- Samsung Display unveils new ‘M16’ OLED phone screen technology that can hit 10,000 nits of brightness in small areas
- The more useful news is that it can be 30% more efficient than its previous gen M14 OLED tech
- It first appeared in the Vivo iQOO 16 phone, in China
Samsung Display has unveiled the first OLED panel to deliver 10,000 nits peak brightness, and it already comes in a phone.
The new ‘M16’ OLED display is capable of 10,000 nits in 1% of the window, although in full screen it exhibits a less searingly bright (but massively impressive) 2,800 nits. These numbers put it in the region of micro-LED tech, and far beyond anything we’ve seen so far for OLED.
Of course, brightness is all well and good, although few people probably wish their phone was as bright as a full sunny day. What’s probably more exciting is that the panel is Samsung’s second-generation polarizer-free OLED, which enables it to deliver significantly improved energy efficiency and brightness – the claim is a 30% improvement in efficiency.
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This means that even if you look at it more than the 1,000 nits of most elite phones, you will save a lot more battery – and since the display is one of the biggest battery hogs in phones (or the best smartwatches, where the technology would also be really useful), that could make a real difference to phone longevity.
The M-series panels are made for smartphones and other mobile devices, but the advances in OLED material here may also at least partially make their way into the best OLED TVs.
BREAKING! Samsung Display × iQOO held a joint launch event, and the M16 OLED display reached an incredible peak brightness of 10,000 nits! https://t.co/ihjmlknl2XSeptember 14, 2026
Where to see Samsung Display’s new ultra-bright OLED
No industrial site FlatpanelsHD, Samsung Display supplies the M16 OLEDs to Vivo for its iQOO 16 gaming phone.
Previous reports also suggest that Apple will use the M16 in its iPhone 18 Pro, as Apple has previously even used numbered M-series OLEDs in its iPhones. My colleague Matt Bolton highlights the longer battery life in the iPhone 8 Pro as one of its, uh, highlights – noting that battery improvements usually combine multiple elements, so it would make sense if this new display is one of those elements.
For TV buyers, the most significant thing here is how fast OLED technology is developing. Samsung announced its first 5,000 nit OLED in March 2025, and it doubled the brightness and massively increased energy efficiency in just over a year.
It will take some time before these more efficient displays make their way to monitors and TVs (monitors may arrive earlier), and there are currently trade-offs involved – the lack of a polarizer can mean less defined contrast and black levels, which may mean Apple adds other anti-reflective technology to its displays – but clearly, all so-called OLED killers cannot be complicated at such a speed.
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