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It was rumored in November last year that Samsung‘s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra will boast the industry’s brightest smartphone display yet. We heard that the phone will offer a peak brightness of more than 2,000 nits. Newer rumors have since quashed those hopes saying that the entire Galaxy S23 lineup will max out at 1,750 nits of peak brightness. While we can’t tell which is true just yet, we have confirmation that Samsung has made a smartphone display with more than 2,000 nits of peak brightness. The company unveiled the UDR 2000 OLED panel at CES 2023.
Samsung showcased its UDR 2000 display ahead of the Galaxy S23 launch
UDR is a newly-trademark brand by Samsung. The Korean conglomerate’s display division Samsung Display filed this trademark application at KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) last year. By the looks of it, UDR appears to be the acronym for “Ultra Dynamic Range”. Rumors are that the new technology can go beyond Dolby Vision’s 12-bit capabilities. It is being touted as an evolution from HDR10+, a version of the high dynamic range (HDR) that Samsung co-developed with industry partners. If true, UDR may significantly improve the multimedia experience on smartphones.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about it yet. Samsung’s CES 2023 exhibition only mentioned peak brightness of more than 2,000 nits. The so-called UDR 2000 display was exhibited alongside a “conventional” OLED panel and we can see some differences in picture quality (see attached image below). The new solution is rendering colors and reflections better, enabling a more vibrant and true-to-life viewing experience. Samsung’s UDR certainly appears to take smartphone displays to a whole new level in terms of brightness and image quality.
All this said, there’s no telling whether we will see this OLED panel in the Galaxy S23 series. Perhaps we don’t even know if this solution is ready for prime time. Maybe we are just looking at a prototype. Rumors have instilled some hope but ultimately, those are just rumors. We will have to wait for an official confirmation. Thankfully, the wait will not be much longer now. Samsung reportedly plans to launch the Galaxy S23 trio on February 1. That’s less than four weeks away now.
We expect to see more Galaxy S23 leaks in the coming weeks as Samsung prepares for the launch event. If history is any indication, we should get to learn all the key specs and features of the upcoming Galaxy flagships before they go official. We will keep you posted accordingly.