PentilePenTile RGBG matrix technology explainedSamsung's Pentile matrix technology is a sub-pixel design architecture family. The common technology (used in some of Samsung's AMOLED displays) is the RGBG matrix. In RGBG PenTile displays, the green sub-pixel is shared by two pixels - the display has only 2 sub-pixels per real 'pixel' compared to the classic RGB matrix design (or Real-Stripe). You can see a PenTile matrix vs a Real-Stripe one on the images below (the PenTile is on the right):
The Pentile technology was commercialized by Clairvoyante. In March 2008, Samsung bought the company's PenTile related IP and technology, and formed a new company called Nuovoyance to continue development of this display technology. Here's an image from Nuovoyance showing Pentile vs RGB matrix (which they call a 'legacy' matrix):
PenTile relies on the human eye design - if you reduce the number of blue subpixels, you do not reduce the image quality. But even Samsung admits that a real-stripe RGB matrix is better than Pentile, for example here's some marketing image from Samsung showing how a non-Pentile display (the Super AMOLED Plus) is better than the pentile Super AMOLED:
Samsung's AMOLED and Super AMOLED displaysSamsung uses PenTile technology in most of their AMOLED displays. This also includes the Super AMOLED displays and Super AMOLED HD displays. Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone for example has a 4.65" HD Super AMOLED display - which provides 1280x720. This high pixel density was only achievable using today's technology by using the PenTile matrix.
Samsung's top-of-the-range AMOLED displays, the Super AMOLED Plus do not use Pentile - these displays uses the classic RGB matrix design. This means that the pixel density is lower in these displays compared to Super AMOLED displays. Pentile vs RGBGA pentile display obviously has a big advantage in resolution. For example, Samsung is able to achieve 1280x800 resolution on a 5.3" display on the Galaxy Note phone. Using an RGBG matrix, the same resolution was achieved on a 7.7" display on the Galaxy Tab 7.7. According to Samsung, Pentile displays last longer because they feature more green subpixels than blue/red ones (the blue OLED feature the lowest lifetime).
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