Second-Generation iPad's Backlight Suppliers Named, Quelling OLED Rumors

[kdarling]

a) if a significant part of the screen is non-black (which I think colourful images is kind of a plus when it comes to the iPad?), OLED uses significantly more power than LCD

If a screen is all white, then yes AMOLED can use 2-3 times the power. Depends on what LCD it's being compared against, and its backlight.

However, with darker screens and with most photos, it uses 1/2 the power.

So it could even out, depending on what you're doing, and your theme.

b) it's terrible in sunlight/well-lit rooms

Super AMOLED looks pretty good outside. A video comparison here.

Super AMOLED is 20% brighter, 80% less reflective, and uses 20% less energy than regular AMOLED screens.

c) it's expensive

Not so much now in smartphone sizes. For larger displays, yes.

I don't see why Apple would be considering it at this point.

AMOLED has far lighter and thinner components, two things Apple loves to death.

 

[dXTC]

I think that the Zune reviews showed that OLED is still not yet ready for prime time. As far as battery life is concerned, yes, it's nifty, but only for apps that make the screen stay mostly black. Turn on your run-of-the-mill flashlight app and something different happens...

EDIT: kdarling has noted some good points.

 

[baryon]

Didn't Steve say that OLED is too expensive and isn't perfect just yet? He said that when the iPad was launched, which wasn't a long time ago, so I doubt the situation would have changed much since then.

One day every screen will eventually be OLED - if some new even better thing doesn't get invented - but we just have to wait for it to mature. Just like SSDs.

I've never had any concerns with current screens in bright sunlight. Moreover, it's not the screen that reflects the light but the glass in front of it, which, in case of a touch screen, is necessary.

 

[nelmat]

What's wrong with the display anyway?

What is with people fixating on the iPad resolution, it's a fantastic display and books, text, games look incredible on it. 300dpi on a screen (which is what those wanting a retina display are asking for) is ridiculous and unnecessary.

How about focussing on other upgrades that would not massively impact cost, but would increase usability - more ram, larger hard drives, assisted GPS technologies - even an on board SD card slot or are these suggestions just not 'sexy' enough. I love my iPad, just wish it had a slightly larger hard drive an d maybe a bit more 'oomph'.

I had the misfortune of having a phone with an OLED display - never, ever again - the technology is not ready for the mainstream yet and it's completely unusable outside.

 

[Alvi]

I wish Apple would do it's magic and make OLEDs work well but maybe that's too much, samsung kinda already did it with phones, but I doubt that a 9.7" OLED can be added in a 499$ device, I kinda hope they do though

 

[realeric]

OLED doesn't need BLU !!!

OLED technology can offer lower power requirements.

It may not be true. OLED usually consumes more power than LCD.

 

[res1233]

Yep, and supplies are limited.

You mean their supply of fish sperm is limited. That fact alone would make me not want to use an OLED product.

EDIT: Gotta love it, nowhere can you find what that "organic compound" is that's used in OLEDs from the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode

 

[nagromme]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

OLED doesn't last long if you use the device a lot. LED-backlit IPS-Enhanced is definitely better, not just cheaper.

 

[sportsfan]

not for another year or two

Apple is followed too closely....if they put this in and there are manufactring problems or viewing problems.....think Antennagate x10.

 

[realeric]

Super AMOLED looks pretty good outside. Super AMOLED is 20% brighter, 80% less reflective, and uses 20% less energy than regular AMOLED screens. AMOLED has far lighter and thinner components, two things Apple loves to death.

I really don't like Super Duper Ultra AMOLED made by Samsung. They use pentile technology. It's terrible. For example, 800x480 resolution AMOLED made by Samsung has only 768,000 subpixels. On the contrary iPhone 4 LCD of 960x640 has 1,843,200 subpixels. AMOLED uses more power than LCD.

 

[GQB]

Yeah, it's weird to me the implication that OLED is somehow superior to LCD. It has slightly darker blacks and uses less power when the display is completely black, but:

a) if a significant part of the screen is non-black (which I think colourful images is kind of a plus when it comes to the iPad?), OLED uses significantly more power than LCD

b) it's terrible in sunlight/well-lit rooms

c) it's expensive

I don't see why Apple would be considering it at this point.

Its also my understanding that colors on OLED, while brighter, are not necessarily accurate. Its kind of like the 'pop' you see in showrooms that are cranked to look 'dazzling' but are not accurate and need to be adjusted in real life.

 

[kenypowa]

Didn't even know there were rumors of an OLED ipad. I thought all those android phones were having a hard time keeping up with OLED supply.

There is a lot of shortage on AMOLED and Super AMOLED. Nexus S sold in US/UK will come with Super AMOLED while Nexus S sold in Russia will come with Super LCD. Even Samsung can't produce enough Super AMOLED for its own phones. However, there are numerous manufacturers that will begin producing AMOLED/Super AMOLED starting 2011.

 

[kdarling]

OLED doesn't last long if you use the device a lot. LED-backlit IPS-Enhanced is definitely better, not just cheaper.

"Long" is relative. Blue OLEDs last around 17,000 hours now before hitting the 50% mark, and even longer than that if the display isn't kept at full brightness.

That's almost six years of viewing a solid eight hours a day.

That's a lot of usage, and a long time for actively used electronics.

Heck, the MLC Flash memory could be going bad by then.

 

[realeric]

LED-backlit IPS-Enhanced is definitely better, not just cheaper.

+1000. People liking AMOLED might not know what the pentile technology is.

 

[WilliamG]

I can't stand OLED, so I'm glad it hopefully won't happen on iPad 2. Nasty, nasty whites. Holding an iPhone 4 next to a Galaxy reveals the worst whites I've ever seen!

 

[hcho3]

There goes all of your stupid retina display dreams. Retina display my ass... iPad will not have higher resolution than my 17 inch MBP!

 

[fxtech]

Holding an iPhone 4 next to a Galaxy reveals the worst whites I've ever seen!

Maybe you shouldn't hold it so close then.

FWIW, the whites on my Samsung Mesmerize (Super AMOLED screen) look white to me.

 

[fxtech]

"Long" is relative. Blue OLEDs last around 17,000 hours now before hitting the 50% mark, and even longer than that if the display isn't kept at full brightness.

That's almost six years of viewing a solid eight hours a day.

And we all know your typical iPhone user would have upgraded 6 times by then.

 

[Popeye206]

And the pot gets stirred once again.

Personally, I think we're going to see lots of false and planted rumors over the next few weeks as Apple gears up for it's Q1 announcements. I think these are all geared to keep the competition guessing.

Personally, I just think a nice LCD screen would be great. Some new wiz-bang screen would be cool, but from what I'm reading here, it does not sound like OLED is the answer. They have to keep the price down and I would think, visibility in sun light would be an issue they would rather avoid. Amazon already dig's on the iPad about that.

 

[kdarling]

Holding an iPhone 4 next to a Galaxy reveals the worst whites I've ever seen!

I don't know about the Galaxy phones, but I found out that if you turn off the Power Saving Mode on the Galaxy Tab display settings, it instantly jumps from a blue cast to a purer white.

PS. Heck, some people holding iPhone 4's next to other iPhone 4's complain about their "yellow" LCDs.

 

[JulianL]

OLED scares me. I care about battery life and a lot of my use is note taking and iBooks, both of which are pretty simple sheet-of-paper type of display of black text on a white background. For my usage I suspect that a switch to OLED would hurt my battery life quite a lot.

- Julian

 

[shartypants]

As long as the display is as good or better than the current one, I'm good.

 

[cloudthegreat]

If it is like the Super OLED that the Samsung Galaxy S uses, it is a big big meh. Having worked with a Samsung Galaxy S for more than a month, what turns me off the most is the pentile matrix. It make the whole galaxy S covered in a very noticeable spider-web like pattern. And no, you don't have to put it in your face to notice it. It is very apparent at arm's length. This seriously interferes the viewing experience. Just try to view the same picture with a Galaxy S and and iPhone 4 or even the original Droid side by side, you will see a much "cleaner" picture on the other devices. And, the super-saturated colors seriously don't help either.

I just do not want the Super OLED in its current form ever.

 

[Angelchild]

This is why, if Apple quadruple iPad resolution, it can't named iPad display "Retina" --> (translated in english from italian) http://bit.ly/fnDNXB

 

[Hattig]

This is good - OLED displays are still really expensive when they start getting larger. Far better to have a high quality LED backlight at the moment in something like a tablet. I'd rather the resolution was increased - maybe not to "Retina" levels due to processor overhead - but maybe to 1440x1080 or 1280x960 just to add a little crispness.