With the introduction of the 4.65-inch 720 HD OLED, people have now figured out that Samsung is still heavily invested in using PenTile OLED technology for high resolution applications. The reality is that this is the only way to achieve 300 dpi OLEDs. When people try to compare this technology to other panels it is not possible to compare a PenTile OLED at this resolution to any other high resolution RGB stripe OLED for one reason. Such RGB stripe OLEDs do not exist . Such technology is not possible.
When people say that this is a low cost alternative, they have it entirely wrong. It is not less expensive to make and there is no high resolution alternative. We only wish it were lower cost, but so far that has not proven to be the case. Yes, a 720P OLED could be made, but only if it were one-third larger diagonal, which no doubt would most likely be more expensive. The use of PenTile technology for OLED has been to achieve high resolution for OLED, plain and simple.
One blog http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/20/the-scourge-of-pentile-returns-with-the-galaxy-nexus/
by Kevin Coldewey of Techcrunch says, “..For me personally, it’s a deal-breaker sight unseen…” How can someone who claims to be an expert criticize a technology without seeing it? PenTile has been continually improved and now is being used at a level of dot pitch where it makes more sense than ever. Still Mr. Coldewey is quick to criticize without the benefit of looking at it with his own eyes.
In this same blog, Mr. Coldewey shows our diagram that demonstrates how it can get resolution with one-third fewer subpixels, but then asks, “Does it seem logical to you that a display can increase the number of pixels created by a number of sub-elements by a third and suffer no ill effect?” First of all I should point out that Nouvoyance never said that there were no differences between RGB stripe and PenTile displays, but that we have designed them to work well with the human vision system to take advantage of the ability to discern high resolution for luminance. The human vision system has far less resolution for chrominance, so any relative loss of chominance resolution by PenTile is of little impact. In short, PenTile displays are designed to look virtually the same as RGB stripe displays when applied to high resolution formats. Through the use of subpixel rendering, along with some very effective image processing algorithms, we have achieved the ability to make displays that have superb performance at high resolution.
The analogy would be image compression. Does it seem logical that the electronics industry can achieve image compression, allowing high quality images with so much of the raw data removed? Perhaps to the uninitiated it seems illogical, but to the well informed it is totally logical. The same is the case for those who are well trained in the principles of imaging science when they fully grasp the principles of PenTile image processing technology.
Again we are seeing people going down the path of counting dots and trying to discount the resolution that is published in the spec. This has been covered many times in the past and can be reviewed on this blog http://pentileblog.com/?p=712 and http://pentileblog.com/?p=809 where we show how this panel meets the only industry spec for display resolution from VESA http://bit.ly/qLX9Xf . I also have published http://pentileblog.com/?p=778, a reference to an article by the industry icon, Alva Ray Smith, written in 1995, well before PenTile. This article makes the case very clearly that pixels are not little squares of red plus green plus blue dots. Instead, a pixel is a simply a point plus a reconstruction filter. It is nothing more. PenTile uses an area resampling methodology that uses such a reconstruction filter to bring the desired luminance to each and every pixel in the display. Color resolvability, albeit less than luminance, also can be realized at this spec. The human vision system can resolve far less accurately the position of color than luminance so it enables PenTile to be an engineering solution that is fit for use.
Perhaps the biggest and most valid criticism of PenTile technology has be pattern visibility since the pattern is one-third larger than that of RGB stripe. As we get to these very high resolution formats such pattern visibility disappears. It is only easy to see the differences between RGB stripe and PenTile through the use of magnifiers. Yes it is different than RGB stripe, but it doesn’t matter. One has to doubt the credibility of the pundits who are so quick to criticize PenTile before they even take their first look at these panels.
My hat is off to to Daniel P at PhoneArena.com http://bit.ly/nDAdaq who provided a well-studied and balance review of PenTile OLED in this application. As he pointed out, we have been very open about the benefits and deficits of PenTile technology and will continue to do so. We will however continue to provide corrections when the technology is falsely implicated in artifacts that are not caused by PenTile.
One valid criticism of these new panels is that the white point is a little too blue. This is not a PenTile issue, but rather a design choice of the panel maker since such a bias toward blue favors the lifetime of an OLED panel . This is true for both PenTile OLED and RGB stripe OLED, so it would be good if people would stop attributing this to being a PenTile artifact. Likewise, there has been some criticism of color shift off axis for PenTile OLED. Again this is not a PenTile artifact, but is a result of thin film interference in the OLED layers. This would be the case with an RGB stripe OLED just as it is for PenTile OLEDs.
Another invalid criticism is that of banding . That was an issue last year with the original Nexus One when 5-6-5 color depth was input into the 8-8-8 PenTile engine for certain SW applications. These new products are, to the best of my knowledge, all 8-8-8, so there is no banding to be seen. If people claim this is still present, they need to provide some evidence rather than just conjecture.
It is our impression that consumers will be delighted with the new PenTile OLED panels in the 720P format. The industry is now coming into the sweet spot for PenTile technology. Do yourself a favor and go look at this with your own eyes rather than taking the word of those with a predisposed bias and an anti-PenTile agenda.
