Samsung Galaxy S20 - Full phone specifications

Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide. Probably these words gathered in the LTPO acronym do not tell you much, but it is a technology that has already been used by Apple in its Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5, and that will soon reach smartphones such as the Galaxy Note 20, whose images conceptual (unofficial) already outline with that image design.

This is what a specialized consultant in this area has indicated, who has revealed that the future Samsung Galaxy Note 20+ will have an LTPO screen that will stand out especially for being able to take advantage of high refresh rates (in that case, 120 Hz ) without consuming energetic is triggered. That offers a solution to this disadvantage of these screens at 90 Hz and 120 Hz that "eat" the battery faster than when using them at 60 Hz.

Screens at 120 Hz without (so many) compromises

Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Consultants (DSCC), revealed these days how Samsung itself had "confirmed" that the Galaxy Note 20+ will support 120 Hz on its screen , but the base model of this terminal, the Galaxy Note 20, will maintain an LPTS ( Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon ) display at 60 Hz.

Note 20 Update - while the Note 20+ remains LTPO and 120Hz, the Note 20 will be LTPS and 60Hz. Makes sense since LTPO costs more and should appear first in premium models. You can do 120Hz with LTPS, but it consumes a lot of power. LTPO is the best implementation for 120Hz.

The key is in the use of LTPO technology. As Young explained, 120 Hz LPTS displays can be used, "but it consumes a lot of energy . "

It is something that we are seeing in the terminals that are integrating those types of screens with high refresh rates: they either lower the resolution when doing so, or they have operating modes that detect when to activate or not that refresh rate. The objective is to try to reduce energy consumption at all times .

Apple Watch has been integrating this technology for a long time

Apple already used this type of technology in the Apple Watch Series 4 , something that has made it possible to improve the efficiency of the screens of these smart watches, and did something similar with the Apple Watch Series 5 , which according to the company had the only screen with This technology together with new controllers and energy management systems that allowed for the first time to always have an active screen on these models.

Not only that: the LTPO screens also allow much more powerful control of the refresh rate that the screen uses at all times, being able to minimize and maximize it according to each scenario .

At iFixit they already explained how, when presenting their Watch Series 4, Apple indicated that thanks to this technology it was possible to reduce that refresh rate dynamically when it is not being actively used, allowing it to further optimize its energy consumption.

Apple indicated that it could reduce that refresh rate from 60 Hz to as low as 1 Hz when the Apple Watch was not active, for example, and with the Pro Motion screen of the iPad Pro (although they are not LTPO) it does something similar to "play "with refresh rates ranging from 24 to 120 Hz.

In fact, it is expected that Apple will also use these types of screens on their iPhones in the future. The latest rumors indicate that this improvement will not come until 2021 , but it could certainly pose an interesting feature to increase the autonomy of these smartphones.

Between 5 and 15% more efficient than traditional screens

With LTPO technology, it is precisely possible to use screens with high refresh rates and an energy consumption that is between 5 and 15% lower than that of LPTS panels according to IHS .

This layer can be applied to both OLED panels and LCD panels, but its integration is expected to be especially noticeable in OLED and AMOLED displays that are flooding our electronic devices right now.

Other leaks that advance us details of the future Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20+ indicate that there will be no notable changes in internal specifications or in the camera system.

The diagonals will change: the Note 20 will grow to 6.42 inches and will have a screen resolution of 2,345 x 1,084 pixels, while the Note 20+ will have a diagonal of 6.87 inches and a resolution of 3,096 x 1,444. The absence of LTPO technology in the base model will allow its cost to be significantly lower , although as pointed out by Sam Mobile, achieving a more affordable Galaxy Note with S Pen was something that Samsung had already achieved with the Galaxy Note 10 Lite , for example.