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Samsung touts Super PLS display as the evolution of IPS on smartphones, plans production in early 2011
Samsung, being the global leader in mobile displays that it is, was understandably a little unnerved by Apple's IPS LCD-sporting iPhone 4, but now it's back to the forefront with its brand spanking new Super PLS tech. PLS stands for Plane to Line Switching, which helps Samsung deliver some pretty spectacular viewing angles -- even better than the already stellar ones you'll find on IPS panels -- while also improving screen brightness by a reported 10 percent. The target market for Super PLS displays will be smartphones and tablets, with a delicious WXGA resolution on offer for the top bidders. Mind you, Samsung also claims production costs are 15 percent lower than comparable IPS tech, meaning that the only thing standing between us and the next new hotness is time -- Sammy expects to begin mass production early next year. Oh, and it's working on securing a set of 30 patents relating to Super PLS, so don't go holding out hope for direct competitors from LG or anyone else anytime soon.
Spot the difference: HTC Desire's SLCD versus AMOLED
(function() { var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT'), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT')[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js'; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); Digg If you'll recall, a little while back HTC waved its white flag amid AMOLED shortages and made the jump to the readily-available SLCD for its Desire and Nexus One handsets. As a quick recap, here's what CEO Peter Chou said about the swap: "The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC's current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance." So, just how "comparable" is the SLCD? To find out, we picked up both flavors of the Desire to perform some comparison tests. Let's start off with the picture quality: what caught our attention straight away was how much sharper SLCD is, but alas, AMOLED is still in the lead for vibrancy and brightness. We dug a little deeper and learned that this has to do with the different pixel arrangements on the two types of panels -- unlike traditional TFT LCD panels, AMOLED's PenTile RGBG (red, green, blue, green, etc.) filter matrix utilizes just two subpixels per pixel instead of three in the same amount of space, thus allowing greater transmittance due to the larger red and blue subpixels. But obviously, the downside is that the pictures aren't as sharp as the denser-packed SLCD. Read on for more! %Gallery-101997%
Samsung excuses absence of Super AMOLED on Galaxy Tab with Super TFT (video)
A Super AMOLED 7-inch tablet was highly unlikely to ever materialize in a marketable form, but that didn't stop many of us from dreaming about one. Consequently, there was palpable disappointment when Samsung failed to deliver on our unicorn hallucinations with the Galaxy Tab, but the company says not to worry. The Tab's 7 inches of glorious visuals are being handled by a Super TFT panel, surely the Korean company's answer to Sony's Super LCD. It's a screen technology that has been developed "alongside" Super AMOLED and just so happens to offer better battery performance and an obvious saving in cost. We're usually inclined to consider such moves cynical marketing ploys -- keep the Super branding, drop the actual super hardware -- but the SLCD display on the HTC Desire gives us faith that perhaps TFTs really can be souped up. Video after the break.
