Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

samsung thinks AMOLED is better than Retina Display? Let's see...

A

actorkid

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
401
0
I'm sure many of you have read the article on engadget where Samsung touts their AMOLED display saying its pretty much in all ways better than Apple's retina display. If you haven't, the article is here.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/09/samsung-iphone-4s-retina-display-is-nice-but-its-no-amoled/

I'm interested to see everyones view on this. I know none of us have actually had hands-on time with iPhone 4, but let's look at it from a technical perspective.

I'm not doubting that AMOLED is more energy efficient, and perhaps even has a slightly better contrast ratio than IPS, but honestly, what I care most about is definition and clarity.

Samsung claims that the retina display is only 3-5% sharper than their AMOLEDs....well correct me if I'm wrong, but the PPI on iPhone 4 is about 320, and by my calculations, the PPI on a 4 inch AMOLED with a 480X800 res should have a PPI of a little over 200.

I'm not sure how each pixel relates to sharpness, but i do know that a PPI of slightly over 200 is definitely not over 300, therefore pixels can be distinguished by the human eye.

This is why, IMO I think I'll prefer the Retina Display.

Anyone else?
 
I think it is annoying! Someone is always be on top, and it can not be the iPhone all the time. Everything has its flaws.

However, I have not seen one person with this phone, so I think that says a lot! :D
 
one thing Samsung forgot to mention is the fact that OLED screens sucks in bright light (outside).
 
i honestly don't think normal customers really care about which display looks clearer. as long as you can see it perfectly
 
Color reproduction. I have a nexus one (samsung AMOLED AFAIK) and many colors are over-saturated and unnatural looking.
 
also, I believe current AMODLED displays don't have a full true RGB trio for each pixel, so the actual amount of picture elements is lower still?
 
I think its personal preference but I do agree with the other poster, we really need to wait and see since the iPhone isn't out yet.

Personally, I'm blown away by the vivid colors and the blackness of black that the AMOLED provides.

I'm a bit confused by Samsung's statement that the LCD is more power hungry then the AMOLED, I thought the opposite was true, AMOLED is a power pig.

anyone care to chime in on which one is more efficient?

As for outside, yeah the performance of the AMOLED outside is pretty aweful, but when I know I'll be outside, I'll increase the brightness and its workable.
 
maflynn said:
I think its personal preference but I do agree with the other poster, we really need to wait and see since the iPhone isn't out yet.

Personally, I'm blown away by the vivid colors and the blackness of black that the AMOLED provides.

I'm a bit confused by Samsung's statement that the LCD is more power hungry then the AMOLED, I thought the opposite was true, AMOLED is a power pig.

anyone care to chime in on which one is more efficient?

As for outside, yeah the performance of the AMOLED outside is pretty aweful, but when I know I'll be outside, I'll increase the brightness and its workable.
Click to expand...

Absolutely incorrect. I'm not sure where you got the idea that it AMOLED takes more power. One of the biggest features of LED technology is it's low power consumption.
 
Just something I came across the intarweb. That's why I asked that :)
 
Badandy said:
They're talking about their Super AMOLED, which performs well in sunlight. Read the article people!
Click to expand...

I believe I've read that it performs well, but still not quite as well as a good LCD. This is definitely just Samsung stepping in to defend their turf.

And if S-AMOLED is anything like previous OLEDs, then it's only power-efficient with darker screens. The more light and color you show, the more energy the screen consumes.
 
they claim steve said IPS is superior to AMOLED in all respects, but that is not true. He said it is superior "for things like this" or something along those lines. I'm assuming he meant handheld, portable electronics, which will be used outside, in bright light, etc, making LED backlight LCD's superior, IMO, because you can actually see them outside. The OLED screen on my Zune HD is gorgeous, but if I'm using it outside at the pool or on the beach, or other places with bright light, I have to strain my eyes just to see the bright white controls. And you can forget reading text or looking at images, they just won't show up.
 
Badandy said:
The displays samsung is talking about are SAMOLED. Super AMOLED.
Click to expand...

The super part is actually just a difference in how they mate the screen to the touch-sensitive grid, making the display "clearer" and better in sunlight. Has no effect on color performance as I understand it.

edit: here's a video. Good visibility, over-saturated colors (look at the orange). After using a nexus and a moto droid, I preferred the droid's screen and colors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEarDy0QgM
 
Well, one kind of has to assume that Samsung which produces both LCD and OLED panels knows this stuff better than Apple (which produces none of them). Do you really think that Samsung uses more expensive AMOLED panels in their best products because those panels are worse than LCD?

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Super AMOLED:

Compared with the first-generation AMOLED, the Super AMOLED claimed advantages are:
- a 20% brighter screen
- 80% less sunlight reflection
- 20% reduced power consumption

One just can not expect Apple products to have the best and latest technologies for the following reasons:

- Apple needs high volume (its products are popular)
- Apple business model (one phone model at a time). Other companies offer a wide range of models including low and high end. Apple customers are kind of doomed to get only mid-range stuff (at least in some respects)
- the latest and greatest tech is rarely available in high volumes.

This is no different from laptops where Apple customers are used to not having the latest and greatest (like USB 3.0, RGB LED backlit screens, quad core chips, touch screens and so on).
 
Has there been any detailed writeups on the SAMOLED display yet? Arstech had this great one on the N1's AMOLED screen and it seems to me that it's really not very good, but I haven't seen one in person. What I do know is the iPad's IPS display is fantastic (as long as you can get one with even backlighting :( - hoping the smaller iPhone 4 size will minimize that problem) — near infinite viewing angle, very vibrant colors — so taking that with a better bonding process moving the pixels closer to the surface and WAY higher PPI, I think the iPhone 4's screen will be king when it comes out. Remains to be seen though. Samsung doesn't have any SAMOLED screens out there yet either, do they?

p.s. Is Samsung trying to come up with the longest possible acronym for a screen? :D
 
Samsung make me laugh! They kick up a fuss about SJ's comment but look at their phone. It's practically a Chinese knock off! A complete carbon copy of the iPhone. When i first saw it i actually thought it was a joke!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back