Scientific analysis finds iPhone LCD trumps Nexus One OLED - Page 3

Originally Posted by Rokken

I seriously doubt the next iPhone will sport OLED screen. Apple seems to be adopting all its products with IPS screen after the iMac got IPS last year and more recently iPad so I wager we would see an updated MacBook Pro with IPS screen in the near future and a new iPhone with IPS screen in June.

Originally Posted by Morky

Apple will boost the resolution on the iPhone only when it makes sense to go to 960x640 so they can pixel double and retain full compatibility with existing apps, a la iPad

Originally Posted by zeromeus

Seriously now... Who with a Ph.D. would spend their time doing this so called "scientific" comparison???

Originally Posted by tasslehawf

Luckily, I don't think there are too many professional photographers editing photos on their phones.

I don't see why any of this really matters.

Originally Posted by iGenius

It must be true. The article says it is scientific. And the guy who did it is a Doctor.

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

No, he's a 'PhD', which as you know stands for 'piled higher and deeper.' Just like the wisdom in your posts. Keep them missives comin', buddy!

Originally Posted by Rokken

I seriously doubt the next iPhone will sport OLED screen. Apple seems to be adopting all its products with IPS screen after the iMac got IPS last year and more recently iPad so I wager we would see an updated MacBook Pro with IPS screen in the near future and a new iPhone with IPS screen in June.

Originally Posted by iGenius

It must be true. The article says it is scientific. And the guy who did it is a Doctor.

Dr. Raymond Soneira - Founder, President and CEO of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation

Dr. Raymond Soneira The developer of DisplayMate is an internationally recognized research scientist with a distinguished career that spans physics, computer science, and television system design. Dr. Soneira obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Princeton University, spent 5 years as a Long-Term Member of the world famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, another 5 years as a Principal Investigator in the Computer Systems Research Laboratory at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and has designed, tested, and installed color television broadcast equipment for the CBS Television Network Engineering and Development Department. He has authored over 35 research articles in scientific journals in physics and computer science, including Scientific American.

Dr. Soneira's background covers a wide spectrum of internationally recognized leading edge research in electronics, optics, applied mathematics, theoretical and experimental physics. For example: he has designed color television broadcast equipment for the CBS Television Network, built a computer mathematical model of a television system for optimizing the camera to receiver performance and accuracy of the optics and electronics for CBS, a leader of a team at Bell Labs Research that built intelligent autonomous mobile robots, designed an all-electronic 360 degree viewing angle imaging laser range finder using the parallax principle, did the mathematical foundation of the fine guidance system for the Hubble Space Telescope, built the accepted standard model of the Milky Way Galaxy (which is named after him), built theoretical high redshift cosmological and stellar models for the Hubble Space Telescope, has done fundamental work on the analysis of clustering and super-clustering of galaxies, plus work in Relativity and nuclear physics.

Dr. Soneira works with the 200+ publications that use DisplayMate for editorial testing and lab reviews of video hardware. He is a Contributing Editor to Widescreen Review Magazine, and has written numerous articles for Consumer, Professional, display marketing, and Research publications, such as Widescreen Review Magazine, PC Magazine, Ziff-Davis' ExtremeTech, CNET, Presentations Magazine, Maximum PC Magazine, the Society for Information Display's Information Display Magazine, and a large number of display marketing and Professional Audio-Video publications. His articles have been translated into several languages and have appeared in over 30 publications worldwide.

Originally Posted by Masterz1337

I just want iPhone 4 to have a A4 like processor and a OLED screen for the enhanced battery life. I could care less about the picture quality. All the OLED's I've seen though look way better than the iPhone screen.

Originally Posted by UltimateKylie

Complete lies.

First notice how the two Mars photos are not completly the same. If they are the same, the are zoomed in at slightly different locations. That is hardly scientific. As you would want the exact same photos.

Second, it is not good science to have a preconceived notion. The 'scientist' stated he felt the Nexus was buggy and the iPhone is great. It seems a fair scientific aproach would compare the screens and nothing but the screens. As no matter if the Nexus One is buggy or not, it has no bearing on the quality of the screen.

But that brings me to my 3rd point, that it all could be software related. Gizmodo has reported that 3rd party browsers and photos apps don't seem to have this problem. So maybe Google decided for some reason to display photos a certain way and for most task that works great.

Which brings me to my last point, that again this 'scientist' has preconcieved notions that OLED is 'bad' technology and needs more years to perfect. Well if he wanted to test LCD vs OLED, then be my guest. Get a large sampling of panels and hook them up to the same software/hardware and put out images and see how they handle them. I think in all cases as someone mention before, software and even hardware should be taken out of the equation and the panels tested that way.

Now, they don't provide the NASA Mars picture for reference, but I did load the site in my Zune HD browser and could see the difference between the pictures comporable to what I see on Macbook Alu display. So, in this case the OLED display on the Zune HD appears to be able to show that picture properly. So I am still confused about why OLED is so bad. And yes Sunlight is a negative, but its not like in direct sunlight that I have ideal conditions on any device I have had the chance to play with (Zune HD, iPhone 2G, MacBook, HTC Touch Pro 2)

Originally Posted by hillstones

Unfortunately Apple thinks 4:3 is the wave of the future. They advertise how great video and movie playback is on the iPad, yet they slap it with a 4:3 screen. Keep dreaming.

Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot

It does not surprise me from everything I've read that its better. OLED will be better at some point - I think its just not there yet (witness: no one can make one for a 19" TV for less than the price of a house.)

Originally Posted by MacHarborGuy

The ipad is meant for reading and meant to be held comfortably. Everything else is perks.

Originally Posted by Mr. Me

How do you propose that I use the display without the phone?

Originally Posted by UltimateKylie

I think in all cases as someone mention before, software and even hardware should be taken out of the equation and the panels tested that way.

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

There are two shades: "iPhone" and "not iPhone."

Originally Posted by spudit

I believe he was going for a little humor, at least it had me laughing out loud....a la 'Spies Like Us'.

Originally Posted by CurtisEMayle

Yes Genius, compared to you, this "doctor" does appear highly questionable, doesn't he?

Originally Posted by MacHarborGuy

The ipad is meant for reading

Originally Posted by clexman

My point is that his testing method does not prove which display is best, just which software + phone hardware + display combination is best.

This makes it kind of hard to conclude which display is best, just which total package is best.

Originally Posted by UltimateKylie

Complete lies.

First notice how the two Mars photos are not completly the same. If they are the same, the are zoomed in at slightly different locations. That is hardly scientific. As you would want the exact same photos.

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

Seems to be the same reason consumers favour shiny screens over matte.

As long as the colours are set to 100% MegaVibrance it's all good, right? Who cares about colour accuracy and correct brightness?

But hey, yet ANOTHER article praising the iPhone (or denigrating the competition) so it MUST be "pure garbage."

Originally Posted by JeffDM


How much time do you spend watching video on a small handheld device?

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

I always thought my iPhone screen was fine.

Originally Posted by iGenius

I'd say that compared to any competent scientific test, his method appears highly questionable.

Originally Posted by clexman

My point is that his testing method does not prove which display is best, just which software + phone hardware + display combination is best.

...

This makes it kind of hard to conclude which display is best, just which total package is best.

Originally Posted by CurtisEMayle

Please explain what it is about "his method" that "appears highly questionable"?

Dr. Soneira indicated that he will publish in the second article .......... {SNIP}

Please explain, as your point about scientific testing competence is unclear to me. What would the "competent scientific test" consist of?

Originally Posted by raymccrae

Gizmodo who also picked up the same story, show the problem also affecting the browser. So no the article is not a lie.

http://gizmodo.com/5477320/the-nexus...secret-updated

Originally Posted by iReality85

In all due fairness though, Dr. Soniera in the article stated that the iPhone's screen isn't the best there is, in fact, it fails quite miserably when other picture qualities are factored. In terms of color accuracy, OLEDs are more accurate by far, mainly due to there being no back light, so colors appear more nature. Whether colors appear over saturated, under saturated, gradated or not, those factors are largely determined by the internal rendering capabilities of electronic devices. To me, this article doesn't say that OLED screens are lacking, but rather the color processing capabilities of the Nexus are sub-par.

Originally Posted by caliminius

Do you ever stop and notice how much of a ridiculous fanboy you sound like?

Originally Posted by kotatsu

I assume you have never bothered to actually use one. I have (a friend has one), and it's a very, very slick device. The screen is, to my eyes, amazing, and the overall speed and snappiness of the Nexus is leagues ahead of the iPhone. And multi-tasking is, as you might expect, enough to make any iPhone owner green with envy. I know I am.

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

Seems to be the same reason consumers favour shiny screens over matte.

As long as the colours are set to 100% MegaVibrance it's all good, right? Who cares about colour accuracy and correct brightness?

But hey, yet ANOTHER article praising the iPhone (or denigrating the competition) so it MUST be "pure garbage."

Originally Posted by kotatsu

I guess it comes down priorities. Personally I would put text readability and clarity as no.1 on the list, and the OLED in the Nexus One, with it's deep blacks and razor sharp resolution is just streets ahead of the low-res (comparatively speaking) and washed out iPhone display.

If Apple were to offer a choice on the next iPhone between LCD and OLED, I'd choose OLED in an instant.

Originally Posted by kotatsu

I assume you have never bothered to actually use one. I have (a friend has one), and it's a very, very slick device. The screen is, to my eyes, amazing, and the overall speed and snappiness of the Nexus is leagues ahead of the iPhone. And multi-tasking is, as you might expect, enough to make any iPhone owner green with envy. I know I am.

Originally Posted by raymccrae

Gizmodo who also picked up the same story, show the problem also affecting the browser. So no the article is not a lie.

http://gizmodo.com/5477320/the-nexus...secret-updated

Originally Posted by dcdttu

This article isn't true. Did you guys test the N1?

The problem is that the Gallery app in the N1's 2.1 Android software is rendering images in such a way that the bars show up. Has nothing to do with the display (and by the way OLED and LED displays are apparently typically 18 bit, but coded in 16 bit. The iPhone is no exception).

If you go to the Browser in the N1 and go to the exact image of the sunset on Mars, you get a beautiful, barless rendering. This also works fine in any of the image viewers available in the Market. The display is a gorgeous OLED display capable of displaying as many colors as any other modern smartphone, including the iPhone...

You guys should update this article, as it is not true.

Originally Posted by anonymous guy

In the context of the topic, LCDs don't necessarily facilitate comfortable long-term reading like an e-ink display would.

I'm starting to think they had decided to make the iPad a last minute competitor in the e-reader market. Tablet first, book reader second.

Originally Posted by CurtisEMayle

He further stated that, "some of this is undoubtedly due to poor integration of the display hardware with the Android OS and software. Much of it, however, is simply due to very poor factory calibration and quality control." Was it this assertion you find incompetent?

Please explain, as your point about scientific testing competence is unclear to me. What would the "competent scientific test" consist of?