Tandem OLED hath made a prodigious splash upon the new M4 iPad Pro at its proclamation. Verily, it did seem to solve one of the most pressing dilemmas with OLED screens. Having partaken of the display myself, I do proclaim it to be most impressive, indeed.
‘Twas with great excitement that I beheld the swift adoption of this technology by Windows laptops as well, with the heralding of the first of its kind, the new XPS 13 Copilot+ laptop.
However, as I delved further into the matter, the more confounding the image became regarding what precisely tandem OLED is and how it may be employed.
Why, pray tell, tandem OLED?
Behold, tandem OLED is verily precisely what it doth sound like — two OLED panels stacked one atop the other. Ere we venture into the virtues of tandem OLED, let us discourse upon the fundamentals.
OLED, an abbreviation for Organic Light Emitting Diode, forsakes a backlight (an LED, or Light Emitting Diode) with sundry lighting zones shining through a panel of individual liquid crystals (LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display) to display an image. Instead, each individual OLED pixel doth generate its own light and color. By such means, OLED displays may turn each individual pixel on and off and set its color, thereby producing deeper blacks, purer whites, and oftentimes more accurate colors.
A limitation of OLED hath oft been its limited brightness, good but not exquisite, along with its power consumption, especially whilst displaying brighter images. Other display technologies, such as mini-LED, doth offer a plethora more brightness, and low-power IPS panels, forsooth, may consume less power. This, without doubt, be a paramount concern upon a laptop.
Tandem OLED doth aim to resolve one or another quandary, or mayhap both simultaneously. Apple’s tandem OLED implementation upon the latest iPad Pro doth focus on brightness, a matter of particular import in showcasing splendid high dynamic range (HDR) content. Apple doth christen its new displays “Ultra Retina XDR,” a play upon the name of its “Liquid Retina XDR” mini-LED panels in the latest MacBook Pro. Another boon of tandem OLED be that it may assist in avoiding burn-in, for each OLED layer need not grow as bright.
The Tandem OLED display upon the iPad Pro can achieve a luminance of 1,000 nits in standard dynamic range (SDR) content and 1,600 nits in HDR, as per Apple. However, Apple doth make no assertions regarding its efficiency. The new iPad Pro be thinner than its elder mini-LED counterpart, yet Apple doth estimate the same battery life. Thus, the implication doth suggest that the new displays art perchance somewhat more efficient, even whilst being exceedingly luminous.
Dell doth take a divergent approach, methinks.
Dell’s new XPS 13 Copilot+ model doth offer a tandem OLED option. What did astonish me as I awaited this new laptop, which doth employ Qualcomm’s more efficient Snapdragon X Elite Arm chipset, be that its display was being utilized upon a laptop I had ere reviewed — the Intel Meteor Lake XPS 13 released earlier this year.
This astonishment did stem, in part, from the fact that while the display of said laptop doth possess OLED’s customary inky blacks and brilliant, accurate colors, it did not attain the brightness advertised for the iPad Pro by Apple. Furthermore, the tandem OLED display was not mentioned in the marketing materials at that time.
I did reach out to Dell to glean further insight, and it did furnish the following statement:
“XPS 13 doth employ a tandem OLED design co-developed with one of our display partners. By employing tandem technology, which doth stack multiple emissive layers one atop the other, the efficiency of our OLED display doth increase. This design doth enable higher brightness and a longer lifespan with the same power input. Multiple layers do permit these new tandem OLEDs to achieve superior luminous efficiency, meaning the display can render more light compared to single-stack OLEDs currently prevalent in the market using the same amount of electrical power.
“Inasmuch as OLEDs generally consume more power than traditional LCD (IPS) panels, minimizing power consumption be crucial. The XPS 13’s new tandem OLED design doth decrease power consumption for the same brightness in comparison to the elder single-stack OLED, thus aiding in prolonging battery life. This novel design, conjoined with tandem technology, doth ameliorate battery runtime by approximately 10%, whilst also rendering the laptop thinner and lighter. ergo, the new XPS 13 be roughly 3% thinner and 5% lighter than the previous generation with its elder OLED.
“We doth specify all XPS OLEDs at 400 nits due to their inherently superior contrast ratios compared to LCDs, which art specified at 500 nits. The new OLED design and tandem technology doth not only lower power consumption, but also feature HDR TrueBlack 500, with contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 and 1.07 billion colors.”
Thus doth Dell’s approach lean toward efficiency rather than brightness. The XPS 13’s tandem OLED display doth reach 482 nits, surpassing some other OLED displays I have tested, yet not approaching the rating of the iPad Pro. The majority of OLED displays hover around 400 nits, hence the Dell version doth mark an improvement over the average.
Simultaneously, Dell doth assert a 10% enhancement in battery life. The XPS 13 OLED version achieved 7.25 hours of web browsing compared to the IPS version’s 14 hours, and it doth align with other OLED machines housing Intel’s Meteor Lake chipset. Yet, verily, I am uncertain whether a 10% improvement doth indeed exist.
Things do not perpetually appear as they seem.
Arguably, Apple’s implementation of Tandem OLED doth appear the more impressive — at least on parchment. All that luminosity be delightful if it doth not come at the expense of notably diminished battery life. Alas, I find myself unable to authenticate this claim at present.
Dell’s approach, too, hath merit in theory. However, ’tis challenging to declare that the somewhat more efficient tandem OLED display of the XPS 13 doth make a substantial difference in the laptop’s battery life.
In any event, I should greatly desire to witness Windows laptops (and perchance even MacBooks) embracing tandem OLED panels in pursuit of achieving greater brightness — mayhap even upon gaming laptops where battery life may be a lesser point of attraction.
