iPhone Air 2 anniversary edition to borrow Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's design surprise

Apple will be releasing an even thinner iPhone Air 2 in time for the 20th anniversary of the OG iPhone that launched in 2007.

Thanks to new OLED display tech furnished by its screen suppliers Samsung and LG, the iPhone Air 2 will reportedly eschew the polarizing layer. This will not only increase display brightness and reduce power draw but also make the display assembly thinner, which is one of the design steps Apple will undertake to slim down the iPhone Air 2 even further.

Instead of twisting the backlight passing through an LCD screen so that we can actually see its colors, in OLED displays the polarizer reduces glare and reflections to enhance contrast. What Apple is considering for the iPhone Air 2 is removing the polarizer plates and replacing them with embedded filters, the so-called Color Filter on Encapsulation (CoE) technology that also deposits a completely black Pixel Define Layer (PDL) spacing between the subpixels to keep the high contrast ratio characteristic of OLED screens.

Samsung's version of the CoE technology is called On-Cell Film (OCF) and is already present in its foldable phones, whose panels need to be thin and bright, yet with reduced power consumption due to their comparatively smaller batteries. Apple will reportedly use CoE display tech on the 2026 foldable iPhone, too.

The first "rigid" phone where Samsung will apply an OLED display with OCF technology, though, is said to be a thinner Galaxy S26 Ultra, so Apple will be watching closely how the tech fares on Samsung's 2026 flagship, as well as its market acceptance. If all goes well, Samsung will be widening its CoE equipment investment in Q4 in preparation for the iPhone Air 2 launch.

The original iPhone Air that was released with the iPhone 17 crop may not have a successor in 2026. While undoubtedly elegant, Apple fans scoffed at the many compromises needed to achieve its dimensions compared to the Pro models. In 2027, however, technological advancements will allow Apple to slim down the Air 2 display package and fit a larger battery with higher silicon content to improve its endurance on a charge, as well as an extra camera, and hope for better market acceptance.

Apple is also developing new and "complex" LTPO panel technologies for the iPhone 19 (or whatever it chooses to call it) in 2027, tip insiders, so there will be plenty of surprises in the iPhone's 20th anniversary year lineup.

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