Samsung Galaxy S IV might come with 'Green PHOLED' screen tech, but what is it?

The latest rumor about the Galaxy S IV is that Samsung might have used a new screen technology for the Full HD OLED panel on the phone, called Green PHOLED. We've been tipped that would indeed be the case, too, and the new technology offers about 25% better energy efficiency than the older one, which we've heard before about the S IV screen.

We hope someone is not confusing FOLED, which marks an OLED screen with a flexible plastic substrate, like Samsung's YOUM brand, and PHOLED, which stands for phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes, but let's assume it's the latter, as we've been hearing aboutSamsung experimenting with hybrid production methods for the different diode colors for a while now.

Phosphorescent diodes have the advantage to be up to four times more power-efficient than fluorescent ones, the type that Samsung has mostly been using so far, where the "Green" moniker of the technology might stem from. The problem, however, is that green and red PHOLEDs last magnitudes longer than blue ones, as you can see in the table below, and you need all of those to make a pretty picture that won't start deteriorating over time when the blue PHOLEDs start giving up the ghost.

That is why the reporting is that Samsung used the good old fluorescent material for the blue diodes, but decked up the rest with power-efficient PHOLED tech, thus ensuring consistent color quality, but overall lower power consumption by about a third or a fourth, depending on which speculation is to be believed. Given that the screen on our smartphones consumes the bulk of its battery charge, this would result in the Galaxy S IV lasting longer, too.

The Green PHOLED rumor actually ties up with the OLED Association observations last year that Samsung has developed technology to combine production methods for its AMOLED displays, using the costlier but easily scalable Fine Metal Mask method for fluorescent blue diodes, and the more advanced LITI for the green and red ones.

We probably have something similar in store for the Galaxy S IV, and Samsung is reported to adopt a new,diamond-shaped pixel matrix to achieve the rumored Full HD resolution. The company is no stranger to the PHOLED technology either - let's not forget that itentered in a licensing agreement with the PHOLED inventors from Universal Display back in 2011, which runs until 2018, letting them produce and sell devices with phosphorescent diodes.

In a nutshell, the Full HD AMOLED display on the Galaxy S IV should be an exceptional OLED panel with the highest pixel density, brightness and power-saving levels Samsung has ever produced, and if that indeed translates to much longer battery life, the company could have a winner with the screen tech of the phone alone. Check out this purported video of the phone to have an idea what the luminant PHOLED display might look like.

source:  Universal Display