HUAWEI can allegedly buy Samsung display panels now (but not chipsets)

The United States government’s ban on HUAWEI prevents the company from buying components from multiple major distributors. However, it looks like the US has given one component-maker the greenlight: Samsung Display.

According to Yonhap News (via SamMobile), Samsung’s display division can now sell OLED smartphone panels to HUAWEI. It’s not yet clear when or how Samsung earned this approval from the US government, as the HUAWEI ban’s statutes previously prevented this.

Related: Best of Android Mid-2020: Which phone has the best display?

This likely won’t change much for HUAWEI’s situation, though. The company never lost access to BOE when it comes to display panels, so it didn’t necessarily need Samsung. However, Samsung is world-renown for its display quality, which is helpful for HUAWEI. Additionally, HUAWEI displays coming from multiple sources is always good for product integrity.

Regardless, this is good news for HUAWEI at a time when good news is hard to come by.

HUAWEI displays coming from Samsung

The HUAWEI ban is built on the idea that the company could use its products for spying on other nations. Considering it would be incredibly difficult to use a smartphone display alone for that, it makes sense that the US would allow Samsung to deal with HUAWEI for those products.

Unfortunately, what HUAWEI really needs is a company with which it can work to develop chipsets. With every major distributor blocked by the HUAWEI ban — except MediaTek, for now — HUAWEI can’t produce its Kirin chipsets any longer. This will make it incredibly difficult for HUAWEI to produce smartphones at all. Even if it can, they won’t be much like the HUAWEI phones we are used to.

Perhaps this news related to Samsung supplying HUAWEI displays is a sign that the tide is turning. HUAWEI could sure use some more good news.