South Korean electronics giant Samsung might be launching the world`s first tablet to feature an AMOLED screen, according to recent reports.
Samsung has been a pioneer of AMOLED display technology, which eliminates the need for a separate backlight and drastically improves contrast ratios and colour fidelity. Smartphones like the Galaxy S2 have paved the way for AMOLED technology to enter the mainstream market, but up until now anything larger than around four inches has been too expensive for consumer gadgets.
It now looks like Samsung might be introducing a new model to its Galaxy Tab range of tablet computers which will come with a seven inch Super AMOLED screen. The display will apparently have a native resolution of 1024×600 and will be competing with other seven inch tablets such as the HTC Flyer and BlackBerry Playbook. The Android 3.0 operating system is likely to be onboard and of course the real draw will be its display, which should be the best in its class.
Earlier in the year there were rumours that Samsung was working with Apple to produce AMOLED screens for the next iPad. Although it seems unlikely that a 10 inch AMOLED screen will be found on the iPad 3 given the expense that this might add, the news of Samsung`s own work on an in-house tablet with similar technology might give more credence to this industry murmuring.
The bad news is that Samsung and Apple are not on the best of terms at the moment, what with the US firm managing to get sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 halted in Europe as a result of a lawsuit over patent infringements. While existing stocks are being sold off by retailers there are no new orders being delivered and so those who want to buy Samsung`s iPad-beating Galaxy Tab 10.1 will have to rush to do so, unless they want to be stuck with the entry level edition with no 3G connectivity and only 16GB of storage.
Virtually every large tech manufacturer is embroiled in at least one court battle at any given time and so Samsung and Apple will probably sort out a licensing deal at some point. This would be particularly beneficial since their relationship is valuable to each company and while Apple may claim that Samsung ripped of the iPad 2 with its Galaxy Tab, in turn it will be relying on Samsung for components in the future.
Tablet devices already have a whole host of useful features, from compatibility with wireless speaker systems to top notch web browsing and powerful CPUs. However, there is no doubt that introducing AMOLED displays will be a positive step towards the future and either Samsung or Apple could be the first to make that move.