pro lineup in 2021.

The iPhone 16 uses LTPO2, and that’s expected to remain the case for the iPhone 17. The time-lag between Watch and iPhone displays suggests that LTPO3 tech may not make it into iPhones until the iPhone 19.

Image: 9to5Mac collage of images from Apple and Alexander Grey on Unsplash