Samsung has started a fight with Apple claiming that the display screen on the new iPhone 4 will suck battery juice and is not as good as Apple is making out.
A spokesperson for Samsung told the Korean media that quadrupling the resolution of their new Retina display will have little impact on clarity, at most three to five percent they claimed.
They also said that the new screen will drain the iPhone 4 battery by as much as 30 percent. AMOLED is purportedly better as it doesn’t need a backlight and makes up for any resolution loss in other ways, such as higher contrast with true black, more accurate colours and no limits on viewing angles.
“Structurally, [Apple’s] IPS LCD technology cannot catch up with AMOLED display technology,” the representative told the Korean Herald.
The iPhone 4 panel is still considered one of the most advanced displays both for its “invisible pixel” effect and for overcoming most of the perceived drawbacks of LCD, covering a very wide color gamut and touting much wider viewing angles than the often cheap LCDs used in other phones. Samsung’s official also omitted well-known drawbacks of AMOLEDs, including their high relative cost and poor visibility outdoors. The Galaxy S may solve this by using a Super AMOLED screen less vulnerable to the effect, but isn’t completely immune.
The spokesperson admitted that AMOLED supply shortage may have dissuaded Apple from using the technique in the iPhone 4, although he denied that Apple had reached out to Samsung for the option. Prior reports had the iPhone using LCDs because Samsung couldn’t make enough AMOLEDs to match Apple’s production levels.
Also, Apple’s $500 million contract with LG Display would likely discourage the use of another contractor for screens, although the deal wasn’t struck exclusively for iPhones.
