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Samsung Says They Chose PenTile For Galaxy S3 To Help Display Quality Last Longer

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Before the Samsung Galaxy S3 was announced, many had suspected that the device would feature a SAMOLED Plus HD display, only to find out Samsung opted for the same Pentile HD display found in the Galaxy Nexus. Their reasoning? The screen will last longer.

Samsung’s Philip Berne explained to Mobile Burn their reasoning behind this. Apparently, this is because of the way Pentile displays feature more green subpixels than blue ones (blue degrades quickest over time), meaning overall, screen quality will degrade less over time. So, after 3 years, mom’s 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD display will look just as gorgeous as the day she bought it (and possibly better than the competition’s traditional RGB stripe displays).

It’s possible Samsung is merely trying to play off their use of Pentile as a “benefit” to consumers. I wouldn’t be surprised if next year, Sammy goes with SAMOLED Plus as a killer feature in the Galaxy S4.

What do you guys think? Is Pentile no longer a problem on small, HD resolution displays? Or do you suffer from special eyes (like me)?

[MobileBurn]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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101 Comments

  1. Hmmmm….I think I’ll stick to the HTC One X

    1. HTC one X screen is the best screen I have ever seen. Galaxy Note is another screen that I love… Galaxy Nexus is nice but kind of have an odd blue tint

      1. But the Galaxy Note is known to have black crush problems.
        http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1559800

        1. Dude, I just looked that up. And I was thinking about getting a Note if it came to Sprint.

          I myt just stick with my E4GT. Guess I’ll have to skip the GS3 and wait til my contract ends. Hope the GS4 has a lot to offer. 2GB of RAM? *needs to slow down*

          1. The ICS update for the note *may* fix the blackcrush problem, or at least alleviate it.

        2. This crush issue is very subjective. Yes it does exist, but hardly noticable in everyday use.

    2. Pre-ordered my evo.

  2. More of a reason to go with an LCD display like on the One X.

    1. Except for the fact that the US version has no expandable memory. I wouldn’t care as much if it at least had 32gb instead of only 16gb.

  3. The very fact they are defending it proves the entire point. Pentile is simply not as good as as standard RGB-Stripe when it comes to clarity & definition.

  4. Honestly that sounds like a cop out to me.

  5. Who keeps a smartphone for 3 years or even 2 years.

    1. I haven’t the last 5 years, good pont

    2. i do..infact most of the people in asia…coz we have to buy global version of the phone which costs a lot…for example i am going to buy S3 for about Rs.40000 indian rupee..and i tell you..thats a lot of money…and my mom wont afford me another phone for at least 2 years…so at last i can bluff myself at least saying that ..THANK GOD ..NO SAMOLED…:)

      1. Or you can sell the phone and put that towards the price of a new phone. In the last few years phones haven’t cost me much because of this.

    3. Most people aren’t technophiles, and don’t replace their phone until their upgrade is available, roughly, every two years.

      1. There are technophiles, and there are greedy bastards.

        1. I understand that for the most part people stick with there phones for years to come.. even after they’re due for an upgrade. But why are people saying it’s greedy? How bout those with family plans who’s parents are still super old school and don’t use their upgrades?

          Honestly I stick with my phone for as long as i could [just let go of my 2 year old vibrant]… but It’s easy to upgrade in the US. Sometimes you can make money by selling your phone for more than it’s worth and finding off contract deals online. That way you can try out new technology without paying hundreds.

      2. Maybe in America, on a global scale most people don’t have a contract to start with.

    4. MOST PEOPLE – that’s who.

      And even if you can afford to throw money away by upgrading every couple months, why do it when you know that your excess consumerism is hurting the planet more than necessary? More mining and phones in landfills… yay.

      1. Most people? Stfu!

        1. I would be willing to bet my life that at least 90%, probably closer to 95% of consumers keep there phones for 2 years. That is how long the subsidized contracts last for, and on many carriers they have 3 year contracts and many consumers do wait all three years. Very few (excluding tech junkies like us) buys smart phones off contract.

          1. Would you please stop your BS, or inform people that you are only talking about the American market. where I live carriers can only bind you MAX 6 months, so more people upgrade more often, and change carriers after their needs.

          2. According to dated studies from a few years ago, the average is 20.5 months. You’re really taking a risk here staking your life that 90% is within 24 months. I’d at least consider your death options while further research is done.

          3. LOL you’re going to be poor all y our life

          4. Bet your life? Don’t get too used to doing things live people do… Very few buy phones off contract? You’re close minded… Look at Europe.

      2. You can buy new phones more than once a year an not consider yourself throwing garbage into a landfill, you can sell them once your done with them on ebay, their is a good second hand market for cell phones, or if the phone isn’t worth anything you can donate it.

        I can’t afford a buy a new cell phone every few months but I do upgrade about once a year and sell the old model on ebay. Works out to about the same cost as buying a subsidized phone every year, maybe a little less.

    5. lol i got 4 new phones this year alone

      1. lol next week when you get the itch for a new phone just mail me the money instead. Not all of us are rich. lol lol

        1. Hardly I got the Gnex for free and 100 bucks off the Razr Max from a offer Verizon was giving customers

          1. I used to be lyk that when phones were less than $500 off contract and I was on Tmo. I’d sell my old one and pick another one up off Craigslist. LoL!!

        2. You can always sell the phone… People that get the newest phones can flip them quickly, so it’s not really a matter of being rich.

      2. don’t see why this is voted down.. its not hard to sell a phone for more than what you got it, and there is always deals out there.

        I’ve actually profited from upgrading my girlfriends epic 4g after 8 months, she’s had the sgs2 for 6 months, And she’s also due for an upgrade.

        ???
        profit

        1. The Galaxy s2 has barely even dropped in price, the unlocked international version still costs around 470 and the USA carrier versions around 430

        2. Exactly! I sold my GSII Skyrocket and got more than enough money to buy a HTC One X.

      3. LOL have fun being poor the rest of your life. You obviously don’t know anything about managing money/finances

        1. its not as bad as your thinking i prob wasted a little less then 460 on all four of them total the most expensive was the razr max at 200, + i sold all my older phones, some people waste like 600-700 bucks on a single phone on amazon or ebay so compared to that im doing pretty good lol

          1. you’re still stupid. i bet you have credit card debt. face it dude. youre going to be poor and in debt the rest of your life.

          2. Dude chill out im only 19 and nowhere close to credit card debt lol, i bet a person on a McDonalds salary could prob afford that, Its really not that much money. + to throw it in there i already have the next 2 semesters of college payed of so i think im doing pretty well for my age

    6. I usually keep my phone for at least 2 years or until it stops working just like what happen to my Droid…..It started acting up so I sent it to a retirement home….Most people don’t get a new phone until their upgrade is up anyway….

    7. Lmao, really? I do. Too much hassle to change phones up every few months…

    8. 2 max for me. right at upgrade time. never 3.

    9. People like me? 6 months Max.

      1. I remember I complained to tmobile that i didn’t get the promised 2.1 upgrade for the behold II… 5 months into my contract i was eligible for a full upgrade… :)

        BOGO Vibrant. that’s when i fell in love with sammy’s hardware

    10. Um most people cant afford to buy new phones every year. Im still rocking my samsung moment until my LTEVO comes in the mail next week

    11. I was willing to keep the HTC G2 for my full Tmo contract, but I moved to Sprint. Had it for a year. Now I’m stuck with these bar phones that I can’t even type on and it’s stupid to downgrade to the HTC G2, although sometimes I think about doing that and getting a high powered tablet. But that’s a bit off subject. LoL!!

  6. Total cop-out. How often do you suffer from screen degradation during your phone’s lifetime?

    1. I see it often on amoled type displays. They fade with time and sometimes fade unevenly because of how the screen is arranged. Ghosted time and AM/PM sign and a ghosted launcher are usually what I see. It takes a year or two of very heavy use, but it happens. My fascinate never had a serious issue with it’s samoled display, but you could see the beginnings of problems when my dad took the phone for his line. I love the beautiful vivid colors and deep dark blacks of samoled, so I own a GNex, but it isn’t as resistant to ‘burn in’ and color fading as LCD tech.

      Although I do think that this is sort of a cop-out because full RGB subpixels would look better and they should be finding a way to mitigate that blue problems.

  7. Looks fine on my atrix 4g. Don’t really see what the big deal is.

  8. Chris, the pentile display has the same number of green subpixels as the RGB, it has less red and blue ones though. And the pentile display for GS3 has been improved noticeably in energy consumption, coloring and burn-in compared to previous ones for GNex and GNote, which is what I heard from a guy working for SMD. Mobile Burn also says “Berne did point out that the 4.8-inch display on the Galaxy S III is improved over the 4.65-inch 720p Super AMOLED screen used on the Google Galaxy Nexus, as it features smaller gaps in its subpixels matrix, further minimizing the fringing effects of the PenTile layout.”

  9. not sure if srs

  10. Pen Tile display, still, at 720 lines, looks great and you have to look really hard to notice any problems. I say people are whiny bitches.

    1. Except for artifacts on light colored backgrounds, my galaxy nexus display looks pretty good and I thought I read that Samung has improved the screen tech in this regard. Has anyone who has actually seen the display have any complaints?

    2. It’s very very very hard to see, but you can see it when you get up close, especially with solid background colors that aren’t green. cheeseclothy.

      Here’s an example image that exemplifies the cheesecloth effect on pentile screens: http://i.imgur.com/8ogkz.png

      Look closely at the edges of the red and blue vs green, and if your screen is pentile, you’ll see a crosshatch pattern. If your screen is non-pentile or LCD it should look as uniformly sharp as green does.

      1. am comparing the my G Nex with my One x and Yes i notice the difference on the G-Nex how ever i had to look so close that my eyes looking so close…

    3. I notice it daily with my galaxy nexus. It doesn’t bother me were i wish i had a new phone, but I kills me when i see non pentile high density displays

    4. My Galaxy Nexus looks awesome but after six months it has faded a little. My mom just bought a new Galaxy Nexus and her screen is significantly brighter than mine. I have also noticed that when turning my phone sideways where the black notification bar usually is (that doesn’t really get powered on) is also noticeably brighter than the rest of my screen.

      Pentile sucks, but overall the screen is still great…can’t wait for that “Plus” to come back!!!

    5. Agreed. GSM arena called this the best display they’ve seen recently. Nuff said

      1. They said one of the best, and I don’t think they’ve reviewed the One X yet.

    6. I say you’re just an excuse maker. Typical of most Android fanboys.

      1. Oh, hai, Troll. :D

    7. Exactly,so why even compare screen types. people love drama,but there point is it comes down to contrasty & pure blacks or accurate closer to real-life colors &purer whites. also battery life, allot of misinformed bloggers claim smiled screens save more battery than LCD which is true if the screenis black. but we all know there are more whites & colors that need white color for all types of backgrounds & more, just look at your screen white & your wallpapers…

  11. Lame marketing excuse

  12. i’d much rather have a better overall picture for two years then a phone screen that’ll “last longer”

    i have YET to have a problem with my two year old OG EVO screen… two years and the picture hasn’t degraded at all…..

    stop lying Samsung, sorry your phone isn’t the “destroyer” you built it up to be.

    1. speculation built it up to be a destroyer, not samsung

      1. although i agree with you, it’s Samsungs job to keep that under control with “controled” leaks…

        when rumors started coming out that they were going with a quad core A15 based CPU, that was WAY out of line and they should have “leaked” otherwise before exectations got out of hand.

        this is why leaks are necessary, they are preventative damage control if you can’t deliver (either match or beat) what leaks are saying is coming out

      2. They were the victim of their own success.

  13. Talk to me when you can make a reasonably sized 4.0″ phone and maybe I’ll care.

  14. Honestly when has a manufacturer wanted you to buy a product that will last a long time. This is bad for business and means that you will not want to buy another one of their new products because yours is working “just fine.” This is a lowest excuse that they pulled just to please the masses. Its a great phone otherwise.

  15. So are they saying that they cheated us with the Galaxy S2, which doesn’t have Pentile? This is just an excuse for them to not work harder on making a good HD non-Pentile Super AMOLED display.

    And what will they say if they have one like that by the end of the year? “Oh, remember when we said non-Pentile displays suck? Yeah, forget about all that…”

  16. “Or do you suffer from special eyes?”

    http://youtu.be/n62kLmFm6UY

    1. Best. Commercial. Ever.

  17. I wish I had a vision that could tell apart one from the other.

  18. At 300+ DPI, who cares if it is pentile or not.

    1. There’s more to screen quality than DPI.

      1. DPI is the new megapixel if you get what I’m saying.

  19. It’s probably cheaper for a pentile

  20. I was looking forward to the SIII because, lately, Samsung has had better processors and displays than any Android phone. The SIII has the same processor that every other “flagship” phone has, and doesn’t have the best display. Why should I be interested in this device over the competition?

    1. *the US version, that is.

  21. I don’t know if it’s because of the pentile tech or what but my Verizon Galaxy Nexus has burn in from using it in car mode. I’m very unhappy about that. I wish I had gotten Asurion so I could replace it.

    1. Joe • an hour ago • Hide

      Mike with the ghosting… Lcd doesn’t have burnin. It’s reversible.If you haven’t already, download a flashlight app that’ll do a screen white flashlight and will disable the timeout.It may take hours, it may take multiple nights, but the ghosting should go away…..here you go, maybe this will help you…you can thank Joe if it works…..

      1. GNex doesn’t have lcd though.

  22. It not only lasts longer, but also cheaper and more power efficient than RGB stripe at HD resolution on phone. They probably need more time to bring cost, power consumption down on HD plus.

  23. I think my galaxy nexus looks great. I seriously don’t understand the hoopla.

  24. I don’t notice at all but I don’t think longetivity doesn’t matter since people change phones every 6 months to a year..

  25. I took a look at the Galaxy Note’s Pentile screen today and I still noticed it. Maybe it’s because I know what to look for after owning the original Galaxy S. I also compared the Note’s screen to the HTC One X which was definitely sharper, but lacked the contrast I’ve come to love SAMOLED for… tough decision coming ahead.

  26. I’m pretty sure your phones screen doesn’t loose quality. My old evo I’ve had for over 2 years and the screen looks new. They’re just giving a reason for their error.

  27. Mike with the ghosting… Lcd doesn’t have burnin. It’s reversible.

    If you haven’t already, download a flashlight app that’ll do a screen white flashlight and will disable the timeout.

    It may take hours, it may take multiple nights, but the ghosting should go away.

  28. I have no problem with the display on my Nexus,…honestly though, I HATE no sd card….There is still a load of stuff from my sensation still on my PC because I can’t get it transferred over.

  29. Since when does Sammy care about build quality? Oh, and hahahahahahahaha.

  30. Most people will be onto other phones by that time anyway…

  31. I suffer from special eyes. I hate pentile on my gnex

  32. I can’t see the difference at normal viewing distance so pentile is a non issue for me

  33. Um…? Samsung probably deliberately did this so the GS4 could be better. And also they knew that I probably won’t be able to get it, so they don’t want me to suffer leaving from an AmoLED screen to a Pentile. So they’re saving the best for when my contract ends. LoL!!

    1. Tell me more about how you’re the most important thing to Samsung. They care about nothing else but you, don’t they?

  34. Hooray for having poor vision! I wont be able to tell the difference anyway!!

  35. This is bull…. Why would they even want their phone to last three years? They want you to buy the GS4 as soon as it comes out, lol.

  36. The pentile screen on my Galaxy Note looks gorgeous. I have zero complaints.

  37. The display on the SGS3 is fantastic. Anyone who complains about that display is just looking for something to complain about. That is the best phone on the market today, including the I-Phone. This is one bad ass device that will be in my hands ASAP.

  38. Longer lasting phones is a good thing, and that’s a feature that many people would want, it’s all about options. I myself would choose a non-pentile display like the HTC One X, but that’s mostly because I upgrade every year and don’t care about how long it lasts.

    Also coming from a rezound I expect I’ll be picky when I upgrade since unless they come out with a 1080p phone before I upgrade anything will a downgrade in ppi, as I expect to go to a 4.6-5.0 inch screen.

  39. One thing “ghost imaging” google it, also my HTC G1’s screen is still as good as the day I bought it, Which was 3 days after its release. so be careful what a representative of a company or fansite’s says about there product. p.s. not saying this is a fansite

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