Screens: Why the Samsung Omnia PRO and Zune HD Will Be

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By: Chuong Nguyen |8:38 AM 16-Jun-09 |218 Comments

Aside from the differentiating core technologies and software that of the

Advantages

So what's the big deal with AMOLED and why is it better than the traditional screens we have

today? As a basic, AMOLED technology can be used with capacitive or resistive touchscreens, a

comparison we've previously explored, and even non-touchscreen devices. AMOLED, short for

active matrix organic light-emitting diode, is a thin, bright display technology that doesn't require

backlighting.

No Backlight = Richer Colors

Since there is no backlight, colors are brighter and blacks are truer because there is no light from

the backlight to wash out the colors. This phenomenon is similar to the dark and bright rooms

and how vivid the display is on the Microvision pico projector.

Technical

AMOLED works by having a thin film transistor (TFT) layer consisting of an array of OLED

pixels that form a matrix. Upon activation with electrical energy, the OLED pixels will

illuminate light to render whites and colors; blacks will be shown to the eye due to unactivated

OLED pixels. According to Wikipedia, "The TFT array continuously controls the current that

flows to the pixels, signaling to each pixel how brightly to shine."

The short version is that a Super AMOLED touchscreen display integrates touch sensors with the

glass surface panel, eliminating at least one layer of glass and with it, a layer of air. That’s what

makes Super AMOLED super. Only Samsung makes it.

Super AMOLED schematic from Samsung

I said “at least one layer of glass” because AMOLED itself eliminates at least one layer in a display.

The current Galaxy Tab, for example, uses a TFT-LCD (Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display)

screen. Until very recently, TFT-LCD has been the state of the art in thin color displays and is still

the only cost-effective option in the vast majority of displays larger than a smartphone screen.

TFT-LCD has approximately four layers: a backlight, a TFT color filter, a touch-sensor panel, and an

outer glass screen. AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) eliminates the separate

backlight. AMOLED, however, is known for having problems with glare and readability in direct

sunlight, even relative to average LCD screens. By minimizing the number of reflective surfaces and

power necessary to achieve vivid color, Super AMOLED was designed in part to address this.

Samsung introduced Super AMOLED to commercial devices this year with the Samsung Wave,

which ran their own Bada OS. The Android-powered Samsung Galaxy series of smartphones made

the displays popular, and it’s since appeared on Samsung’s Windows Phone 7 handsets as well.