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Super AMOLED vs IPS LCD

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Puddle Jumper said:
Not at all, I refuse to buy an IPS smartphone at this point.

I really like the LG G2 but as long as the screen is so terrible compared to the SGS4 my choice is kind of made for me.
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The screen is so terrible? You haven't even seen it yet and you're prejudging it? Ridiculous. I think the reason many people dislike AMOLED is because of the Samsung variants. They're horrible. Beyond horrible. Those from HTC, Motorola, and Nokia are much better IMHO. Samsung gives OLED a very bad name.
 
pantsaregood said:
Just want to throw in that AMOLED screens can be visible in sunlight - take a look at any Nokia device with an AMOLED display. Refresh rate isn't inherent to either technology, either. Nokia have both IPS LCD and AMOLED screens that run at a constant 60hz with 9ms response time.
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I haven't seen the Nokia, but I know that Samsung took steps to make the SGS4 more visible in sunlight.

The SGS4 has the lowest reflectance glass screen, which allows it to be more visible. The problem is that its full brightness destroys the phone's battery and heats it up like crazy, which is why you can't manually max its brightness.

Even with the low reflectance, its still not as visible in sunlight compared to an IPS screen like on the iPhone 5.
 
desura said:
Basically, I'm considering either an ipad mini or a Samsung tablet which has a super AMOLED display.

A major use will be cinema.

How do the two display techs contrast?
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Both technologies have their pros and cons, supporters and detractors. Unfortunately there is a lot of bias in a lot of people's views on one technology or the other based on what device(s) they use, past experiences with a technology that isn't indicative of current-generation devices (a first gen SAMOLED screen or low-PPI IPS display are not very comparable to modern 720p and 1080p displays).


However, when looking at an iPad Mini and Samsung tablet, even more important than display technology in those cases is resolution, especially for the mini. The iPad mini has a weak 1024x768 non-retina display, and the Galaxy Note 8" has a pretty mediocre 1280x800 display.

I would suggest also looking at the new Nexus 7 - it has a beautiful 1920x1200 IPS display.

If Apple is your thing, I'd hold pat until a retina-display equipped iPad mini is released. I find the screen on the iPad mini to be grainy and not very good for reading with. For videos and stuff it's probably better, but for fine details a low PPI (pixels per inch) display is not very good.
 
IPS all day, looks better outside, text is better and whites look better. I have an all white theme on my phone and 95% of what I do on my phone involves reading text. For pictures and movies I use my PC, which has a recently calibrated uber godly Trintron CRT monitor.
 
Dari said:
The screen is so terrible? You haven't even seen it yet and you're prejudging it? Ridiculous. I think the reason many people dislike AMOLED is because of the Samsung variants. They're horrible. Beyond horrible. Those from HTC, Motorola, and Nokia are much better IMHO. Samsung gives OLED a very bad name.
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Nokia and likely Motorola use Samsung displays.
 
You're talking the galaxy tab 7.7?

I have one. Previously, I"ve used an ipad 2 and a Nook HD+ for cinema.

Galaxy tab 7.7 is the best. It is because of the deep black levels. It's like watching a plasma screen.
 
I think part of the issue is calibration. If we calibrated screens to look nice, which would be better? I don't have a GS3, but the GS4 is calibrated nicely from what I've seen.

For example my Nexus S calibrated looks amazing and far better than my GS2 despite the Super AMOLED+ getting such high praise.

The Nexus 4 looks like ass, but has pretty good contrast ratios. When calibrated, it looks superb, and in a subjective test against my gf's GS3, I'd say the Nexus 4 looks far better.

Everytime people say IPS sucks, I wonder where that notion comes from. HTC's done a superb job of promoting LCD technology and if you take a look at the Incredible S, HTC One X, and HTC One, they looked superb against their competing AMOLED screens. It's debatable which one is better, but I don't think there's a clear cut victory for either side. If you're judging LCD technology based on the piss poor calibration of the Nexus 4 or Nexus 7 2012, then yeah, it's clear AMOLED is better. It's unfortunate Google gave a bad name for LCD with those. Heck even the Nexus 10's gorgeous screen is ruined with washed out colors.
 
For cinema, you will get letterboxed videos.

I personally find the noise in the black levels of lcd screens to be really distracting. AMOLED doesn't have this problem, and so is better for cinema.

That said, I see no reason to get an AMOLED smartphone. AMOLED uses pentile, right? Makes text distracting. Good for video, but not the best for other stuff.
 
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desura said:
For cinema, you will get letterboxed videos.

I personally find the noise in the black levels of lcd screens to be really distracting. AMOLED doesn't have this problem, and so is better for cinema.

That said, I see no reason to get an AMOLED smartphone. AMOLED uses pentile, right? Makes text distracting. Good for video, but not the best for other stuff.
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Not all of them.
 
desura said:
You're talking the galaxy tab 7.7?

I have one. Previously, I"ve used an ipad 2 and a Nook HD+ for cinema.

Galaxy tab 7.7 is the best. It is because of the deep black levels. It's like watching a plasma screen.
Click to expand...

edit: lol, just realized that I replied to my own OP without realizing I wrote the OP...
 
I'm on the IPS side of the debate.

GNex with very noticeable burn-out when the status and navigation bars disappear.

LCD has come a long way in phones in the last year and a half.
 
1. If you watch MKV H.264 video, the Android device will be better. 3rd party video playback is a PITA on iOS.

2. I much prefer IPS, partially because the IPS device I'd get (iPhone) is much better calibrated, and because they have much brighter whites. This is very important for outdoor use. However, if I were just using it indoors under controlled lighting conditions, then super amoled would be nice, because of the darker blacks. Yes, people say that amoled can be very bright, but personally all the ones I've seen suck outdoors. Certainly my RAZR HD sucks outdoors.
 
Munky said:
AMOLED all the way. Better contrast, and (theoretically) lower power consumption.
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and also much thinner dimensions. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is really impressively thin.

Too bad Samsung software is terrible. They managed to ruin Android when all it would have taken was to just ship it vanilla.
 
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