OnePlus 8 series to challenge the Galaxy S20 with its own 120Hz Fluid Display

OnePlus has developed a new QHD+ OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate that will debut with the OnePlus 8 series. The company revealed specifications and features for the new display at its screen technology event held in Shenzhen, China earlier today.

With a 120Hz refresh rate, the content on the display is refreshed 120 times per second. This makes for smoother playback as well as an overall fluid OS navigation experience. We’ve previously seen 120Hz screens on the likes of the ASUS ROG Phone 2 and Razer Phone 2.

OnePlus 120Hz Fluid Display specs

According to information trickling in on Twitter and Chinese social media website Weibo, the display will feature a 10-bit color depth. This means that it will be able to produce a palette of 1.07 billion colors as opposed to an 8-bit panel which can display 16.7 million colors. Having a 10-bit panel is also necessary for true HDR 10 implementation.

The Verge reports that OnePlus worked with Samsung to develop the new display. The publication also reports that the company has done work on top of Android to improve animations like core OS gestures.

Additionally, OnePlus aims to have a 0.8 JNCD rating for every 120Hz display it produces. JNCD stands for Just Noticeable Color Differences and is a measurement of the bare minimum color difference a human eye can spot. By comparison, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus has a 0.4 JNCD, which means it displays colors that are near perfect.

Machine translation of the company’s presentation slides suggests that the new display will use a dedicated MEMC chip. MEMC stands for Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation and is usually a technology available on televisions. It inserts new frames between existing ones in a video to decrease motion blur.

OnePlus’ MEMC tech can apparently upscale low frame rate videos to a maximum of 120 frames per second, making the picture smoother and more natural. If this really works as intended, it could mean a much better gaming experience on future OnePlus phones.

Further, OnePlus’ 120Hz display has a touch sample rate of 240Hz and can apparently hit 1,000 nits peak brightness. It is optimized by something OnePlus calls Smooth Chain technology. However, details are scarce at the moment thanks to the official information being available only in Chinese.

Will the OnePlus 8 get a 120Hz display?

Speaking to The Verge, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that the company’s next phone would tout the new display tech, even going as far as to say that it will be “the best smartphone display in 2020.”

That’s quite the claim! Even more so when you remember that Samsung is also expected to debut its own 120Hz displays with the Galaxy S20 series.

We just hope the high refresh rate displays are well optimized for power consumption. Current OnePlus devices with a 90Hz display experience significant battery drainage when the refresh rate is set to 90Hz.

OnePlus is expected to detail its display tech even further very soon. We’ll let you know as soon as we have the latest.