OLED devices - Page 20

A few days ago we reported that Sprint was pleased with the first-day response of the Epic 4G phone. Now Sprint says that the phone "became one of Sprint's best-selling devices for first-day sales". There still won't give exact sales numbers. The Super-AMOLED display is one of the phone's major selling point, according to Sprint: "With its beautiful Super AMOLED touch-screen, full QWERTY keyboard and two cameras, Samsung Epic 4G is a terrific smartphone that delivers the promise of the Sprint 4G network".

Remember NKK's programmable OLED pushbutton switch? Introducing in July 2008, it includes a 65K color OLED module capable of full-motion video. Today NKK announced that they have released a new version that doubles the lifetime of the OLED display (to 30,000 hours) and reduced the power consumption by 30%.

Back in May, Samsung (the only company with a mass-production AMOLED plant) announced that they can't meet up with the demand for AMOLED displays. Soon later we heard that the HTC Incredible is suffering from AMOLED shortage, and later on HTC decided to use LCDs instead of OLEDs in that phone (and others). Samsung, meanwhile, is said to be keeping all Super-AMOLED displays for themselves.

In fact, HTC is not alone: Pantech made the same decision, and we keep hearing of new devices that were originally said to have AMOLEDs, but actually use LCDs instead. Samsung's own Galaxy-S phone is a huge success, so even Samsung probably cannot use AMOLEDs in other devices.

There are some rumors that Microsoft are working on a new Zune player, and they'll release it in early 2011. That's about all we know... If true, it's likely to use an OLED: the Zune-HD has one, and they might be using software similar to the WP7 - which is actually designed to be used on OLED display.

Zune HD

The Zune HD has a 3.3" 16:9 480x272 multi-touch OLED, HD radio and video (720p) and Wi-Fi. It costs $350 for 64GB, 215$ 32Gb and 157$ for the 16Gb.

INS Mobile's iVidi is now shipping for $229. The iVidi has a large (3.3" WQVGA 480×272) AMOLED display, Wi-Fi, T-DMB TV tuner, microSD slot, accelerometer and an e-reader software.

Buy the iVidi now for $229!

Sprint Nextel said it was pleased with the first-day response of the Epic 4G phone. They didn't give any sales numbers though. The Samsung Epic 4G phone costs $199 (with a new contract). The Epic 4G is a 1Ghz Android (v2.1) QWERTY slider for Sprint's WiMax network. It has a large (4") Super-AMOLED, 5mp camera (capable of 720p video recording), 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a six-axis accelerometer.

Samsung say that they have sold over a million Galaxy-S phones in the US - in just 45 days. The phone started shipping on July 15, and is currently available for AT&T and T-Mobile (it will soon be available with Sprint, Verizon, U.S. Cellular and Cellular South). Amazon are now offering it for AT&T at no cost (with a new plan), It is now AT&T's best selling phone in Amazon!. The Galaxy-S, Samsung's latest Android phone, has a 1 Ghz processor and a large 4" Super-AMOLED display.

Samsung Galaxy S

You can also buy the Galaxy S unlocked for $599.

There are some reports of a new T-Mobile phone called G2. It's a QWERTY slider running Google's Android OS. According to a leaked WalMart page, it'll have a 3.7" touch AMOLED display. No official information yet...

Back in June, we heard some rumors about an upcoming Nokia N9 phone with a Super-AMOLED display. Today we have some fresh rumors, and a photo. The N9 will be a QWERTY slider running the MeeGo OS. The display is indeed a 4" Super-AMOLED. Other specs include a 1Ghz processor, 64Gb of memory (512Mb RAM), micro-SD slot, Wi-Fi, HSPA+ an an HDMI out (the N9 is capable of 720p video).

So it's not confirmed yet, and we'd be somewhat surprised to see a Nokia phone with a Super-AMOLED (what with all the supply issues and the fact that Samsung Electronics is said to get all Super-AMOLED displays exclusively for the next 16 months or so). But we can sure hope that Nokia is working on such a good-speced phone...

Engadget claims that Sadisk is set to release a new PMP called Sansa Fuze+. The player will have a 2.4" QVGA touch AMOLED, FM tuner, 4/8/16GB and 24 hours battery life (audio only). More information will be revealed on September 12th.