The mystery of the Samsung Galaxy Book S display panel

Samsung’s webpage for the Galaxy Book S doesn’t exactly inspire consumer confidence when it comes to the type of display panel that it has fitted to its excellent Snapdragon 8cx-powered Windows 10 alternative. The description of the device on its website doesn’t mention anything about the display and the specifications section only reveals that it is FHD with a 16:9 aspect ratio, supports 10-point touch and utilizes a TFT panel. It’s an odd omission for a device that, as we have found, is fitted with an excellent display panel.

It’s hard to know exactly why Samsung is being so coy about the panel fitted to the Galaxy Book S. It could be that it is not a Super AMOLED panel that has featured on previous two Galaxy Books to carry that Galaxy Book name. Or, it could be that the panel isn’t produced by Samsung, but rather Chinese company BOE and is in fact an LCD panel. However, rather than using In Plane Switching (IPS) technology to ensure wide viewing angles and rich colors, it most likely uses BOE’s Advanced Fringe Field Switching (AFFS) technology instead.

AFFS is derived from IPS tech, but is less well known – at least from a marketing perspective. So, it is likely that Samsung has kept things simple for this reason, if not also for the fact that it is the first Galaxy Book to forgo SAMOLED tech. When we review the Galaxy Book S more thoroughly, we will examine the displays qualities on a more technical level. However, you can rest assured that the display panel on the Galaxy Book S is one of the better LCD panels you will find on a laptop.