LG Display has unveiled an incredibly bright OLED display that's specially designed for VR headsets: a 10,000-nit OLEDoS (OLED on Silicon) panel that could help bring the Meta headset more in line with the visual superiority of the Apple Vision Pro.
To put it in context, the Meta Quest 3's displays offer just 100 nits, while Apple's Vision Pro OLEDoS panels are rated to hit 5,000 nits, although there's no official word on whether they'll ever get that bright.
LG's 10,000-nit displays would blow all this out of the water, although they'd only be half as bright as the 20,000-nit Meta headset prototype I tested in the past (appropriately named Starburst). The advantage is that these super bright headphones can offer much more realistic HDR, meaning that darker spaces appear darker, while bright objects actually shine as you would expect them to in the real world.
It's worth noting that while LG's new VR OLED can hit 10,000 nits, it may never get as bright or as often. Running at 10,000 nits constantly would probably cause a lot of heat and drain the headphones' battery. Considering it would be so close to your eyes, I would also be worried that it could cause damage. When I tested Starburst, the highest setting of 20,000 nits stung slightly and most scenes demonstrated at this setting were dark with only a few exceptionally bright columns.
Beyond being super bright, this LG display has an ultra-high resolution of 4000 pixels per inch. That's more than triple the Quest 3's 1,218 pixels per inch resolution, and LG still beats the Vision Pro's 3,386 pixels per inch (via iFixit).
Will LG take over XR?
There's no word yet on when or even if LG's OLEDoS panel will appear on a VR headset you or I might buy, but if it does appear on a product, we expect it to be on Meta hardware first. This is because LG and Meta have officially partnered to work on XR technology (an add-on to VR, AR and MR), and I'm convinced this means LG is making the displays for the upcoming Meta Quest Pro.
However, there is a small chance that LG's VR plans are more selfish.
That's because since LG and Meta announced their collaboration, Meta has revealed that its Horizon OS will be coming to third-party VR headsets, starting with Xbox Lenovo and Asus. LG isn't on this list, but it may also have its own VR headset in the works that would use its OLEDoS panel, rather than appearing on an official Meta Quest.
We'll have to wait and see what's announced, but whatever VR device this new LG OLEDoS panel has, it's almost certain to be one of the best VR devices out there.
