This year’s Apple Watch will reportedly introduce a new display technology, which could lead to a much-desired upgrade for any gadget: increased battery life.
Apple Watch Series 9. Will the Series 10 have new display technology?
According The Elect, the next Apple Watch, expected this fall, will use a new type of OLED display called a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide thin-film transistor. Currently, LTPO is only used for part of the watch’s display technology, and the rest uses low-temperature polycrystalline silicon, which is not as energy efficient. Currently, LTPO is limited “to certain switching TFTs,” the report says.
Here’s how he describes the technology: “Using oxide instead of LTPS for a TFT drive means that the oxide is responsible for the TFT connecting directly to the OLED pixel. In the LTPO OLED, the oxide has been used to reduce the leakage current, but in the new LTPO OLED, the role of the oxide is increased.”
All of this means that while the screen may not look different, the next watch could promise longer battery life. But will he?
It’s a good question. Apple regularly follows a simple plan when it comes to battery life on the Watch: keep it roughly where it is. It’s true that the Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2 have much longer battery life, but other models have stayed at the same 18 hours of use between charges.
My guess would be that this formula will continue, but that’s still reason to be excited. That’s because if there’s more battery life, Apple wants to spend it on new features rather than extending overall life.
Which means that even with these new features, we’re likely to see the Apple Watch Series 10 with similar battery life to the Series 9. It’s not yet clear what those features might be, though there are rumors that Apple is going to to generate blood pressure readings on the Series 10.
That would make sense: it’s a key feature in Samsung’s smartwatches and lightweight devices like the excellent Swiss-based Aktiia bracelet. In this case it will be interesting to see if it works the same way as the Samsung devices where you have to calibrate it once a month in conjunction with a blood pressure cuff.
Or it’ll be like the Huawei Watch D, which doesn’t need calibration (though it has an inflatable wristband that sounds decidedly un-Apple). More as we have them.
