SLCD, SAMOLED, Pentile, RGB Does it matter?

[Kevin OQuinn]

HD SAMOLED+ (SGSIII) vs SLCD2 (OneX) will be the most relevant comparison.
But those 2 phones in general will be the flagships for 2012, and thus the most relevant comparison in general.

Very nice work here.

Would be willing to bet that sharpness will be excellent on HD SAMOLED+, but there will still be the issues with both that are inherent to the technology. LCD will never be capable of the deep blacks of AMOLED, but AMOLED will be at a brightness, and arguably color accuracy, disadvantage.

Great writeup, but can you add a comparison of a SAMOLED+ screen (ex: Skyrocket or Skyrocket HD for 720p) to HTC One X 720p LCD2 display? Both are RGB Layout.

I wish I could compare all types of displays with one another, but I don't have all of these devices laying around, and the images that I did include were courtesy of another member of the AC team.

I can make a few logical assumptions, though. First, the Skyrocket HD will have the same display as the Galaxy Nexus, and will not be of the + variety. So we already have that comparison in my post above. Comparing the Skyrocket display with the One X display would not be fair, because the resolution is so much higher on the One X that even with the standard RGB layout the Skyrocket display wouldn't come close when it comes to sharpness. It's a great display, but I would consider the One X display to be an entire generation ahead of SAMOLED+.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Let's just wait for May 3rd when (hopefully) the GSIII is unveiled, which the world is expecting to have a 720p SAMOLED+ RGBRGB pixel layout. Then we can make some fair comparisons between SLCD2 720p to SAMOLED+ 720p.

There really is no comparing Pentile to anything. It's doomed to lose in clarity, even if comparing a qHD LCD to SAMOLED HD with Pentile.

 

[Mtn_Scott]

Updated closeup display comparison in post #4. Which one do you guys think looks better?

Perfect, the LCD Display looks better. I like the Whites on the SAMOLED.

 

[PlanetJumble]

Whe I try to take a look at my PenTile (Galaxy S) display as close as in post #4, my eye hurts. That is probably because I rammed a smartphone into it.

Sure, under the microscope it is quite visible (going even closer even RGB will eventually start to fall apart into ugly colorful pulp). But that is not the way I use my phone.

And anyone expecting a 720p RGB SAMOLED with less than 6" display size is in for a disappointment. AMOLED lifetime is related to subpixel size (that is why PenTile has its green subpixels at half the size as red and blue, because those two suffer more from small size). It is just not technically achievable (yet).

 

[turdbogls]

while i haven't seen the OneX display in person, i still dont know if i could be any happier with my Galaxy Nexus' display. at 1-1.5ft away (typical distance) everything seems sharp as a pin.
and if the SLCD2 is anything like the rezound SLCD, i wont be impressed. I guess i am just over LCD in general, regardless of the resolution or the tech behind it. I will take some slightly tinted whites, "grainy" text, over saturated colors, and deep blacks over an LCD display any day....especially on a phone.

 

[Mtn_Scott]

I will take some slightly tinted whites, "grainy" text, over saturated colors, and deep blacks over an LCD display any day....especially on a phone.

Same here.

 

[MrSmith317]

while i haven't seen the OneX display in person, i still dont know if i could be any happier with my Galaxy Nexus' display. at 1-1.5ft away (typical distance) everything seems sharp as a pin.
and if the SLCD2 is anything like the rezound SLCD, i wont be impressed. I guess i am just over LCD in general, regardless of the resolution or the tech behind it. I will take some slightly tinted whites, "grainy" text, over saturated colors, and deep blacks over an LCD display any day....especially on a phone.

I'm overly happy with the SLCD on my Rezound. It's brilliant, color and depth wise. The only sticking point to me is the battery consumption it takes to make it look so pretty. That's where I'd agree that I'd happily be "over" with LCD's as well if I could get a decent LED display that didn't a use pentile display. To me, pentile is like trying to look at a beautiful painting through a screen door.

 

[UCLA 15]

I think that this comes down to SLCD2 and SAMOLED+ (and whatever potential upgrade to it we will see in the near future, hopefully with the GSIII). These are the top of the current crop, and in my opinion if you are looking for a new phone and are the typical specs geek who wants the best of the best, it would be a big mistake to settle for anything less than SLCD2 and SAMOLED+ (unless display is your absolute lowest priority, which I imagine is rare).

I have a qHD SLCD (Sensation), and I have found it to be a pleasant though not particularly special display. The resolution is still nice at the 4.3" screen size, and overall sharpness is good. Colors are overall nice except for blacks of course, and viewing angles are average. The white balance is good, as I neither get the yellowness on white pages that can be a downright disappointment or the blueness that some displays have. The thing that has always been a disappointment, however, has been brightness. It is just simply not bright enough for outdoor use. A good number of fellow Sensation/SLCD owners will say that it is "good enough" for outdoor use, but I have a higher standard than good enough. If my brightness is all the way up and I have to hold my phone closer, start angling it strangely, and I still can only somewhat make out what is on the display, that is not good enough. Yes, you can technically see what is there and use your phone, but just barely.

This is where SAMOLED+ has its greatest advantage. It is simply brighter and more usable in direct sunlight. So you get better blacks, a greater contrast ratio, and better brightness. These 3 things are the reasons a lot of people say that SAMOLED+ displays look like they "pop" when they first see one.

Now, I was pretty set on never getting a LCD display again until I began reading reviews on the One X and its SLCD2 display. Apparently we've got many pros with few cons: good colors, great whites, good contrast, of course RGB in tandem with great resolution, and the biggest improvement over SLCD-better brightness. Overall it has set the new standard for displays.

Now, a higher res SAMOLED+ display is the only thing that could challenge the One X's SLCD2. I can't wait to see how the SLCD2 vs. 720p SAMOLED+ war goes down. One thing to mention is battery consumption: SLCD is just horrible for battery life; I'm curious if SLCD2 is any better. A 720p SAMOLED+ would bring the fantastic brightness, great blacks, lesser battery consumption, and great contrast SAMOLED+ has but with a resolution and RGB format to challenge the One X's display. SAMOLED+ will certainly evolve, which means we might even see some drawbacks (such as the sometimes poor white production) taken care of. Of course, if anyone can do that it will be Samsung, and hopefully it will be with the GSIII.

 

[colddonkey]

These images did it for me. I was having a hard time deciding whether or not to get the Sprint Galaxy neXus or the new EVO LTE.
Definitely a no-brainer now.

 

[Dave4321]

As other posters have noted, my biggest problem with SAMOLED is that white looks like it has a blue color cast to it.

 

[jlo8720]

thanks kevin, after rereading, it sounds like:

SLCD2 is generally 'the best' screen available right now (at least on paper), but improvements in the forthcoming HD Super AMOLED+ (aka non pentile) may challenge for title?

haven't played with a lot of phones recently, but the bionic had an amazing screen in my humblest opinion. very very clear to my eyes.

 

[razholio]

I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned, but both RGBG, and RGBW pentile variants look so 'grainy' not because of the 'extra' pixel, or the pixel spacing (which will always be an issue with AMOLED), but because there are only 2sub-pixels per pixel which means that 2 pixels are needed to display each 'pixel' in the image. This effectively *halves* your resolution. Think about that for a minute. Now, wipe away the tears (I did, anyway). The reason pentile doesn't look like complete ass, is because they use some pretty fancy algorithms to divvy up the data over fewer subpixels in a way that takes advantage of the deficiencies of human vision.

The differences between people's visual ability, and how close they can hold a phone to their eyes w/o losing focus, accounts for the huge disparity in perceived quality of the SAMOLED displays. I suspect the SAMOLED lovers simply don't see as much of the artifact that the SAMOLED haters can't stand looking at.

 

[icebike]

Great write up. I would love to see a comparison of a SAMOLED vs. Super LCD2 running the same resolution. Right now it seems a little apple to oranges.

Did you miss the bottom-most image, where is said:

Above are close up pictures of the display on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on the left, and the HTC One X on the right. The Galaxy Nexus has a 4.65" HD SAMOLED display at 720p (1280 x 720) with the pentile layout. The One X has a 4.7" 720p (1280 x 720) Super LCD 2 with the standard RGB layout

TL/DR maybe?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Did you miss the bottom-most image, where is said:



TL/DR maybe?

That image was added because of the request for it.


The Rezound has a regular SLCD display, not SLCD2, so any assumptions you make based on that may be inaccurate.

Adding a + to the HD SAMOLED probably won't change the slightly bluish tint that white seems to have. I had a SGSII and noticed it. Colors IMHO were over saturated and not as natural or accurate as a good LCD. A lot of people consider that a fair trade for the black levels, though, which are simply amazing.

What you will never see me do is compare contrast ratios. The reason is simple. Technically AMOLED has an infinite contrast ratio, since it's able to display absolute black. The pixel literally turns off. Therefor I will never quote contrast ratios with AMOLED displays. One thing you might see me talk about is white level, or maximum brightness. So far, LCD wins in this area. By a margin. This doesn't mean that they are more viewable in bright light, but it definitely helps. Glare has a major impact on that, too, which is why eliminating the air gaps in between layers is important.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned, but both RGBG, and RGBW pentile variants look so 'grainy' not because of the 'extra' pixel, or the pixel spacing (which will always be an issue with AMOLED), but because there are only 2sub-pixels per pixel which means that 2 pixels are needed to display each 'pixel' in the image. This effectively *halves* your resolution. Think about that for a minute. Now, wipe away the tears (I did, anyway). The reason pentile doesn't look like complete ass, is because they use some pretty fancy algorithms to divvy up the data over fewer subpixels in a way that takes advantage of the deficiencies of human vision.

The differences between people's visual ability, and how close they can hold a phone to their eyes w/o losing focus, accounts for the huge disparity in perceived quality of the SAMOLED displays. I suspect the SAMOLED lovers simply don't see as much of the artifact that the SAMOLED haters can't stand looking at.

This is the same type of stuff that audio companies have been using for years to simulate surround sound without having actual surround speakers. I'm perfectly ok with using the limits of our senses to make something better, but ultimately it's performance that matters. If they can pull it off then awesome, but side by side (so far) SLCD2 seems to hold the advantage in just about every area.

 

[DaveIsAwesome]

Nice article. I'm wondering though which technologies are better for viewing in bright sunlight since I keep hearing mixed answers. Also is there anything special about Blackberry's Liquid display like there is with LG's NOVA display or is it just a fancy name they decided to give it?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Nice article. I'm wondering though which technologies are better for viewing in bright sunlight since I keep hearing mixed answers. Also is there anything special about Blackberry's Liquid display like there is with LG's NOVA display or is it just a fancy name they decided to give it?

Direct sunlight viewing is mostly dependent on brightness and glare. If you can get rid of glare and be bright you're all set. LG's NOVA display is the best so far, because it gets really bright. It's also LCD. SAMOLED has typically suffered with low brightness, but SAMOLED+ does great with glare reduction. I'm not going to call it a wash, because I'll take a bright LCD over SAMOLED of any kind if I'm doing a lot of viewing in direct sunlight.

As for the liquid display, I can't find much information on it, but it appears to be the type of GPU that they use in the phone, and not a particular display technology.

 

[mjforte]

In my experience, the Bionic, with its RGBW LCD screen performed exceptionally well in sunlight. Unfortunately it was somewhat like looking through a screen door. After getting a Galaxy Nexus, it doesn't compare to the Bionic in sunlight, but I really appreciate the true blacks of AMOLED screens, despite some of the drawbacks of the technology.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[UCLA 15]

Direct sunlight viewing is mostly dependent on brightness and glare. If you can get rid of glare and be bright you're all set. LG's NOVA display is the best so far, because it gets really bright. It's also LCD. SAMOLED has typically suffered with low brightness, but SAMOLED+ does great with glare reduction. I'm not going to call it a wash, because I'll take a bright LCD over SAMOLED of any kind if I'm doing a lot of viewing in direct sunlight.

As for the liquid display, I can't find much information on it, but it appears to be the type of GPU that they use in the phone, and not a particular display technology.

In my experience, SAMOLED+ is much better in sunlight. I have used friends' SAMOLED+ phones outside and my own SLCD (Sensation) outside, and my SLCD performs much worse in direct sunlight in terms of brightness. I remember that I've also seen videos of the Sensation vs. SGS2 comparing their displays, and the SGS2 does better in sunlight (and another video comparing Sensation to a SAMOLED phone and the SAMOLED was again brighter outdoors).

The hardest thing about viewing a LCD screen outside in my experience is that the blacks get so washed out that all colors sort of morph together. It's as if you remove what is actually being displayed and all you're seeing is the backlight. This is where SAMOLED's contrast ratios come into play: while some people feel that SAMOLED can look artificial, having that contrast does help with visibility in outdoor situations.

Realistically it's probably hard to say that LCD or SAMOLED is necessarily better in sunlight, because performance varies wildly depending not only on make but also on individual model. HTC came out with the SLCD Sensation which has weak outdoor performance, while the new SLCD2 One X has great outdoor visibility. Whether that's due to some inherent advantage to SLCD2 or if HTC just aimed to procure a display with great brightness (powerful backlight) is up in the air. Plenty of other makers have similar situations. Samsung is probably the only one that has consistently come out with very bright displays. Now I'm not saying that they consistently come out with necessarily fantastic displays, because as people have noted some of their models can have other issues with colors and the like, but what I'm saying is that their SAMOLED/SAMOLED+s have had great outdoor brightness.

Unfortunately, so much of the common consumer related marketing has only to do with resolution that I'm afraid other issues aren't being focused on appropriately. The new iPad is the perfect example. People don't really think of anything else when it comes to display tech. Color accuracy, viewing angles, meaningful contrast ratios (in recently buying a monitor and doing my research I've found out that some companies market excellent "contrast ratios" that are actually a very specific kind of contrast that doesn't always apply), battery consumption, and similar factors are not getting much attention compared to resolution. I'm not against higher resolution, but I think the attention should shift a bit. Yes, the average consumer might not be able to tell that their screen produces a very yellowish white until they compare it with a screen with better color temps, but how far are we realistically gonna take this resolution game?

 

[RigelX]

One of the things that turned me off about SAMOLED was some burn- in on the store demos. Do any of you with SAMOLED displays notice any of that with real world use, or is it only a problem with the type of abuse floor models get?

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2