Super AMOLED: introduction and market status - Page 5

DisplayMate posted an in-depth review of the Galaxy S6 (and GS6 Edge) displays, and they find that this display offers several significant enhancements over the Galaxy S5 display. In fact the GS6's display is the best mobile display ever tested at Displaymate, together with the display used in the Galaxy Note 4.

The most impressive advances over the GS5 are the high density (577 PPI over 432 PPI), higher resolution (2560x1440 vs 1920x1080), a 27% improvement in absolute color accuracy, higher brightness (12% improvement) and higher readability and contrast in high ambient light.

Dell's Venue 8 7000, the world's thinnest tablet (6 mm) is now shipping in the US for $400. The Android tablet uses a 8.4" WQXGA (2560x1600) Super AMOLED display (359 PPI), similar to Samsung's own Galaxy Tab S.

Samsung announced today that the Gear VR (Innovator Edition) will arrive in the US next month. The Gear VR will cost $199 ($249 bundled with a Bluetooth gamepad). Of course you will also need a Galaxy Note 4 (with its 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED) to use this VR HMD.

Samsung's Gear VR is a Virtual Reality Headset (developed together with Oculus VR) that uses a Galaxy Note 4 for the screen, processor, sensors and audio.

AT&T announced that it will start accepting Galaxy Note Edge orders on November 7th. The Note Edge will carry a $100 premium over the Galaxy Note 4 - so it will cost $399.99 with a two-year contract. AT&T will also sell it unlocked for $945.99.

The Galaxy Note Edge is a Note 4 variant that includes a flexible Super AMOLED display that curves around the right edge. The "main" display is a 5.6" QHD (2560x1440), and the right-stripe adds 160 rows that display icons or notifications.

Samsung announced two new mid-range phones aimed towards the youth market, both with Super AMOLED displays. First up we have the Galaxy A5, which Samsung says is their slimmest phone ever at 6.7 mm. The A5 sports a 5" 720p Super AMOLED display, 13mp camera, 5mp front camera for selfie shots, 1.2Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage memory and a 2,300 mAh battery. As in several of Samsung's latest smartphones, it uses a stylish metal body.

The second phone is the Galaxy A3, the A5's smaller sibling - with a 4.5" qHD (960x540) display. It looks pretty similar, but it's actually thicker at 6.9 mm. The specifications are a little below the A5: a 8mp camera (same 5mp front camera), 1,900 mAh battery, 1.2Ghz quadcore CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage memory.

Back in July, there was a report from Korea stating that Samsung Display's CEO wants to expand OLED sales into the Chinese market in a move to diversity and expand the company's OLED customer base. Following Samsung Electronics relatively weak smartphone sales, this is not surprising.

Now there are reports from Chinese media stating that SDC is indeed talking with Chinese smartphone brands for OLED supply deals. According to those reports, Huawei and OPPO are interested in those displays and we should expect AMOLED smartphones from those two companies soon.

Oculus VR recently unveiled their 3rd-Gen VR HMD development kit, codenamed Crescent Bay. Oculus would not reveal any details regarding the display panel used, but they did confirm it is a new OLED display.

Oculus adopted a low-persistence AMOLED display for their 2nd-Gen VR HMD - and it was later discovered that it is the same Super AMOLED display used in the Galaxy Note 3 (complete with the touch layer and all).

Last month Samsung announced their latest smart watch, the Gear S, with a flexible (curved) 2" 360x480 (300 PPI) plastic-based Super AMOLED display. The Gear S includes a 3G chip (it doesn't have to be paired with a smartphone) and Samsung now announced that it is coming to the US "this fall" - and will be available from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

The Gear S runs the Tizen OS, and includes seven sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, heart rate, ambient light, UV and barometer. It weights 67 grams (blue black edition) or 84 grams for the white edition and includes a 300 mAh battery which should last for two days.

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.