Samsung SDI (Samsung Display Interface) is looking to spearhead the manufacturing of wide VGA (or wVGA, 480 x 800) OLEDs for handhelds. In English, that means the company, together with Clairvoyante, Inc. is looking to make high-res displays for our compact gizmos.

According to a press release, Samsung and Clairvoyante has teamed up to make the wVGA active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) dream come true. The joint venture will be making use of the Clairvoyante's PenTile subpixel rendering technology and will be resulting (hopefully) in a 3.08-inch diagonal screen perfect for upcoming handheld applications.

Right now, we only have displays of up to quarter VGA (qVGA or 240 x 320) because of the challenges in manufacturing, among other things. According to the release, it will be made possible since "PenTile technology makes it possible to attain this improved performance by eliminating one-third of the subpixels while maintaining the same display resolution."

Sung-Chul Kim, Samsung SDI vice president had this to say:

Our partnership with Clairvoyante will create a new PenTile OLED panel that will lead the handheld market with a power-efficient, high-resolution OLED panel that supports continued innovation in emerging handheld applications.

And Samsung seems very confident about the project (just like Sony and its XEL-1 OLED TV), indicating an ETA of Q1 2008 for samples and Q3 for the mass production. For tech heads out there, here are the specs:

• Specifications: 3.08 inch PenTile RGB OLED from Samsung SDI
• Diagonal 3.08 inches
• Luminance 200 cd/m2
• Contrast 1000:1
• Power consumption 400 mW
• Color Gamut (NTSC) 100%
• Format Wide VGA 480 x 800

Someone has finally stepped up to challenge Samsung's claim on the title of world's thinnest LCD, and that someone is... Samsung?

As it turns out, subsidiary Samsung SDI has announced that it has bested its parent company's shortly-held record by a few millimeters. According to The Korea Times, Samsung SDI's LCD comes in at a mere 0.74 millimeters thick, more than enough to push Samsung Electronics' 0.82 mm thick LCD down to second place.

Samsung SDI's new record holder is still in prototype form, and still has a ways to go before it actually finds its way onto phones. The company has already announced that it will make an appearance on their "next-generation phones."

Right now, though, consumers can expect to see Samsung's thicker-yet-still-really-thin 1.9 mm LCD, which will be going into mass production before it winds up on the new Ultra Edition II handsets this spring.