Develop Bugs

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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).

*SLCD or AMOLED*

As you all know, the new batch of Desire for Telus will come with SLCD.
androidpolice.com/2010/07/15/htc-desire-headed-to-canada-on-telus
I'm not from Canada so just wondering should I wait for SLCD to available worldwide or just grab the current AMOLED.
The main concern of mine is AMOLED with pinkish issue.
Anyone can tell me which is better ? Please to explain to me as I'm totally don't have any knowledge regarding SLCD & AMOLED.
Many thanks

kelvintan said:
The main concern of mine is AMOLED with pinkish issue.
Anyone can tell me which is better ? Please to explain to me as I'm totally don't have any knowledge regarding SLCD & AMOLED.
Many thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it comes down to personal preference. I kind of like the AMOLED screen, and mine has a very soft neuance of a pinkish hue. But nothing that is annoying or anything. The SLCD is as you know the secondary preference of HTC, but it seems to be as good as the first choice..

I genuinely think if I wasn't a member of this forum and read pretty much everything about the desire, I wouldn't have noticed the pinkish tint to grey colours... That's just me, it really isn't bad and certainly not a deal breaker. For how often that colour even shows up, its not worth concerning yourself about. If you want AMOLED over an SLCD screen which I think is probably wiser seeing as it was HTC's first choice then get one now.. All I can say is the screens beautiful and full of colour, not having seen SLCD screens I can't say if it will be any different but unless its an improvement, then get an AMOLED one

Nit3m4re said:
I genuinely think if I wasn't a member of this forum and read pretty much everything about the desire, I wouldn't have noticed the pinkish tint to grey colours... That's just me, it really isn't bad and certainly not a deal breaker. For how often that colour even shows up, its not worth concerning yourself about. If you want AMOLED over an SLCD screen which I think is probably wiser seeing as it was HTC's first choice then get one now.. All I can say is the screens beautiful and full of colour, not having seen SLCD screens I can't say if it will be any different but unless its an improvement, then get an AMOLED one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't agree more. Haven't seen a SLCD live but I really like the shiny colors and this is enough reason for me to choose AMOLED over lcd I really don't care about the slight pink effect and anyway it's almost gone in 2.2.
I'm really happy with my desire
Regards

If you don't notice anything wrong with the screen on a Desire with amoled screen then don't bother with the canadian version.
Some people are just more geeky and uptight about these things.
Personally the oversaturated colors was the first thing I noticed when I saw the phone in a shop without having read about the issue on the internet.
Amoled: The colors is punchier and fuller, the blacks will be deeper.
This sounds really good and most people dont find the oled on the desire bad
at all. Because of the type of amoled they used on the desire the screen wont
seem as sharp as a hvga screen should be. If you want to see amoled screen
done right, check out the samsung omnia hd, just perfect.
Lcd: The colors arent as full but after having had a tp2 for 6 months i think it looks really good anyway. Any lcd screen with hvga resolution will appear alot sharper than the one on the desire. Also i found while the colors werent as deep as on a oled i found the color spectrum to appear wider than on desire. Dont know if thats true that just the way it appears to me and what I prefer.
The Slcd they will use on the canadian Desire will be a lcd with a
ips panel. ips panels arent normally used on cell phones but alot of
graphics artists use them on lcd monitors when doing photo work.
I think theyre supposed to show colors more accuratley than
tn or pva panels.
I know the viewing angles on them are really good,
like 160 degrees. The downside has been that they don't have quite as
fast response time as tn or pva panels but it isnt a big deal if youre
not a twitch fps player.

Also, I read that SLCD drains more power than AMOLED.

abvmoose said:
Also i found while the colors werent as deep as on a oled i found the color spectrum to appear wider than on desire.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a contradiction. If colors are deeper then spectrum is wider. Amoled can display colors which LCD can't, and which doesn't even exists in any normal (sRGB) picture
abvmoose said:
The Slcd they will use on the canadian Desire will be a lcd with a
ips panel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you share a source of that info?

phentex said:
Also, I read that SLCD drains more power than AMOLED.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have two horses, one drinks 5 liters of water per day no matter what is doing, and other drinks 2 liters doing nothing and 10 if runs all day in full gallop, which one drinks more?
Consider you need additional 200 liters everyday to clean them and stables. Does it matter at all which one drinks more?

vlasac said:
It is a contradiction. If colors are deeper then spectrum is wider. Amoled can display colors which LCD can't, and which doesn't even exists in any normal (sRGB) picture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that the colors are deeper and the color spectrum or color space is the same thing, maybe im wrong. I found the colors the desire screen showed were deeper, by deeper i mean more intense and fuller, as one should expect from a oled display. To me, the colorspace didnt seem as wide as on my tp2's lcd screen. That's my personal impression of it. It could be because of the pinkish hue wish also might add to the oversaturation of some colors. I found the color red specially to be oversaturated wich gave me the impression of the colorspace not to be so wide.
It's true that Amoled can show more colors than lcd, at least when oled
is done right.
Can you share a source of that info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know what, im not sure that I can. I was pretty sure that ive read somewhere that S-lcd is the buzzword for Samsung's and Sony's joint venture for creating newer generation lcd displays with ips panels.
But now that I look for it im not so sure. I was certain i read an post on Engadget where they clearly stated that it was ips panel but I cant find that now.
There is one source vaugley explaining it here:
http://androidcommunity.com/htc-for...ft-lcd-from-amoled-due-to-shortages-20100625/
But it says:
"But, the big question is: what is Super TFT LCD? Well, you’ve actually heard of it before, because it has a nickname that’s come up recently in the news (after the announcement of a certain tablet). Super TFT LCD’s nickname is IPS. Which, yes, became “famous” thanks to Apple’s iPad tablet. It provides a wide viewing angle, and provides very clear images — even if the colors aren’t as “distinguished” when compared to an AMOLED display."
But the source of those news is:
http://www.oled-display.net/the-sma...tc-must-switch-the-display-from-amoled-to-lcd
Wich really doesnt say anything about being an ips panel

If the SLCD is even vaguely readable in direct sunlight, go for it. Because the AMOLED isn't, I don't care what people claim.

If it's an IPS panel, the I'd be very tempted to give 'SLCD' a try.
But whenever I pick up another phone since getting my Desire I notice the muddy, bleeding blacks that OLED eliminates.

It's official now. Wondering any review which is better..

youtube.com/watch?v=gY6qpnoziZM

Google chose to stop selling Nexus One instead of putting LCD monitor to it.
This decision says a lot.

fadasma said:
Google chose to stop selling Nexus One instead of putting LCD monitor to it.
This decision says a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but I don't think the AMOLED shortage had *anything* to do with Google shutting up shop on selling the Nexus One!
Regards,
Dave

tomek_fcb said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gY6qpnoziZM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That video kinda makes me feel good about having an AMOLED screen.

There's no screens named SLCD. S-LCD is the COMPANY that makes the screens wich will replace AMOLED-screens on HTC DESIRE. S-LCD is a joint venture between Samsung and Sony. According to wikipedi, S-LCD makes S-PVA panels (wich is even worse than IPS). The video showing the "new" screen on desire is clearly a S-PVA panel.

janroar said:
There's no screens named SLCD. S-LCD is the COMPANY that makes the screens wich will replace AMOLED-screens on HTC DESIRE. S-LCD is a joint venture between Samsung and Sony. According to wikipedi, S-LCD makes S-PVA panels (wich is even worse than IPS). The video showing the "new" screen on desire is clearly a S-PVA panel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Patterned vertical alignment and super patterned vertical alignment (S-PVA) are alternative versions of MVA technology offered by Samsung's and Sony's joint venture S-LCD. Developed independently, they offer similar features to MVA, but with higher contrast ratios of up to 3000:1.....
PVA and S-PVA offer the best black depth of any LCD type along with wide viewing angles. S-PVA also offers fast response times using modern RTC technologies.
Source: Search Wikipedia for TFT LCD

I've had a new HTC Desire with S-LCD in my hand for a while, along with my old Amoled one.
It's surely a lot better than my old LCD (Touch HD).
What impressed me is the clarity of the display, the whites, the good contrast compared to old LCD and the fact that (I think) the phone is lighter.
Of course blacks and contrast are miles better on amoled.
But where it failed me, is better readability in direct sunlight. It's more or less the same as amoled, which is (for me) average. I can live with that, but I expected the S-LCD to compensate more for its shortcomings.
All in all, I feared worse, but I would take amoled any day.

according to my box, I have the amoled screen.
Must say I'm pleased with whatever it is !!

Replacement HTC Desire has a washed out screen :(

The phone also feels tangibly heavier.
Think it may be a Super LCD screen rather than AMOLED (how can I check?). Overall, the screen just looks grey. I want my old AMOLED one back?!

Some things to try:
- look at the screen through a circular polarisation filter, eg. RealD glasses (no idea if this works with SLCD...)
- set brightness to maximum and display a black image in a dark room
- look really closely at the screen with a magnifier (or someone with good eyesight) to see if it's Pentile (I guess an LCD screen could be Pentile too...)
- weigh the phone on some good scales to see if it really is any heavier

I've weighed it - and it's just a bit higher than 135 grams. Even though it matches the spec listed on HTC's website, I still think my previous phone was lighter. Now to test the AMOLED screen. Hmm..

Schmeggma said:
Some things to try:
- set brightness to maximum and display a black image in a dark room
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the backlight is apparent then. when i switch the phone off, it goes completely black, otherwise it's a grey colour. does that mean it is not AMOLED?

It certainly sounds like that may be the case
Would you be able to post pictures? This is bad news for anyone wanting a replacement. AMOLED was a big selling point for me.

However,
Can you read it in daylight outdoors?

stats101 said:
the backlight is apparent then. when i switch the phone off, it goes completely black, otherwise it's a grey colour. does that mean it is not AMOLED?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's LCD, can I have your Desire then? I hate the Pen-Tile pixel layout...

Seems the black wallpaper in the dark test isn't a valid avenue to test if it's AMOLED (see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=725656).
Think it may be either me just imagining things - or a defective AMOLED screen.

I'm sending my Desire for repair as I have dust under my screen, I contacted HTC support worried if I may get an LCD screen and they asured me they are currently still using AMOLED displays only

tell me if my screen looks washed out to you. I'm sure my last desire, the colours were a lot more vivid.

Can't really tell if it looks washed out in a photo with nothing to compare it to, but it's definitely a Pentile matrix...

Yes, definitely Pentile. Damn.

Well to me it looks ok and very much the same as mine. I have never returned my Desire to be fixed.
My colors are very vibrant and i can see the screen on daylight (using auto-brightness).
I have noticed one thing on your photos though: your Internet icon is different from mine. Yours seems an older icon, really washed out, being gray and having the home icon. Mine looks more recent, it's a earth icon in blue (same blue as the mail or message icons) with some orbits rotating around the world...
Could this be it?

Necroman_AI said:
Well to me it looks ok and very much the same as mine. I have never returned my Desire to be fixed.
My colors are very vibrant and i can see the screen on daylight (using auto-brightness).
I have noticed one thing on your photos though: your Internet icon is different from mine. Yours seems an older icon, really washed out, being gray and having the home icon. Mine looks more recent, it's a earth icon in blue (same blue as the mail or message icons) with some orbits rotating around the world...
Could this be it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The internet icon i think is Orange's reworking (notice the orange door to the house).

I just wanted to mention, I 've had 5x different Desires and some have had a more vibrant screen to others.
Through the range of brightness from minimal to maximum I've definitely been able to see that some of the handsets are bright but seem to have very slightly less clarity, whilst others have a sharper image but loose some vividness.
I prefer the brighter / more colourful one I have now.

teffers said:
I just wanted to mention, I 've had 5x different Desires and some have had a more vibrant screen to others.
Through the range of brightness from minimal to maximum I've definitely been able to see that some of the handsets are bright but seem to have very slightly less clarity, whilst others have a sharper image but loose some vividness.
I prefer the brighter / more colourful one I have now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5 Desires. I've been through 3 so far. The first two were very similar (although the second one for some reason just felt so much lighter). This one is washed out. Going to try and phone Orange and try and see if I can have another one sent. :/

[Q] LCD Bakclight Glow

Hi
I've bought yesterday my Desire and I've noticed that in the upper middle screen part there is a small yellowish backlight glow only seen on black background. Can You tell me if there should be one or I should take it back to the shop ? This is probably the new SLCD version. I don't know is this a flaw or all of the sceens have some little glow on the black.
Thanks in advance

yellowish backlight?
is it in a dot size?
have you try different background color (red, green, blue)?

yellowish backlight?
is it in a dot size?
have you try different background color (red, green, blue)?

It is some kind of LCD bleeding. It looks similar to the picture attached below.
Mine is just slightly visible compared to this photo (copied from androidforums.com) but still it's the same issue. I just wanted to confirm from a SLCD Desire user if this is a typical for those diplays, or if I should take it back to the shop.

Most LCD screens bleed light to some degree, but that looks totally unacceptable to me. I'd take it back.
EDIT: Oops, should have read the full post. Well that one above is really bad, any chance of getting a picture of yours?

aljwatson69 said:
Most LCD screens bleed light to some degree, but that looks totally unacceptable to me. I'd take it back.
EDIT: Oops, should have read the full post. Well that one above is really bad, any chance of getting a picture of yours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I finally managed to do some photos.
The second one is with other light source (a 20W lamp). The first and third are without any lamp, high iso photos, but the first one has added brigthness in Photoshop, and third is on default. Remember these photos are on full display brightness, just to show how the screen behaves on dark, black background.

cant u see if its slcd on the side of ur package?

ninjaijutsu said:
cant u see if its slcd on the side of ur package?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a slcd because it doesn't say it's amoled on the back. I just wanted to know if all slcds in Desire have this problem. I don't want to take it back just to get another device that has the same problem or even worse.

Well that's definitely SLCD... OLED (like my phone) will be pitch black when it's on a black screen, as there is no backlight on them.
Yes that is definitely a flaw. I would definitely take it back. It's unlikely you'd get another one that bad.

I've found a film on YouTube:
So it's just probably the thing with all SLCD's. Still I love the phone and since I know that I won't get a AMOLED version I'll probably keep this and just have fun with it. Thank You all for Your replies

[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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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