[General Topics] joeearl13:
While yes, theoretically a striped AMOLED 4.5" 720p screen is sharper than a 4.5" PenTile 720p screen it is pointless comparison. Why? Because 4.5" 720p stripe-RGB AMOLED screens do not exist (at least yet).

Thus with a new PenTile screen you are generally getting the highest resolution / pixel density possible for an AMOLED screen at this point in time, so there's little point complaining unless you'd rather have a standard LCD (and then you'd lose the gorgeous colours and deep blacks that an AMOLED display gives you).

Sure sometime in the future most-likely we will see 4.5" 720p Super AMOLED Plus displays (ie with striped RGB sub-pixel layout). But by then you'll probably be able to get a 4.5" 1080p (or greater) PenTile AMOLED display so the choice will be pretty much the same as you have now: go for a slightly lower resolution striped-RGB AMOLED display (currently this would be around qHD) or go for a higher resolution 720p+ PenTile AMOLED or standard LCD display.

Also it should be mentioned that just because a PenTile display has 2/3 the subpixels of an RGP-stripe display doesn't mean it has 2/3 the details of the striped display. Humans have less receptors which detect blue light than they have those which detect green and yellow light, and since blue light does not appreciably affect the human perception of luminance reducing the number of blue subpixels with respect to the red and green subpixels in a display has little-to-no effect on how a human perceives the colour and luminance of the display.

In a sense PenTile is better than striped-RGB displays since striped-RGB displays effectively output more information than the human eye needs to fully understand the picture so some of the output is redundant - it's just wasting precious battery juice (power).

Most of the time when people complain of PenTile "pixellation" what they are really talking about is pattern visibility. This is a valid criticism since the pattern is 1/3 larger on a PenTile display than a stripe-RGB one. I used to have a Nexus One and at that resolution the PenTile pattern was clearly visible and thus the screen did look appreciatively more "pixellated" than a standard LCD at the same resolution. However with the much higher pixel densities available today the pattern is much smaller and less visible on a 720p PenTile display than it is on a WVGA one.

Another valid criticism of older PenTile displays is that some have slight tint to them, for instance the Nexus One had a greenish tint thanks to its RGBG PenTile display (i.e. it had more green sub-pixels thus leading to an ever-so-slightly greenish image). However the newer ones are all RGBW AFAIK so a greenish tint shouldn't a problem with these panels.

However the newer PenTile panels generally do have a white-point which is a bit too blue. This is actually nothing to do with PenTile and is done by the display manufacturers on purpose in order to increase the lifetime of the display.

So the real question is: is the pattern on a 720p PenTile display (e.g. Galaxy Nexus, Note, Moto Razor etc) more or less visible than those on a striped-RGB qHD or WVGA display of the same size? There's no point comparing the real PenTile screen to a hypothetical one. My two cents: I'd say the pattern is definitely less visible than a WVGA striped-RGB; and although I haven't had a great chance to check the pattern also seems less visible than that on a qHD striped-RGB display.

I now own a Galaxy Note and I can't really tell it has a PenTile display, and even if I can tell on a rare occasion I don't care - there is no phone available (as far as I'm aware) that offers a 720p+ striped-RGB AMOLED display and I just couldn't live with a lower resolution than 720p anymore. So when I was choosing a new device the other month all my candidates had PenTile screens!

Sounds like maybe I'm defending PenTile a bit much, but as a scientist I see a lot of people insulting their work without understanding really what the issues are at hand so it turns into a kind of "PenTile sucks" ramble which distracts from real discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of PenTile.

Hopefully as you'll see from the above, the PenTile issue is hardly black and white and it shouldn't just be thrown off as an inferior technology - it has both advantages and disadvantages compared to a striped-RGB display.

It may be in the future all AMOLED screens are PenTile since once you reach a certain pixel-density there will be no noticeable pattern to the human eye - PenTile displays will probably reach this resolution before striped-RGB displays and might be slightly cheaper to manufacturer so there will be no point attempting to make a really high-res striped display when no-one could tell the difference between it and a PenTile one.

If you've been hankering after the Samsing Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note or Motorola Razor and the PenTile screen has been a sticking issue for you it really shouldn't be. Here's why:

1) The screens on all (well I can only speak for the Nexus and Note) of these devices are just beautiful. Really. Better than any phone screen I've tried before without a doubt.

2) If you want a 720p display without the PenTile sub-pixel layout you'll have to have standard LCD and not AMOLED display.

3) A 720p PenTile display definitely has a less visible pattern than a WVGA stripe-RGB display and is at least on par with a striped-RGB qHD display.

If PenTile is what it takes then to put a 720p+ AMOLED display in my pocket in the year 2011 then I'm pretty glad it exists, even if it isn't perfect.