Microsoft officially launched the Windows Phone 7 OS yesterday. They announced 10 phones from HTC, Dell, LG and Samsung. Three of those phones use AMOLED displays: the Samsung Focus (with a 4" Super-AMOLED (leaked back in July as the Cetus), the Samsung Omnia 7 (with the same 4" Super-AMOLED display) and the Dell Venue Pro (leaked back in April as the Lightning).

Samsung Omnia 7

There were reports that Microsoft expects most WP7 phones to have AMOLED displays, and even designed the UI so it'll suit those displays (with black background to conserve power). It's great to see that even today, with AMOLED supply issues, 3 out of 10 WP7 phones use AMOLED displays.

There are reports that HTC is planning to launch a new Windows Phone 7 phone next week (in Australia, for some reason). The HD3 will have a 4.5" AMOLED display (1200x800). It will also feature a 1.5Ghz dual-core CPU, 1GB of ram, 32GB of flash memory, Wi-Fi and 4G network support.

The AMOLED display sounds too good (and too big) to be true, especially since HTC has already switched to S-LCDs in several phones. On the other hand, we do know that Microsoft expects most WP7 devices to use OLED displays. We'll have to wait till September 15th to learn if this is for real.

There are some rumors that Microsoft are working on a new Zune player, and they'll release it in early 2011. That's about all we know... If true, it's likely to use an OLED: the Zune-HD has one, and they might be using software similar to the WP7 - which is actually designed to be used on OLED display.

Zune HD

The Zune HD has a 3.3" 16:9 480x272 multi-touch OLED, HD radio and video (720p) and Wi-Fi. It costs $350 for 64GB, 215$ 32Gb and 157$ for the 16Gb.

There are reports that Samsung is set to launch a new phone, called Cetus, which will run Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS. It will have a 4" 800x480 AMOLED (or Super-AMOLED?) display, 5mp camera, FM tuner, GPS and Wi-Fi. Microsoft actually expects most WP7 phones to come with OLED displays, and recommend building a GUI with a black background to save power.

Update: Microsoft removed the video that shows the transparent OLED...

Transparent OLEDs are exciting (and Samsung wants to tap that market) - but a lot of people wonder what is it really good for? Microsoft is showing a nice concept: using a camera beneath a transparent OLED to create gesture-based UI. The camera "sees-through" the OLED:

Microsoft are using a Samsung-made transparent AMOLED panel.

There are rumors that LG is set to release a new smartphone based on Microsoft's Windows-Phone 7 OS. The phone will have a 3.7" AMOLED, 5mp camera and a QWERTY sliding keyboard.

Microsoft announced a 64GB version of the Zune HD, which will ship on April 12nd and will cost $350. They also lowered the prices of the 32Gb version to $237, and the 16Gb to $167.

Zune HD

Samsung is said to be developing a new Windows Phone 7 (WP7) device, and it will have a Super-AMOLED touch display. It will also have 8mp camera, Wi-Fi, 3G and A-GPS. This isn't surprising as Microsoft are expecting most WP7 phones to have AMOLEDs.

We'll wait for an official announcement.

Pocketnow reports that Microsoft's engineers chose black backgrounds in Windows Phone 7 because it will be very useful with AMOLEDs (it'll save a lot of energy because OLEDs do not use any power on black pixels). There's also the option for a white background, used to enhance readability.

It's great to hear that Microsoft expects most devices to have AMOLED displays, although this is not really a surprise - back in January we ran a story that Microsoft will advice device makers to use AMOLEDs...

You can now get the Zune HD 32GB version for $249 (down from $290). The 16GB now costs $190 (down from $219). The Zune HD has a 3.3" 480x272 multi-touch OLED display. It also got HD radio and video (720p), Wi-Fi and a web-browser.

Click here to buy the Zune HD over at Amazon.com