July 2010

Samsung are still keen on OLED TVs, which will be the "dominant technology in next-generation TVs by 2015". They will be the ultimate active-shutter 3D TVs. Samsung has plans to use an Gen 8 (2200mm x 2500mm sheet size) production line for the OLED TVs. There's no date or real commitment yet, but this will hopefully happen within the next few years.

Samsung 14-inch 3D OLED prototype

There are still some technical issues to overcome. For their upcoming 5.5-Gen plant, SMD plans to introduce LTPS TFTs using conventional excimer laser annealing (ELA). TFTs formed with this technology often exhibit variation in characteristics, and this method might prove difficult in larger line. SMD is also working on other technologies: improved ELA technology, sequential lateral solidification (SLS) and super grain silicon (SGS). The company is also developing oxide semiconductor TFTs.

There are reports that Samsung is set to launch a new phone, called Cetus, which will run Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS. It will have a 4" 800x480 AMOLED (or Super-AMOLED?) display, 5mp camera, FM tuner, GPS and Wi-Fi. Microsoft actually expects most WP7 phones to come with OLED displays, and recommend building a GUI with a black background to save power.

It's been a while since we heard some new rumors about Samsung's upcoming tablet computer. According to a story on Reuters today, Samsung will launch the tablet during this quarter - and it will have a 7" display (no word whether it's a Super-AMOLED or LCD) and will run Google's Android OS. According to the story, LG also plans to introduce Android tablets devices this year.

Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab

OSRAM's ORBEOS white OLED panel has won the Electron d'Or award for product of the year in the Opto/Display category. ElectroniqueS is France's leading professional journal for the electronics industry and has already awarded the Electron d’Or prize 13 times.

OSRAM has released the ORBEOS in November 2009, and were kind enough to send us a sample for a hands-on review.

iSupply has published a teardown analysis of the HTC Droid Incredible, saying that the phone costs $163 to make. They say that the AMOLED display (Samsung's 3.7" 480x800) costs $31.20. This is rather strange, as back in January, they claimed that the same display, used in Google's Nexus-One phone costs $23.5.

HTC Incredible

So maybe the costs went up (because of Samsung's short supply). Back in January, iSupply estimated that the Touch Interface costs $17.75. So maybe the cost of both the touch and the AMOLED went down, and now they cost $31.2 together?

The HTC Incredible is now shipping for Verizon's network in the US - and it costs $99 with a new service plan (if you want to use an existing plan, it'll cost $530).

Amazon has just announced the third generation of their popular Kindle e-reader devices. The new Amazon Kindle is smaller, and lighter but still has the same display size. They are using E Ink's next-generation "Pearl" displays which offer 50% improved contrast.

There are two versions: Wi-Fi only and WiFi/3G. Both versions will ship on August 27th, and can be pre-ordered now. The Wi-Fi only will cost $139, and will come in Graphite. The 3G version will cost $189, and you can choose between white and Graphite.

Acer's Stream phone is set to launch on August 9th, and will be sold exclusively to Expansys in the UK (at least for now). The price will be £399. The Stream is an Android phone (running on a 1Ghz processor)
with a large touch AMOLED display. It features 720p video (playback and record), HDMI port, Wi-Fi and a DLNA/UPnP Streamer.

Acer Stream

Here's a nice comparison between Sony's Super-LCD (as used in the HTC desire now) and Samsung's AMOLED and Super-AMOLED displays.

The conclusion: "all the displays were really good, they all had decent color and respectable viewing angles. The super AMOLED was noticeably less reflective than the others and was blacker with the best viewing angles. Super LCD had similar detail in the rock face video and had a superior horizontal viewing angle compared to a regular AMOLED display. The AMOLED had slightly better blacks (you can't tell from the video - sorry) and slightly better vertical viewing angles. Both Super LCD and AMOLED were very reflective."

Universal Display has produced a nice short video clip about OLEDs: explaining why they are better (for mobile, TV and lighting markets), and why Universal's Phosphorescent based OLEDs are best:

There are reports that Samsung is set to release a new phone called Galaxy Q. This is an Android 2.2 QWERTY slider with a 3" Super-AMOLED. Other features will include a 1Ghz processor, 8mp camera that can record HD video, 16GB of internal memory (and a microSD slot), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and a mini HDMI port.