Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus explained

Back in the days OLED was just called OLED. Then Samsung introduced AMOLED and more superlatives were added in the later Super AMOLED and the just introduced Super AMOLED Plus. In this article we take a look at the real story behind all the marketing talk.

The OLED technology
OLED is a very promising display technology – actually the most promising ever. It’s expected to replace the LCD technology in the future but OLED has many names. Today OLED is used as a general term.

But let us first refresh your memory. 
2009: Samsung released AMOLED displays for mobile phones 
January 2010: Samsung released Super AMOLED displays for mobile phones 
January 2011: Samsung launched Super AMOLED Plus displays for mobile phones. 

All of these are based on the same principles of the OLED technology that you can learn more about here. The OLED technology enables perfect black, perfect viewing angles, much faster response time, thinner displays and lower power consumption. 

Super AMOLED Plus
Super AMOLED emerged after criticism of the AMOLED poor sunlight reading abilities. With Super AMOLED reduced reflections in the panel and Samsung also developed a very well-functioning touch system based on very tiny on-screen chips.


The recently announced Super AMOLED Plus is third generation. The most significant change is the sub pixel structure. The two former used a so-called Pentile Matrix where the green sub pixel is shared. Super AMOLED Plus uses a standard RGB (red, green, blue) sub pixel structure with 50 % more sub pixels. You can see the difference in the two microscope pictures below.


To the left a standard RGB panel, to the right a Pentile Matrix panel, Soruces: Peter Halasz & StealthCopter

Right now Super Plus AMOLED has the same resolution (overall pixel resolution, but it has more sub pixels) that was achievable with the older variants with Pentile Matrix but the change to RGB (as seen in the left image above) enables Samsung to create Super AMOLED Plus panels with much higher pixel resolution.

By switching to the RGB pixel structure Super AMOLED Plus takes an important step on the path to creating more mainstream OLED panels for PC displays and TVs. Today both LCD and plasma panels use the RGB pixel structure

Sources: OLED-info.com, Peter Halasz & StealthCopter