Plastic Logic flexible AMOLED

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

That's what I've always believed, since LC displays are a filter in front of a back light.

But here is a credible report that claims that the best LCDs are both brighter and more power efficient than current (2012ish) AMOLEDs.

http://www.displaymate.com/OLED_Gala...ShootOut_1.htm

Thats an old article from almost 2 years ago currently they have to say this about the current s5 display

"
Best Smartphone Display: Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements, the Galaxy S5 is the Best performing Smartphone display that we have ever tested. It has a long list of new records for best Smartphone display performance including: Highest Brightness, Lowest Reflectance, Highest Color Accuracy, Infinite Contrast Ratio, Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light, and smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle. The Galaxy S5 has raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch – an impressive achievement for OLED technology!"

"Power Efficiency: OLEDs need to continue improving their power efficiency, which is critically important for mobile displays. We measured an impressive 27 percent improvement in display power efficiency between the Galaxy S5 and S4. According to Samsung, this increase is due to more efficient OLED materials and also to improvements in the display electronics and optics. While LCDs remain more power efficient for images with mostly white content (like text screens, for example), OLEDs are now more power efficient for most other content, which are typically darker, because they are emissive displays rather than transmissive like LCDs. In fact, the Galaxy S5 is 27 percent more power efficient than the Full HD LCD Smartphones we recently tested for mixed image content (that includes photos, videos, and movies, for example) with a typical 50 percent Average Picture Level, APL. If this keeps up then OLEDs may pull ahead of LCDs in total power efficiency in the near future."

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But again, until actual products appear, it's hard to tell. I had high hopes for Mirasol, but until they lick the viewing angle problem, it's not really viable.

Is viewing angle really a problem for a hand-held reader, which you can easily move to the best angle for reading? It's certainly a problem for "static" screens, such as a laptop, but I would have imagined perhaps less so for a hand-held device?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by afv011

Although eInk is better suited to books (plain text), more and more people are actually switching to tablets so yes, they are actually threatened. eInk is become more and more a niche product.

A far, far bigger market for eInk is things like advertising displays. Readers are a small and very niche market.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

But how is that a challenger for e-ink? As a number of people have elaborated, the purpose of e-ink is for things like ereaders that last for weeks on a single charge. E-ink is not a company that makes flexible wristband displays (and shame on them for wasting time on this pointless endeavor) it is a company that makes low-power displays. Until AMOLED can replicate that, e-ink is not threatened in what they actually do...

While ereaders made them famous, they are not enough to sustain the company.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is viewing angle really a problem for a hand-held reader, which you can easily move to the best angle for reading? It's certainly a problem for "static" screens, such as a laptop, but I would have imagined perhaps less so for a hand-held device?

I think that Apple declared that it was in the early days of the tablet wars.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is viewing angle really a problem for a hand-held reader, which you can easily move to the best angle for reading? It's certainly a problem for "static" screens, such as a laptop, but I would have imagined perhaps less so for a hand-held device?

The problem is that small changes in the position of your head wrt the device causes changes in the picture, especially the colour rendition with mirasol.

It also makes having more than one person look at the screen at the same time very difficult (OK, not so much of a problem on a personal eReader).

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

While ereaders made them famous, they are not enough to sustain the company.

Like the advertizing displays that HarryT mentioned? The ones that, like my ereader example are low-power dispays that last for weeks on one charge?

The point is that e-ink is about low-power dispays. Light-emitting displays serve an entirely different need, whatever form either may take. If AMOLED can be made to last on as low a charge as e-ink, it will edge out e-ink. Why is the article saying it is a threat to e-ink? They don't seem to have a reason other than "because".

[ApK]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The point is that e-ink is about low-power dispays

...and daylight readability....

...and, for many of us, a more comfortable way to view text than a light-emitting display....

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Like the advertizing displays that HarryT mentioned? The ones that, like my ereader example are low-power dispays that last for weeks on one charge?

The point is that e-ink is about low-power dispays. Light-emitting displays serve an entirely different need, whatever form either may take. If AMOLED can be made to last on as low a charge as e-ink, it will edge out e-ink. Why is the article saying it is a threat to e-ink? They don't seem to have a reason other than "because".

Because eink works when there is bright external light. And many people don't spend the majority of their time in brightly lit places. Manufacturers can add light to the device, but that uses power.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

They are not threatened by this new AMOLED screen.

actually they are. Plastic Logic's displays have always, until now, been made with their plastic transistors backplanes and Eink's flexible electrophoretic display material.

If PL is switching to pursuing future displays with AMOLED it means that EInk has lost a customer and that revenue stream. Something they can ill afford to lose.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Because eink works when there is bright external light. And many people don't spend the majority of their time in brightly lit places. Manufacturers can add light to the device, but that uses power.

...
...
... therefore???...
...

E-ink is STILL the king of low-power displays, as every lit e-ink display can attest to.

Of course it is possible that it doesn't matter what mnay people do, just the target demographic. It is possible that many people read where there are lights on. It is possible that advertizing displays and those e-ink supermarket labels I heard of are used in lit areas. It is possible that many people find non-lit e-ink ereaders readable in less-well-lit areas.

Well-worth making the light optional, I should think.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

actually they are. Plastic Logic's displays have always, until now, been made with their plastic transistors backplanes and Eink's flexible electrophoretic display material.

If PL is switching to pursuing future displays with AMOLED it means that EInk has lost a customer and that revenue stream. Something they can ill afford to lose.

Interesting point, if it's as you say.
However, that is CLEARLY not what the article is referring to...unless Plastic Logic is also a lynch-pin customer of "All other screens..."

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

...
...
... therefore???...
...

E-ink is STILL the king of low-power displays, as every lit e-ink display can attest to.

Of course it is possible that it doesn't matter what mnay people do, just the target demographic. It is possible that many people read where there are lights on. It is possible that advertizing displays and those e-ink supermarket labels I heard of are used in lit areas. It is possible that many people find non-lit e-ink ereaders readable in less-well-lit areas.

Well-worth making the light optional, I should think.

Being the king of low-power displays doesn't matter when low-power is not the top priority for consumers.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Being the king of low-power displays doesn't matter when low-power is not the top priority for consumers.

It is, however, the top priority. That is the point both you and the author of the article fail to grasp.

The priorities of people who prefer tablets to e-ink are irrelevant. E-ink has lost those customers regardless of this or any other non-e-ink display. Again:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

...
...
... therefore???...
...

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Thats an old article from almost 2 years ago currently they have to say this about the current s5 display

"
Best Smartphone Display: Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements, the Galaxy S5 is the Best performing Smartphone display that we have ever tested. It has a long list of new records for best Smartphone display performance including: Highest Brightness, Lowest Reflectance, Highest Color Accuracy, Infinite Contrast Ratio, Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light, and smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle. The Galaxy S5 has raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch – an impressive achievement for OLED technology!"

"Power Efficiency: OLEDs need to continue improving their power efficiency, which is critically important for mobile displays. We measured an impressive 27 percent improvement in display power efficiency between the Galaxy S5 and S4. According to Samsung, this increase is due to more efficient OLED materials and also to improvements in the display electronics and optics. While LCDs remain more power efficient for images with mostly white content (like text screens, for example), OLEDs are now more power efficient for most other content, which are typically darker, because they are emissive displays rather than transmissive like LCDs. In fact, the Galaxy S5 is 27 percent more power efficient than the Full HD LCD Smartphones we recently tested for mixed image content (that includes photos, videos, and movies, for example) with a typical 50 percent Average Picture Level, APL. If this keeps up then OLEDs may pull ahead of LCDs in total power efficiency in the near future."

Not just the S5, the new Samsung tablets have the best screens currently available:

Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements, the Galaxy Tab S is the Best Performing Tablet Display that we have ever tested, not surprisingly with performance that is almost identical to the OLED Galaxy S5 Smartphone that we recently tested and found to be the Best Performing Smartphone Display. The Galaxy Tab S establishes new records for best Tablet display performance in: Highest Color Accuracy, Infinite Contrast Ratio, Lowest Screen Reflectance, and smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle. Both Galaxy Tab S models offer Quad HD 2560x1600 pixel displays (with 287 to 361 pixels per inch), currently the highest for Tablets, with 4.1 Mega Pixels, double the number on your HDTV.

The OLED Tab S 8.4 with Diamond Pixels is 27 percent more power efficient than the LCD Apple iPad Air for mixed
image content (that includes photos, videos, and movies, for example) with a typical 50 percent Average Picture Level.
Alternatively, the OLED Tab S 8.4 is more power efficient than the LCD iPad Air for Average Picture Levels below 69 percent,
while the LCD iPad Air is more power efficient for Average Picture Levels greater than 69 percent.

The OLED Tab S 8.4 with Diamond Pixels is 32 percent more power efficient than the OLED Tab S 10.5 with RGB Stripe Pixels.

So the OLED Tab S 10.4 is more power efficient than the LCD iPad Air for Average Picture Levels below 47 percent and
the LCD iPad Air is more power efficient for Average Picture Levels greater than 47 percent.

Source