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Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone: What's under the AMOLED?
Allan Yogasingam
8/14/2010 7:24 PM EDT
When it was recently announced that the first of the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S phones was heading to the United States as the Vibrant on July 21, I decided it would be a good time to take a look inside this new smartphone and determine what had people so excited.
At TechInsights, we were able to get our hands on the first of the series: the GT-I9000. The Android-enabled phone has been selling in Samsung's native South Korea at a pace rivaling that of the iPhone, moving at volumes of more than 300,000 within 19 days of its release. Such news must excite the beleaguered Korean manufacturer, which has seen its market share in mobile handsets eaten away by the growth in demand for smartphones and the ability of companies like Apple and Research in Motion to satisfy that demand.
Super AMOLED: the key difference?
When the GT-I9000 was introduced at the CTIA wireless convention in March, reviewers were primarily amazed by the thinness and light weight of Samsung's first “high end” smartphone.
A 1-GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera give the GT-I9000 the ability to compete with other smartphones being released. The phone's key market differentiator, however, is the use of Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) technology for the screen, which Samsung first introduced with the Samsung Wave handset.
The first screens to use this type of technology—whereby the touch sensors are on the display itself, as opposed to being on a separate layer on top—are being manufactured by Samsung. Samsung is clearly hoping that 20 percent more brightness, 20 percent less power consumption and 80 percent less reflection of sunlight compared with current touchscreens will persuade consumers to go with a more “vibrant” screen than anything else available.
Our analysts at TechInsights examined the Super AMOLED screen and declared that the display was an improved AMOLED display. The improvement came from the implementation of the touchscreen pad and the integration of the display driver IC (DDI) and touchscreen controller (TSC) into one controller.
Next: Galaxy blown apart
At TechInsights, we were able to get our hands on the first of the series: the GT-I9000. The Android-enabled phone has been selling in Samsung's native South Korea at a pace rivaling that of the iPhone, moving at volumes of more than 300,000 within 19 days of its release. Such news must excite the beleaguered Korean manufacturer, which has seen its market share in mobile handsets eaten away by the growth in demand for smartphones and the ability of companies like Apple and Research in Motion to satisfy that demand.
Super AMOLED: the key difference?
When the GT-I9000 was introduced at the CTIA wireless convention in March, reviewers were primarily amazed by the thinness and light weight of Samsung's first “high end” smartphone.
 The phone's key market differentiator is the use of Super AMOLED (active matrix organic LED) technology for the screen. Click on image to enlarge. |
The first screens to use this type of technology—whereby the touch sensors are on the display itself, as opposed to being on a separate layer on top—are being manufactured by Samsung. Samsung is clearly hoping that 20 percent more brightness, 20 percent less power consumption and 80 percent less reflection of sunlight compared with current touchscreens will persuade consumers to go with a more “vibrant” screen than anything else available.
Our analysts at TechInsights examined the Super AMOLED screen and declared that the display was an improved AMOLED display. The improvement came from the implementation of the touchscreen pad and the integration of the display driver IC (DDI) and touchscreen controller (TSC) into one controller.
Next: Galaxy blown apart
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