At the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium, Samsung will officially unveil and demonstrate the first 10.1-inch display with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution specifically meant for tablets. The industry-first display, built with the collaboration of Samsung’s partner Nouvoyance, will offer a “ultra-high resolution” at 300dpi using standard LCD technology. According to Samsung’s press release, the display also relies on the PenTile technology, which allows for 40% less power consumption and two-thirds number of subpixels.
Because tablets are regularly used for viewing rich-colored images, the 10.1-inch 300 dpi display is ideal for applications that require extraordinary image and text clarity such as browsing the web and viewing high-definition movies, or reading books and spreadsheets.
“In order to develop tablets with the form and function that consumers demand, a design engineer ultimately has to determine how to get the highest resolution display possible, while still fitting within the overall power budget for their design,” said Joel Pollack, executive vice president of Nouvoyance, Samsung’s affiliate company that developed the PenTile RGBW technology.
Samsung’s announcement opens the door to the possibility of having a “Retina Display” on Apple’s iPad – the iPad 2 uses Samsung’s 9.7-inch panels alongside other displays manufactured by LG, but if Apple were to double the resolution of the current generation iPad (1024 x 768), Samsung would have to cut its new display to 2048 x 1536 to fit Apple’s (rumored) need for a screen displaying 2x graphical elements. In the past months, several rumors pointed to Apple willing to implement a Retina Display on the iPad 2, which didn’t happen and left much room to speculation for an iPad 3 featuring a higher-res screen. Among the problems with a Retina Display on the iPad, power consumption was one of the technical issues ofter mentioned by bloggers and battery experts (together with production costs); if Samsung’s new display really manages to use 40% less power than other technologies though, Apple might have a chance to consider it for the iPad 3 – though this new display uses PenTile instead of Apple’s preferred IPS technology. Technical issues aside, the lawsuit Apple filed against Samsung last month (and the series of countersuits from Samsung) led many to believe the partnership between the two companies for component supply was nearing its end; Apple COO Tim Cook, however, confirmed at the Q2 2011 earnings call that Samsung is still a valuable partner in Apple’s supply chain, although action needed to be taken against its mobile division.
Samsung’s new tablet display will be demoed at the LA Convention Center between May 17-19. Read the full press release below.
Samsung Electronics and Nouvoyance Demonstrate 10.1-inch, 300dpi WQXGA PenTile RGBW Prototype Display for Tablet Market
PenTile RGBW is the only display to optimize balance between power efficiency and high performance viewing in tablets
SID Display Week 2011
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–At the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium (LA Convention Center, Booth 707) May 17-19, Samsung Electronics is demonstrating the industry’s first 10.1-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) format PenTile™ RGBW tablet display, an ultra-high resolution, liquid crystal display (LCD). The prototype demonstration marks the first time this resolution has been available for the tablet market in the popular – 10.1-inch – format, rivaling the highest resolution smartphone displays now on the market. Samsung expects to have commercial availability of this technology for tablet applications later this year.
“Samsung Demonstrates PenTile RGBCW Multiprimary LCD with 2D RGB Local Dimming Backlight for Ultra-Low Power Next-Gen HDTVs.”
Because tablets are regularly used for viewing rich-colored images, the 10.1-inch 300 dpi display is ideal for applications that require extraordinary image and text clarity such as browsing the web and viewing high-definition movies, or reading books and spreadsheets.
“In order to develop tablets with the form and function that consumers demand, a design engineer ultimately has to determine how to get the highest resolution display possible, while still fitting within the overall power budget for their design,” said Joel Pollack, executive vice president of Nouvoyance, Samsung’s affiliate company that developed the PenTile RGBW technology.
Lightness and power efficiency of the display are critical factors since higher resolution displays typically draw more power.
“Samsung’s PenTile display technology is the only display technology that operates at 40 percent less power yet provides twice that of Full HD-viewing performance for consumers compared to legacy RGB stripe LCDs. There is no other commercial display technology on the market today that offers this high of a resolution and pixel density in a 10.1-inch size display,” said Dr. Sungtae Shin, Senior VP of Samsung Electronics.
PenTile RGBW WQXGA Technology Highlights
This 10.1-inch tablet panel is capable of 300 cd/m2 of luminance, yet uses 40 percent less power than that used by legacy RGB stripe LCDs in power-saving modes.
An outdoor brightness mode of as much as 600 cd/m2 luminance enables viewing in bright ambient lighting.
The display’s color gamut is 72 percent., allowing greater color realism than legacy RGB stripe tablet displays that have a typical color gamut of 55 percent NTSC.
PenTile technology achieves 300 dpi resolution with two-thirds the number of subpixels, maintaining the VESA/ICDM display resolution standard.
For more information about the technology behind this WQXGA ultra high-resolution display prototype, go to www.pentileblog.com
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2010 consolidated sales of US$135.8 billion. Employing approximately 190,500 people in 206 offices across 68 countries, the company consists of eight independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, semiconductor chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
About Nouvoyance
Nouvoyance is a technology development company that develops PenTile® technology, in partnership with Samsung Electronics, for flat-panel display manufacturers and their IC suppliers to improve the brightness, resolution, contrast, and power consumption of flat-panel displays. For more information about Nouvoyance, visit www.nouvoyance.com or call 408.200.7399
For related information, please refer to the Samsung release titled, “Samsung Demonstrates PenTile RGBCW Multiprimary LCD with 2D RGB Local Dimming Backlight for Ultra-Low Power Next-Gen HDTVs.”
