OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 65

Samsung announced that the Galaxy Note 4 will ship the US on October 17th, with pre-orders starting today. The note will cost $299 with a two-year contract on AT&T or Verizon, or $31.24 per month (for 24-months) with T-Mobile. The Note 4 will ship in Europe a bit sooner.

The Galaxy Note 4 has a 5.7" QHD (2560x1440, 518 PPI) Super AMOLED display. According to DisplayMate, it is the best mobile display they ever tested.

Samsung's newest phones, the Galaxy Note 4 and Note 4 Edge haven't been released yet, but my friend Raymond Soneira already got his hands on two pre-release production devices and posted the first review of these new AMOLED smartphones.

So first of all, the regular Note 4 displays. Ray's conclusion? This is the best mobile display ever tested at DisplayMate, surpassing the AMOLED used in the GS5 and the GN3, and also the one used in the Galaxy Tab S. The GN4 display improves on previous generations in the display density (PPI), color accurate, peak brightness (750 cd/m²) and screen readability in high ambient light and the display power efficiency.

Korean analysts say that the Galaxy Note 4 will not be enough to boost Samsung's mobile unit sales, and they do not expect the new phone model to outsell the Galaxy Note 3. Hyundai securities expect Samsung to sell 1.5 million GN4 in Q3, and 9.5 million in Q4 - similar to the Note 3 sales following its launch.

The analysts say that while the Galaxy Note 4 has some improvements over the Note 3, such as a better display (5.7" 2560 x 1440 Super AMOLED), better S pen sensitivity and a metal frame, it is not enough to excite consumers.

As expected, Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 4, and the display is indeed a QHD (2560x1440) Super AMOLED panel. The exciting news (which I did not expect) is the Galaxy Note 4 Edge - the curved edge variant!

So first of all - you can see the Galaxy Note 4 Edge above. It sports a 5.6" QHD (2560x1440) display, with an extra 160-pixels on the right edge (Samsung calls this QHD+). The bent edge (besides being unique and probably very cool) can show notifications, application icons or simply controls when you want the full screen to show a video for example.

The IFA 2014 event starts next week (on September 5th, in Berlin) and I think it's going to be a very interesting trade show.

We have three confirmed unveiling events for next week. Samsung will show the Galaxy Note 4. It's pretty much confirmed that the new large smartphone will use a 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED display, but some reports suggest Samsung will also show a premium variant with a curved flexible OLED panel (I don't think this is likely, but you never know).

Samsung is set to release the Galaxy Note 4 mobile phone on September 3rd, and a new leak from Indonesia confirms previous reports saying that this new phone will sport a 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED display.

Some reports suggested that Samsung may release two Note 4 variants, one with a regular display and one with a curved one. A senior VP at Samsung Electronics even said that the Note 4 will have a "new form factor".

Update: it turns out the Moto 360 uses an LCD, and not an OLED...

On March 2014 Motorola showed their first smartwatch, the beautiful Moto 360. This Google Android Wear OS device uses a round display, which is probably an OLED but we're not sure. Motorola sent out invitations today to a launch event on September 4th, and they will probably finally unveil this interesting device.

From the invitation, it seems that Motorola will also show new smartphones, including the follow-up to their flagship Moto X with it's 4.7" 720p AMOLED display. Motorola has been using AMOLEDs for several of its phones in past years, so it's likely their new devices will also use OLED displays.

When Samsung launched the Galaxy S5, DisplayMate tested the new display (a 5.1" FHD, 432 PPI, Super AMOLED) and found it to not only be the best mobile display ever tested at Displaymate, but also 27% more efficient than the 5" Full-HD one on the GS4. Samsung told DisplayMate that the improvement mostly came from more efficient OLED materials, but they never told us which materials exactly.

During a recent investors conference, Universal Display revealed that the GS5 uses their new red emitter material, and the company says that "Samsung attributes the increase in power efficiency" to the new emitter. This is rather surprising as I wouldn't have thought a new red emitter can effect the power efficiency of the whole display so dramatically.

Taiwan's AU Optronics has been struggling with AMOLED production for years now, but finally the company started mass production of two AMOLED panels: a 1.63" 320x320 panel for wearable devices (smart watches), a 4.3" 480x272 panel and a 4.97" 1280x720 panel. Towards the end of 2014, AUO will also release a 5.46" Full-HD panel.

This is great news for the OLED industry and for everyone who wants to adopt AMOLEDs in their products. Please contact us if you want to find a supplier for these OLEDs.

A couple of months ago, Samsung release the Galaxy S5 LTE-A, that sports the company's latest AMOLED panel - a 5.1" QHD (2560x1440) Super AMOLED. Anandtech posted a long review of this new phone, and they find that the display is actually a little bit more efficient than the 5.1" FHD panel used in the GS5, even though it sports a higher resolution (which usually means a less efficient display as the aperture ratio gets smaller.

Anandtech further says that Samsung told them they switched to a new, improved emitter material for the new QHD panel, which explains the increased efficiency. This is interesting as the QHD display was released only a few months after Samsung started producing the FHD panel, which by itself was 27% more efficient than the previous generation panels - also due to more efficient OLED materials.