Japan Display Inc. (JDI) recently spoke to Bloomberg about their move from concentrating on creating OLED screens for mobiles to instead developing LCD screens for virtual reality headsets. One of the rumors to come out of the interview was that Sony will be the only maker of a virtual reality headset to stick with OLED screens for their next version of PlayStation VR.
The LCD specialist believes LCD screens will become the “standard for VR” because they have a higher resolution display than OLED. They are also reasonably priced. JDI chief VR headset engineer Yoshihiro Watanabe says the company can make LCD screens that can pack in 1200 pixels per inch. High-definition VR headsets are considered to have at least 1,000 pixels per inch.
Most VR headsets, like PlayStation VR, used an OLED because it was responsive to fast-moving action and has better contrast. Despite this, the adoption of LCD screens rose during 2020 and industry researchers Omdia believes LCD will become the dominant technology for the next five years. Omdia research manager Hiroshi Hayase says, “when it comes to VR, the quality of picture the panel produces will be the most important because the headset doesn’t really need other features such as flexibility and energy efficiency”.
There is one exception to this, though. “People with knowledge of the matter” say Sony plans to stay with OLED displays for its PSVR2 headset when it is released during holiday 2022. Other headset manufacturers will be switching to LCD screens. Sony refused to comment on the story.
Sony has promised their next PSVR headset, which has been unofficially dubbed PSVR2 by the media, will enhance “everything from resolution and field of view to tracking and input” and will have “dramatic leaps in performance and interactivity”. The headset will not be wireless but will only have a single cord. Accompanying controllers will borrow some key DualSense features although specific details haven’t been revealed.
[Source: Bloomberg]
