Samsung Wave: how to squeeze the most from its Super AMOLED screen

June 7, 2010 6:00 am

Categories: How Tos Extra Tags: bada, PP, Samsung, wave

The Samsung Wave is the first phone to use a Super AMOLED screen. Why is it so special, and why should you care? Read on as we take a look at the Samsung Wave’s Hollywood-grade display.

All about the AMOLED
AMOLED screens work differently from standard TFT LCDs, the type you’ll find in most smartphones including Apple’s iPhone. For starters, there’s no backlight. Instead, each pixel lights up when needed. This means that black areas of the Samsung Wave‘s screen are much blacker than most rivals.

Put it next to an iPhone and the difference is startling.Where the Wave’s constrast is huge, with everything from pitch black to bright whites on show, the iPhone’s darkest areas still look decidedly bright, more grey than black. Greater contrast also makes for better colour reproduction and an all-round higher quality image. It’s quite possibly the best mobile screen we’ve ever seen.

The resolution, at 800×480, is also startlingly high for a 3.3-inch screen. Higher pixel density means higher brightness and a much sharper image, which is a bonus whether you’re writing emails or watching a movie.

Because an AMOLED screen only lights-up the areas of a screen that are needed, the Samsung wave’s screen is more efficient than a TFT LCD too, using less battery life in general use. Backlit LCD screens waste light, and wasted light means wasted power.

We’re all going on a summer holiday
A frequent criticism made of AMOLED screens is that they don’t cope well with direct sunlight, causing all sorts of reflection issues. The Samsung Wave uses a second-generation AMOLED screen, which Samsung calls Super AMOLED, that has managed to cut down these problems significantly. We found that the Samsung Wave copes just fine in the outdoors, but there’s also a setting to help out if the sun gets a bit too intense.

Outdoor visibility mode, which is available in screen-intensive parts of the phone like the video player and camera, gives the brightness and colour saturation a boost. It looks gaudy in normal lighting conditions, as if some prankster has fiddled with the settings, but avoids the washed-out look screens can get in bright sunlight. Whether you’re texting a mate on the beach or watching a video on a sun lounger, the Samsung Wave has the chops to cater to your every whim.

The Samsung Wave – movie buff
The Wave’s beautiful Super AMOLED screen looks great whatever you’re doing, but it’s with video that it truly excels.Samsung has made sure that it’s one of the phone’s flagship features too, by packing-in more video support than almost any other smartphone.

With most smartphones, you can expect to be able to watch H.263, H.264 and WMV files – they’ve become the compatibility norms – but the Samsung Wave can also play back Divx and Xvid files without a hitch. It’s the first phone ever to be certified for 720p HD Divx playback by the folks at Divx too, so you know you’ve got a video winner in the Samsung Wave. It can take almost anything you can throw at it, and the fantastic contrast ratio and colours of the screen make even low-budget indie flicks look like a million dollars.

Match the Samsung Wave with an 8GB or 16GB microSD card and you’ll have a mobile media player worthy of the Oscars. And the BAFTAs. But certainly not the Razzies.

Check out the Samsung Wave in action…

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Samsung Wave: how to squeeze the most from its Super AMOLED screen

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