Samsung Display finally brings V-Stripe subpixel layout to QD-OLED — mass production of new 1,300-nit 34-inch ultrawide panel also boosts text clarity

Samsung shows off first QD-OLED monitor with vertical stripe subpixel layout

(Image credit: Samsung Display)

Samsung's QD-OLED technology has gone head-to-head against LG's WOLED with one distinct advantage: better color volume. By using a blue emitter and quantum dots, the company turns an otherwise reductive filtering process into an additive outcome. As a side effect, they employ unconventional subpixel layouts, which make QD-OLEDs suffer from inferior text clarity. Fortunately, Samsung Display is finally addressing this at CES 2026.

The company has just announced mass production of the "world's first 360Hz V-Stripe QD-OLED," with a new 34-inch ultrawide panel. The V-Stripe refers to the subpixels being arranged vertically, like on a typical LCD, which Windows' font engine is most comfortable with. For years, QD-OLEDs have relied on triangular subpixel arrangements, leading to poor text clarity and fringing visible at the edges.

V-Stripe pictured from r/OLED_Gaming

The Reddit post above sheds more light on this new panel, courtesy of a hands-on article from para.de that's since been deleted. The red subpixel is the largest here because it carries a disproportionate share of perceived brightness — especially important in QD-OLED — while the blue subpixel is kept smallest because it’s inefficient, ages fastest, and has to be almost babied to protect the panel's lifetime.

Samsung is not out to fundamentally change panel physics; rather, it's an attempt to make the subpixel spacing even again. Even before this, the issue had been greatly alleviated by brute-forcing pixel density. Higher resolutions on the same-sized panels have increased the PPI to the point where it masks inconsistencies in the subpixel layout.

Still, the problem was never truly eliminated from the root, and Samsung's 34-inch ultrawide panels, in particular, had been stuck on older tech that lacked these improvements. They're not 4K or 5K-class panels like some other QD-OLED displays, so the upgrade matters most here.

"By leveraging QD-OLED's top emission structure, which offers brightness advantages, along with improvements in organic material efficiency and design optimization, we were able to mass-produce a high-performance monitor display that integrates four key features: the 'V-Stripe' pixel structure, an ultra-wide aspect ratio, a high refresh rate, and enhanced brightness." — Samsung Display spokesperson

QD-OLED subpixel layouts over the years — (Image credit: TFT Central)

Speaking of which, the other specs of this new panel are nothing to scoff at either. We're looking at a 34-inch ultrawide panel with a 1800R curvature and a fast 360 Hz refresh rate. Samsung Display has also achieved 1,300 nits of peak brightness for the first time on a QD-OLED panel, and monitors using it will be certified for HDR True Black 500, meaning 500 nits of peak brightness across 100% of the panel.

This new panel will debut at CES with options from a range of brands, including Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI, who've been supplied these panels since December 2025. That puts a retail launch at least a few months away, and even then, this will be one expensive monitor. No word on pricing yet, but we should learn more very soon.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

TOPICS

Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

5 Comments Comment from the forums

Jame5

If it has USB-C PD connectivity for my work laptop, it could be my next all-in-one monitor.
Reply
Jabberwocky79

Nice! I scoffed at the complaints about text clarity until I finally shopped for a monitor in person. I then realized how bad it was and the text fringing was a deal-breaker for me. I'm speaking specifically to larger monitors. On my OLED 4K laptop OTOH, it has perfect text clarity, because, as the article stated, on denser screens the problem is less perceptible.
Reply
Jame5

Yeah, I have a now ancient (7th gen Intel) 15" XPS with a 4K OLED display. Never once had any complaints about the text clarity.
Reply
ThisIsMe

I think you two missed something here. The OLED screens in your laptops are likely more traditional RGB-OLED screens or W-OLED screens. The article is referring to a different type of screen called QD-OLED.

Anyway, from the article:

“The red subpixel is the largest here because it carries a disproportionate share of perceived brightness — especially important in QD-OLED — while the blue subpixel is kept smallest because it’s inefficient, ages fastest, and has to be almost babied to protect the panel's lifetime.”

Do you have a reference for this? Blue LEDs were very hard to create and have been known for being more fragile, but these aren’t LEDs. Also, QD-OLED panels use all white/blue OLED sub pixels because they are the most efficient and last the longest at comparable brightness. Samsung uses a type of inkjet printing to print Quantum Dots (QD) onto the white/blue OLEDs to change their color. The printed QDs are color conversion layers that convert the white/blue light into red, green, or blue as needed. It is more likely that the size difference is mainly due to the part about the perceived brightness and not much else. Again, if you have a reference I’d love to follow up on this a bit.
Reply
Jabberwocky79

ThisIsMe said:
I think you two missed something here. The OLED screens in your laptops are likely more traditional RGB-OLED screens or W-OLED screens. The article is referring to a different type of screen called QD-OLED.

Anyway, from the article:

“The red subpixel is the largest here because it carries a disproportionate share of perceived brightness — especially important in QD-OLED — while the blue subpixel is kept smallest because it’s inefficient, ages fastest, and has to be almost babied to protect the panel's lifetime.”

Do you have a reference for this? Blue LEDs were very hard to create and have been known for being more fragile, but these aren’t LEDs. Also, QD-OLED panels use all white/blue OLED sub pixels because they are the most efficient and last the longest at comparable brightness. Samsung uses a type of inkjet printing to print Quantum Dots (QD) onto the white/blue OLEDs to change their color. The printed QDs are color conversion layers that convert the white/blue light into red, green, or blue as needed. It is more likely that the size difference is mainly due to the part about the perceived brightness and not much else. Again, if you have a reference I’d love to follow up on this a bit.
You could be right, but one thing is certain, text fringing on QD-OLED panels is obviously less noticeable the more densely packed the pixel count is. It's a noticeable difference even going down from a 43" to, say, a 32" screen.
Reply

Show more comments