Galaxy Nexus uses 'fuzzy' PenTile AMOLED display
updated 06:40 am EDT, Fri October 21, 2011
Galaxy Nexus uses older, cheaper PenTile tech
The Samsung manufactured Galaxy Nexus Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) leader has been found to use a cheaper pentile-type Super AMOLED display. This differs from the Super AMOLED Plus display as used in the Samsung Galaxy S II. PenTile displays are less color accurate and have also been shown to be less sharp as they have a lower overall sub-pixel density.
Samsung uses the ‘Plus’ to indicate that the display is full RGB, where each pixel incorporates its own three red, green and blue sub-pixels. This produces greater sub-pixel density and increased display sharpness and color accuracy. By contrast, non-Plus displays share each adjoining pixels’ sub-pixels.
The team at FlatPanelsHD have demonstrated that even though the Galaxy Nexus has a larger 4.65-inch display than the iPhone 4 and 4S, it only has the same number of sub-pixels as the iPhone’s smaller 3.5-inch display. Thus, although it is an HD panel, it is not pixel dense enough to be considered a Retina Display. On paper, the Galaxy Nexus appears to have a pixel density of 315ppi, versus the iPhone 4 and 4S’ 326ppi. In practice, because of the missing sub-pixels, the Galaxy Nexus has a pixel density closer to 200ppi.
The difference between a PenTile display and a display with where each pixel has its own trio of red, green and blue sub-pixels was highlighted in the Atrix 2 display. When compared with the original Atrix’s PenTile display, the Atrix 2 is much sharper. [via Engadget]
