AMOLED screen , and why not super amoled - a quick guide from Nokia Conversation and me

Layers of an amoled screen

According to Nokia, the 3 main culprits of drawing vast amount of power on our mobile devices are the transmitter, receivers and the screen. The industry was able to minimize the energy drawn by the transmitter and receiver already (but i doubt it with 3g/HSDPA transceivers which still significantly lessens the battery life of phones when turned on) that's why manufacturers are now focusing on screen. They're right because before, mobile phone screens don't usually go larger than 2.5-3" but now 3.5" and above is becoming the normal size for touch screen phone, screen's power consumption becomes critical.


Why did Nokia use AMOLED for N8

AMOLED displays consume less power than traditional Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and Light Emitting Diode (LED) mobile displays, plus they’re also faster, and the colours are more natural. AMOLED is short for Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AM-OLED) and, as it says in the description, it’s a type of LED. However unlike conventional LED screen technologies, AMOLED displays do not require a back light, which is the part of a normal mobile display that uses the most power. Hence, AMOLED displays use a fraction of the energy of existing technologies.

Aside from power consumption, the main advantage of AMOLED from conventional LCD screens is rigidity. Manufacturers uses plastic substrate for AMOLED to make it thin, flexible, lightweight and durable.

Why not user SUPER AMOLED from Samsung

The people actually have a point. Super amoled is already present, a better amoled screen created by samsung. Why not use it instead?

For me, I think nokia ditch the super amoled screen with the following reasons:
1. Design, the design is already places, significant changes in design or parts might cause an additional delay due to change in production process (Im not sure with this one but its possible) and cost of manufacturing. Which bring us to...
2. Cost, super amoled is definitely pricier than super amoled. Nokia have been trying to reduce the cost of its handset to offer consumers a better product value to price ratio. Using super amoled increases the cost of manufacturing which in turn increases the cost of the product. Plus Nokia have to pay for royalties to samsung for each handset it makes that uses that kind if screen.
3. Delay, change in production means delay in delivery. Period.

Head on to Conversation to read for details about the amoled screen.
Image from wikimedia commons.