The arpara Tethered 5K features OLEDoS displays from SeeYA

Senior Research Analyst from Omdia’s OLED & Micro LED, Technology practice Jay Shao takes a closer look at VR brand arpara’s highly anticipated VR headsets including the Tethered 5K, the first VR headset with OLEDoS displays. 

The Tethered 5K is arpara’s first VR headset with OLEDoS displays. This is one of arpara’s two VR headsets for different scenarios. Tethered 5K is a PC/phone-powered VR, while the AIO model is designed to be a standalone VR machine. Although the AIO preorders have started coming in, they have yet to be shipped. For Tethered 5K to work, it requires an external PC or phone, making the internal structure of the device much simpler. Nevertheless, these devices have similar screen specifications.

Table 1: Specifications of arpara’s VR sets

Source: Omdia

For VR products, using cheaper fast LCD and Fresnel lenses seems to be a more economical combination. However, as the performance of VR equipment is upgraded, the race to reduce volume and weight drives designers to choose smaller displays and optical modules.

Compared with LCD, the advantage of OLEDoS is that the display pixels can be smaller than 10 microns, which means that the OLEDoS display has a smaller volume under the same picture quality. It can even achieve a smaller volume and better picture quality. Generally, the size of a binocular LCD solution is about 2.5 inches per chip, and the pixels per degree (PPD) is about 20. The 1.03-inch OLEDoS display solution adopted by arpara here can reach 32 PPD. The screen was provided by SeeYA, a Chinese microdisplay supplier.

The optical module of this VR device has four optical lenses, three of which form a folded optical path structure, while the other lens’ diopter can be adjusted, and the adjustment range is between -5.00D and +1.00D. It is more friendly to end users who need to wear vision correction glasses.

Omdia has done a detailed teardown of arpara’s tethered VR.

1. Figure 1: Tethered 5K and its exploded view

Source: Omdia

Among arpara’s VR sets, the display module consists of two 1.03-inch OLEDoS. The screen adopts the scheme of white light and color film to achieve a full-color display. See Table 2 for detailed specifications.

Table 2: Tethered 5K display specifications

Source: Teardown – Arpara Tethered 5K (VRG9080), Omdia                                                   

According to Omdia’s estimates, the cost of the display plus the optical module accounts for about 88% of the equipment material cost (Table 3). It is expected that with the further development of the VR market and the maturity of upstream components, the price of OLEDoS plus the folding optical path will gradually decrease, and it will eventually occupy the mainstream market position.

Table 3: Overall cost estimation by component

Source: Teardown – Arpara Tethered 5K (VRG9080), Omdia