It's been so long since Kodak's been relevant that it's easy to forget how much they've pioneered. Today, though, they've been reduced to a case study in what happens when companies built on increasingly obsolete technology are slow to evolve. Kodak's OLED business is good example of what's gone wrong: they've made some nice (though questionably necessary) advances with it, but don't have any TV or monitor presence with which to leverage it. So now they've handed it off to LG, who'll save fistloads of cash by having access to Kodak's "fundamental" OLED intellectual property portfolio, while Kodak will use whatever money they got out of the sale to buy down some debt and make some perfectly adequate printers.

To keep the metaphors coming: Kodak hasn't so much passed the torch as they have sold the farm. [BusinessWire via Endgadget]

DigiTimes says that the 9.7-inch OLED panels are priced at about $500 bucks today, and the screen would account for about 30 percent of the device's $1500 to $1700 cost when it arrives in the second quarter of next year. OLED prices are expected to fall over the next couple of years, though. As for the 10.6-incher, that's still said to be in the $800 to $1000 ballpark.

No word yet from them on the rumored matter synthesizer and teleporter module, but give it a couple more months, and they will spill it all out. [DigiTimes]

Those 40-inch panels will still be "fairly expensive", but LG says new manufacturing processes will drive down costs by 2016.

LG Display aims to achieve a 50% higher material cost and a 30% lower yield than those of LCD panels in 2012 and a 20-30% lower material cost and an equivalent yield in 2016.

That's a pretty big call, but I like where their head's at. [Nikkei via OLED-Display.net]

No word on when it'll become a real product, but it's bound to be pricey. A reminder, too, that of all the 3D TV systems we've tried so far, Panasonic's active shutter-glasses and 103-inch 3D Plasma concept produced less flickering than Sony's active shutters, and was more watchable than JVC's 3D system that uses passive polarizing glasses. Oh, and here's what Panasonic's final glasses design looks like. Yep, until we see 3D TVs that don't need glasses, we're all gonna look like dorks. At least it'll be in the comfort of our own lounge rooms. [Samsung Korea]

We don't know much more at this point, but it's just one of many concepts Samsung has on show at the FPD exhibition in Japan. Follow the link to check them out, including a netbook with 7-inch AMOLED screen. [Akihabara News]

Akihabara News' video below also shows LG's 47-inch LED backlit TV concept, and a mulit-touch notebook display. No real information is given, but it looks like they're all AMOLED-based. [Akihabara News]

The OLED lamp even senses when it's light or dark out, and if it's light, stores the energy produced by rocking in a battery pack until nightfall. The chair, designed by Rochus Jacob, rightfully shared first prize at the DesignBoom Green Life Competition, which you can read more about here. [Unpluggd]

That's definitely the biggest OLED screen I've heard of. Of course, the individual panels are a bit of a cheat—and mean you only see a red, green and blue matrix until you're at least 2 feet away—but Mitsubishi imagines the tech being curved around buildings, trains and buses in Japan.

OLED screens are capable of much higher resolutions than regular stadium-style LED displays, but have two fatal flaws. They're super expensive, and OLED degrades. The expected life of an OLED panel is only about 20,000 hours (roughly 2.5 years for a 24/7 advertisement). Gorgeous as they are, that expense is why you're not reading this on an OLED screen right now. [OLED-Display.Net and Network World]

Here, the touch controls are 100% intact; the problem is that the bottom majority of the screen is completely washed out in a bright, white filter.

Study the clip at 28 seconds in. You'll see that the display is working fine before the white mask flashes back in. While OLED engineers in the audience can feel free to correct us, we think there's a strong possibility that the problem is software-based (and thereby firmware-fixable through a patch). But obviously, make Microsoft give you a new Zune right away if you're encountering such an issue.

Essentially, electrons pass through the pickle (or any other active organic matter) and charge the substance. When positive and negative charges collide, they release a photon (light). This pickle represents just one of millions of OLEDs in a potential display. It also means that Vlassic stock will skyrocket if they can only cut those Bread and Butter chips a little bit smaller. [MIT TechTV via PopSci]

After introducing its X Series laptops yesterday the company told reporters that it would release an OLED notebook towards the end of 2010, perhaps in the third quarter. Lenovo has also mentioned plans to use OLED and Sony has shown a totally futuristic notebook based on OLED panels, but this is the first solid timing we have heard of.

Not surprising there was no mention of cost, but we've got to assume that it would add a couple of hundred to the price of a regular notebook (OLED screens are about 50 to 80 percent more expensive than regular LCDs). But with analysts at Gartner believing that OLED laptops will become the norm over the next 5 years maybe it won't be as bad as anticipated. I'll start saving. [TechRadar]

The design is both clever and functional, with the display's ports tucked behind the monitor in some sort of cross between a folded piece of paper and a photo frame. In turn, the necessarily hardware becomes its own stand, and the display can tilt, too (not that the viewing angle on most OLEDs is necessarily lacking).

LG's premium OLED will be released in Korea this November. And don't be surprised if/when you see a $2000+ pricetag on the thing. [Flickr via OLED Info and Engadget]

Long story short, the display turned on just fine and displayed a—wait for it—fish image.

While a bit quirky, the achievement is noteworthy simply because OLED displays, like some cats, despise water. But this one didn't!

So now flexible OLED displays work under water, or at the very least in tiny cups surrounding by Playmobil people. [Plugged In via OLED Display]

The 15-incher will officially debut at the IFA 2009 show in Berlin, LG execs told Reuters, after which it will sell first in Korea before making its way overseas sometime after November.

And better still, at least for OLED fans, is word that LG is also preparing a 40-inch OLED product in the "not so distant future." We probably don't have to tell you that this "product" will undoubtedly be "expensive." [Reuters]

Things, with dollars! It's a story, in two parts: enjoy.

From March, here:

[M]anufacturers are being faced with two equally unattractive (read: expensive) options for building TV-sized OLED TVs, like the one Samsung showed off last year: either devise an entirely new manufacturing process, which would require the invention of new techniques and machines for fabrication, or pursue a different type of OLED panel. Both options would circumvent the current size restrictions, but both options are extremely expensive.

The investments necessary to manufacters a legitimately "next-gen," i.e. either reasonably priced or reasonably sized, OLED, are extremely high, and difficult to muster capital for in this economy. This alone could've explained Sony's delay, but then we have this, today, from the WSJ:

Sony will delay the launch of its next organic light emitting diode, or OLED, television because mass producing the new displays would exacerbate losses at its TV division, according to people familiar with the matter.

It's not just that developing the fabrication processes to build larger OLED TVs is too expensive—it's that so far, and probably for some time into the future, OLED TVs are and will be money-losing prestige products. And right now, Sony can't afford prestige products.

The WSJ points to Samsung and LG as the companies to fill the OLED void, but neither company has been overly enthusiastic about the technology, at least on a TV scale, for the last few months. Idealistic vision of the future, circa 2007? Deeeeee—layed. [WSJ]

In layman's terms, the innovation arrives thanks to a liquid semiconducting layer that potentially bends and flexes more reliably than the "vacuum thermal evaporation" technique employed by Samsung.

In the researchers' case, the liquid, officially known as ethylhexyl carbazole (EHCz), will constantly deliver a fresh supply of semiconductors to the emitting layer. To you and me that means better, more flexible screens that might not degrade as quickly as once thought, if and when they arrive in the (near?) future. Just don't try and drink one. [PhysOrg via OLED Info - Thanks, Ron]

Take it with a grain of salt, but a SmartHouse Australia report from April claims to answer both those questions. It says a senior LG staffer reckons the OLED panels will initially "cost double, if not triple, the price of an LCD panel" (sounds about right), and that the 15-inch OLED screen will make its way into the next generation of MacBooks (wait, what?).

Here's what's more believable. According to OLED-Display.Net, the LG 15-inch OLED screens are already being made, and the company plans a global roll out soon after the display hits Korea in December.

As for the Apple speculation? Let us know your thoughts below. [via OLED-Display.Net and SmartHouse]

Still, Office Space comparisons aside, for me the simple dimming of the four-square OLED, and the fact that these lights won't rape and pillage the environment like those nasty mercury-containing fluorescents we see everywhere today, were cool enough to warrant the wait.

Unfortunately, just like OLED HDTV screens, these lights are starting small and expensive (the prototype shown here is just 24-inches). Hopefully the $2 million Department of Energy grant awarded to manufacturer UDC in July 2008 (it's their prototype) will hasten the process, if only slightly. [YouTube via OLED Info]

For comparison, ThinkGeek sells the Optimus Maximus, the great grandpappy of the OLED-in-a-key concept, for a staggering $1600. Obviously, the OCZ doesn't match up to Art Lebedev's Cheeto-resistant masterpeice—fewer keys, limited colors, plainer styling—but come on, is it really 8.5% the keyboard the Optimus is?

The item isn't listed as shipping yet, though OCZ says they're on their way to retailers. [ZipZoomFly—Thanks, Justin!]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The first thing you'll notice is that only a small cluster of the Sabre's keys—the numpad, specifically—are given the OLED treatment; the second, that the keys don't display color. OCZ tries to make up for the diminished key count and monochrome color scheme with a clever layered shortcut system and blue LED sidelighting, but there's no use denying it: the Sabre is no Optimus Maximus. Given that the Optimus is incredibly huge and oddly difficult to actually type on, though, this could be a good thing.

Another, better way that the Sabre doesn't measure up to the Optimus? Price. They haven't announced specifics yet, but OCZ says the Sabre, which is ready to ship to retailers, will be "affordable." Of course, compared to the Optimus's $1600 price, that could mean pretty much anything. $200, please? [OCZvia Electric Pig]

And I'll be damned if it doesn't work perfectly. Alongside a static picture, this e-passport displays a rotating photographic avatar when placed near a power source. OLED-Info thinks the card is pulling power from an RFID reader, but given that the display is full-fledged 320x240, 260k color OLED panel that's playing video, I tend to think there's a more powerful type of inductive charging going on here. [OLED-Info—Thanks, Ron!]

The 31-incher is the first OLED display to boast full HD resolution (1920 x 1080). It also features a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, a color gamut of over 100% NTSC and a ultra-slim design of only 8.9mm. That's all well and good, but I will hold off on any enthusiasm until it transitions from "production ready" to plain "production." [BusinessWire via OLED Display]

It's simpler than the crazy ion blaster technique Samsung used to produce their flexible OLED display, adapting the "traditional" process of manufacturing OLED displays (UDC uses vacuum thermal evaporation) in a more "benign" way so that it can be implemented directly on a soft piece of plastic, hence the potential for mass production. Essentially, the plastic substrate is glued to a piece of glass while they process it, and then it's carefully peeled off. What you end up with is an OLED implemented directly on plastic.

That said, while FDC believes "most of the key manufacturing roadblocks have been addressed and it's time to start thinking seriously about commercial production," commercial gadgets with flexible OLED displays are still a few years away. And we're talking like 4-6 inches, not even 8-10 for a bendy tablet thing. On the upside, they think they can get the price premiums down to "no more than 10 percent" above existing display prices within the first 5 years of commercial production. We'll see.

FDC and Universal Display Corporation Make Breakthrough in Flexible Display Manufacturing Process; Advance Flexible OLEDs Closer to Mass Market

TEMPE, Ariz. – June 1, 2009 - The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University and Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ: PANL), today introduced the first a-Si:H active matrix flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display to be manufactured directly on DuPont Teijin's polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate. Implementing Universal Display Corporation's phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode (PHOLED) technology and materials and the FDC's proprietary bond-debond manufacturing technology, the 4.1-inch monochrome quarter video graphics array (QVGA) display represents a significant milestone towards achieving a manufacturable solution for flexible OLEDs.

Flexible OLEDs are designed to target a number of military and commercial applications that require more rugged displays. With Universal Display's PHOLED technology and materials, the new display achieves the same brightness as traditional displays with extremely low power consumption. Additional advantages of the technology include lower operating temperature due to less heat being generated, easier to drive, longer battery life, and more stable transistors.

"Being a founding member of the Flexible Display Center, Universal Display is pleased to see the significant progress enabled by our cooperation," said Mike Hack, Vice President of Strategic Product Development at Universal Display. "Together, the FDC and Universal Display have demonstrated technology paths which will accelerate the introduction of exciting new flexible OLED displays on plastic substrates."

"This development of flexible AMOLED technology gives the industry a solid starting point towards manufacturing, mass production and commercialization of flexible OLEDs," said Shawn O'Rourke, director of engineering for the FDC. "The fact that we have achieved a functional flexible OLED manufactured directly on plastic using the Center's manufacturing process represents a significant achievement, and continued developments over the next few years will lead to full color, full motion video flexible displays."

The flexible backplane display was manufactured at the Flexible Display Center utilizing a 180°C thin film transistor process. The FDC's facility implements traditional flat panel and semiconductor tools and processes to achieve flexible displays, enabled by its proprietary bond-debond technology to secure the plastic substrate to a rigid carrier during manufacture.

The integration of Universal Display's PHOLED frontplane delivers a key enabling technology for the flexible OLED. The PHOLED materials allow the OLED to convert up to 100 percent of the electrical energy into light, as opposed to traditional fluorescent OLEDs which convert only 25 percent, providing up to four times more energy efficiency. Universal Display integrated the FDC backplane designed for its PHOLED frontplane to produce the display.
The FDC and Universal Display will present a paper discussing the active matrix flexible OLED on Friday June 5th in session 65.4 at SID 2009. Additionally, the FDC will demonstrate this device and other flexible display technologies in booth # 523 at the show. Universal Display, located at booth #676 at the show, and DuPont Teijin are members of the Flexible Display Center.

About the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University
The FDC is a government – industry – academia partnership that's advancing full-color flexible display technology and fostering development of a manufacturing ecosystem to support the rapidly growing market for flexible electronic displays. FDC partners include many of the world's leading providers of advanced display technology, materials and process equipment. The FDC is unique among the U.S. Army's University centers, having been formed through a 10-year cooperative agreement with Arizona State University in 2004. This adaptable agreement has enabled the FDC to create and implement a proven collaborative partnership model with over 20 engaged industry members, and to successfully deploy world class wafer-scale R&D and GEN-II display-scale pilot production lines for rapid flexible display technology development and manufacturing supply chain commercialization. More information on the Flexible Display Center can be found at www.flexdisplay.asu.edu.

About Universal Display Corporation

Universal Display Corporation is a world leader in developing and commercializing innovative OLED technologies and materials for use in flat panel displays, solid-state lighting products, electronic communications and other opto-electronic devices. Universal Display is working with a network of world-class organizations, including Princeton University, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, and PPG Industries, Inc. Universal Display has also established numerous commercial relationships with companies such as Chi Mei EL Corporation, DuPont Displays, Inc., Konica Minolta Technology Center, Inc., LG Display Co., Ltd., Samsung SMD Co., Ltd., Seiko Epson Corporation, Sony Corporation, Tohoku Pioneer Corporation and Toyota Industries Corporation. Universal Display currently owns or has exclusive, co-exclusive or sole license rights with respect to more than 940 issued and pending patents worldwide.

Obviously, though, the flash-equipped camera is the star of the show here, and while relentless megapixel one-upmanship is fruitless and annoying, the Pixon looks like it'll be a decent pocket shooter despite its narrow obsession. Touch autofocus lets you choose a focal point with a finger tap, after which the camera will automatically keep focus on its subject. Shooting speed is quicker than average, clocking in at about two seconds per shot. A bevy of online photo services are supported out of the box, and video recording, though not HD, records at a respectable 720 x 480.

The 150MB internal storage is glaringly weak for a camera-centric phone, though I suspect, as is usually the case, that carriers will bundle SD cards when the Pixon finally goes on sale, which will be in June in Europe, and August elsewhere—though not necessarily here. Sorry, Idou! [OLED Info and Akihabara News]

I'll CC You in the FL
With LCDs, it's all about the backlighting. This defines contrast, brightness and other performance metrics. When you watch plasma TVs, OLED TVs or even old tube TVs, there's light emanating from each pixel like it was a teeny tiny bulb. Not so with LCD—when you watch traditional LCD TV, you're basically staring at one big lightbulb with a gel screen in front of it.

The typical old-school LCD backlighting tech is CCFL—a cold cathode fluorescent lamp—which is an array of the same kind of lights that make people's lives miserable in offices around the world. The reason they aren't the greatest as backlights for TV watching is that they light up the whole damn display. Because LCD is just a massive screen of tiny doors that open and close, light inevitably leaks through the closed doors, when they're trying to show black, resulting in more of a glowy charcoal. Check out this shot from Home Theater mag to see what I mean:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

LEDs (light emitting diodes) are different from say, an old school incandescent bulb, which heats up a filament to generate light, in that they're electroluminescent—electricity passes through a semiconductor and the movement of the electrons just lights it up. Instead of having one lightbulb in the bottom of the screen, shining up through all of the LCD pixels, you can have arrays of LEDs that shine through smaller portions of the LCD screen, leaving other portions in the dark, so to speak.

OLED—"organic light emitting diode"—is slightly different. Since the electroluminescent component is organic and not a chip, each point of light can be much tinier. That's why an LED TV still needs the LCD screen in front: there's no way to have a single LED per pixel unless the screen is huge, and mounted to the side of a building in Times Square. OLEDs don't: HD OLED displays are made up of red, green and blue dots, no LCD panel required.

LED Is As LED Does
So, Samsung's term "LED TV" is more accurately—and more commonly—described as an LED-backlit LCD. But not all LED displays are created equal.

There are two major kinds of LED backlighting: Edge-lit and local dimming. Edge-lit displays are what they sound like—the LEDs are arranged in strips running along all four edges of the TV, like you can see in this gut shot from Cnet. A light guide directs the glowyness toward the center of the screen. The advantage of edge-lit displays is that they can get incredibly thin, are 40 percent more power-efficient than regular LCDs and are a bit cheaper than local-dimming TVs. But because they're still shooting light indiscriminately across the LCD panel, they can't pull off the black levels that a local dimming backlight setup can.

LED backlighting of the local dimming variety is how you build the best LCD TV in the world. It's called local dimming, as you probably guessed, because there are a bunch of LED bulbs—hundreds in the Sony XBR8—arranged in a grid behind the screen. They can all be dark or brightly lit, or they can turn off individually or in clusters, making for the actual Dark Knight, rather than the Grayish Knight you'd see on many cheaper CCFL LCDs. Sets with local dimming are pricier than edge-lit—the Samsung's local-dimming 46-incher started at $3,500, versus $2800 for one of their edge-lit models. They are thicker too.

What Color Is Your LED?
The color of the LEDs matters too, separating the best LED-backlit LCDs from the the merely great. Most LED sets just use white bulbs. The reason Sony's XBR8 started out at $5,000—as much as Pioneer's king-of-TVs Kuro—is because it uses tri-color LEDs in an RGB array. In each cluster, there are two green bulbs next to one red and one blue (greens aren't as bright). The result is high contrast plus super clean, incredibly accurate color.

LED displays are getting cheaper, more quickly than originally expected, so we could see them go mainstream sooner. You already see the lower-end edge-lit LED tech used in mainstream stuff—MacBook Pro and Dell's Mini 9 to name a couple. Which is a good thing, since the prophesied ascendancy of OLED in 2009 completely failed to happen. So we'll have to make do with LED in the meantime. Just be sure to find out what kind when you're buying.

The July 17 release could technically be possible, since it's on a Friday and Apple's been releasing their iPhones on Fridays, but the specs are weird.

* 32GB and 16GB storage (up from the current 16GB and 8GB models)
* $199 and $299 price points to be maintained
* 3.2-megapixel camera (up from the current 2-megapixel camera)
* Video-recording and editing capabilities
* Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
* Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
* OLED screen
* 1.5 times the battery life of the current models
* Double the RAM and processing power
* Built-in FM transmitter
* Apple logo on back will glow
* Rubber-tread backing
* Sleeker design
* Built-in compass
* The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations
* Turn-by-turn directions

So what's weird? The OLED screen, for one. The 1.5x battery life, for two. And a rubber-tread backing/sleeker design for three. It's still quite cost-prohibitive to use OLED screens on devices, and it's difficult to see how Apple could shrink down the size of the device to make it "sleeker" while at the same time making the battery 1.5x. Maybe because they're using an OLED screen?

It's all very pie in the sky, so don't take it as literal proof that the next iPhone will have this. And the rubber tread backing may or may not be this leaked image from MacRumors, which isn't quite rubber, but more of a matte feel than the current version. [Apple iPhone Apps via 9 to 5 Mac]

Suspended in a flexible matrix of carbon nanotubes and rubber, the new OLED displays can be stretched an additional 50% of their normal size and wrapped around complex, 3D surfaces. No, they aren't paper-thin like other prototypes we've seen and the graphics are currently monochrome, but these OLEDs appear to be incredibly practical for everyday use. Plus, the displays can be manufactured through an industrial printing process that should make the technology inexpensive to boot...you know...some day...or never...or tomorrow...or something. Neither children's toys nor condoms will ever be the same. [Technology Review via KurzweilAI]

On Sony's "SonyRewards" site, the X1000-series unexpectedly popped up with a price, albeit in Sony's "points" currency. But if we convert from Sony points to, you know, actual money, the X1000 will come in at $299 and $399 for the 16GB/32GB versions, respectively. That's exactly the same as Apple's price on its equivalent iPod touch models.

The X1000-series includes a lot of features the iPod touch doesn't, like the all-important OLED screen, noise-cancelling technology, an FM tuner, and Sony's vaunted sound quality, but the iPod touch has been an established smash hit for years now and we wish Sony would have undercut to make more of a splash. This is just a rumor, at the moment, but an appearance on an official Sony site is pretty solid evidence that these will be the final prices. [Sony Rewards (16GB, 32GB) via Engadget]

The retractable USB drive used the OLED screen to browse files and carry out certain functions. When used as a biometric scanner, the screen will change colors to indicate success or failure. Ennova hasn't mentioned any specific storage capacities for these drives, but they did talk in the presser about people backing up large chunks of data, up to 64 gigabytes. So I'll guess we'll be seeing a few drives bigger than 4 gigs.

Ennova says we should expect to see their hyper-ultra-advanced USB drive sometime in early 2010, under their Ion Technologies brand. [PRweb via OLED Display via Engadget]

It uses hundreds of little OLED screens to create a kind of funhouse mirror from the future, reflecting back whatever is in front of it. Cool stuff.

[Fubiz via NotCot]

The NeoView Kolon is a prototype that uses a transparent OLED display, presumably layered over a reflective mirror. The result is a HUD of sorts...that could probably be extremely useful if it didn't expend so much light and distraction on looking cool.

For instance, a bumper mounted camera outfitted with the proper algorithms could track the speed of incoming vehicles. This data could label incoming fast cars on the OLED, alerting the driver to allow some extra breathing room in his lane.

Or, you know, you could fit a YouTube window up there, too. [OLED Info and OLED Televisions UK via Engadget]

The announcement, if true, would signal the launch of Sony's 2nd generation OLED TVs. The first gen, as you'll remember, were showcased as tiny XEL-1 prototypes and consumer models throughout 2008 (notably at CES 2008, later as a swank kitchen knife set).

Hopefully, the second coming means an end to the OLED no-show we experienced late last year/this year, which manufacturers (rightly or wrongly) blamed on this crappy economy of ours.

Interesting coincidence: It was nearly one year ago that Sony said it would invest about $210 million into larger OLED TV development. Way to take your sweet time, fellas! [Korea Times via OLED-Info - Thanks, Ron]

That is, insane features we're not likely to ever see. Here's a short list:

- Tri-fold OLED screen (like a wallet)
- Shape-shifting buttons that can become flat if necessary
- Powered by kinetic energy, like a self-winding watch
- Charges via "nano-scale piezoelectric generators"

It's ridiculous, but so cool at the same time. [Core77 via DVICE]

Samsung had a good thing going, but then they blew it by sticking the following slogan on the placard beside it: "meaningful innovation, wow experience."

Seriously? Sounds like a move by the same committee who commissioned this beautiful AMOLED screen to begin with, then saddled it Symbian, instead of Android, or even WinMo 6.5.

The phone makes use of a 3.2-inch, capacitive-touch AMOLED screen that's plenty bright and responsive...at times (more on that later). The sliding action is nice and springy, and the keyboard is both spacious and clicky, mostly because it's a little bigger than most phones in its category.However, the native resolution doesn't really do the screen justice, with visuals looking a little pedestrian. The 3 megapixel camera was also a bit underwhelming, but far from terrible.

On the software side, I was a little less impressed, especially with touch accuracy. The moments where the UI was particularly responsive means that the screen hardware itself is ok, but the that the OS is a little wonky. Being a capacitive screen, you shouldn't have to press very hard for the hardware to register your finger. Some times the Impression required a decent amount of contact to really get into action. Other than that, the UI is standard AT&T fare once you get past the TouchWiz UI, but at this point it's starting to look and feel bit dated.