The Samsung Galaxy III was recently unveiled in London and whilst it seemed to tick all the relevant boxes regarding specs and features for a phone in mid-2012, the screen left some people a little underwhelmed. The reason the display on the latest and greatest from Samsung seems to have let the side down is due to the fact that it features PenTile screen technology. An older display tech that utilises fewer sub-pixels in the display than others, such as Super Amoled Plus or those love Super LCDs on the HTC One X. A lot of people – myself included – couldn’t really understand why they had gone with this decision on their new flagship phone – especially seeing as PenTile displays haven’t exactly been looked upon favourably in the press.
The decision on the usage of PenTile in the Galaxy S III is down to longevity, so Mobileburn have learnt. Samsung’s own Philip Berne told the site that the blue sub-pixels present in AMOLED displays deteriorate quicker than red or green pixels. The arrangement of subpixels in a PenTile display are arranged RGBG – Red, Green, Blue, Green – thus containing more red and green than blue, increasing the life of the display. The sub-pixel arrangement of the Galaxy S II was Red Green Blue in a stripe however, as we all know the resolution of the previous phone was only 480×800. Samsung’s hoping that with a much higher pixel-density at a resolution of 1280×720 that the use of PenTile technology won’t be noticeable.
I’m somewhat inclined to agree with Samsung, if I could have a display with an RGB arrangement that would begin to lose its vibrancy towards my last third of my contract say, I’d rather have a PenTile arrangement guaranteed to last the distance. It’s clear that Samsung is predicting a lot of people to buy these phones on contract and, rather cleverly if you ask me, using PenTile technology will ensure the displays qualities for the length of that contract. It wouldn’t do anybody any good if the screens were – although highly unlikely I’d imagine – to fail nearing the end of one’s contract, the carriers would be mad with Samsung – as would the consumer. So, it seems that Samsung has played it safe on this one and, yes whilst PenTile technology is detectable under a microscope or if one were to squint, I don’t think the majority of users will even notice or have much at all to complain about, especially at that resolution.
[Source: Mobileburn]