[Rumor] Galaxy S4 Coming With Floating Touch & More Efficient AMOLED Display Design

[dgstorm]

A new leak from the Samsung camp seems to suggest that Sammy is actually working on two different prototypes for the Samsung Galaxy SIV and still have not decided which one to go with. Supposedly, they are working on one that includes an LCD display combined with a Qualcomm chip. The other has the Exynos 5 and an AMOLED combination. This new info both confirms and sheds doubt that Samsung is planning to have two different versions for different global markets. On the one hand, the report suggests that Samsung hasn't decided between the two and it is still unclear what their plan is. On the other hand, it's probably more likely that the existence of both of these prototypes confirms they plan to have two versions... one for the North American market, and the other for the rest of the world.

There were a couple of other tidbits of info that came along with this intel. Supposedly, either/both versions of the device will come with a floating touch display feature. This basically means you will be able to control the device with your finger very near to the device instead of actually touching. While we are unsure of the necessity of a function like this, it has been done before. Sony released a phone called the Xperia Sola that has this functionality. It is not too far-fetched to think Samsung could include this feature. They already have something similar called Air View on the Galaxy Note 2, which uses the S Pen to write or draw in the air, hovering in front of the device.

The other news morsel included in this leak suggests that the AMOLED version of the device will have a more energy efficient screen this time. Here's a quote with the details,

A bit of background: you can have two types of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) in an AMOLED display, fluorescent and phosphorescent. The difference between them is that fluorescent materials last much longer but are harder to produce and less energy efficient. So far, Samsung has used a combination of the two types in its AMOLED displays: the green and blue OLEDs were fluorescent, while the red OLEDs were phosphorescent.

For the Galaxy S4, Samsung will use phosphorescent materials for the red and green OLEDs, and fluorescent materials for the blue ones. This should ensure that the display is up to 30% more efficient than a similar LCD panel.

The use of green PHOLEDs (phosphorescent OLEDs) will not have a major impact in terms of the quality of the display, however, the power consumption should be reduced.

It's hard to disseminate any reliable info from the deluge of rumors that keep cropping up around this device. Luckily, the full launch is less than a week away and we will know all the details directly from Sammy.

Source: AndroidAuthority

 

[kodiak799]

I like the idea of a less power-hungry display (by far far far the #1 battery killer)...I just hope pixels aren't burning out all over the place after a year and a half.

 

[hotice]

Can someone explain to me how this is not a stupid idea?

It sounds just like another PenTile. PenTile is done on OLED displays often because it saves some power. The really stupid thing is that LCDs use less power for a given brightness than even PenTile OLEDs and LCD's offer much greater brightness if you want it. The even more stupid thing is the only real benefit offered is the 40,000:1 (or maybe it's higher now) contrast ratio that the OLEDs offer. The thing is this is for a phone or a tablet, not a home theater or graphic studio workstation. For a mobile device brightness and batter life are always, if not nearly always, more important than contrast ratio.

I have an OLED on my Maxx HD and it's great but my Droid X is brighter, much brighter, and I call that a step back. Sure, the resolution and size are great on the Maxx HD and I'm not saying I'd rather have the Droid X screen overall, but in general when comparing the technologies the move to OLED seems to be a big step back. I'd love to see the battery life I'd get on my Maxx HD if it had an LCD display. I know the display would be brighter.

Moto did so well with LCD for so long I'm not sure why they switched. It's easy to see why HTC switched from OLED to LCD since their battery life on their OLED phones was so terrible. While part of the problem was the large die size of the original Snapdragon S1 processors another large part of the problem was those battery eating OLEDs. Moto may have switched to make a thinner phone which was an advantage of OLED. With newer LCD technologies there are ways to combine layers making LCDs thinner as well. LG did this with the G and Nexus 4.

How many would rather have an OLED over and LCD? Why do you want it?