PPI - Page 19

AUO unveiled a new 4.3" AMOLED panel offering 257ppi. The company actually said they "launched" the new product, but it seems that they aren't mass producing it yet (this will probably happen in early 2012). But the company is reportedly shipping samples already.

The company has also demonstrated a 6" transparent OLED display (with a transparency rate of over 35%), and a 4" Touch AMOLED display that features 30% less energy consumption compared to other AMOLED. We assume that this display includes an in-cell touch panel - similar to Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. AUO unveiled their AMOLED in-cell touch technology back in June 2010.

Samsung's Galaxy S II is just starting to appear in the US, and it's already time to start speculating on its successor - the S III. According to an anonymous user in a message board, the S III will have 2 Ghz quad-core processor, the latest Ice Cream Sandwich OS, a 10mp camera, NFC and 1080p 60 fps video. But we're mostly interested in the display - a 4.65" Super AMOLED HD display offering a strange 1280x1024 resolution (352 ppi?).

These specs seems very optimistic, especially the display. The first Super AMOLED HD device, the Galaxy Note phone has a 1280x800 resolution on a 5.3" display (using PenTile technology). This means that Samsung will need to improve the ppi quite a bit. And the 1280x1024 resolution doesn't really make sense, does it?

Sony announced their 0.5" XGA (1024x768) OLED microdisplay - as used in four new cameras. It turns out that Sony is producing this OLED display on their own. The cameras that use this displays are the A77 and A65 DSLRs and the NEX-7 and NEX-5N mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (the NEX-5N doesn't come with the viewfinder, but you'll be able to buy it for $350).

To create those small pixels, Sony used a new design that uses white OLEDs and color filters. Sony also uses in-built D/A converters and driver electronics to create a small footprint.

Samsung's phone roadmap was leaked - showing us 9 upcoming phones and two tablets. There are two AMOLED phones in there. The first is the GT-I9220-W43 which features a 5.3" 1280x720 Super-AMOLED-Plus display (or Super-AMOLED-HD?). This might be the Galaxy-Q phone we heard about a few weeks ago. Achieving 720p resolution on a 5.3" display requires around 270 ppi - which isn't possible with Samsung's current AMOLED technology, so we'll label this rumor 'unlikely'?

The second AMOLED phone is a Bada hone - the Wave III (S8600-W47). It will have a 4" Super AMOLED display.

There are reports that Samsung is working on a new device called the Galaxy Q that will bridge the gap between the smartphone and the small tablet. It will have a Super AMOLED Plus 5.3" display. The Q will come in two versions: 3G and LTE, and will launch in September during the IFA 2011 exhibition in Germany.

A 7-inch Super AMOLED prototype

Achieving an HD (720p) display on a 5.3" screen requires around 270 ppi - which means that Samsung will not be able to offer that resolution using their current technology (which limits AMOLEDs to around 200 ppi). So this is probably not the rumored Super AMOLED HD display.

Update: Engadget says that Samsung will not confirm the rumor - saying that the information on these tweets came from an external source...

A few weeks we reported that there are rumors regarding a new Super AMOLED HD display coming from Samsung - featuring 720p (1280x720) resolution. It was rumored that this display will first appear in Google's upcoming Nexus 3 phone, and today we hear that Samsung Mobile Romania twitted about the upcoming Nexus S - and confirmed the Super AMOLED HD display.

Having such a display on a mobile phone seems highly unlikely. Samsung currently can't make such a high PPI AMOLED (unless they move to LITI, but this isn't expected anytime soon). Perhaps the Nexus 3 will actually be a tablet and not a phone? Or perhaps Samsung will surprise us all with a remarkable new AMOLED technology...

Sony is showing a new hybrid-printed OLED device. The red and green OLEDs are printed while the blue OLED is apparently vacuum deposited. The prototype on display is a full color 3", VGA (640x480) resolution (270 ppi).

Dupont has unveiled two new OLED display prototypes made by a coating process (using solution processable materials). The first (shown below) is a 4.3" 480x272 (128 ppi) and the second is a 5.8" display offering 294x196 (83 ppi).

Dupont says that the solution-processable displays offer better uniformity than commercial LCD displays. The cost advantage for solution-processable OLEDs grow as as the panel size increases.

Samsung released a short video showing the difference between an IPS-LCD (as used in Apple's iPhone 4), a Super AMOLED and the new Super AMOLED Plus:

Super AMOLED Plus displays are an upgrade to Super AMOLED. They use a real-stripe subpixel matrix and not pentile - and so has 50% more sub-pixels. The PPI is a bit larger but Samsung will soon make them at much higher resolutions. Super AMOLED Plus displays are also thinner, brighter and use 18% less energy than the older Super AMOLED displays.

Apple has announced the new iPhone 4. The display is a 3.5" IPS-LCD (960x640, 800:1 contrast ratio), which Apple calls a "Retina display". Why "Retina"? Because the dpi is 326ppi - "beyond the human eye's limit of distinction". Steve Jobs says that it's better than an OLED display. Even if they wanted to use OLED, no one can make enough panels...

iPhone 4

Other than the new display, the iPhone 4 is still a 3G (UMTS) phone based on the new A4 processor. It's thinner than the 3GS, but has a bigger battery (it's rated at 7 hours of 3G talk). Other features include Wi-Fi (802.11n), gyroscope, new front-facing camera, 5MP back camera that can record HD video (720p @30fps). The iPhone 4 will be available in white or black, will cost $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB, and will go on sale June 24th.