MicroLED Screens boost Apple Watch Batteries By ...how much? 30%? The commercialisation of microLED technology has moved at a pace over the last 5 years or so. As consumers, we've mainly seen it on larger scales in TVs. However, it IS coming to a Watch near you very soon. Here we talk about the improvements this technology will bring to the battery life of the not-so-humble Apple Watch. A Brief History of microLED The technology has several nuanced construction methods. Apple pursued one technological avenue via its acquisition of the microLED developer LuxVue in May 2014 and, since 2020, has had a joint manufacturing venture well underway with AU Optronics and Epistar in Taiwan. Apple increasingly aims for vertically integrated manufacturing, meaning it owns the key elements of its supply chain. However, at least for now, it will still rely on Osram for microLED components, LG Display for the substrates and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing for 12-inch wafers (Source: electrooptics). [caption id="attachment_86986" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image|IDTechEx, µLED is microLED[/caption] Over the past few years, Apple has been rumoured to have its microLED scheduled for release on the Watch between 2023 and 2026. Take those rumours with as many pinches of salt as you like as there are significant technological and cost hurdles to overcome first. Perhaps the one certainty is that Apple will NOT be the first company to put microLED on a watch. But it will be one of the first. So if we see the technology on the shelves in the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra in late 2024, we can assume that Apple will be very close behind either releasing in the same month (Sep 2024) or a year later in Sep 2025. It's also highly likely that Apple will use microLED for next-gen AR and elsewhere in its product range. MicroLED is an important innovation. Q: What does microLED mean for the Apple Watch? You can see the generic benefits in the chart above and how they differ from regular OLED (AMOLED) and LCD (MIP). Specifically for the Apple Watch, what will make a material competitive difference moving forward will be these High pixel density [Medium Impact] - Better resolution screens mean an improved ability to meaningfully show video and, of course, for more realistic still images that look like 'the real thing' - like a realistic analogue watch face gone digital. Larger Sizes [Low Impact] - Having a TV on your wrist will be great, but few people will want a large TV on their wrists! Trust me on that! Current watch sizes are in the Goldilocks zone for the sizes of existing human wrists. A few square millimetres here or there at the expense of a protective bezel will improve things a tad for the Watch Ultra but less meaningfully so for the regular Apple Watch. Step change improvements to battery lives [High] - You came here for this one! Sensor Integration [Low] - I'm assuming this means there will be various flavours of touchscreen abilities. I see this as a prerequisite to the adoption of smartwatches by technology. High Brightness [Low]—Again, this is a prerequisite and must be compared to the 3,000 nits Apple has already achieved. That's bright enough for commercial success. High Contrast [Low] - Again, a pre-requisite Fast Response Time [Low]—This is not so important for Watches because the current situation does not need improvement. However, this factor will nevertheless be an important consideration across Apple's product range. Durability and Burn-In reduction [Low]—Not much is offered here over and above what we already have. Thin [Low]—Smaller components are always better than thicker ones, other things being equal. I'm unsure of the material difference a smaller microLED display delivers, but even a few cubic millimetres of volume saved can be swapped for an increase in battery capacity or a more refined, thinner Watch. Wide Viewing Angles [Low] - meh. Eco/Energy Efficiency [Low]—This will be great for the marketing team and gullible consumers who think they are helping the planet by trading in their perfectly fine old watch for a new energy-efficient one. Q: What are the Battery Life Improvements from microLED on the Apple Watch MicroLED might be able to save 30-40% of component energy (Source: Hsiang et al.), other things being equal. This is a complicated claim to make as the efficiency of the microLED chip varies depending on the colour of light, decreases as the chip size decreases, and other factors. Q: What is the Apple Watch Ultra 2's battery life? A: The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a battery life of up to 60 hours, but the actual, real, proper GPS recording life is 12 hours. So if you increase that by a third, you get 16 hours of battery life! Oh, dear. That's hardly a game-changer. Still, a 30% improvement to the 60 hours gives 80 hours, and that's a great one for the marketers to claim some kind of market-leading performance (it isn't...by a long chalk) Then, of course, you realise that the display energy consumption is only a part of the overall consumption. So a 30% improvement in display efficiency might only translate to a 10% improvement overall. Take Out Apple makes very specific and substantiated battery performance claims. Its claims are correct and usually a tad conservative, also factoring in degradation over time. However, you need to understand the specifics of the claim. Boosting the Apple Watch Ultra's real sports battery life from 12 to 16 hours is a big change in Apple world. But it's not a significant change in Garmin-world. Nor in the world of any leading sports watch from Polar, Suunto or Coros. I sense that 20 hours of GPS recording is more of a meaningful milestone to hit. Perhaps with some other changes Apple will get there? I can't see too many savings from the next-gen Apple GNSS chipset. However, its next-gen optical sensor array might include the laser-based solution proferred by Rockley Photonics. Lasers offer more precisely controlled light emissions, hence bigger energy savings. Pie in the sky? No, Apple Vision PRO has two microLED screens which just so happens to already be the same size as needed for a watch...go figure. [caption id="attachment_88233" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image|BasicAppleGuy https://twitter.com/BasicAppleGuy/status/1756713259137167576/photo/1[/caption]
