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Upcoming HUAWEI phone could feature a massive 6.9-inch display
- HUAWEI has reportedly ordered 6.9-inch display panels from Samsung for an upcoming device.
- Samsung is expected to supply the panels in Q3 2018. The device could be released in either Q4 2018 or Q1 2019.
- There is no solid info about which HUAWEI series will use the large displays.
HUAWEI could be thinking big for an upcoming device as reports suggest that it has ordered 6.9-inch rigid OLED display panels from Samsung for use in an upcoming smartphone.
According to The Bell, who cite sources from the display industry, Samsung is delivering samples to HUAWEI and is expected to begin full-scale supply in the third quarter of 2018. Based on this timescale, HUAWEI is expected to release a larger device that features the display in the fourth quarter of 2018 or the first quarter of 2019.
To put the size of this display in perspective, it would be 0.9-inches larger than the display of the HUAWEI Mate 10 Pro and 0.8-inches larger than the display of the HUAWEI P20 Pro. It would even dwarf the 6.3-inch screen found on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
While we’ve seen plenty of OEMs follow the ‘less phone, more screen’ approach, HUAWEI’s apparent plan to release an almost 7-inch phone is still wildly ambitious.
For example, at 6.36-inches, the display of the Galaxy Note 9 is expected to be only slightly larger than last year’s model. Meanwhile, rumors mentioned in the article say that an upcoming iPhone will have a 6.46-inch display. A 6.9-inch screen size would actually be closer to that of the anticipated 7.3-inch display on the Samsung’s rumored foldable phone.
As for which device is likely to get these panels, well, we don’t know. If we are to speculate, given the huge increase over previous generations, it is possible that it will be a completely new series entirely.
If it does appear on an existing HUAWEI range, the estimated release of Q4 2018 or Q1 2019 could align with either the Mate or the P Series, although the anticipated Q3 supply date suggests the Mate series would be the more likely of the two.
While the display on the upcoming device will undoubtedly be big, it still won’t be the biggest display ever to grace a smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy W, released in 2014, had an impressively large 7-inch display. At the time of its release, we questioned how many people would be willing to use a device of that size for a phone call. However, reductions in bezel size plus the general increase in the size of phones since 2014 mean that perhaps HUAWEI’s upcoming device will be better received.