PenTile and the Galaxy Nexus

I've heard a lot of whining about the PenTile matrix (RGBG) pixel layout being used on the Galaxy Nexus. The image above is my Galaxy S (poor color uniformity is a result of the iPhone camera used to take this photo, NOT the display). It's sharp, really sharp. But it's got a weird characteristic to that the iPhone couldn't quite focus well enough to capture. There's a red "fuzz" around letters. That's the result of the PenTile 2 subpixel-per-pixel structure. But, I don't think it's a problem in the Galaxy Nexus. It may even be a good thing. How? Well, first we need some background...

PenTile is controversial, and the fuzziness caused by the PenTile layout annoys me. It makes text less crisp, plain and simple. For photos and videos, it looks beautiful. The human eye is more sensitive to green light than to red or blue. The science, there, is solid. For blue, which is the point, PenTile is just fine. But you can see the structure of the red subpixels on the Galaxy S. The human eye is sensitive enough to red. That results in a weird red fuzziness around text.

Some people see this, some never notice it. That's on an 800x480 display. With the 1280x720 pixel display, even the red subpixels are now close enough together than even fewer people will notice the reduced number of red subpixels (the blue doesn't matter so much).

PenTile has a purpose, and a benefit. Like all emissive displays, OLED displays are subject to burn-in - uneven wear. Green OLEDs have the longest life, Blue the shortest. On my Galaxy S, the blue channel has the status bar very noticeably burnt in. The red channel also has noticeable burn in. The green channel does not.

The PenTile layout keeps this from being even worse than it already is. The most important color visually (to the human eye for sharpness) also lasts the longest? Bigger OLEDs last longer. So if you make the red and blue ones substantially physically bigger and pair only red OR blue with each green, you have a display that's going to exhibit less burn-in, and less shift towards green over it's service life.

Combined with advances in OLED lifespan, PenTile helps make OLED displays last longer and is keeping them more competitive. I agree, it was an issue when it came to sharpness of text. However, I have not seen one of the new 1280x720 displays, and I'm sure you haven't either. The pixel density of the whole thing is so high that I expect it to look VERY good, and I do not expect the problem of visible red subpixels to exist.

We'll see, but wait until you have it in your hands to judge. There are some very good engineering reasons to use the PenTile subpixel layout, and as pixel density goes up the disadvantages become less and the advantages greater.

P.S. I'd like to make one additional note, there's a site online claiming that the PenTile subpixel layout results in worse color rendition. Actually, NO, part of the point is to IMPROVE color rendition by reducing uneven wear between channels over the life of the display. No part of this scheme worsens color rendition. The PenTile layout that worsens color rendition is their RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White) LCD layout. That is a completely separate system that reduces the color gamut to gain brightness (a similar system has been used in single-chip DLP projectors for years)