Engadget has posted a review of Apple's new iPhone 4 phone. They love the IPS-LCD display: "to our eyes, there has never been a more detailed, clear, or viewable screen on any mobile device...Because Apple is using IPS and LED technology for its screen, the iPhone
4 is mercifully visible in full sunlight, and performance in low light and at extreme viewing angles are favorable. Overall, you simply won't find a better display on a phone, and that's not just lip service."

Samsung Mobile Display says they began construction of their new 5.5-Gen AMOLED plant. The new plant will start production in July 2011. The new plant will have a monthly capacity of 30 million 3" displays.

Samsung will invest $2.2 billion on the new plant, that will have 3 lines (1300X1500mm). It's possible that Samsung plans to use the plant for OLED TV panels, and not just small mobile displays.

CNet has posted an interesting video in which they test whether AMOLED displays are better than LCDs. The conclusions? The AMOLED provide better colors, but also less accurate ones. They also suffer under sunlight (although the new Super-AMOLEDs are quite good). See for yourself: (update: the video is no longer available)

TechBlog has done an interesting test, putting a Super-AMOLED vs a 'regular' AMOLED and an LCD in direct sunlight. They used 3 phones for the comparison: Samsung Galaxy S (4" 480x800 super-AMOLED ), HTC Desire (3.7" 480x800 AMOLED) and a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (4" 480x854 TFT LCD).

It seems that the best display is still the LCD, but the Super-AMOLED (which is a lot better than the regular AMOLED) comes close - and most of the times the difference is negligible.

Samsung has reduced the price of the TL500 compact camera by $50 (now it costs $399). The TL500 is Samsung's flagship compact camera that's very fast, has an ultra-wide and bright F/1.8 lens (3x zoom), 10mp and a large 3" swiveling AMOLED.

The TL500 costs $399.

AT&T announced that they will start shipping the Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S) in the coming months. The Android v2.1 phone has a 4" WVGA 800 X 480 Super-AMOLED display, 1 Ghz processor and can shoot HD video at 720p (with a 5mp camera).

Samsung Galaxy S

AllAboutSymbian has posted an interesting interview with Damian Dinning, Nokia's Imaging Chief - talking about the upcoming N8. He says that Nokia chose an AMOLED because of the richer colors and wide viewing angles. He also says that the new AMOLED used in the N8 is 'definitely' better than previous AMOLED efforts from Nokia (like the N86 and N85). It's not known how it compares to Samsung's 'Super AMOLED'.

This is good news, as users of the n85 has been complaining about sunlight readability: saying it is totally useless in such situations.

Universal Display announced that they have been awarded another Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I $99,900 program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Under
this program (titled Novel Optical
Enhancement for Thin
Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panels) Universal Display intends to demonstrate a white
phosphorescent OLED lighting panel that meets Energy Star criteria
using
an optical enhancement technique which improves outcoupling
efficiency
while preserving the thin, elegant form factor of the white OLED
lighting panel.

Universal Display will
employ a
novel outcoupling technique that performs as well as thicker
treatments,
such as macro-extractors or outcoupling blocks, but is
significantly
thinner. Outcoupling enhancements are commonly used to increase
the
amount of light that is emitted as useful light. In addition to
maintaining its thin and light weight form factor, the resulting
white
PHOLED lighting panel, which UDC intends to deliver to the DOE,
may
improve the company’s previously reported lighting panel efficacy
results by over 25% and demonstrate a desirable path to meet the
Energy
Star Category B criteria for solid state lighting.

Engadget posted an interesting preview on the Samsung Galaxy S. The most interesting bit is that they claim that Samsung will not sell Super-AMOLED displays to other companies for the next 18 months. Samsung can't meet demand as it is, so this make sense.

Engadget are very happy with the display (which is a 4" WVGA 800 X 480). It has terrific color and vibrancy. "this is one of the finest displays you can hope to
lay eyes on". Even in direct sunlight it remains usable - as long as you face it directly. If you view it from an angle, it suffers dramatically. The phone itself is impressive, but they say it's not "polished" enough.

E2M Technology is introducing two OLED lighting kits based on OLED panels made by Philips and OSRAM. The first kit is called White Amethyst, and includes a 4cmx4cm Philips' Lumiblade white square panel (like the one we reviewed a while back). The kit includes one OLED panel, a driver and PC software (which can alter the lights luminosity level and program lighting sequences for up to four OLEDs via USB port). The kit also includes an on-board light sensor. It costs £459. Here's a sample art-piece that E2M is showing, using the White Amethyst kit:

The second kit is called White Sapphire, and this one is based around OSRAM's ORBEOS panel (here's our review of the ORBEOS). The ORBEOS is larger (a circle, 79mm diameter) than the Philips' square panel. The kit is otherwise pretty much the same, with the same driver and software. It costs £609.