Samsung Super AMOLED explained in pretty moving pictures (video)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted March 9th 2010 7:04AM
posted March 9th 2010 7:04AM
posted March 9th 2010 7:04AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Good work Sammy.
@(Unverified) LOL. the top image looks :vaguely: similar to a female pad advertizement! ;]
@(Unverified) I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more Super AMOLED smartphones.
@(Unverified)
Well done Samsung for coming up with an impressive brand name for something trivial which actually only improves brightness by 5-10%.
So AMOLED with in-cell capacitive touch is "SUPER AMOLED!!!!"
Well, TFT with in-cell capacitive touch, exactly the same technology is now available from many manufacturers (LG even have a 13" panel), but nobody thought it worthwhile trying to brand such a minimal improvement with such a big sounding name.
Perhaps LG should call it "SUPER TFT OMG version!!!!" and then point out that they are still brighter than OLEDs. And better outdoors. And more power efficient showing web / documents. And don't suffer from screen burn. And much cheaper. And with better colour reproduction. And don't suffer colour shift over time as the blue fades. And less fragile.
@fnuky
Yeah, but AMOLED improvements are more important than TFT improvements. The way I see it, TFT needs to start making way for AMOLED. And AMOLED will start making way for SAMOLED. That is, of course, after the extinction of CRT and LCD.
(I can start getting used to all these abbreviations)
@Invader Par Move a few letters around and its SAMEOLD...
@fnuky
OLED has better blacks and looks better inside. It also doesn't have viewing angle issues.
@(Unverified)
they blew a chopper to advertise this, it must be super!
@paulwks Brilliant!
Samsung wanted to charge me 1000SGD (714USD) to repair my AMOLED screen on my i8910. A new phone cost 1025. Now that the touch sensors are integrated, the repair cost will probably be 'super' too
Man, that is just SUPER!
@benny90
Honestly as an owner of a Zune HD, i can not for the life of me see the "outdoors is such a problem" thing. yeah its harder to see if the screen is in direct sunlight, but if you tilt it away from the direct beam of light, everything is fine again. its not like they are unusable outside on a sunny day, just if you let the light actually beam down on top of the damn thing.
I'd rather they focus on the tech getting cheaper than fixing these "terrible" problems.
@SmilinGoat How do you tilt the screen away from the sun and still have it visible to you? Only way to avoid direct sunlight to your screen is to cover the sun with your phone and look up. That not only makes you look dumb but also hurts your eyes.
I don't know where you live, but here in Toronto, using those screens outside in summer is quite painful.
*Off to change my trousers.
awesome but how much do they cost..
@appleipad
They conveniently forgot to mention sunlight readability.
@Eternity Its actually a shit ton better in sunlight. There's been videos of it, look around. It's really impressive.
@jellotime91
I looked around but couldn't find any.
A lot of companies now seem to advertise even the smallest manufacturer updates just to try and fool the end consumer into thinking they have reinvented the wheel. All I see here is a simple manufacturing update which happens in the life cycle of a product.
When a product is first release to the consumer it is usually expensive to manufacture due to the techniques and the materials used. However, over time the material and the effort are optimized/reduced to save money and time with this being reflected in the price, such as the PS3 slim. Hence integrating the display screen with the touch sensitive layer is just one of those optimisation steps. It will probably reduce the cost of the devices using them but Samsung will probably use it as a selling point and increase the price by 20%.
The difference between the AMOLED and SUPER AMOLED (and in fact TFT and AMOLED) will be so small that it will only be noticed in extreme condidtion. Condition which the average user will never experience.
@zainuluk
ah... good ol' corporate greed....
@zainuluk
You can't see anything on an ordinary AMOLED in bright sunlight. Whereas everything's still perfectly clear in bright sunlight while using SUPER AMOLED. Maybe it's just me, but that sounds like a HUGE improvement.
@Xyned
So maybe this is a bug that has been fixed rather than an added feature.
@zainuluk: yeah. Companies should just stop improving stuff. We already got it good enough. :/
Seriously though, from the videos I've seen of Super AMOLED (horrible name BTW), it appears to be a definite improvement, as getting rid of the touch layer provides even richer blacks, and less reflections, which would make a difference in outdoor use. Anyone who's received a text on a sunny day will sure appreciate not having to either cover the screen or spin around in their tracks to reply.
This video (starting at about the 1:30 mark) does a good job of showing the difference between TFT and the two OLED technologies better than Sammy's promo video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-iP-4PzMS0
How is AMOLED on power? A better screen is great, but what we really need is better battery life. Watching a movie on your phone isn't that great if your phone craps out after an hour of heavy usage.
@nachotech
I disagree, i can watch two TV episodes on my phone on to way to and from work, browse Engadget for 20 minutes and make a fair few phone calls before I put it on charge for the night and still have 40-50% battery life left.
With more and more places being equipped with charging points (my train has a usb port on most seats for example). I would gladly opt for the better quality and larger viewing angle to share the videos with friends.
@nachotech
If you're looking at a photograph, it saves around 20% power compared to a TFT.
If you're looking at a website or a word document, it uses around 200% more power than a TFT.
@fnuky
Hold the phone, 200% more power during general use? Where'd you pull that stat from?
looks great!
too bad i don't live in Rainbow City.
Get it on the Palm Elan
Video reminded me of a Claritin commercial.
give me a 55" Super AMOLED screen, we'll speak about it then
I don't want any of those screens, they all spray random colors on you when you use them apparently.
@cyclone13
Yeah, not to mention all of the poor butterflies that are harmed in the production of these new screens...
Windows Phone 7 and Super AMOLED ftw!!!
Lol 0.41: the left phone says TESER on the side
#1. My people at Samsung at Seocho Samsung Town say that APPLE just placed a rather large order for these. Hmmmm....
#2. I need this ASAP
#3. Needs 3D
#4. Makes my Sprint Samsung Moment with OLED feel pathetic now.
@Ice Cold samsung make their own phone as well. I doubt they are going to sell the technology to apple.... and since when apple use 'super' technology anyway....
@paezbak Lies, they use magical technology with pixie dust. No, but really, apple is no fun.
@paezbak Uhm, Apple already uses some samsung parts in their phone. Samsung would gladly give this to apple, even at a huge discount. Having a part in the iPhone is a huuuuge sales booster. Every company wants to have a part in it.
I'm pretty sure it's not that obfuscating.
see a video i took at MWC. Its like watching something in real.. the bug and lady bird seem like crawling on my screen
http://www.fonearena.com/blog/2010/02/17/samsung-super-amoled-playing-video-proof-of-awesome-display-technology.html
PS : watch video in HD
@vRUN
sigh, now add Super amoled on the Supersonic wishlist...
dear samsung, please sell these in large quantities to the Zune HD team with a clause in your contract that states they must sell 64 GB and 128 GB models.
It's a great idea to integrate the touch layer, but they should either drop PenTile and go with a proper RGB subpixel arrangement or significantly increase the resolution. The dithering and fuzzy lines with red/blue fringes caused by the PenTile RGBG arrangement are my biggest gripe with the Nexus One's screen. If they keep that for Super AMOLED I'm not really interested.
@GnillGnoll
You JERK! It's like the Sony Trinitron wire. I didn't know it was there until somebody told me about it and now it bugs the crap out of me.
Hmmm I dont want to sound like a pervert but did someone else found the scene at 0:18 a little weird ? but technology is awesome :D
gotta give em credit....sammy knows how to make a good screen.
@leykis101
How is this relevant?
so... the screens are made of butterflies?
haha, senser.