Samsung Display and Intel have co-developed a new technology for OLED laptops, dubbed "SmartPower HDR," and it's exactly what it sounds like. Unlike traditional HDR-capable displays that keep the panel running at a fixed high voltage to account for brightness spikes, SmartPower HDR will dynamically adjust power to the panel, resulting in up to 22% decreases in battery consumption.
SPHDR will analyze the peak luminance of each frame, ensuring that the voltage remains as low as possible until the content calls for a sudden burst in brightness — only then will the display ramp up to provide the necessary juice. Even in peak brightness scenarios, compared to the regular HDR mode, SPHDR should consume a bit less power without affecting the actual brightness.
The potential SmartPower HDR carries is enormous, considering how (poorly) Windows handles HDR. In non-color-managed apps like File Explorer, the OS simulates an SDR color space inside an HDR container, resulting in washed-out blacks. For this reason, many choose to keep HDR disabled until they're playing a game or watching something that actually needs it. System-wide, always-on HDR is still a distant reality for most Windows users.
On the other hand, Apple uses Extended Dynamic Range (EDR) inside its Mini-LED MacBook Pro displays, allowing it to handle SDR and HDR content side-by-side through sophisticated dimming zone control. The display's timing controller is aware of precisely which pixels need to be brighter and need more power. Not only is this beneficial for image quality, but it also helps save battery life, so SmartPower HDR is not too dissimilar in concept from this tech.
That ties into the entire point of HDR, which is mostly higher brightness, but those peaks can only be reached in content either natively mastered in HDR or upconverted using tools like AutoHDR or RTX HDR. So, whenever you're interacting with SDR content, simply having HDR enabled in Windows will still lead to higher power consumption since the display is always waiting for/expecting HDR peaks. SmartPower HDR fixes this by making the display intelligent and content-aware.
Samsung says this reduction in power draw can lead to 30-40 minutes of extra battery life, which would only add to Panther Lake's efficiency claims. We don't have details on when SmartPower HDR is actually launching, but we'll likely see it debut on Core Ultra 3 Series laptops shipping this year, including possibly Samsung's own Galaxy Book6 (Pro and Ultra) lineup, which does carry OLED displays.
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