Katarzyna Petru
After more than a decade of domination by PenTile OLED matrices in smartphones, Xiaomi is doing something that many screen enthusiasts have been waiting for years – the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max now features a Real RGB OLED panel. The information was officially confirmed by the display manufacturer TCL CSOT, which has been hinting at a return to the classic RGB subpixel concept for some time.
What's new in the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max?
The smartphone features a 6.9-inch display with a resolution of 2608×1200 px and an impressive peak brightness of 3500 nits. However, the most significant change is not related to the specifications but to the subpixel technology – instead of PenTile, we have full RGB.
RGB vs PenTile
Older individuals in the technology world remember that the first smartphones from 15 years ago were capable of using RGB OLED. At that time, Samsung Display heavily promoted PenTile – a configuration in which the red and blue subpixels are shared, while the 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 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 OLEDs (inkjet printing) segment, although the panel in this smartphone was still produced 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 is worth adding 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 this will affect the image quality? We do not know yet – only tests will show whether 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 indeed proves to be better and more energy-efficient, we may witness a significant change – not just in phones, but throughout the entire display market.
