Regarding Samsung Galaxy Nexus’ Super AMOLED screen vs. Super AMOLED Plus screens: “Samsung uses ‘Plus’ to refer to full RGB displays, in which each pixel possesses its own trio of red, green and blue sub-pixels. Meanwhile, a non-Plus display uses a cheaper PenTile system — which forces pixels to share each other’s sub-pixels… This results in a lower overall sub-pixel density, reduced sharpness and worse color rendition,” Sharif Sakr reports for Engadget.
“The folks at FlatPanelsHD have… calculated that, despite its 4.65-inch screen size, the Galaxy Nexus has the same number of sub-pixels as the 3.5-inch iPhone 4/4S,” Sakr reports.
Read more in the full article here.
Rasmus Larsen reports for FlatpanelsHD, “The OLED screen measures 4.65-inches and uses a 1280×720 HD resolution. The screen size is probably too large for the typical consumer but it delivers a lot of pixels – at least on paper. It has 315 ppi (pixels per inch), which is slightly lower than the Apple iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, which has a pixel density of 326 ppi. One would imagine that this qualifies as a ‘Retina Display’ (because it is over 300 ppi and viewed from 10-12 inches) but actually it does not.”
“A PenTile OLED panel was recently introduced with the Samsung Galaxy Note, and we were not impressed. In real world PenTile means loss of details and sharpness, as well as a bluish/greenish tint around letters (depending on the background color),” Larsen reports.
So, if you do the math you will get these numbers:
• Galaxy Nexus: 1280x720x2 = 1.843.200 subpixels
• iPhone 4/4S: 960x640x3 = 1.843.200 subpixels
Larsen reports, “And if you calculate the real pixel density you will find that the Galaxy Nexus is actually closer to a ‘real’ ppi value of 200, which is just slightly higher than on the Galaxy S II (that uses a Super AMOLED Plus with RGB pixel structure). Some claim that a PenTile panel needs around 420 ppi to qualify as a Retina display and that is probably also the reason why Retina is nowhere to be found on the specs sheets of neither Galaxy Note nor Galaxy Nexus. If you are keen on a Samsung smartphone you might even find that the screen in the Galaxy S II is better. But the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S still lead the pixel race.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pure Google.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]
More concretely, even after 16 months Samsung/Google can not match iPhone 4/4S screen picture details/clarity/resolution.
iPhone 4/4S is about has about twice better actual resolution than Samsung Nexus.
PenTile is a curse of AMOLED technology. Samsung needs to produce SuperAMOLED+ displays to have honest resolution, but they can not — they will be able to do this only next year.
And the public will be duped, once again, by SSSSam. I just can’t say the “S” word.
MacDailyNews Take: Pure Google.
NO!!!!
Pure ShamDung. Google has little to do with the proliferation of hardware specs, except to tolerate it.
So basically when Apple has the lesser specs on paper then the argument becomes “specs don’t matter its the hardware software integration” but when Apple has better specs suddenly it matters.
lol. I love my macs but damn the community sure lives in a strange bubble.
Concur
dude – you (and most other tech pundits) continue to miss the point entirely.
It’s not who has the better specs. It’s whether or not those specs *matter*, for the user experience and usability of the device.
Apple so far has done the best job of balancing specs against experience and usability. This is why we like Apple’s products, because everyone else is too busy competing on bullet-point feature lists to care about making the user experience great.
What do you know … another apple fan…
Much as I hate Samdung, the reason Retina isnt on any of their spec sheet is it’s an Apple marketing term. These reporters are such idiots.
Thats never stopped them before.
Has anyone seen one of these larger screen iPhone wannabes in the wild? I saw my first one the other day… Not cool.
It made me think “what the hell is that?” but not in a good way. It looked really awkward to use, and is too big for a pocket. The woman that had it was extremely petite which made it even worse.
You can talk screen size and pixels all you want, but one simple thing a company like Samsung would overlook is that I’m not putting that big ass thing in my pocket!
Do some real world experiments for once. Oh wait, don’t. Then you’ll just make an iPhone. Oh wait, you already did that. Never mind… Good luck.
I have a 4.3 inch screen and my wife has a 4.5. There is nothing too big or akward about either phone. Either phone fits easily in my pocket or my wife’s purse and both can be easily handled with one hand.
When the iPhone came out it had the largest screen on the market, now it has one of the smallest. The Epic 4G Touch is a whole inch bigger and as you guys like to do the math comparing 7 inch screens to the iPad’s 9.7, you know that 4.5 is way more than 25% larger than iP4 and 4S! Then you take into account the letter boxing for the film ratio and you have an even smaller screen. So small in fact that it stops mattering if the screen is retina or not since it’s so damn hard to see it. Watching Netflix or a video on either the EVO or Epic is just way more enjoyable for me due to the size of the screen.
The screen size is making what should be an obviously easy decision very difficult. I have been dying for the iPhone to come to Sprint, yet in order to get it I have to be willing to sacrifice approx. 45% of my viewing area!
“I have been dying for the iPhone to come to Sprint, yet in order to get it I have to be willing to sacrifice approx. 45% of my viewing area!”
Now you can add you are sacrificing inexpensive video too as Sprint just killed all unlimited data plans on their wireless 3G/4G network.
If you miss the announcement prepare for some stunning bills beginning next month. $50.00 per each GB after your lowly 3GB, 5GB or 10GB cap.
Android users who tether to a laptop, tablet, or PC have been pushed to the back of the Sprint bus now that the true iPhone is on Sprint.
Some fools could literally see a monthly bill in excess of a hundred thousand dollars if they cosigned for someone else’s Android Sprint account who doesn’t give a damn about how much data they consume.
See The Consumerist.com
The data caps do not apply to mobile phones.
The iPhone screen isn’t smaller, you’re just further away
This is probably the most stupid and ill informed article I have ever read, and you commentors are as bad. And seriously, this at the top of the google results for “galaxy nexus screen dimensions”?
Mind-Boggling.