Samsung Display has an OLED panel in the works that would introduce a new tier of refresh rate and could be especially beneficial for gaming monitors.
The panel is set to be a 27-inch QD-OLED display with 1440p resolution and a 500Hz refresh rate, according to a report from FlatPanelsHD (via ETNews).
Sources told the Korean publication that the panel was near the end of its development and that Samsung Display is currently speaking with monitor brands for commercialization. Presumably, that would include Samsung Electronics, which has manufactured some of the best OLED monitors over the past few years. Products featuring the panel could be announced during the first half of 2025. However, there aren’t any further details about the panels in terms of specifications, or about when Samsung may have the panels ready, outside of what’s available.
Displays with high refresh rates are expected to be among the monitor trends for 2025, with several brands already experimenting throughout the current year. Samsung’s upcoming panel would be the first in the world to feature a 500Hz refresh rate upon its announcement.
It would challenge the recently announced LG’s UltraGear 27GX790A-B, which features a 480Hz refresh rate display, and the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDP, which features a 360Hz rate display. Many other comparable displays have 240Hz refresh rates, which are still considered extremely fast.
Other themes for 2025 include QD-OLED displays, WOLED displays, 27-inch displays, high-resolution displays, and displays with high peak brightness. Many monitors can have several of these features.
FlatPanelsHD noted a Chinese brand called Light Soul may be introducing a 27-inch QD-OLED monitor with a 4K resolution and 1,000 nits of peak brightness when monitors of these specifications previously featured 1440p resolutions. The monitor also seems to be paired with a Samsung display, which was showcased at CES 2024.
The publication also spotted a 45-inch WOLED panel with a resolution as high as 5120 x 2160 pixels on a Korean certification database labeled as the LG 45GX950A. Similar to the Samsung 500Hz panel, this component is also expected to be designed as a peripheral with gamers in mind.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.