Here on FlatpanelsHD we don’t want to talk so much about the actual iPhone 4G but the panel in the phone is interesting. iPhone 4G will feature a IPS panel according to Digitimes which is great news. But what does it actually mean?

iPhone with IPS panel
When Apple announced the iPad they also announced that it would have an IPS panel. IPS stands for in plane switching and is one of the best LCD panel technologies today.


iPhone 3GS

Now the iPhone 4G is also said to feature an IPS panel according to Digitimes that cites Foxconn. Foxconn is the manufacturer of the iPhone. 

The IPS panel will have very wide viewing angles and a 960x640 resolution. The panel will also incorporate a so-called FFS (fringe-filed switching) that is a modification to the IPS structure that allows the panel to have even wider viewing angles and better reading capabilities. The panel is also 33 % thinner allowing more space for a battery. And multi-touch is obviously integrated.

Some of the newer Andorid based phones have a resolution of 854x480 pixels.

The current iPhone 3GS – and – previous Apple iPhones incorporates TN (twisted nematic) panels like most PC monitors today. These are generally considered the worst in terms of picture quality with reduced color reproduction because of 6 bit rendering and very narrow viewing angles (try to look at your current 3GS from different angles).


iPhone 3GS viewing angles

It was rumored that iPhone 4G should have an OLED panel but this seems very unlikely at this point. The IPS is considered one of the best LCD panel technologies and we also looked at the IPS panel technology in detail in an iPad article (only available on our Danish site, Google translation here).

The Apple iPhone 4G (iPhone HD) is expected to be unveiled on June 7, 2010 during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Foxcomm expects to ship 24 million iPhone 4Gs in 2010.

Source: Digitimes