Samsung Might ditch AMOLED displays in favor of PLS displays

Samsung is reportedly considering a switch from the signature AMOLED display panels it uses for its flagship handsets and phablets, to PLS-LCD ones. The move would free up to 20% of a phones cost structure, with likely negligible difference for the end user in terms of screen quality.

Korean media is reporting that Samsung is evaluating this shift on account of the downward price pressure from rising Chinese stars such as Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo, not to mention the more established Huawei and Lenovo, which are selling top-notch handsets at rock-bottom prices now, quickly commoditizing the Android smartphone business, which is Samsungs bread and butter.

There have been a couple of rumors already about Samsung presenting a premium F series smartphone line next year, that will include top-shelf specs and design, for a charge. That might end up to be the AMOLED display safe harbor, while the regular Galaxy line switches to PLS-LCD. The plane-to-line-switching LCDs are Samsungs invention, too, and provide higher brightness with lower power consumption and reduced costs to produce compared to conventional IPS-LCD displays, not to mention the ability to give enough yield if Samsung is indeed planning 2K 2560x1440 pixel displays for its Galaxy S5 and Note 4 flagships next year.PhoneArena

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Next Galaxy Note tablet might feature Android Windows RT dual boot function

photo credits -AndroidCentral

Last week, we heard a rumor that HTC might be looking into dual-boot devices that run both Android and Windows Phone. The surprising part of the rumor was that it seemed Microsoft may have suggested the idea to HTC as a way to boost Windows Phone visibility. Today, a new rumor has emerged that says Microsoft may not be targeting HTC for this effort, but that the company from Redmond may have also asked Samsung and Huawei to do the same.

The report claims that just as with HTC, Microsoft has offered to waive licensing fees when asking Samsung and Huawei to build dual-boot devices; but, unlike with HTC, Microsoft may have asked the companies to not only build Android/Windows Phone handsets, but tablets as well. Unfortunately, the rumor doesnt say that Microsoft has been asking to get Samsung and Huawei tablets that are dual-boot Android and Windows 8, which consumers might actually want. Instead, the rumor has it that Microsoft is pushing for Android and Windows RT dual-boot tablets. Were not too sure how many users would want that, but maybe the idea is to get Windows RT into more hands and maybe give developers more incentive to support Microsofts middle-child platform.

The rumor goes on to assert that Microsoft hasnt just asked, but Samsung has answered. Supposedly, Samsung has agreed to make its upcoming Galaxy Note 12.2-inch tablet a dual-boot system running both Android and Windows RT. Of course, if you remember, one of the big annoyances with Windows RT was that the system could take up somewhere around 16GB of space on a device. Combine that with Samsungs TouchWiz heavy Android (which has been measured at around 10GB), and a 32GB tablet would be left with about 6GB of usable space. PhoneArena

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