Is the Droid 4 screen pentile or not?

[shirokuro]

Hi all,

Does anyone know if the Droid 4 screen is pentile or not? I haven't been able to get an absolute confirmation of this. Most articles have described it as "LCD" or "LCD-TFT" which led me to believe it was NOT pentile. I thought pentile and LCD or LCD-TFT were mutually exclusive, but it's highly likely I do not understand well enough the different screen technologies!

What confused me was a particular quote from an Anandtech article - "The Droid 4 includes a LCD-TFT with RGBW PenTile instead of the RAZR's RGBG Super AMOLED Advanced."

Anandtech are usually very good, however this is the only Droid 4 article I have been able to find which mentions the word Pentile.

The reason I ask is because I had a Bionic, and I absolutely despise the pentile screen. It may not be so bad for some people, but for me I notice it constantly. White or black text looks great - but solid backgrounds look shimmery or moire-patterned to me, and green and blue shapes and text are just hideously pixellated. I have colleagues with the Droid 3, and the same artefacts are visible to me there - although less pronounced due to the smaller screen and therefore higher pixel density.

I recently bought a RAZR MAXX, and whilst I love the battery, I am not in love with the pentile screen there. It is better than the Bionic in terms of colours (no contest really) but white text and shapes on dark backgrounds look absolutely hellish.

I am debating returning the MAXX for a Droid 4, due to the keyboard - but I am determined to never-again buy another phone using pentile technology. I plain hate it :-(

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[RoninX]

It is RGBW pentile.

Personally, I think that's a good thing, because that means that battery life will be good. RGBW was designed specifically to use less power than RGB stripe. I tried out a D3 and Bionic in the store, and I could barely tell the difference between the pentile screen and the RGB stripe on my D2, so it's not a problem for me.

But if you hate the Bionic's screen, you probably won't like the D4's either...

 

[Droid800]

It is RGBW pentile.

Personally, I think that's a good thing, because that means that battery life will be good. RGBW was designed specifically to use less power than RGB stripe. I tried out a D3 and Bionic in the store, and I could barely tell the difference between the pentile screen and the RGB stripe on my D2, so it's not a problem for me.

But if you hate the Bionic's screen, you probably won't like the D4's either...

Do you know because you have one, or is that based on other reviews? The only reason I asked is because Motorola moved away from Pentile with the Atrix 2, and it seems odd they would go back for the D4. (especially with all the complaints about the phones that had it)

 

[YourMobileGuru]

I think they did it for battery life personally. Remember this phone does not have a removable battery. Ill be comparing it to my DROID 3, Bionic, RAZR, and a couple other phones this afternoon and report back my findings. I can include the Atrix 2 in that if you'd like.

EDIT: Picked one up today, definitely penlite display but not as bad as the Bionic, and better than the D3 I am replacing.