Samsung Display has announced development of a 15.6-inch 3840 x 2160 OLED display panel which they are calling "the world’s first UHD display for the notebook/laptop market". And mass production of the panel will begin in mid-February, "initially for use in premium notebooks produced by leading manufacturers".

"The new OLED panel, as unveiled by Samsung Display, is equipped with a wide range of cutting-edge functionality including a contrast ratio of exceptional quality, as well as extreme color accuracy, full HDR compatibility, a very wide color gamut, and remarkable outdoor visibility, all of which are considered essential specifications for tomorrow’s premium notebooks.

The new panel features a brightness level ranging from 0.0005 to 600 nits, and a dynamic contrast ratio of 120,000:1. Compared to LCDs, black color appears 200 times darker and whites twice as bright, maximizing the benefits of HDR to deliver the utmost in high-resolution video and images.

The new display provides a spectrum of 3.4 million colors (double that of similarly sized LCD panels), which allows for truly life-like images, with colors meeting the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives)-P3 standard, the specification best suited for video streaming. The 15.6-inch UHD panel is designed to keep the complete DCI-P3 color gamut fully intact while emitting significantly less blue wavelengths that can potentially be harmful to the eye, making images easier to view even after prolonged use."

Based on the mention of "a dynamic contrast ratio of 120,000:1" I have to wonder if this panel will function differently from OLED screens which as emissive displays have a black level of zero, and thus offer virtually infinite contrast (though "dynamic contrast" is an effect in the control panel of LG OLEDs, for instance). For a practical implementation of a technology that has been criticized in use as a computer monitor it will be interesting to see what – if any – concessions have been made to adapt OLED for use with laptops beyond what we initially saw from Lenovo with the X1 Yoga's OLED option.

For more about this new panel you can read the full press release available here.