(Yicai Global) March 1 -- Xiaomi Corporation, Honor and other Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have put their latest smartphones equipped with organic light-emitting diode screens on display at the world’s largest mobile communications event currently being held in Barcelona, in an attempt to outshine South Korean titans.

Honor has brought its Magic 5 series, which feature OLED screens made by China’s BOE Technology, to the Mobile World Congress 2023 that ends tomorrow. While Xiaomi is showcasing its Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro phones. The Beijing-based firm’s Xiaomi 13 Lite uses flexible OLED displays manufactured by TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology.

OLED screens are brighter and have better image quality and faster response to touch compared with the previous generation of phones.

Seoul-based Samsung Display, which attended the event after a gap of five years, dominates the world’s OLED smartphone screen market with a 63.2 percent share, while BOE is in second place with 13.1 percent, according to Sigmaintell Consulting. South Korea’s LG Display is in third place with 12.5 percent and China’s Visionox in fourth place.

But China is fast catching up with South Korea's leading position. China’s shipments of OLED displays surged 21.3 percent last year from the year before to 170 million units. Tianma Microelectronics, TCL CSOT and Everdisplay Optronics all achieved growth.

Rollable, or extendable, devices are the latest thing in the mobile communications industry. Beijing-based Lenovo Group and its smartphone subsidiary Motorola brought their rollable OLED concept phone, the Motorola Rizr, which was first unveiled at Lenovo Tech World in October last year. The phone has a rollable OLED screen provided by Beijing-based BOE, which can extend to a 6.5-inch screen from a 5-inch one at a push of a button.

Lenovo also showed off the world’s first laptop with a rollable display, which is still at the concept stage. It uses a flexible OLED display, which can stretch to 16 inches from 12 inches.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor