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?
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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).

Quality of the Screen, Especially Display Light Colors

So I've had my Galaxy Nexus for a few days and for the most part love it. One thing that surprises me is that the screen... The screen's quality was one of the main reasons I bought the phone, but whenever the screen is mostly white or a light color, it just looks... bad. Like it isn't one uniform color, it's almost a grid. The lower the screen brightness, the worse it is.
I'm just wondering if this is a fluke or if everyone's phone is like this, and this is just an effect of the pentile display or something.

Knolly said:
So I've had my Galaxy Nexus for a few days and for the most part love it. One thing that surprises me is that the screen... The screen's quality was one of the main reasons I bought the phone, but whenever the screen is mostly white or a light color, it just looks... bad. Like it isn't one uniform color, it's almost a grid. The lower the screen brightness, the worse it is.
I'm just wondering if this is a fluke or if everyone's phone is like this, and this is just an effect of the pentile display or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm seeing it as well, my old phone's TFT screen looks far better at low brightness.
The nexus looks grainy due to the pentile as well as a brownish tint at lowest setting.

I've very worried about this. I'm the type that COULDN'T STAND the pentile on the Razr, like, return day 1 type of can't stand it.
Is the nexus considerably better as far as the grainy blocky pentile? I heard the resolution makes it a lot better. Is this true?

guitarevan07 said:
I've very worried about this. I'm the type that COULDN'T STAND the pentile on the Razr, like, return day 1 type of can't stand it.
Is the nexus considerably better as far as the grainy blocky pentile? I heard the resolution makes it a lot better. Is this true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen Razr in person, but Bionic was terrible.
The Nexus' isn't anywhere near like that but for someone OCD like me, I've found it slightly annoying - but not enough to not recommend it based on the screen.

Like Nexus S, Google choose too warm colours also for GN. Anyone can notice the yellowish effect/tint in white background even with brightness set to max level. So dont worry our screens are fine... f#...n google has made this choise.
Supercurio said today that he will try to fix that and also boost up the brightness.... also paul will give it a try.
Well done Google for ruining the best display out there

Disadvantages of AMOLED screen

Hi all.
Last night I accidentally discovered the burnt pixels on my one year old Focus screen The sights of high contrasts Metro-style icons (such as IE, phone and marketplace) are visible on the white background as a darker "shadows" (actual color is like a light-light yellow, close to white). These "shadows" are visible on the white background in the dark only.
It's not a big deal but I'm kinda disappointed
So, my conclusions are:
- high contrasts Metro-style tiles on the home screen are evil, at least for AMOLED screens. However live tiles (probably) can solve the issue (he-he, just thought - may be it's a real reason why MS implemented and pushing live tiles? Kidding );
- periodical changing of tile location on the home screen also can help;
- using AMOLED handsets for development is not so good. The best practice is to keep AMOLED screens off all the time (what is not acceptable for development).

My Focus is one year old, but I don't have any burn in problems some reported. Granted, I don't leave my phone screen on for extended periods, but my live tile arrangement really never changed.
Now that I have the HTC Titan, I have no regrets with the SLCD screen. The colors seem more natural to me. While AMOLED screens certainly have a "pop" factor, it's not a must-have for me.

This is a well known issue that you have to live with: AMOLED will get screen burn-in if it is use for an extend period of time.
I know most of the Android Galaxy phones also have screen burn-in especially on the status bar.
My own Samsung Focus developed screen burn-in (esp. Metro buttons) after only three months of use.

day2die said:
This is a well known issue that you have to live with: AMOLED will get screen burn-in if it is use for an extend period of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?

I notice things on my Omnia 7. Normally if i've had a menu open for a minute or more and i switch to a black background i can see a kind of greyish imprint of the last displayed icons.

sensboston said:
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SAMOLED has it as well. I'm sure it was a big issue in the focus forums last year

The biggest disadvantage of an amoled screen is when you move to another type of screen, and notice just how gray blacks can be. Using my old focus and having the blacks blend with the bezel was so visually pleasing, and the colors had so much pop. I hear that the colors aren't as accurate, but what does that mean really? 90% of what I look at on a phone is arbitrary colors anyway; how would I ever know that the blue tiles are really supposed to be one shade vs. another, and why would I care?
(btw yes, I had the same screen burn-in problem on my focus)

Yeah i had a major burn in problem with my Omnia 7, I think it was something to do with the bright blue theme i used, i have pictures here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=973337

use a screen saver?
Oh ya.. nevermind

Wow... I had no idea of this...
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Is this a really wide spread problem?

renatofontes said:
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to look at your screen in darkness (set white background on the fullscreen first), then say "luckily"

sensboston said:
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is particularly bad on Super AMOLED screens.
Super AMOLED is still AMOLED.
My Vibrant, if I turn my screen on to the home screen and let it sit there for 10 seconds and then open another app, I can see the shadows on the home screen superimposed onto the app that's running. It's very noticeable, and gets irksome after a while. You won't see that on LCD screens.
The status bar is burnt in, which is noticeable when the phone is used in landscape mode because you can always see that faint strip where the status bar is (in portrait) on the side of the screen.
I set my screen timeout to 30 seconds to "preserve" the screen.
---------- Post added at 05:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:30 PM ----------
renatofontes said:
Wow... I had no idea of this...
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Is this a really wide spread problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of Samsung's displays have this issue. Perhaps you just haven't noticed it, or are just fortunate
Not really widespread, and not really a "problem" per se. Just a component of the screen tech. It burns in and shadows easily.
However they have better power management than LCD screens and better brightness, viewing angles, and outdoor visibility - as well as better color saturation and reproduction. For example, I increase my Vibrant's stock battery life by like 4+ hours doing absolutely nothing but putting a true black background on the launcher...
It's a trade-off. It's worth it for someone like you who doesn't notice it, though. It's worth it even for some people who do. It really depends on how long you keep your phone, Lol. If you upgrade yearly it's not that big a deal. I can't see myself going 2 years with the Vibrant as my primary device and dealing with it, though. It's too startling to look at at times, especially after you spend a significant amount of time in one app with static UI elements and move to something else...

If you look at the AMOLED technology, it's understandable really. All the colours displayed on the screen are composed of green, red and blue sub-pixels.
In an AMOLED screen, there is no backlighting. The sub-pixels themselves generate the visible light, hence why the blacks are so black, because the black pixels are not powered on. (Think of an AMOLED screen as having thousands of tiny tiny LED's)
However the problem with AMOLED is the manufacturers could not produce a specific chemical compound for each colour that would wear evenly. For example, the blue sub pixel has a shorter lifespan than the green. When the AMOLED sub-pixels gets used, the intensity of light produced decreases, hence there is uneven wear. The pentile arrangement was to actually arrange the pixels in a way, which as the display wears, the colours look normal. When there are static pixels displayed, a certain portion of sub pixels gets used more than others, hence why you can notice it.
In an LCD, each sub-pixel is a polarizing filter, which filters out either red/blue/green and displays it or blocks it, so an LCD doesn't suffer from screen burn in as much as AMOLED and PLASMA displays.
From day one I have only ever used my phone on the lowest setting and I have alternated every few days from red/green tiles. I have never used blue due to the low lifespan of blues!!

I don't think it's a huge problem if you are smart. I made the mistake of leaving my screen on as often as possible when I first got my focus. Once I started noticing the burn in, I moved my tiles around, put my screen on 2 minute timeout, and didn't notice any more of the burn in. Just the original images.

As Big K mentions, blue pixels are the quickest to degrade, that is why you never use a blue theme with an AMOLED display. Also, displaying white actually activates some blue pixels and draws more power, so the black system theme should always be used over white.
Every AMOLED owner should know these 2 things and it is a shame that Samsung and the carriers don't do a better job of informing their customers of these simple facts.
I cringe every time I see an AMOLED phone with a white background and blue theme.

This is why I still stick to Super LCD.
I saw an S2 get a burn in within 2 months of use. Lawl.

ohgood said:
use a screen saver?
Oh ya.. nevermind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution is ridiculously obvious: turn off your screen when you're done using the phone. Duh. That's obvious from a simple battery life perspective.
Of course, I see people *constantly* who just set their phones down with the screen on and walk away. Idiots.

jasongw said:
The solution is ridiculously obvious: turn off your screen when you're done using the phone. Duh. That's obvious from a simple battery life perspective.
Of course, I see people *constantly* who just set their phones down with the screen on and walk away. Idiots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution is not ridiculously obvious because other screen types do not suffer from thsi issue, therefor the user who moves from an LCD screen to an AMOLED has absolutely no clue that this screen type has these deficiencies. They simply assume their screen will always look the way it does as long as they take care of their phone.
That is not a bad assumption. It just doesn't jive with this display tech.
I love the deep blacks and color saturation on Samsung's AMOLED screens, but I don't think I can ever convince myself to get another one.
The issue isn't just keeping the screen on. I've always used a 30 second screen time-out on all my phones, so they aren't just sitting there a ton with an image on them. Even when you have something on the screen for like 10 seconds and move to another app you can see the image shadows on the screen. Yes, it gets pretty noticeable after a while to the point where it's constantly drawing your attention.
It's actually worse than the PenTile they use in the 1st gen SAMOLED screens, TBH.

N8ter said:
The solution is not ridiculously obvious because other screen types do not suffer from thsi issue, therefor the user who moves from an LCD screen to an AMOLED has absolutely no clue that this screen type has these deficiencies. They simply assume their screen will always look the way it does as long as they take care of their phone.
That is not a bad assumption. It just doesn't jive with this display tech.
I love the deep blacks and color saturation on Samsung's AMOLED screens, but I don't think I can ever convince myself to get another one.
The issue isn't just keeping the screen on. I've always used a 30 second screen time-out on all my phones, so they aren't just sitting there a ton with an image on them. Even when you have something on the screen for like 10 seconds and move to another app you can see the image shadows on the screen. Yes, it gets pretty noticeable after a while to the point where it's constantly drawing your attention.
It's actually worse than the PenTile they use in the 1st gen SAMOLED screens, TBH.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st gen? It's being used in the Galaxy Nexus, too

It's a really useful point to raise, and something to think about for people using their phones for development. Automatic screen time-outs can be an annoyance when you're testing features (against a real device), and wanting to stay connected (in visual studio) to the phone for debugging info and deployment. I know I have my current phone on most of the day to test tile and page updates etc. so there's bound to be large areas of the screen remaining static for long periods of time.
It's made me think twice about getting a Lumia (which I assume would be prone too) for this reason
I'm surprised manufactures don't include info on it bundled with the phones (e.g. on not having a white background) - that's pretty irresponsible.

Pentile Display ?

it is said that the galaxy nexus uses the pentile display .. and all we know that pentile isn't really good .. so i am going to buy a nexus tonight and i would to ask you if the screen good or bad .. do you like it or not ?

I've had numerous phones, GS2, iPhone 4...this is the best screen I've seen yet.
The Pentile discussion is kind of ridiculous.

I've had four phones this year
- Vibrant
- My touch
- Nexus S
- Evo 3d
When compared to everything else including my friends' iPhone this is the best display I have ever used.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Its crazy good, by far the best screen on any device I've ever seen, blacks are so black u can't tell where the phone ends and the screen begins without looking really close. Also u can load up pretty much any page in portrait view with far away zoom and STILL read the really really fine text just fine.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Yeah it uses a pentile display much to people's dismay. Quite a few people/reviews have stated the following: 1.) Whites appear like a linen yellow. 2.) Blue tinge on the screen 3.) Pixelation is noticeable on text. While that is all true the screen isn't that bad, passable at least while playing games or watching videos. Is it the BEST screen ever? I would say no.

zetsumeikuro said:
Yeah it uses a pentile display much to people's dismay. Quite a few people/reviews have stated the following: 1.) Whites appear like a linen yellow. 2.) Blue tinge on the screen 3.) Pixelation is noticeable on text. While that is all true the screen isn't that bad, passable at least while playing games or watching videos. Is it the BEST screen ever? I would say no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweetheart, you do know that the screen cannot have blue tinge and linen yellow whites at the same time right? Light cannot work like that. And pixelation is noticable on text? Are you insane? Have you seen the screen?

kristovaher said:
Sweetheart, you do know that the screen cannot have blue tinge and linen yellow whites at the same time right? Light cannot work like that. And pixelation is noticable on text? Are you insane? Have you seen the screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Calm down there Nexus fan boy/girl! I'm just stating these are things people have seen. Obviously not saying the blue tinge along w/ the yellow whites occur at the same time. Yes I have seen the screen numerous times, and a co-worker was the one to tell me about the yellowish whites.

aras1 said:
it is said that the galaxy nexus uses the pentile display .. and all we know that pentile isn't really good .. so i am going to buy a nexus tonight and i would to ask you if the screen good or bad .. do you like it or not ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pentile on the original SGS/NexusS wasn't nearly what it is on this Galaxy Nexus. Last night I spent about an hour comparing and contrasting between his iPhone4s and my brand new Galaxy Nexus. When it came down to it, the Galaxy Nexus had the same readability as the vaunted Retina display, but with deeper blacks, and generally more vibrant (ermm, oversaturated) colors. Looks great to me, but people have different preferences.

i've had the moto droid, moto atrix, htc thunderbolt, iphone4, and this is by far the nicest screen ive ever had.

zetsumeikuro said:
Yeah it uses a pentile display much to people's dismay. Quite a few people/reviews have stated the following: 1.) Whites appear like a linen yellow. 2.) Blue tinge on the screen 3.) Pixelation is noticeable on text. While that is all true the screen isn't that bad, passable at least while playing games or watching videos. Is it the BEST screen ever? I would say no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you just quoting other posts or do you actually have a GN? If so does the screen look yellow, blue, or pixelated to you? If it does I would return it ASAP because it shouldn't. Mine and the ones I've played with in the store do not.

Pentile? What Pentile?
In my experience, the pentile isn't an issue. The screen is (theoretically) gorgeous, however (and maybe I'm an exception), I've seen that only about 1 in 3 GNexi have a screen that truly looks like it's supposed to. I'm on my third GNex, two of the three have had different screen issues, and the third had a great display but a blown earpiece
That being said, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one, just be sure to THOROUGHLY inspect it before you leave the store. I'm going back for my fourth today.

pharpe said:
Are you just quoting other posts or do you actually have a GN? If so does the screen look yellow, blue, or pixelated to you? If it does I would return it ASAP because it shouldn't. Mine and the ones I've played with in the store do not.
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My co-workers device's screen white's looked yellow. I went into the store to mess around w/ the device and did notice the same on those units. There have been others stating there is a blue tinge, which is supposedly a normal thing, as to preserve the blue pixel. The screen has minor pixelation but it's not too noticeable like the Moto devices.

You must have microscope eyes then. I can't see any pixelation holding device from one palm far from my eyes.
zetsumeikuro said:
My co-workers device's screen white's looked yellow. I went into the store to mess around w/ the device and did notice the same on those units. There have been others stating there is a blue tinge, which is supposedly a normal thing, as to preserve the blue pixel. The screen has minor pixelation but it's not too noticeable like the Moto devices.
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Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

hbkmog said:
You must have microscope eyes then. I can't see any pixelation holding device from one palm far from my eyes.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
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I do have very good vision yes.

No pixelation that I can see, and I use a lot of different types of high res screens for work. I'm really not sure how anyone can say they see pixelation on such a high density display. Take a look at the 'unlock' circle on the lock screen. You have to look realllly hard to see the jagidness - and this is a circle drawn with square pixels
Colours are slightly over saturated which makes them pop more, however they are not technically accurate - if you care. Eg. look at a photograph from a SLR camera on the gn vs a high quality computer screen.
The only real issue I see is the artefacts (grey 'dirty' look of white backgrounds) on the 2 or 3 lowest brightness settings. This is slightly annoying because you need to leave auto brightness on to preserve battery. You can however use a custom rom to change the lowest limit of brightness.
Trust me, when you turn it on, you'll think the 'google' logo that comes up is actually a sticker on the screen, and when the startup animation starts you'll fall off your chair

kristovaher said:
Sweetheart, you do know that the screen cannot have blue tinge and linen yellow whites at the same time right? Light cannot work like that. And pixelation is noticable on text? Are you insane? Have you seen the screen?
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I will say that I can notice some pixelization of text, primarily on colored text (reds, blues, purples, etc. are the worst offenders), although that's not to say it's terribly pixelated, but it is noticeable if you know what you're looking for. Certainly nothing to dismiss the phone for, but to say it's not visible is untrue.

i can see it's pentile (having had a nexus one I know how it looks) but it's not much of a problem, the resolution is high enough. Sure it would be nicer if it was RGB, but it's good enough for me, at least (and I hated my N1's screen)

spamlucal said:
i can see it's pentile (having had a nexus one I know how it looks) but it's not much of a problem, the resolution is high enough. Sure it would be nicer if it was RGB, but it's good enough for me, at least (and I hated my N1's screen)
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Agreed. To each their own when it comes to displays! I'm not bashing on the display at all, just stating what I have seen.

spamlucal said:
i can see it's pentile (having had a nexus one I know how it looks) but it's not much of a problem, the resolution is high enough. Sure it would be nicer if it was RGB, but it's good enough for me, at least (and I hated my N1's screen)
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I agree. Overall I like the display better than my iphone 4, but it does have flaws, and I think the sharpness of the apple retina is better. Still, the blacks are to die for, and I like a little more punch to my colors since I'm not going to be doing any color-sensitive work on a phone. Plus, the size on the GN is juuuuust right.
Though I have to disagree with the poster that said the opening animation looks incredible. I was actually severely disappointed that they chose such a low res animation to "showcase" the HD super amoled display. It should be in native res, but it obviously isn't. That said, it would probably slow down the boot process considerably if that were the case, so it's just fine the way it is.

PenTile, yes. Excellent quality, also yes.
Unless you are a photographer, the colours shouldn't matter that much to you - white is still pretty white, and black is very black, and everything inbetween is pretty damn good too.
Those complaining about pixelation on the screen...well, to be honest, I can see pixels on my PC monitor, and it's a fancy-shmancy 1080p 120Hz 3D monster. I can see pixels on a Retina display. Pixels are everywhere.
I CAN SEE THE PIXELS D:

Amoled Vs LCD

So I am coming from an LCD screen to the Nokia's Amoled screen and I am curious on Amoled screen is the white supposed to be a "rainbow" color? Like on my LCD screen White is well WHITE no other colors bleeding through. On this amoled screen I am see like a rainbow of colors behind the white like reds, blues, etc it's till white sort of but not as crystal white as the LCD.
Is this by design and something I should get used to? I thought Amoled was supposed to be better...

Laquox said:
So I am coming from an LCD screen to the Nokia's Amoled screen and I am curious on Amoled screen is the white supposed to be a "rainbow" color? Like on my LCD screen White is well WHITE no other colors bleeding through. On this amoled screen I am see like a rainbow of colors behind the white like reds, blues, etc it's till white sort of but not as crystal white as the LCD.
Is this by design and something I should get used to? I thought Amoled was supposed to be better...
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Whites on Amoled appear to be off-white. It's been this way with every Amoled device. I've never seen it to appear "rainbow" colored.
Amoled produces richer more saturated colors and outstanding black levels.
LCD and SLCD is a lot brighter than Amoled (hence the crystal white) but the black levels do not compare.
Before my 900, I was an SLCD fan. But Amoled with the clearblack looks like SLCD on steroids. Minus the lower white levels. Of course this is just my opinion.

So it's possibly just the ultra saturation bleeding through the "whites" that give it the "rainbow" effect. I don't know how else to to describe it. White is simply no white but like a multi spectrum white with other colors bleeding through.

Looking at mine right now the white looks pretty darn white.
The thing I have noticed is for instance when I bought a samsung focus I was torn between it and two HTC Devices... I forget the names. Both were SLCD. I just COULD NOT get past the washed out look of the HTC devices over the samsung.
The nokia is even richer in color than the samsung.

hx4700 Killer said:
Looking at mine right now the white looks pretty darn white.
The thing I have noticed is for instance when I bought a samsung focus I was torn between it and two HTC Devices... I forget the names. Both were SLCD. I just COULD NOT get past the washed out look of the HTC devices over the samsung.
The nokia is even richer in color than the samsung.
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Agreed - I've had the Focus, HD7s, and now the Nokia 900 and the Nokia is so far my favorite. I feel I should point out that the 'Nokia Blue' theme is sharper than the default windows phone blue theme, making the other devices appear washed out when in fact it's the correct color.
But the ability to use the device outdoors was a huge factor in my selection, certainly.

I like all the colors in the amoled except white. White really looks washed out compared to LCD screens and this is the only disappointment I have with amoled screens.

the benefits of an amoled are color saturation, deep rich blacks, and energy consumption on non-white backgrounds
SLCD create more "accurate" colors, that some see as washed out - generally are a bit brighter (lumens) and more white whites
the amoled produce off whites - if you compare the two, but you should not really notice it on an amoled unless you compare it to a true white
also, off angles can produce a slight blue hue to the whites
to each his own - I prefer the amoleds blacks (with the WP7 metro themes), to the washed out colors of an SLCD - but that does not mean you or someone else will too

could it be that your screen might be dirty?
i know on mine if i have some water or oil on the screen it will create a prism effect, which will rainbow the colors, especially with a white screen.
personally i haven't seen whites get a rainbow effect, but they are a little dim, which could be partly due to the screen tech (amoled) and could also be the hardware dimming them intentionally to save on battery (white is a battery killer on amoled screens)
but the inky blacks and pop of color from amoled makes me not really care, as the screen looks brilliant.
and the clearblack display on the nokia is great in the sun.

rainbow colors are only suppose appear on pentile displays. this phone has a true rgb screen so i dont see why

Nissan350 said:
Whites on Amoled appear to be off-white. It's been this way with every Amoled device. I've never seen it to appear "rainbow" colored.
Amoled produces richer more saturated colors and outstanding black levels.
LCD and SLCD is a lot brighter than Amoled (hence the crystal white) but the black levels do not compare.
Before my 900, I was an SLCD fan. But Amoled with the clearblack looks like SLCD on steroids. Minus the lower white levels. Of course this is just my opinion.
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AMOLED does not inherently have dim whites. Samsung just programs a dimming condition into the firmware on some its AMOLED panels that make it dim the brightness based on the % of white pixels on the screen (as a sneaky way to improve battery). The Focus S has an extra setting that lets you disable this, but the L900 does not have that setting.

drleospaceman said:
AMOLED does not inherently have dim whites. Samsung just programs a dimming condition into the firmware on some its AMOLED panels that make it dim the brightness based on the % of white pixels on the screen (as a sneaky way to improve battery). The Focus S has an extra setting that lets you disable this, but the L900 does not have that setting.
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I see. Bummer

A dim AMOLED screen also helps prolong the panel life span a lot. AMOLED screens are extremely prone to burn in. Avoid extreme brightness and avoid leave screen on for extended period.
Just remember this: it is very easy to bump up a screen's brightness (brighter back light on LCD) but it is extremely difficult to produce true blackness on a screen. The strength of AMOLE is the true black because it has no back light. Each pixels emit light. Darker black = higher contrast. No LCD can ever match the black level of an AMOLED screen.

foxbat121 said:
A dim AMOLED screen also helps prolong the panel life span a lot. AMOLED screens are extremely prone to burn in. Avoid extreme brightness and avoid leave screen on for extended period.
Just remember this: it is very easy to bump up a screen's brightness (brighter back light on LCD) but it is extremely difficult to produce true blackness on a screen. The strength of AMOLE is the true black because it has no back light. Each pixels emit light. Darker black = higher contrast. No LCD can ever match the black level of an AMOLED screen.
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i wouldnt keep saying that lol, htcs IPS SLD 2 can almost match against the blacks of a super amoled and has better colors all around without having to be pentile. unless you were to compare side to side you would be completely happy with the blacks on the one x.
edit: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/05/htc-one-x-vs-one-s/ compare the blacks, barely a difference unless you were looking hard
i would go with the ips slcd 2 anyday considering no burn, great viewing angles, great battery life especially whites and cloes to as good battery life on blacks, visable outdoors, realistic looking colors/not over saturated, etc. its a balance between good blacks, and good whites. still wouldnt touch the one x though

^^^ above poster have never used an amoled display

slpin said:
^^^ above poster have never used an amoled display
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I most definitely have. from samsungs first amoled screens the behold 2. and both gens of galaxy s.
and i take it you have used the one x? no? since its the only phone with the IPS SLCD "2". not talking about regular SLCD, i have the amaze and the blacks look like crap.
almost every reviewer that has had their hands on nearly every android handset has stated its the best screen they have seen. just my 2 cents.
LCD is growing, OLED is still failing with screen burn.
also, im no htc fanboy (anymore). i really want the lumia 900 actually

Any reviewer says SLCD2 is better or equal to AMOLED has no clue what they are talking about. For the most part, they equal high brightness to better display. Read those reviews carefully. They are probably the same idiots who prefer LCD TVs to Plasma TVs. They made no scientific measurements of the contrast ratio of the screens. So, basically they are simply talking out of their a**.
Yes, LCD has more accurate colors. But it can never have better or equal blacks. There is no way to make LCD panel to block backlight completely.

foxbat121 said:
Any reviewer says SLCD2 is better or equal to AMOLED has no clue what they are talking about. For the most part, they equal high brightness to better display. Read those reviews carefully. They are probably the same idiots who prefer LCD TVs to Plasma TVs. They made no scientific measurements of the contrast ratio of the screens. So, basically they are simply talking out of their a**.
Yes, LCD has more accurate colors. But it can never have better or equal blacks. There is no way to make LCD panel to block backlight completely.
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I guess almost every reviewer that has reviewed this phone talks out of their ass, technobuffalo, engadget, phonedog, telegraph? lol, nearly every review that i have read said that. people who love the galaxy s 2, and both aaron from phonedog and john from technobuffalo used the note as their daily and preferred the one x screen.
just because the blacks are one notch off doesnt mean it's not superior. considering it will have better battery life, much more accurate colors, sharper images (when compared to pentile especially), no screen burn (plasma tvs have that horribly, so id stick with my lcd tv). blacks arent the most important color on a phone lol, and i never said they are better or as good. they are pretty damn close though. especially for being a LCD. after seeing screen burn on plasma tvs and oled screen its hard to say id rather have one. people who want a little bit more black screens are okay with screen burn?
and horrible whites?
also, people who dont stay in a cave all day. the ones who go out side, ips is far superior lol considering you have grea viewing angles and its completely viewable outside.
compared to the galaxy nexus the blacks almost looks exactly the same.
i would rather have amoled screen on wp7, but on android i would probably rather have the sld2
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/13/lg-renames-optimus-lte-to-optimus-true-hd-lte-disses-samsungs/
look at this photo: http://i43.tinypic.com/2wn7jfd.jpg
you can barely tell a difference between the menu dots and the bezel. opposed to other lcds. it could be comparable to amoled defintely.
outside photo with low brightness: http://i44.tinypic.com/ipqgzs.jpg
still compeltely visible
overal its all about personal preference, but im sure saying that the new screen is comparable and would even be hard to choose from even over super amoled. i was about to ditch LCD honestly (my amaze has horrible blacks) before seeing this screen. too bad its not in other phones.

Screen quality better be left to those know how to compare, e.g. those who review hdtv for a living. lmao the stuff you quoted above.
Remember, contrast ratio = brigest / darkest. The slight difference in black level significantly changes the contrast ratio. Not so much on brightness.
Yes, there are magic coatings on LCD screens that make them appear dark then actually is. The problem is such coating could cause black crush or false contour. Of course those phone reviewer didn't test those important aspect of PQ of a panel, did they?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA

foxbat121 said:
Screen quality better be left to those know how to compare, e.g. those who review hdtv for a living. lmao the stuff you quoted above.
Remember, contrast ratio = brigest / darkest. The slight difference in black level significantly changes the contrast ratio. Not so much on brightness.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA
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Not really something to even think about. OLED hasnt been seen on a mobile devices over WVGA resolution WITHOUT pentile, we all know pentile sucks. colors, sharpness, etc. we have HD screens with IPS completely sharp, great colors, etc. just my 2 cents
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/48137-image/100-Crop-Red.jpg <- pentile
you dont need to review tvs to know if a mobile screen is good or not. these people have had their hands on nearly every android/wp7/blackberry/wm6 handset. pretty sure they have some say, especially for engadget always hating on every company besides apple then says the one x has the best screen they have seen lol.
both AMOLED/SAMOLED, and IPS SLCD have 16m colors. except the IPS has better viewing angles, no screen bleed, able to see the screen outside, whites to look blue, etc. you dont need to be a reviewer to know which is better.
unless your like everything on your phone to be black, and nothing but black then i dont see the point of saying oled is better just because the blacks are a notch better..
on different OS i would prefer different types of screens. LCD would be crap on wp7 i think unless you used whites a lot. we have yet to see IPS SLCD on wp7 i dont ever think we will. on android though i and other people like having high resolution, good looking colors, etc. cant have that with amoled unless you like pentile. wvga doesnt cut it with android anymore
take a look at the nokia 701, has lcd with clearblack and the blacks look great one it.

FYI, iPhone 4/4s has IPS screen and yet it looks hazey and has the lowest contrast ratio among almost all smartphone screens. IPS maybe better than other LCD screens. But it is still LCD screen. It is physically not possible to completely block the backlite. Otherwise, we don't need local dimming technology on high end LCD TVs anymore.