In September 2025 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.
Yesterday Samsung launched its flagship smartwatch for 2026, the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 - with a circular 1.52" 498x498 OLED that reaches 5,000 nits of peak brightness. This is the world's brightest wearable display, surpassing AUO's 4,500 microLED. This shows how OLEDs have room to improve and will make it very challenging for microLED to introduce improved performance.
MicroLEDs do have the potential to enable much brighter displays compared to OLEDs. But will customers actually need extremely high brightrness in consumer devices such as smartwatches or smartphones? It is likely that OLEDs will be able to reach around 10,000 nits if needed.
