Develop Bugs

HTC to switch from AMOLED to STFT due to shortages

sorry if this has been posted elsewhere if so please remove mods
http://androidheadlines.com/2010/06/htc-switch-to-stft-lcd-from-amoled-due-to-shortages.html
this could be a rumour but if true, I'm going to be a lot more careful with my desire.

I heard this as well. How will this affect battery life and do they look anywhere near as good?

LCDs these days are almost as good as AMOLED. Note that I said almost. I don't think anything can compare to an AMOLED or SuperAMOLED in regular inside environments, but when you get outside and the sun is shining, it's almost as if the screen isn't on. I have to put the brightness all of the way up to see the screen. LCDs don't have that problem. So If you don't know which you have in a new phone, you probably wont be able to tell unless you're outside! muahaha.

Hmm. I'm glad I already have the Desire...
As far as I know, AMOLED gives better viewing angles, has better colors and is better for battery life (which is a pain on Android phones).

Also, an AMOLED is better than LCD for showing true black or darker shades due to the lack of a backlight which is in LCD screens
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Maybe this will finally prevent the pinkish issue on some HTC AMOLED devices.

Well, Sony's TFTs shouldn't have PenTile, which should make text sharper and really ought to get rid of the pink tint. It's a trade-off; personally I'd rather have TFT with RGB subpixels, but it seems to be a minority opinion.

according to engadget, they say the Iphone 4 screen is better then the Galaxy S Super ALMOLED.
Even though I hate Iphone I must admit, the screen does look good.

Nekromantik said:
according to engadget, they say the Iphone 4 screen is better then the Galaxy S Super ALMOLED.
Even though I hate Iphone I must admit, the screen does look good.
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Click to collapse
The screen could be good, but i don't understand why apple did't made the screen bigger.

Iphone 4 screen is awesome, nice colours & perfectly viewable from a variety of angles. Pin sharp & very very clear. But its a bit too small for my liking.

Doesn't the iphone use ips technology or is that the same as super lcd (because this is the first time i hear of super lcd)

Mithent said:
Well, Sony's TFTs shouldn't have PenTile, which should make text sharper and really ought to get rid of the pink tint. It's a trade-off; personally I'd rather have TFT with RGB subpixels, but it seems to be a minority opinion.
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Agree 100% (love AMOLED, but hate PenTile). If someone ever offer me to change my Desire to normal LCD Desire i would be over the moon. I hope HTC will make ones. Maybe, just one for me

Nekromantik said:
according to engadget, they say the Iphone 4 screen is better then the Galaxy S Super ALMOLED.
Even though I hate Iphone I must admit, the screen does look good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What the Engadget article really showed was that in NORMAL use there was no discernible advantage to the iPhone 4 screen.
Being the Apple shills that they are they resorted to the retarded microscope comparisons. IF you have to show what the pixels look like under a microscope to get what the difference is then there's no difference.

Pentile for the anally observant / S-LCD

Hi, I really want to buy a Desire but when I tried it in a store I could easily notice the fuziness caused by the Pentile subpixel layout. This was on white text on a medium coloured background - I've read it's worst on black/white. I also looked at the Galaxy S and the fuzziness was much less noticable - I just hate the look and feel of that phone.
The problem is I have a pretty low tolerance to small details like that and pretty good eyesight, so I was wondering if anyone here is as anal about visual flaws as me but happily lives with the Desire's screen? I want my next phone purchace to last a couple of years at least...
I also thought it might be nice to wait and see if HTC release a Desire with a S-LCD screen - sharpness wins over deep blacks for me considering the other potential flaws with the AMOLED screens. Any thoughts?
(If the Wildfire had either an AMOLED RGB screen or a higher resolution LCD then I'd just settle for that - it looks sexy enough to live with the lack of power.)

any thoughts? eh, sure. I don't see the the "potential flaws" of AMOLED screens at all. Sure a true LCD display will have sharper definition for black on white text, but I hardly would clal my Desire screen blurred or fuzzy. I think its fine. I do a lot of reading on the net too and its absolutely fine, but you are right an LCD like iPhone is sharper for text.
I prefer the colours and the perfect blacks myself. Makes using the phone for watching movies etc a pleasure. If you use it just for very small text though, get something else. If your as picky as you seem, you will definitely have problems with this one with its amoled screen. I won't even mention the over saturated colours or the pink hue when viewing grays. You won't like that either.

i compared the screen on my desire to my friends new iphone 4 and honestly i could only tell the difference when i got so close it was physically hurting my eyes to focus on it, i really think that the screen on the desire is top and i dont seem to have much trouble with it in the daylight either for some reason

By potential flaws I meant the uneven & relatively fast fading and the burn in that some people are reporting.
I looked for the pink hue in the shop but couldn't notice it. Isn't that a hit or miss thing?
OLED is a major selling point for me. But then is resolution (<3 my x50v)
Anyone think the Desire with an S-LCD would be a big improvement?
Yeah, daylight didn't seem to be an issue at all, compared to other devices I've used over the years.
I definitely see a huge difference between Desire and iPhone 4 though. Desire is actually about on par with the previous iPhones in terms of actual blurryness, but the fact the pattern is staggered makes it more noticeable.

Schmeggma said:
I looked for the pink hue in the shop but couldn't notice it. Isn't that a hit or miss thing?
Anyone think the Desire with an S-LCD would be a big improvement?
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No the pink hue effects all AMOLED screens when displaying certain gray shades. I suggest you read the sticky post all about the AMOLED Pentile display and how it works.
Is the Desire available with S-LCD? If not, whats the point? Just get yourself a phone with LCD and be happy. The power drain on a desire with LCD would be significantly increased too. Sure AMOLED uses more on a 100% white screen, but it use much less on darker themed screens or coloured screens.

I've read the sticky and think I have a good grasp of the issue, but I've seen reports from people saying the pinkness varies.

I also have 20/20 vision and this screen is fine, the only times I'm disappointed is while text is scrolling there is a visable wave in the letters and outdoor in direct sunlight you need to find the good angle to read.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I used to be very anal about my phone. And of course you might be different but for me trying to choose the perfect one / making the perfect one ever more perfect just does not work. Huge effort, lots of frustration, little or no results and even the ones you get are brief. That's the problem with this attitude - you'll just always find another flaw to frown upon.
What worked for me was taking positive action rather than getting rid of all the faults. I implemented Allen's GTD system and I'm using my phone as a collection/organisation tool. Works great and now my phone is a very useful tool instead of being just a gadget. Flaws don't matter anymore. And with GTD I can be as anal as I only wish and still happy
BTW totally agree on Galaxy S. It's so much better phone than Desire but it's simply atrocious. Couldn't bear the thought of carrying something that makes me wanna puke for next 2/3 years.

mcgon1979 said:
No the pink hue effects all AMOLED screens when displaying certain gray shades. I suggest you read the sticky post all about the AMOLED Pentile display and how it works.
Is the Desire available with S-LCD? If not, whats the point? Just get yourself a phone with LCD and be happy. The power drain on a desire with LCD would be significantly increased too. Sure AMOLED uses more on a 100% white screen, but it use much less on darker themed screens or coloured screens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pink hue is not AMOLED related since it shows also in software emulator (on PC) and varies among phones. Sticky post is wrong all around but arguments for that are buried too deep in long thread.
AS for OP, HTC announced LCD Desire, and I would like to see one. I can notice PenTile artifacts and don't like it (together with over saturated colors and pink hue), but phone is so good in other segments it is worth owning.

Lots of anal talk in this thread!
Seriously, I have never seen the pink everyone is talking about and I have had my phone since the middle of april. It's weird that some phones are affected and some are not.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

Yeah sure the screen has some negatives about it but when compared side to side to my old iPhone's screen its blows the iPhone out of the water. I prefer AMOLED because I can turn it up full brightness and not be blinded by an annoying backlight that make sthe phone more suitable as a flashlight than a screen.

I thought I replied earlier, but it seems Opera 10.60 is a little glitchy with the forum (and in general...)
Anyway, thanks for all the replies guys. On the way home I had a look at the Desire again in another store and found the screen a lot more agreeable. I tried it sitting down, making me naturally hold it a couple of inches farther away, which makes a big difference. Plus I had more of an "how nice is this display?" attitude rather than "can I notice the flaw?"
So I came home and ordered one online. If the text bugs me that much, I can always stick to my Axim for ebooks.
edit: Still eager to see what S-LCD brings to the table, though.

Apparently, S-LCD does not stand for 'Super LCD', it is just a name of Samsung-Sony LCD factory.

Schmeggma said:
I thought I replied earlier, but it seems Opera 10.60 is a little glitchy with the forum (and in general...)
Anyway, thanks for all the replies guys. On the way home I had a look at the Desire again in another store and found the screen a lot more agreeable. I tried it sitting down, making me naturally hold it a couple of inches farther away, which makes a big difference. Plus I had more of an "how nice is this display?" attitude rather than "can I notice the flaw?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you know that PenTile OLED was in tens of thousands of cell phones for over a year before anyone noticed that they were different? If one has to be told that they are different... well that tells me that they work as designed.
Full Disclosure: I'm one of the inventors of PenTile technology.
PenTile technology was actually designed with a specific minimum distance from which to view it. Bring it too close to one's eyes, one will see the pattern. Actually the same thing also happens with the legacy RGB Stripe matrix, but since one is used to seeing that pattern, one mentally filters it out. The same should happen with the PenTile screen, once one is used to seeing it, one no longer "sees" it, if you can pardon my circular explanation, but it's true. If you use the phone at a more comfortable distance, as opposed to as close to your eyes as you can get, the screen will appear as intended.

vlasac said:
Apparently, S-LCD does not stand for 'Super LCD', it is just a name of Samsung-Sony LCD factory.
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Click to collapse
That makes me happy, if it's just another IPS or whatever then I know what to expect.
DisplayGeek said:
Did you know that PenTile OLED was in tens of thousands of cell phones for over a year before anyone noticed that they were different? If one has to be told that they are different... well that tells me that they work as designed.
Full Disclosure: I'm one of the inventors of PenTile technology.
PenTile technology was actually designed with a specific minimum distance from which to view it. Bring it too close to one's eyes, one will see the pattern. Actually the same thing also happens with the legacy RGB Stripe matrix, but since one is used to seeing that pattern, one mentally filters it out. The same should happen with the PenTile screen, once one is used to seeing it, one no longer "sees" it, if you can pardon my circular explanation, but it's true. If you use the phone at a more comfortable distance, as opposed to as close to your eyes as you can get, the screen will appear as intended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely would have noticed it if I didn't know in advance. (I'm not trying to imply there's anything good about extreme pickiness - it's a compulsive disorder and a bloody nightmare.)
I appreciate the minimum distance thing, but obviously it varies with eyesight - hence the brief controversy over Apple's 'retina' claims. It's just going to require a slight adjustment to my habits while standing to compensate for this.
As for the RGB thing, I feel that's easier to mentally filter out because it's consistent vertically whereas Pentile alternates the relatively larger red/blue subpixels. I imagine this is why the effect was less noticeable on the Galaxy S's RGBW layout, despite the slightly lower DPI?

markuz85 said:
Lots of anal talk in this thread!
Seriously, I have never een the pink everyone is talking about and I have had my phone since the middle of april. It's weird that some phones are affectewd and some are not.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So your saying the new forum theme doesn't look pink to you on your phone? All the grey bits around the forum are definitely pink in colour on mine. Maybe i have one of the affected phones.

vlasac said:
Pink hue is not AMOLED related since it shows also in software emulator (on PC) and varies among phones.
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Click to collapse
Well then it can be fixed with firmware right.
markuz85 said:
Lots of anal talk in this thread!
Seriously, I have never seen the pink everyone is talking about and I have had my phone since the middle of april. It's weird that some phones are affected and some are not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have not noticed the pink? well then you are not anal enough. try harder
DisplayGeek said:
Did you know that PenTile OLED was in tens of thousands of cell phones for over a year before anyone noticed that they were different?
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Click to collapse
As above, I think this is subjective. Some people stare at their phones looking for dust, looking for a hint of pink, looking for a mark in the case, looking for... etc etc etc... If you want to treat it like that you will be a very miserable camper. It's a phone, it has an average lifespan of 2 years probably. Use it. It reminds of these people who own a beautiful Ferrari but on't drive it. just keep it in a garage and rub it with a cloth. whats the point?
I think the only thing thats variable on the pink hue thing is the persons opinion of how pink it is. not noticeable or noticeable. some people will say its not there, some people will say it sso pink they cannot even see any other colours.
I had my eyes colour calibrated in a 16 hour operation at an optical lab in switzerland 4 weeks ago, they now recognise 400 shades of pink and have 20/20 vision, so I KNOW my phone has pink. etc etc LOL

FSake said:
So your saying the new forum theme doesn't look pink to you on your phone? All the grey bits around the forum are definitely pink in colour on mine. Maybe i have one of the affected phones.
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Click to collapse
The forum doesn't look at all pink on my phone, I've never seen this issue either.

mcgon1979 said:
people who own a beautiful Ferrari but on't drive it. just keep it in a garage and rub it with a cloth. whats the point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rubbing certain things can be very, um, therapeutic...

DisplayGeek said:
Full Disclosure: I'm one of the inventors of PenTile technology.
PenTile technology was actually designed with a specific minimum distance from which to view it. Bring it too close to one's eyes, one will see the pattern. Actually the same thing also happens with the legacy RGB Stripe matrix, but since one is used to seeing that pattern, one mentally filters it out. The same should happen with the PenTile screen, once one is used to seeing it, one no longer "sees" it, if you can pardon my circular explanation, but it's true. If you use the phone at a more comfortable distance, as opposed to as close to your eyes as you can get, the screen will appear as intended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but all your arguments don't add up. On LCD screens i have perfectly straight horizontal and vertical lines, there is no need to filter out anything.
On PenTile displays i dont have straight lines because of the pattern that is used. THAT is the problem. Lines look like zigzag-lines not straight ones. And no i'm not looking at my phone from 1 cm distance, i'm looking at it from a normal distance and i can see the pentile effect on my Nexus One. I also had a Motorola Milestone which comes with an LCD that surpasses any AMOLED PenTile screen quality regarding resolution. (while both claim to have wvga)
There is a very easy test for this. Take a Motorola Droid and a Nexus One. Place them side by side and open a webpage on full zoomed out view. You will see the difference in resolution quality VERY clearly. Anybody who claims that there is no difference is lying. You can't just imply that the eye can't see an difference because there are many people out there with normal eyesight (i'm not talking about eagle eyes here) which see the pentile pattern too clearly.
The whole topic is quite frustrating because when buying a nexus one you make one step forward (generall hardware) and two steps back (pentile).

HTC to replace AMOLED with SLCD.

Just read this article on how HTC are planning to replace the beloved AMOLED screens with Super LCD screens later this summer, both on the Nexus One and HTC Desire...
http://www.talkandroid.com/7681-slcd-displays-added-to-htc-desire-nexus-one/
For us existing owners, fair or unfair?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

So people want an SLCD screen over an AMOLED? :S I thought AMOLED were superior, with better battery life and more vivid colours? And why do some people hate pentile screens so much. I've got a replacement HTC desire due - and I'm just hoping it's an AMOLED screen, rather than a SLCD... but from some of the comments I'm hearing, I should be hoping it's an SLCD?

“The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC’s current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance.”
Better battery life has been touted as one of the advantages of AMOLED, but HTC claims that the new SLCD screens have five times better power management than standard older LCD screens, nullifying AMOLEDs advantage in that regard. AMOLED also struggles in bright sunlight, so SLCD could win out there too. Finally, HTC also said that SLCD can now compete on viewing angles too, thanks to Sony’s “VSPEC III technology”.
An HTC spokesman told TrustedReviews that both variants will be on sale at the same time and that it believed that that most people will not be able to tell the difference between the two types of display. It is not clear at this stage how they will be differentiated in the market, if at all.
I want LCD

I would want the LCD screen too, just for the benefit of battery performance... wish we could send our devices back for this upgrade, should have been part of the warranty agreement!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

MasDroid said:
I would want the LCD screen too, just for the benefit of battery performance... wish we could send our devices back for this upgrade, should have been part of the warranty agreement!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "improved" battery performance is over traditional LCD displays - not the AMOLED display used in the Desire!
I'm almost positive that you'll find that the AMOLED display currently in the Desire is better than the SLCD that will replace it. IMHO, the *only* reason HTC are moving to SLCD is because Samsung cannot deliver the required AMOLED screens in sufficient quantities, and the rest of that press release is "spin" to make it sound like it is some sort of upgrade.
Regards,
Dave

@Dave Ah yes... i misread the above statement
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I think foxmeister is right... HTC had no choice but to make this change and so they're trying to convince us that it's in our best interest.
Whenever I use my iPod Touch I immediately notice the grey blacks and washed out colours... and that's a pretty well regarded LCD. The only comments I've read on the forum from people who've received replacement Desires with the new screen have been negative.
If my Desire breaks and they try and replace it with an SLCD model, I will not go down without a fight!

1.Still it is improvement.
Even now battery life nearly the same if you use light screen(dont like darkness).
2.No Pentile.
For me its a +.(just cant get used to it)
3.No pink screens. (for some, mine is very, very little noticeable.)
4.More realistic colors.

One thing I love about the OLED tech is the gorgeous perfect blacks. Current LCD technology by its nature can not top that.
On the other hand sunlight visibility is probably a more important issue
I wouldn't worry about color saturation fidelity : I think it is a non-issue, (as long as it's not awful) it's mainly a matter of preference on a handset (nobody will be doing color correction and/or color grading on a display smaller than 24" ).
The reason for the switch is rumored to be a shortage of AMOLED screens anyway.
When you switch from AMOLED to SLCD you lose the perfect blacks but possibly gain better sunlight visibility, and maybe gain/lose a bit more natural/muted colors.

Does someone know if they are going to correct the multitouch bug with this new screen?

If you read the PR blurb, it reads very much like HTC trying to convince people that the SLCD is "as good" as AMOLD rather than "better". If there was a genuine advantage, HTC would use this as a chance to sing its praises, so I suspect that the SLCD screen will likely be slightly inferior to our current AMOLD screens.
For anyone thinking of replacing their current desire with this new one, I'd advise waiting until someone properly reviews and tests the screen.

neoKushan said:
If you read the PR blurb, it reads very much like HTC trying to convince people that the SLCD is "as good" as AMOLD rather than "better". If there was a genuine advantage, HTC would use this as a chance to sing its praises, so I suspect that the SLCD screen will likely be slightly inferior to our current AMOLD screens.
For anyone thinking of replacing their current desire with this new one, I'd advise waiting until someone properly reviews and tests the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. It was more HTC saying that they're very similar. They couldn't tout that one was better than the other due to commercial implications (e.g. old desire owners would be unhappy etc.). They couldn't say they were equal as they're different technologies. 'Comparible' keeps it PC and implies gains and losses, but overall similar.

There is an comparison
No text sharpness test

Agree with manni calavera, to my opinion the trade is going to be between the perfect black/vivid colours of amoled vs the better sunlight legibility of the SLCD. I don't expect a drastic change of the battery performance, only a few % up our down.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

This just looks like spin to make SLCDs appear technically as good when they are not. They'll have higher reflectance, max luminance and lower max white power but they can't outclass AMOLED in anything other. The colour reproduction will be dependent on MFG calibration/software.
1. Some other reports on the topic:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/201883/shortages_prompt_htc_to_swap_display_technologies.html
http://www.fudzilla.com/mobiles/mobiles/htc-dumps-amoled
http://wmpoweruser.com/htc-confirms-slcd-rumours-claims-its-better-than-amoled/?mobify=0
Heh.
This was the original press release by HTC:
Taoyuan, TAIWAN – July 26, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced Super LCD display (SLCD) technology into a variety of HTC phones including the HTC Desire and global Nexus One later this summer. The SLCD display offers an exceptional natural balanced colour, clear contrast, broad viewing angles and improved power efficiency.
"HTC is experiencing high-demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7 inch displays. The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high-demand," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. "The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC's current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance."
SLCD is the latest generation of LCD technology that offers improved performance from earlier LCD panels including approximately five times better power management. SLCDs also offer an enhanced viewing experience with wider viewing angles that are enabled by Sony's new VSPEC III™ technology."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. See the technology advantages?
http://data.4dsystems.com.au/downloads/micro-OLED/Docs/4D_AMOLED_Presentation.pdf
http://www.datamodul.com/us/page/popup_pages/OLED/CMEL OLED power consumption and lifetime.pdf
Except for a full white screen or full blue, at max brightness, I highly doubt they are going to get anywhere near that low power with an LCD in the typical application with various colours or on your homescreens. Definitely not when playing a movie, a game or so on.
3. AMOLED is far more costly to manufacture and more costly to buy than LCD tech. Every major smartphone MFG (except Apple/Blackberry AFAIK) wouldn't have jumped on the bandwagon if there weren't significant benefits to the technology over the older LCD tech as it was costing them more and introducing major delays to their roadmaps with the tight supply.
4. Samsung is the no.1 LCD/Tv/AMOLED maker in the world. At a very recent engineering conference, yet again, the paper they presented is eulogising AMOLED displays everywhere:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-...ec-anoints-AMOLED-displays-as-next-big-thing-
http://i.cmpnet.com/eetimes/51-1.pdf
5. Display tests done on Droid/Nexus One/iPhone 3GS screens revealed their combined power consumption somewhat.
http://www.displaymate.com/Motorola_Droid_ShootOut.htm
http://www.displaymate.com/Nexus_One_ShootOut.htm
http://www.displaymate.com/Nexus_iPhone_ShootOut.htm
The Droid had the best LCD display accuracy by far but compare the max RGB sub-pixel power draws... AMOLED is at least half if not lower. Those were "synthetic" tests. Had they ran a movie or displayed an image and measured power, you'd see the AMOLED at least 1/2 if not 1/3 to 1/4 of the power (unless it was full white or blue - no pun). "SLCD" isn't that much of an improvement to outclass those LCDs by 1.5x in power, let alone 5x.
6. Sonys VSPEC III LCD specs are here, and they're nothing special except the much improved viewing angle:
http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/cx_news/vol55/pdf/acx391akb.pdf
-----------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

i personally think AMOLED is poor, text look really had when they are not zoomed in. you can see each dots when you look at a website text or picture. Fine example would be the home screen. The icons look dotty like old skool dot matrix printer.
I'm comparing this to a Good LCD found in nokia n900 and iphone 4

Sebacestmoi said:
Does someone know if they are going to correct the multitouch bug with this new screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would also like to know this, Seen as HTC has ditched the synaptic clearpad 2000. New touch sensor aswell as screen? can anyone confirm?

i wouldn't do that if i were u

i wouldn't do that if i were you

This post has been deleted due to terms of violations.

[FYI] AMOLED or SLCD - HTC response

FYI - Can HTC tell whether your phone has an AMOLED or SLCD screen?
Short answer:
No.
Longer answer:
I bought my phone from Orange and thus the box comes Orange branded. Therefore, it doesn't say on the box whether than phone is AMOLED or SLCD (referred to as multitouch or something like that). I contacted Orange who haven't got a clue and just told me is AMOLED by reading their stock description. I contacted HTC UK and gave them the serial number of the phone. They said that at this present time there was no way for them to decipher whether I had an AMOLED or SLCD screen. There may be in the future but at the moment there is not.
The one bit of interesting information HTC could provide is that 90% of their stock is AMOLED and 10% is SLCD.
The reason I looked into this is because I can't really tell from the videos online what screen I have. There are some murmurings that all SLCD phones are bootloader 0.83 (what I have) but unfortunately not all 0.83 phones are SLCD.

http://pocketnow.com/android/how-to-tell-if-your-htc-desire-has-slcd-or-amoled-screen

Already read that. And I'd say it's actually pretty difficult to tell unless you have their exact screenshots.
And a magnifying glass!

The box for mine said "3.7-inch touch-sensitive screen", but it has the 0.75 HBOOT, so I really need to find a magnifying glass to check it.

tinytjf said:
Already read that. And I'd say it's actually pretty difficult to tell unless you have their exact screenshots.
And a magnifying glass!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's so hard to tell why bother?

It really is easy to tell
Go into a dark room and go into the settings menu (which has a black background colour). If the black is lit at all or slightly grey, you have SLCD. If it is totally black (and I really mean no light at all) you have AMOLED. I have both and it really is easy to tell them apart in by the contrast of the settings menus, not so easy otherwise.

familyhousing said:
Go into a dark room and go into the settings menu (which has a black background colour). If the black is lit at all or slightly grey, you have SLCD. If it is totally black (and I really mean no light at all) you have AMOLED. I have both and it really is easy to tell them apart in by the contrast of the settings menus, not so easy otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not entirley correct. I have Amoled, and even in a dark room, it's not 'totally' black.

BarnOwl said:
If it's so hard to tell why bother?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because there are some rooting methods that require you to know whether you're on SLCD or AMOLED... Having said that there are workarounds but it would be nice to know which method before I start.
As for the dark room idea, I'll try it. Thanks.

I'm 99% sure mine has an AMOLED screen because the bootloader was 0.80 (before the 2.2 upgrade)
My box didn't mention AMOLED on the box (so it could have been either)
One thing I have noticed is that a block of white against a darker background appear to have a slight pinkish toothcomb on the left edge of the white block (eg the HTC clock widget that's usually on the main home screen.
I believe this is a sign of the pentile arrangement of pixels that you get in the Desire's AMOLED screen.
ie:
****
****
Without a magnifying glass though its difficult to be certain.

Do what I did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7257878&postcount=10
Take a picture of the phone with a macro zoom camera. The pentiles become easily distinguishable.

i had both amoled and slcd side by side and all i can say is that the difference is huge...
if open your browser and set text size to large and than browse to xda forums... with amoled you won't be able to read clearly without zooming in, but on slcd you will be able to read and see everything clearly..
other than that amoled is brighter and has more contrast but slcd has a lot more clearer picture, that is easily visible when you put two phones side by side
for me slcd is a lot better.

mr.vandalay said:
i had both amoled and slcd side by side and all i can say is that the difference is huge...
if open your browser and set text size to large and than browse to xda forums... with amoled you won't be able to read clearly without zooming in, but on slcd you will be able to read and see everything clearly..
other than that amoled is brighter and has more contrast but slcd has a lot more clearer picture, that is easily visible when you put two phones side by side
for me slcd is a lot better.
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A work colleague has just received his Desire and one of the first things he did was compare it to mine. He has an SLCD screen and I have AMOLED. When placed side by side the difference is gobsmackingly obvious. On the SLCD text appears far smoother, although the colours do appear to be washed out.
I agree that the SLCD is better, but I will say that I am more than happy with my AMOLED screen.

stats101 said:
that's not entirley correct. I have Amoled, and even in a dark room, it's not 'totally' black.
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Ok, I exaggerated a little. I actually have an AMOLED Legend and an SLCD Desire. Just for my own sanity I checked again and the Legend AMOLED screen does have totally 100% blacks, even in a completely dark environment. I assume an AMOLED Desire would be the same and hence as easily identifiable.
If you think about it, AMOLED will always produce complete blacks as each pixel is not even powered for black output. The light you report to see on an AMOLED screen can only be explained by reflection. If your screen emits light from 100% black areas then you have SLCD.
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App

Well,one easy way is to put it next to your computers monitor while it shows a black image.The phone should be in the settings menu.If both seem about the same colour,you have an SLCD.If the monitor's picture seems grey while the phone's is pitch black,it's AMOLED.
I hope it helps those who don't have two devices to compare.

I have both the AMOLED and SLCD Desire. It's a clear difference. Mine has no bleeding around the edges. But It's clear to see the SLCD when the Call screen is on. The AMOLED is a lot blacker where as the SLCD is more gray than black.
The colours are also a lot more vibrant and alive on AMOLED, the SLCD looks washed out. The brightness is also higher on AMOLED.

You dont need magnifying glass. Droplet of water on screen will do.

I will be getting a Desire tomorrow or the next day and I don't know whether I'll get AMOLED or SLCD, so I want to know, are their quality worlds apart? Would it really make a difference to have either one of those? Is one better? How does both of them compare to iPhone 3GS's screen?

To the average person both are very very similar and you would not notice a difference without knowing there was two sorts of screens.
Chances are you won't get a choice of which to get, it just depends what is in stock.
Stat wise SLCD takes it on paper as being the best, but only marginally.
Honestly it really doesn't matter which you get, unless you compare two devices side by side you won't even know.

Because of the pentile matrix on the AMOLED, I would go with the S-LCD. The AMOLED is said to be over saturated in dark environments, and unable to read in the sun. I'd rather have balanced colors inside and readable screen outdoors. Also, the S-LCD have a real 800x480 resolution

Had both side by side for a while.
They are absolutely equal in bright sunlight. That said, people suspect that some amoled screens come out of the factory better than others.
Blacks, contrast and bright colours are absolutely better on the amoled
Bright whites and overall colour balance is probably a bit better on S-LCD
Pixel smoothness and small text readability is a bit better on S-LCD. That said, after you have amoled for a while you will realize that unless you keep your nose touching the screen, your vision will process the amoled screen the same way as the S-LCD. Takes some time though.
Battery usage: we made -accurate- -measured- tests, of the battery drain in milliamperes/milliwatts. They came out very close, the main difference is obviously that amoled display is optimized for displaying dark stuff. Overall I think you save a bit of battery with amoled, but anyway the results were that:
- on low-medium brightness (inside) amoled is almost always better. If you are displaying all white screen, they are closer
- on medium brightness it depends on what you are displaying (light vs dark) but there is not a lot of difference, although amoled tends to save a bit more
- on high brightness (outside) amoled almost invariably drains more than S-LCD, except when the screen is very dark. When displaying almost completely white screens at max brightness, amoled loses big time compared to S-LCD, but that is the only situation where this big difference happens.
One last noticeable difference is colour temperature, but that also varies from handset to handset. Amoled tends to be a bit on the warm side (at least on mine) and S-LCD on cool. The old 'problem' of the pinkish tint is gone with the froyo update, those few displays still affected by it could be counted as defective.
Oh and by the way, here almost invariably if the box doesn't say 'amoled' you are getting a S-LCD screen. I have to admit I was very surprised at first by the quality of S-LCD and mistaken it for a differently calibrated amoled for some minutes. Blacks are good, but not close to amoled, if you go into a dark room you should notice

Shall I swap for an SLCD?

I'm sure similar questions have been asked already but I find myself in a fairly unique position whereby my old phone was SLCD and Three UK replaced it with an AMOLED Desire under warranty. I can now either keep this one or complain and get it replaced. Which would be the better option in this scenario?
Thanks
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Depends on you, AMOLEDS draw approx 3x more power when displaying white pixels, has a higher chance of getting a burn-in, but they use virtually no power when displaying black/ dark colours. SLCDs performs better under sunlight when compared to AMOLEDs, and they don't use Pentile matrix.

I would never do it... Images looks more beautiful on the AMOLED, believe me...

unnddd said:
I'm sure similar questionable have been asked already but I find myself in a fairly unique position whereby my old phone was SLCD and Three UK replaced it with an AMOLED Desire under warranty. I can now either keep this one or complain and get it replaced. Which would be the better option in this scenario?
Thanks
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
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Since you live in the UK where there is not much bright sunlight, you may as well stick with the AMOLED.
Engadget recently did a comparison of the SLCD and AMOLED desires and the AMOLED one came out with the better battery life. If I had both in my hands I would just pick the one which has the most honest colours.

The colours aren't really of much concern. There seems to be a slight pinkish tint on the AMOLED but it really isn't that bad. Nor do I care about seeing it in sunlight (I live in the UK). The only thing that slightly bothers me is the fuzzy text, but since I don't have them both side by side I can't do a proper comparison. What do others think of the layout of the pixels on the AMOLED display as compared with the SLCD?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Having held them both side by side today I would still pick the amoled, the low black levels make for am immense movie watching and e- reading experience ( white text on a black background is really restful foot the eyes to read) the only time text trading is a problem is the SMALLEST red text on a black screen, so hardly ever!

revthanki said:
Having held them both side by side today I would still pick the amoled, the low black levels make for am immense movie watching and e- reading experience ( white text on a black background is really restful foot the eyes to read) the only time text trading is a problem is the SMALLEST red text on a black screen, so hardly ever!
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Hmm... I guess I'll just go to a Three store tomorrow and compare for myself. I'm very picky about this sort of thing and I don't want to have a phone I'm not happy with for the next 1 1/2 years or so. In a way I could be considered lucky being able to pick, but I find it's usually more of a misfortune in my case.
Anyway, thanks for the help.