Samsung and LG Developed Power-Efficient OLEDs for AI PCs
New display technologies aim to preserve battery life as AI-capable laptops become the market standard.
Updated on Sept. 23, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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Samsung Display and LG Display have announced new low-power OLED technologies designed to offset the high battery drain of AI-powered laptops. These developments come as AI PCs claimed 48.3% of U.S. laptop shipments in Q2 2026, with adoption expected to cross 50% in the third quarter.
Why it matters
AI workloads significantly increase power consumption, threatening the battery efficiency of mobile devices. These display improvements are critical for maintaining competitive battery performance as OEMs shift toward AI-heavy system architectures.
SmartPower HDR from Samsung reduces power draw by up to 22% by adjusting driving voltage in real time, while LG's Tandem OLED—which stacks two emitting layers—improves efficiency by up to 40% compared to traditional single-layer OLEDs.
The players
Samsung Display
A major global manufacturer of advanced OLED panels for mobile and computing devices.
LG Display
A prominent developer of high-end display technologies, including Tandem OLED systems for laptops.
The details
Samsung’s SmartPower HDR functions by dynamically modulating the voltage supplied to the organic light-emitting diodes based on the content displayed. LG’s Tandem OLED utilizes a vertical stack of two organic emitting layers; this physical arrangement allows the display to reach equivalent brightness levels while reducing the current load on each individual layer. These advancements are necessary because AI computations create a constant draw on battery reserves, necessitating power savings elsewhere in the system.
Timeline
Q2 2026: AI PCs reached 48.3% of U.S. shipments.
September 23, 2026: Omdia published the latest AI PC market data.
Q3 2026: AI PC shipments are projected to exceed 50% of the U.S. market.
The Tech Race
The race to optimize laptop battery life is increasingly dominated by display efficiency, as firms move to support the 66% projected growth in OLED laptop adoption this year. This marks a departure from focusing only on processor efficiency as the primary lever for extending mobile computing runtimes.
Consumers can expect future AI laptops to feature longer battery life during general usage thanks to these display-level optimizations. Availability remains subject to OEM implementation cycles, though the technology is being positioned specifically to manage the high power demands of AI workloads.
The takeaway
Display-level power management is now a primary competitive field for the AI laptop era. Watch for upcoming holiday product announcements to see which manufacturers integrate Tandem OLED or SmartPower HDR to boost battery life benchmarks.
Further reading
For more on how hardware components are shifting to support next-generation compute, see our Artificial Intelligence coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Business Korea.
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