- IJP OLED could be 30% to 35% cheaper than current OLED production
- Challenges remain, especially power consumption and blue OLED lifespan.
- Expect to see the tech first in premium laptops, but TVs are on the cards
A new report says that the long-awaited arrival of inkjet-printed OLED will reduce the price of OLED production, making the technology much more cost-effective and the resulting displays much more affordable.
That’s good news in the relatively short term for laptops (like an upcoming OLED MacBook Pro) and for smaller screens on devices like phones and car consoles. And in the long term it’s also good news for TV buyers.
The dominant production technology in OLED production is FMM, which is short for Fine Metal Mask. According to display analysts Omdia, FMM costs are getting lower, but inkjet printing will become even cheaper, with a 30-35% price difference compared to FMM production. Since OLED is an expensive technology to produce, that could make a big difference.
And the price is not the only benefit. Inkjet printing offers some important advantages over FMM. However, it’s important to note that those lower costs are a prediction for the future, not a measure of how much it costs to produce IJP OLED right now.
This is still a very new display technology, and that means it’s still expensive to manufacture because yields (that is, the number of panels produced that are good enough to sell) still need to be improved.
TCL, the biggest player in the IJP OLED game right now, told us it will be several years before it’s affordable on mass-market TVs, but on laptops and even monitor-sized panels, the technology is rolling out.
What’s so interesting about inkjet printed screens?
For manufacturers, the lower cost of inkjet-printed displays isn’t the only benefit. It’s expected to be much more efficient once up and running at full quality: Omdia says that for 16.3-inch laptop OLED displays, manufacturers can produce 10% more panels from a single substrate compared to FMM processes, and the machines cost less to buy.
That’s the good news. But there are still some challenges to overcome for inkjet-printed OLEDs. One of the key challenges has been the lifespan of blue OLEDs made using the IJP process: according to TCL CSOT, in 2020 the lifespan of its blue pixels was only 40 hours. Power consumption was also a major issue.
However, by the end of 2025, TCL CSOT had improved the longevity of its blues tenfold to 400 hours and reduced power consumption by a third; The technology has continued to develop since then.
This is a sector that is evolving very quickly and a lot of money is being invested in its development: TCL CSOT alone has invested $4 billion in its T8 plant, which will be located in Guangzhou, China. It is planned to produce 22,500 substrates per month.
Those panels will be aimed at monitors, laptops, and tablets, but TVs are also on the roadmap: As we reported last year, TCL has been showing TVs with panels up to 65 inches in size. Mass production of the plant’s first panels is likely to begin in late 2027.
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