On the 11th, Chinese display maker Tianma announced through the investor exchange platform of Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it has been producing a "hole display" and that "Consumer products will be released soon." It replied to the question of investors asking for facts and supply with "In talks of supplying hole displays to Huawei nova 4."
The hole display is mainly being introduced as an improved version of the notch. The rectangular shaped notch of a conventional design, is reduced to a circle in the hole display, resulting in a larger usable screen surface. While notch designs have been expanded from OLED panels to LCD panels, all currently available hole displays have adopted LCD panels.
During its new product presentation on the 10th, Samsung Electronics announced its Galaxy A8s smartphone, which is a mid-low priced smartphone for China, with hole display. "Samsung's performance has been far below," said Kwon, Gye-hyeon, Vice President of Samsung Electronics in China. "We have not been able to meet the expectations of our competitors as well as those who love Samsung. However, we came back with Galaxy A8s to compete with any opponent," he added.
A week after Samsung's announcement, Huawei held a Nova 4 new product presentation at Changsha in Hunan province. On this day, Huawei compared the hole display of Samsung Galaxy A8s and Nova 4 while calling Samsung as "S" without mentioning the company directly. Compared to the Galaxy A8s, the Nova 4-hole display is smaller and sloped to the left, providing a better user experience, Huawei said.
Huawei categorized the hole display technically as a blind hole (mang-kong) and a through hole (tong-kong). The mang-kong is a hole that is not visible (blocked) and has a hole only on the BLU (backlight unit) of the LCD module while leaving the LCD panel's liquid crystal and removing the upper color filter. The tong-kong is a hole that is drilled (pierced) through the LCD module.
Huawei said the diameter of the Huawei Nova 4-hole display with the mang-kong is 4.5mm in diameter and the diameter of the Samsung Galaxy A8s display with the tong-kong is 6.5mm or less. It is unusual to promote their products after a week of product release by comparing to the specifications of other products. Huawei initially considered tong-kong but said it adopted the upgraded version, mang-kong.
In the case of mang-kong, a smaller hole closer to the upper left corner can be made, but the light transmittance is lowered through the liquid crystal before reaching the camera. It is the same environment as the existing camera module because light does not go through the liquid crystal, but it is necessary to perform the liquid crystal packaging work of the open part, and the void space between the camera module and the cover glass may cause a shock dispersion issue.
Tianma is not responding to the investor communication platform question asking whether the mass-producing hole display is Huawei's mang-kong or Samsung's tong-kong. GSM Arena reported that the hole display supplier of Galaxy A8s will be BOE of a Chinese display maker.
On May 26th, Beijing City will hold a new product presentation by Huawei brand Honor (荣耀). The smartphone Honor 20, which is scheduled to be introduced on the day, is also equipped with a mang-kong hole display.
