Katarzyna Petru
After over a decade of dominance of PenTile OLED matrices in smartphones, Xiaomi is doing something that many screen enthusiasts have been waiting for for years – the model Xiaomi 17 Pro Max features a Real RGB OLED panel. This information was officially confirmed by the display manufacturer TCL CSOT, which has been announcing a return to the classic RGB subpixel concept for some time.
What’s new in the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max?
The smartphone is equipped with a 6.9-inch display with a resolution of 2608×1200 px and an impressive peak brightness of 3500 nits. The most important change doesn’t concern the specifications themselves but the subpixel technology – instead of PenTile, we have full RGB.
RGB vs PenTile
Older people in the tech world remember that the first smartphones from 15 years ago could use RGB OLED. Back then, Samsung Display heavily promoted PenTile – a layout where red and blue subpixels are shared, while green always appears separately. The effect? Text and graphics had poorer sharpness, although thanks to higher resolutions and correction algorithms in recent years, the differences have become less noticeable.
Now TCL CSOT claims that RGB OLED not only provides better text readability and a higher effective resolution but also even 26% lower power consumption compared to PenTile.
First step in a bigger plan
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is just the beginning. TCL CSOT has long been talking about an offensive in the printed OLED (inkjet printing) segment, although the panel in this smartphone was made using the classic FMM (fine metal mask) method. The company plans to launch an 8.6G factory within two years, which will enable mass production of large RGB OLED panels – from tablets and laptops to monitors and televisions.
One Hook
It’s worth noting that TCL CSOT does not use the classic RGB stripe layout – the subpixels are not arranged in equal rows, but in a different configuration. How will this affect image quality? We don’t know yet – only tests will show if this is indeed a return to "true" RGB, or rather a new variation on the theme.
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max with a TCL CSOT panel is the first smartphone in many years to break the PenTile OLED monopoly. If RGB turns out to be better and more energy-efficient, we could be witnessing a significant change – not just in phones, but across the entire display market.
