The team behind the upcoming Vectrex Mini has revealed that the system will no longer feature an OLED screen and will instead use an IPS display.

The team cites the cost of OLED displays as one of the main reasons for the change.

"When we originally planned the Vectrex Mini, the information we had led us to believe that a suitable 5-inch OLED display would be significantly less expensive than what we eventually found when we started sourcing components for actual production," says David Oghia, the lead on the project.

"Our initial estimate simply turned out to be wrong, these things can happen when developing new hardware. But because we had announced OLED from the beginning, we really didn’t want to give up on it easily."

Oghia explains that he and his team worked with manufacturing partners to track down an alternative OLED panel, "hoping to find one that would meet both our technical requirements and our original cost expectations." Unfortunately, finding a suitable 5-inch OLED display for less than $40 per unit proved to be impossible, and sourcing one at or above that cost would have pushed up the price of the final console.

However, cost is only one reason for the change. "When we chose the ESP32-P4 processor to run the Vectrex emulator, we developed and optimised the system using LCD displays with a resolution of 800 × 480 pixels," explains Oghia, before adding:

"This resolution gives us excellent performance and fluidity for vector games and is perfectly suited to what we need on a 5-inch screen. The OLED displays we were able to source generally use much higher resolutions. On paper, that obviously sounds attractive. But in reality, on a display of just 5 inches and with vector graphics, the visual difference is far less significant than you might imagine. On the other hand, more pixels means more data to process and refresh, putting additional demands on the ESP32-P4 and potentially reducing the overall performance of the machine."

As a result, the team has opted for "a perfectly smooth and responsive Vectrex experience with an excellent frame rate" rather than "having a higher resolution simply because it looks better on a specification sheet."

The third reason was the fragility of OLED displays. "When we finally received OLED displays for testing, we were surprised by how fragile they seemed," says Oghia. "They use a very thin layer of glass, which would have required us to reinforce the Vectrex Mini chassis considerably. By comparison, the IPS displays we tested come in a much more robust metal housing, which is obviously an advantage for a machine that we want you to be able to use for many years."

Finally, Oghia highlights the issue of screen burn-in with OLED displays. "This may not be a major concern in conventional use, but the Vectrex is a rather unusual case: it displays very bright, high-contrast vector graphics against a predominantly black background, especially when using the Clock mode, where the same vector elements may remain on screen for extended periods of time."

The IPS panel selected for the Vectrex Mini has, according to Oghia, "a very good refresh rate, excellent contrast and particularly impressive brightness of up to 900 nits." He also asserts that "blacks remain very deep, even with an IPS display. With a physical overlay in place, the black areas are practically invisible, and the result is also excellent with our virtual overlays."

This was a key consideration for some people who pledged support for the Vectrex Mini, as on an OLED screen, 'black' pixels are literally turned off, delivering the deepest and most convincing contrast.

The prototypes shown off at the recent Gamescom event in Germany and at the Replay Expo in the UK this past weekend featured this new screen. "The display offers excellent brightness and contrast, as well as a very wide viewing angle, far better than a standard LCD," Oghia adds. He adds that IPS panels are common today, with devices like the MacBook, iPad and Switch 2 using them.

While Oghia is upbeat on the decision to switch to IPS, he acknowledges that some people won't be happy, especially after the OLED screen was such a key part of the initial sales pitch.

"We know perfectly well that this is not what we originally announced," he says. "So we want to apologise for that. We talked about OLED so much that we completely shot [ourselves] in the foot! But ultimately, we made the decision to switch to this display for the final Vectrex Mini because, after all the testing we have done, we are convinced that it is the best choice for the machine. Thank you so much for your understanding, and especially for the many messages of support you have sent us about this decision. We announced OLED, and it is completely understandable that some of you are disappointed by this change. But our goal remains exactly the same: to finalise the best Vectrex Mini we possibly can, within a reasonable timeframe."

The team is holding a special launch event in London on November 21st, and you can order a ticket here.