LG’s new super-bright OLED panel could give the next Meta Quest an edge over the Apple Vision Pro
LG screen has revealed a blindingly bright OLED display designed specifically for VR headsets – a 10,000-nit OLEDoS (OLED on silicon) panel that could help bring Meta headsets more in line with the visual superiority of the Apple Vision Pro.
For context, the Meta Quest 3’s displays only offer 100 nits, while the OLEDoS panels of Apple’s Vision Pro top out at 5,000 nits — though there’s no official word on whether they’ll ever get that bright.
LG’s 10,000 nit screens would blow all of these out of the water, although they would only be half as bright as the 20,000 nit prototype Meta headset I’ve tested in the past (aptly called Starburst). The benefit is that these super-bright headsets can deliver much more lifelike HDR – meaning dark spaces appear darker, while bright objects actually glow as you’d expect in the real world.
It’s worth noting that while LG’s new VR OLED can reach 10,000 nits, it may never get as bright or be bright as often. Running at 10,000 nits all the time is likely to create a lot of heat and drain your headset’s battery. Since it would be so close to your eyes, I would also be concerned that it could cause damage. When I tested Starburst, the highest setting of 20,000 nit stung slightly and most scenes demonstrated in this setting were dark with only a few exceptionally bright columns.
This LG screen is not only exceptionally bright, but it also has an ultra-high resolution of 4,000 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 I fix it).
Will LG acquire XR?
There’s no word yet on when or even if LG’s OLEDoS panel will appear in an actual VR headset you or I might buy, but if it does appear in a product, we expect it will appear in Meta Hardware first to sit. That’s because LG and Meta are officially teaming up to work on XR technology (a collective term for VR, AR and MR), and I’m confident this means LG is making the screens for the next Meta Quest Pro.
However, there’s a slight chance that LG’s VR plans could be more selfish.
That’s because since LG and Meta announced their partnership, Meta has revealed that its Horizon OS is 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 could use its OLEDoS panel, rather than appearing in an official Meta Quest.
We’ll have to wait and see what’s announced, but whichever VR headset gets this new LG OLEDoS panel, it will almost certainly be one of the best VR headsets out there.