OLED stands for organic light emitting diode and is a technology that is frequently used in the latest smartphones and gadgets. There are two sides of the story when it comes to OLED’s power consumption though: it is directly proportional with the amount of light that it emits. In plain English, the brighter the screen and its colors displayed, the more battery it drains. With OLED screens, if you use dark colors overall, you can save 50% more power than with LCDs but with light colors, the consumption could triple to that of the LCDs.

If you are reading the news, you most probably heard about the hardware requirements Microsoft imposed for manufacturers related to Windows Phone 7 devices. What you might have not known is that it looks like OLED screens will be a hardware requirement too! While OLEDs consume less power, are brighter, do not require backlighting and have a wider viewing angle, OLED displays on Windows Phone 7 is great news and it’s quite plausible since the Zune HDs already use OLED screen. Combined with the new Metro UI and all the Apps and Games that will arrive to the platform, it might be another checkmark on Microsoft’s success checklist.

(VIA: SilverlightShow and SilverlightShow)