Samsung, who many know from their rather large portfolio of Android smartphones and HDTV televisions, is also one of the world’s largest component suppliers. In fact, according to a recent article in The Economist, of the $178 worth of components Apple uses to make an iPhone 4, 25% of that money goes to Samsung. Two “industry insiders” who spoke to OLED-Info have told the online publication that Samsung will introduce several Super AMOLED panels later this year that pack a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. One of the said panels will measure 5.3 inches diagonally and be used in an upcoming smartphone. Another panel, coming in at 7 inches, will be used to build a tablet, most likely one running the next version of Google’s Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich. Now these new 720p HD panels will be using PenTile matrix technology, the same stuff used on the panel in the first generation Samsung Galaxy S, and both the Nexus One and Nexus S. This will be a highly controversial point of discussion depending on which technology journalist you talk to, but in the real world no one actually cares. Oh and one more thing, thanks to advances in manufacturing technique, these new panels will cost less than 20% more of their Super LCD equivalents.
But back to the rumored smartphone. Can you seriously imagine shoving something with a 5.3 inch screen in your pocket? We can’t, and we sincerely hope that’s a typo. This writer recently got a chance to play with a prototype Nokia N9, which packs a 3.9 inch screen, and because of the way that device is designed, the total lack of front facing hardware buttons and curved body, it actually felt smaller than the iPhone 4, despite having a screen nearly half an inch larger.
So how big is too big? We’ve got a sick feeling in our stomachs that 4.5 inches will become the new “flagship” specification in 2012, and that’s just wrong.