Nokia explains its ClearBlack AMOLED display technology

Sponsored links, if any, appear in green.

Nokia ClearBlack polarization

One of the defining features of Nokia's recent handsets is their ClearBlack AMOLED displays, which offer great color reproduction and work very well in outdoor light. While we already knew that Nokia employs a polarization filter in its ClearBlack displays, we didn't really know how the whole system worked until now.

Instead of just one polarizing filter (as might be used on your sunglasses), Nokia's ClearBlack displays have a series of the filters that are used to eliminate glare and increase contrast in the display. This makes the screen easier to see when outdoors and offers punchy, vibrant colors.

Nokia breaks down the path that light takes when it hits a ClearBlack display and bounces back to your eyes in five steps:

"1. It hits the linear polariser, this vertically polarises the light. (Polarising means - roughly - aligning the wave vibration in a particular direction).
2. Then it hits the circular polariser retardation layer. This converts the light again, making it right-circularly polarised.
3. Then it hits the screen and bounces off it, switching the rotation of the light to leftist.
4. It goes back through the retardation layer. When this happens, the light becomes horizontally polarised.
5. Finally, it hits the linear polariser, since the light is horizontally polarised at this point it can be blocked entirely by this optical solution."

Nokia's ClearBlack displays can be found on many of its recent handsets, including the Lumia 800, Lumia 710, and the upcoming Lumia 900. [via OLED-Info]