Newer Pulsar products often boast of high quality AMOLED displays, but many consumers don’t truly know what they are. A discerning thermal hunter might not know, for example, that a device with an AMOLED display is a far more efficient tool than an equivalent with an LCD monitor. This technology is normally used to make sharp display images in smartphones, TVs, and digital cameras. Pulsar has coopted it for use in its thermal devices.
The acronym AMOLED stands for “Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode.” These displays consist of tiny red, green and blue (RGB) pixels in four layers. Each individual pixel operates with its own light source, instead of one large backlight like an LCD would use. This results in very sharp image quality.
AMOLED displays also have a much faster refresh rate compared to LCD displays, with refresh times within the 1 millisecond mark (one second is 1000 milliseconds). This is especially important for real-time recording, since a device with an AMOLED display like a Pulsar Thermion 2 LRF is capable of displaying the most minute sways of a leaf or the fluttering of the wings of a nearby bird in spectacular detail.
In practical terms, AMOLED displays offer more vibrant images than their LCD counterparts. This is best illustrated by an AMOLED camera’s response to being pointed in a completely dark room. While an LCD would attempt to show the lack of light by displaying a series of black pixels, a camera with an AMOLED display would simply turn all the “black” pixels off, resulting in deeper blacks and less power consumption. This same technology also means that every colored pixel on an AMOLED display promises to be vivid and crisp, with a high contrast ratio, perfect for distinguishing light from dark, especially in thermal technology.
Pulsar has utilized this new technology to the fullest of its extent in its latest products, and promises to deliver the hunter or nighttime wilderness explorer the clearest and most vibrant thermal imaging available on the market.
