Smartphone performance, camera, design and display size have all evolved for good for each generation. But one area that even the newest and best phones still feel a bit behind is battery life.1

How often do you feel the need to charge your phone every day, or use steadily throughout the day to find that it comes in the evening and has a gasp for juice. Your answer is "There's quite a lot.""But the adoption of LTPO screen tech could change that, with the Samsung Galaxy Note20Ultra set to take the lead.

LTPO, which allows ultra-high resolution displays with fast 120hz refresh rates while promising to reduce battery consumption, from the likes of Apple Watch5 to Samsung, is reportedly developing its own technology for next-generation OLED screens.

The LTPO display makes the smartphone more efficient and avoids consuming large amounts of battery power. So here's what you need to know about Ltpo and how it can help Samsung make 1 of the best Android phones of the year.

LTPO stands for low-temperature polycrystalline oxide, or low-temperature polycrystalline oxide. This means that the display refresh rate can be dynamically changed and there is no need to place additional hardware components between the device's graphics processing unit and the display controller.

The ability to change the display refresh rate on the fly allows devices to use a high refresh rate that consumes power and then lower the refresh rate when it is not needed, helping to squeeze more battery life.

Apple has developed LTPO technology, which it uses in the apple Watch Series5 to scale down the refresh rate from 60Hz to 1Hz, thereby helping the smartwatch last longer. Therefore, by adopting such a technology in the display of the smartphone, it is possible to reduce the power consumption.

Currently, many OLED displays in mobile phones use low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) to build thin-film transistors (TFTs) that form the display backplane, effectively providing many electronic components to run displays. By using LTPS, the Oled display of the smartphone is about 20%-30% more power efficient than the IPS LCD display. However, the Ltps panel does not allow dynamic redfish rates unless additional hardware is used, as is the case with OnePlus8Pro and Oppo Find X2Pro. Phones like the Galaxy S20 have different refresh rates, but you have to change them manually. Even the top-end Galaxy S20Ultra cannot perform the 120Hz refresh rate and full 1440p resolution that an AMOLED display can support at the same time. This is no doubt because running your Galaxy S20 phone at 1440p and 120Hz will reduce the battery life of your phone and require you to charge it more often, thus compromising the overall life of your lithium-ion battery.

On the other hand, the back panel using LTPO has a combination of Ltps TFTs and transistors made from indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). This results in a display backpanel that uses an IGZO Tft to drive the display while the ltps Tft takes care of the switching circuit. All this leads to a more efficient overall view and a view that allows you to dynamically change the refresh rate. All this is very promising for future phones, but you may have noticed that the iPhone11 and iPhone11Pro do not support the LTPO display. Apple doesn't even have a 120Hz smartphone display yet, but it's rumored to change with the iPhone12Pro Max.

This is because IGZO TFTs are larger than those of LTPS, so they cannot be densely packed into the display. If such a display uses a TFT per pixel, the use of IGZO transistors will impair the clarity of the screen. However, the Galaxy Note20Ultra is set to use an LTPO-based display, according to rumors we've seen so far. This suggests that Samsung has found a way to take advantage of this technology without compromising the sharpness of the screen.

Because Apple owns the patent to ltpo, Samsung is working on its own display technology that makes ltpo monkey, but it won't let Samsung collect the patent fee. And the technology in question is hop.

Short for Hybrid-oxide and Polycrystalline silicon, HOP effectively combines ltpo technology with oxide Tft. It is not yet clear which oxide the Tft will use, but it is possible that Samsung could use something different from IGZO. The first news that Samsung is working on HOP tech came from a leak, not an official announcement, so we know very little about HOP as of now.

Avi Greengart, President and lead analyst at Techsponential, certainly sees the potential for the Note20 to use the LTPO display at HOP tech.

"Apple has developed LPTO display technology that helps reduce the power consumption of Apple Watch by dynamically adjusting the refresh rate. There is certainly a chance that Samsung Display will have similar technology, and it should help reduce power consumption not only on smaller devices such as wearables, but also on smartphones with a high refresh rate display," Greengart said.

"Samsung certainly has a strong incentive to find a more power-efficient way to drive fast refresh displays; they provide visibly smooth scrolling and animation, but using the 120hz mode on Samsung's Galaxy S20 is a good idea." And can reduce battery life by up to 30%. I certainly expect the next Galaxy Note to offer a high refresh rate display. As you can see in Galaxy Fold, the Infinity-O display first debuted on the Galaxy S10, and even the curved edge of the Galaxy S6Edge, there is an argument that Samsung is certainly poised to introduce something fresh into the world of smartphone display, as Samsung is driving display technology.

"Samsung has always sought to differentiate its products through innovative screen technology, being its AMOLED, folding screens etc. The transition to LTPO for future products will be a logical step, especially given power savings," said Ben Wood, Head of Research at CCS Insight.

"The screen is the largest consumable of the battery, so any improvement, even a small one, adds to overall performance. Whether it will eventually appear on all phones ultimately ascribes to how cost, performance, and other screen technologies will evolve."

Wood's last point raises a good question about whether LTPO and Samsung's hops will become commonplace in future smartphones. It is certain that Apple is potentially looking at ways to increase the efficiency of Retina displays, and OnePlus can keep the cost of the phone down by making sure it doesn't rely on extra hardware to facilitate variable refresh rates. But as Wood pointed out, it depends on how successful the first LTPO/HOP display phone is. So the Galaxy Note20 will be an interesting phone to watch in multiple ways.