Reviews - Page 9

Engadget posted a review of samsung's Gear Fit smartwatch, with its flexible (curved) 1.84" (432x128) Super AMOLED display. And they really love that display - it's beautiful, the curve feels natural and it's aesthetically pleasing. The colors are vibrant - and the only problem is that it's barely readable in sunlight unless you set it to "outdoor brightness mode".

But eventually the reviewer is not happy with this hybrid smartwatch and fitness band, due to the weak software and awkward UI. And they say that the $199 price is too much for this device.

Update: Engadget posted a full review of this phone, you can read it here.

Engadget posted a short hands-on review with LG's G Flex curved smartphone. While they like the display and understand that this is just an early stage of curved and flexible displays, they say that "there doesn't seem to be much of a point for people to buy into the idea". Overall it is a pretty good first-gen product, but still a novelty.

Compared to the Galaxy Round, Engadget's reviewer says that Samsung's phone feels better in the hand (he says that the G Flex is very large and pretty uncomfortable in the hand and a little awkward to handle) and it offers a higher-resolution display (even though it is smaller in every dimension).

OLED is a unique lighting technology - it enables flat, diffused planar lighting panels. These panels are different to the point (or line) sources we're used to - incandescent, fluorescent, CFLs and LEDs. But you can also use LEDs to build planar lighting panels. Several companies are offering such solutions called edge-lit panels.

Israel's OREE developed proprietary technology that enables them to offer panels which are so thin that they are quite similar to OLED panels in form (almost... more on this below), yet are efficient, very bright and a lot cheaper than current OLEDs. They were kind enough to invite me to their offices for a visit and also sent me a couple of samples for a review.

The Galaxy Round, Samsung's first flexible OLED device sports a 5.7" Full-HD (386 PPI) Super AMOLED display is already shipping in Korea and even reviewed and tested by the display experts over at DisplayMate. Engadget now posted a short hands-on review of this device, see link below.

Engadget does not mention anything about the display's quality, only about the curvature ergonomic and mostly talk about other features of this phone. This is a shame as DisplayMate says that the curve display is a major breakthrough - mostly because it reduces ambient light reflections and so improves screen readability, image contrast, color accuracy, and overall picture quality. It'll be interested to hear what more regular consumers say about this display.

Forbes' reported Geoffrey Morrison posted a review of Samsung's S9C OLED TV. Like several reviewers before him, he says that it's the best TV he ever saw. In fact, he says that the S9C is as close to a perfect television as he's ever seen, with its legitimately near-infinite contrast ratio.

Like most people he's also not happy with the fact that the OLED TV is curved, and of course he laments the high price ($8,999 in the US). He concludes his review though by saying that he can't imagine how they'll be able to get any better then this.

Raymond Soneira, the display expert from DisplayMate finally got his hands on an OLED TV - the LG Curved 55" 55EA9800. He spent two weeks with this TV testing and measuring and now he published his results. His main conclusion? "the picture quality is absolutely stunning!" and this TV, even though it's a first generation OLED TV, outperforms all LCD and Plasma TVs.

Raymond tested for color accuracy, and he says that the factory calibration is superb. In fact, the picture quality and accuracy is visually indistinguishable from perfect based on Raymond's extensive Lab tests. This is a very impressive achievement.

Engadget posted a short video showing LG's 55EA8800 Gallery OLED TV. The reported says that the TV looks very sleek, the images are great and the sound is very good too. 

Engadget also reports that LG's staff says that this OLED TV willl launch in Germany by the end of 2013 for €8,999 (almost $12,000).

Now that both LG and Samsung are shipping 55" curved OLED TVs in the US, we can expect several reviews that compare these two TVs. The first one comes from HDguru via NBC News. They like both TVs saying that they provide an image superior to any LCD or plasma TV they ever tested - but Samsung's OLED TV is better than LG's (and it's cheaper by 40%, too).

Samsung's KN55S9C was found to be brighter than the LG 55EA9800. LG's TV also suffered from dimming of test signals and stuck sub-pixels. Surprisingly, both TVs suffered from motion blur, but Samsung offers a special mode (Clear Motion) which inserts black frames between live frames. This removes the blur (but lowers the brightness).

Last week Samsung launched their 55" curved OLED TV (the KN55S9C) in the US (for $9000). CNET's David Katzmaier posted a very positive review on Samsung's OLED TV, saying that the TV offers the best picture he ever saw.

David says that Samsung's OLED TV picture quality surpasses plasma (even Pioneer's legendary Kuro) and LED LCDs with no major downsides. He does say that he'd like a flat OLED even better than a curved one, though.

Engadget posted a review of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7. They say that it's the best 7" tablet - with a stunning display, a long lasting battery, good performance and thin size. The only problem? it's quite expensive. And they sure love the 1200x800 Super AMOLED Plus display - "We could tell you it's vibrant, stunning and breathtaking, but even that wouldn't quite do it justice. The contrast here is so deep, and the viewing angles so wide, that other tablets' screens look washed-out in comparison". Amazon.com is now offering an unlocked model for $749.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the world's first tablet with an OLED display, a 7.7" Super AMOLED Plus panel, offering 1280x800 resolution. Other specs include Android v3.2, Dual-core 1.4 Ghz processor, HSPA+ radio, 16GB to 64GB internal storage and a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, GPS and two cameras (3MP and 2MP).