In September Garmin launched its Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED smartwatch, the world's first with a microLED display. The panel is a 1.4" 454x454 round display that offers a brightness of 4,500 nits, produced by AUO. This was an important moment in the history of the microLED industry. The microLED version of the Fenix 8 Pro carries a $700 premium, and also cuts the battery life down from 27 days to 10 days - which says a lot about the low power efficiency of the microLED display.
Tom's Guide posted an interesting interview with Garmin's Display Technology Manager, Ralph Polshak, that discusses the microLED project and Garmin's thoughts and plans.
Ralph says that it was a two-years development effort, to get the microLED technology to the point where it can be used commercially. The company "Definity plans" to continue to explore ways it can use microLED technology in future products.
Interestingly, Ralph says that the screen performance of the microLED surpasses that of an OLED - of course it is brighter, but it also offers better color and 'clarity', and better viewing angles. MicroLEDs also offer longer lifetime, which seems to be important to Garmin, although it has been using OLED screens for many years and we don't see significant issues from its customers on that regard.
Working with AUO's first-generation microLED displays was a challenge for Garmin. Ralph says that the technology is not as mature as OLEDs, of course, and for example this caused the whole display to be 1 mm thicker compared to an OLED. One of the reasons is that the OLED panel has an integrated touch layer (on-cell touch) which the microLED does not - as of today. But that is something that is under development at AUO.
The main surprise with the microLED Fenix 8 Pro was the low battery life. Polshak addresses and confirms that the microLED panel is indeed less efficient compared to an OLED. This is because the whole technology and platform is less mature - and eventually microLEDs will more efficient than OLEDs - but it will take time. This is an interesting issue that we covered before.
