There are reports that SonyEricsson's LiveView will launch next month and will cost â¬69 ($97). The LiveView is an Android accessory - it has a small (1.3") PMOLED display and can communicate with Android 2.x devices (and also control them).
Samsung has just launched a new Galaxy-S variant in Korea for the KT network, calling it Galaxy K. It seems to have the same spec of all Galaxy-S phones (1Ghz processor, 3G, Wi-Fi and 8GB of memory). Interestingly, the 3.7" AMOLED display is described as AMOLED-Plus (the same as in another variant, the Galaxy U for LG's U+ network). We're pretty sure this is a super-AMOLED display, not sure why Samsung calls it AMOLED-Plus in Korea.
Interestingly, the Galaxy K comes with Android v2.2 - the first Galaxy S phone variant to come with the new OS (which will hopefully be available for all Galaxy-S phones soon).
AT&T has just announced a new phone by Pantech called the Pantech Laser. It has a 3.1" AMOLED. This is interesting as Pantech decided in August to stop using AMOLEDs and use LCDs instead - until the supply issues are fixed.
Beside the AMOLED, the laser has a 3mp camera, and AT&T says that it's the "thinnest QWERTY slider on the market". The Laser will launch on October 17th for $99.99 (after a $50 rebate and a 2-year contract).
Update: Samsung's Wave II phone will indeed use a S-LCD... so this part of the rumor is true...
There a couple of interesting rumors about Samsung. The first one says that they have sold all of their Super-AMOLED production capacity to Apple for 2011. Apple-OLED rumors never die. This is interesting as Samsung's new 5.5-Gen AMOLED plant (that will produce ten times the current capacity) will go on line in the middle of 2011 - so theoretically Samsung might indeed have enough capacity to satisfy Apple. But will they really stop using these displays in their own products?
The second rumor is that both the Samsung Wave and Galaxy-S aren't in production anymore. Samsung simply do not have enough Super AMOLED displays. Samsung are working towards Super-LCD versions of these phones. Indeed both the Captivate (AT&T) and the Fascinate (Verizon) are currently unavailable in Amazon. The Galaxy-S unlocked is still shipping, but Amazon says that just 5 units are left. But this is strange - who is buying all those Super-AMOLED displays now if Samsung is not using them in their best-selling phones?
Nikon's S80 camera is now shipping for $329. The S80 is an update to the S70 (which was quite popular in its time, and is still available for 179$). It's got the same 3.5" touch OLED, 720p movies and 5X optical zoom. The S80 has a 14.1MP sensor, and new software.
A few weeks ago Sony announced the new NW-A850 walkman that uses a 2.8" 240x400 OLED. They have released a new ad - with an emphasis on the OLED (that's the only feature that's actually mentioned...):
The Walkman NW-A850 series is an update to the NW-A840 series, with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions.
Samsung says that the NX100 will ship in October for $599 (with a 20-50mm lens). Interestingly, Amazon.co.uk is aleady shipping the NX100 the UK for £558 ($870), as we reported last week. The NX100 is an APS-C DSLR camera (the successor to the NX10) with a 14.6mp sensor, 3" AMOLED display, 720p movie recording and an optional GPS module.
Nokia announced they're delaying the N8 launch by a few weeks - "to do some final amends". They hope to launch it during October. They also say that the phone is seeing strong pre-order demand, in fact they claim its the strongest such demand for any Nokia phone ever. The N8 has a 3.5", 360x640 touch AMOLED and runs Symbian^3 on a 680Mhz CPU. It also has Wi-Fi, a microSD slot and a 12mp camera.
It turns out that Mitsubishi's Diamond Vision OLED displays (which go on sale today!) actually use PMOLED displays, and not AMOLEDs as we assumed. This is possible because each 'tile is only 128x128 in resolution. Using PMOLEDs allows Mitsubishi to make the displays cheaply (compared to AMOLEDs).
155-inch Diamond Vision OLEDThe OLED material used in the displays is small molecule, deposited by vacuum evaporation. The material was developed by Mitsubishi and Pioneer together. (the two companies are also collaborating on OLED lighting).
