OLED devices - Page 8

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus is now shipping in the UK (with a contract). It will be available sim-free on December 2nd, for £519 (you can pre-order now). The Galaxy Nexus is the first Android v4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone. It features a 4.65" HD Super AMOLED display (1280x720, using PenTile technology) with a curved glass, a dual-core 1.2Ghz CPU, Full-HD video encoding, 5nmp camera, NFC, 1GB of RAM and 16/32GB of internal memory.

Back in June, Lumiotec announced a couple of new OLED lamps: the Vanity desk lamp and the world's cheapest OLED lamp, the $450 Hanger. Both use a single square OLED panel (we reviewed a previous generation panel back in September 2010). They were kind enough to send both lamps for a review, and after a few weeks of dealings with the Israeli customs, the lamps finally arrived and here's my review.

Both lamps use Lumiotec's Version-2 square OLED panels (14.5 x 14.5 mm active area) which feature a color temperature of 4,900K and a maximum luminance of 2,700 cd/m2. The panels are not very efficient at 10.5 lm/W (they use all-fluorscent OLEDs). The Hanger consumes 12 W while the Vanity consumes 13 W (the extra Watt is because of the electric touch sensor, more on this below). Here's our hands-on review of Lumiotec's Version-1 panels.

Samsung's Focus Flash is now shipping for AT&T - free with a contract. The Focus Flash is a 'budget' Windows phone 7.5 (Mango) phone with a 3.7" Super AMOLED display. Other features include a 1.4Ghz processor and a 5mp camera.

Motorola's Droid RAZR is now shipping - starting at $111 (with a Verizon contract). The Droid RAZR is an LTE Android smartphone with a 4.3" qHD (960×540) Super AMOLED Advanced display. Other features include Gorilla Glass, a dual-core 1.2Ghz CPU, 8mp camera capable of Full-HD video, 1GB RAM, 16GB of flash memory (and a microSD slot). The RAZR is very thin at 7.1mm.

Sony's next generation portable gaming device, the PSP Vita, has a 5" AMOLED display. It was always assumed that that display is made by Samsung - which is the only company that has the capacity to deliver so many displays. According to a post in a Korean site a Samsung official says that indeed that's the case.

The Vita features a 5" touch AMOLED display (960x544), a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and a quad-core PowerVR (SGX543MP4+) GPU (Sony says that it is as powerful as a PS3), Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3G (AT&T, optional). Gaming controls include dual analog sticks, motion controls and a multi-touch pad on the rear side. It will ship in the US and EU on February 22nd 2012, and will cost $249 for the Wi-Fi version and $299 for the 3G one.

There are reports that HTC is preparing a new Android smartphone - which will come with a 4.3" qHD Super AMOLED display (which seems to be the same one used in Motorola's Droid RAZR). This will be HTC's first OLED phone since they switched back to LCD in June 2010 due to Samsung's AMOLED supply issues. It's great to see HTC back into OLEDs...

The new handset (codename Ville) will sport a new UI (Sense 4.0), a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and an 8mp camera (1080p video support). HTC will announce the Ville during MWC 2012 and release it in April 2012.

Samsung's Focus-S WP7.5 phone is now shipping for AT&T, starting from $159 (including a contract). The Focus S is a Windows phone 7 (Mango) phone with a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display. Other features include a 1.4Ghz processor, 16GB of internal memory, 4G-capable speed and a 8mp camera capable of 720p video. The phone is 8.55mm thick.

Flight Display Systems has a new Cabin Management System (called Select CMS) which includes all sorts of modules and buttons. The buttons are based on OLED displays, and the company offers three available modules (with single, double or triple OLED buttons). It looks pretty good, and it was already installed in a Gulfstream III aircraft.

Blackbody announced their new Smart OLED lamp family back in September 2011, and they kindly sent us a V-LUX OLED desk lamp for a review. The V-LUX is an OLED desk lamp with two long rectangular OLED panels, designed by Bertrand's ID Medas. The V-LUX comes in 4 colors - gray, red, black and white - they sent me the black one.

Each OLED panel is 100 cm² in size, has a color rendering index of 80 and a color temperature of 3200K. The V-LUX consumes 2.8 W and its size is 35 (H) x 25 (W) x 46 (L) cm. The price is €572.

Engadget posted a review of Samsung's Galaxy Note, and they say that "the 5.3" HD Super AMOLED display is as gorgeous as it is enormous...1280 x 800 pixels in a smartphone display is quite a feat, and it's just as impressive to behold as it sounds. The Note's 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen is incredibly bright, vibrant and detailed, thanks to its 285ppi resolution... colors on the Note pop just as they do on the GS II, that eye-pleasing contrast and saturation we've come to love from Samsung's AMOLED displays, and little vibrancy is lost when viewed from the side. However, color accuracy does start to wander a bit. This is indeed a PenTile display and so there are more green sub-pixels than any other color. This gives everything an ever-so slightly sickly tinge, especially when viewed off-angle..."

Samsung's Galaxy Note is a large Android v2.3 phone (or mini-tablet?) with a 5.3" Super AMOLED display with an HD resolution: 1280x800. Other specs include a dual-core 1.4Ghz processor, 8mp camera, touch display with pen input (it has a stylus). The phone is 9.65mm thick and weights 178 grams. The note is now shipping in Europe (£592 in the UK, without a contract).