Summary
- iPhone 18 series tipped to feature Samsung OLED displays.
- Apple is reportedly ditching BOE because it is said to not meet the brand's brightness requirement.
- iPhone 18 lineup could bring max brightness level of 3,500 nits.
Apple's iPhone 18 lineup is far from being official but thanks to a new leak we now know the kind of display the phones will feature. It looks like Apple wants to make the iPhone 18 series brighter and might turn towards Samsung for help.
iPhone 18 could feature BOE display
Tipster Momentary Digital posted on Weibo that the iPhone 18 series will favour Samsung-made OLED displays more than BOE-made ones. The reason is simple. Apple wants to make the next iPhones brighter than the previous generation.
This means that the current iPhone 17 series vendor BOE will have a slimmer chance of getting the next-gen iPhone display deal. It is unclear as to why BOE cannot make brighter displays for iPhones, considering the fact that the OnePlus 15 uses BOE's X3 AMOLED panel and can reach up to 5,000 nits of peak brightness.
The tipster has not mentioned what brightness benchmark Apple is trying to achieve. However, given that the iPhone 17 series came with 3,000 nits of peak brightness, the next-gen phones could feature 3,500 nits of brightness. If true, Apple's supply chain will drastically shift in 2026. Even the iPhone Air 2 is said to use Samsung Display's advanced Colour Filter on Encapsulation (CoE) OLED technology.
That said, at the time of writing, nothing is confirmed yet. As it is with early leaks, it is best taken with a pinch of salt. A short while back, iPhone 18 series display sizes were also leaked. So, it looks like this year's iPhones are leaning heavily towards bigger and brighter displays.
