Screen

[rdalcanto]

It is strange, because I don't notice it when looking at photos. The screen actually looks good there. I notice it most on the little favorites widgets (peoples faces). The colors are more vibrant than on my Droid X. After looking at the Bionic all day, the X seemed washed out. I saw the Charge at Costco, and the colors were SERIOUSLY over saturated. I tested the Bionic in direct sunlight, and I could see it well. My Thunderbolt was impossible to see in the sunlight, so I too think it is worth the trade-off.., I think....

 

[below_radar_00]

I'll give my two cents and ask a question too. I heard all the bad reviews about pentile and I figured it was just picky people hating on the technology so I went and bought the Bionic when my local Verizon opened yesterday morning. At first I didn't notice anything. It looked okay. I noticed the pixelization in certain parts but didn't care too much. Then late last night after rooting and restoring all my apps from the Droid Incredible to my Bionic things went south. I started up the three games that I play the most to see how the Bionic's super speed handled them and immediately noticed the coloring. I play all three of those games all the time so I know exactly what they look like and seeing them on the Bionic makes me wonder about taking this phone back and waiting for a different phone without pentile. The colors are way washed out when I compare side by side with my Incredible. I would advise to check out at Verizon first. Maybe download your favorite app or photo and compare it with what you have now. Maybe it will grow on me but I'm not hopeful right now.

My question: is there anyway to bring these colors to life? Turning down the brightness helped a little bit but is there some crazy hack on the other pentile phones that helps the colors pop a bit more? I know the screen is hardware related but I'm just doing some wishful thinking here. I love the phone...just hate the screen.

 

[fbm111]

This is why I couldn't use the Droid x2. Display is terrible in my opinion. Pentile looks just okay under the best conditions and terrible the rest of the time.

Really sinks to because I used to love motorola. Great phones and an American company. Now HTC is my preferred phone just due to displays.

 

[Reverence]

Just tested the pentile display outside in direct sunlight and it makes a world of difference, especially in comparison to my incredible.

 

[dguy]

To me I find the Pentile display to be an overall better display than others in terms of practicality. Being able to really use the phone in sunlight and being able to easily see the screen when using it for GPS navigation on the road in the sun are just a little bit more useful to me than the battery bar being smoother. One benefit of the Pentile display technology that is easy to overlook is it is more battery efficient than every other display technology on the market. They all have their pros and cons, gotta pick your poison.

 

[Superguy]

I don't like the screen, but the phone has enough other positives that I'll end up keeping it.

Like everyone else who came off a Samsung with SAMOLED, it's definitely a step down. Not as bad if you hold if farther from your face.

 

[ifh]

I think the screen is terrible. Battery gauge at top is very checkerboard. Whole screen is pixelated. Dont know if I can live with this....

CANNOT stand the pixelation, checkerboarding, honeycombing, whatever you want to call it.

It's everywhere, but what really bugged me most was when I was watching US Open through Browser or Skyfire, jagginess very noticeable. Watching US Open on wife's iPhone: pristine.

I hadn't checked this forum. I first went to local VZW shop, hoping it was only my device. The other two they had on display were the same. What a shame. What a SHAME. Now I see i'm not the only one...

I envy the ones of you that are not bothered by this or don't notice it. Besides this, the bionic is a great device, but it's going back.

I'll wait for the next big thing from VZW.

 

[Mercutio]

Was interested in buying, visited Vz store this morning.

Pentile display is a joke. Worst display I've seen on a "high end" phone in years. iP4 has been out for well over a year with a fantastic screen and Moto has the gall to throw this trash into the market. Even OG Droid screen is dramatically superior to Bionic.

Pass and wait for HTC Vigor or Samsung Prime. Get a nice used TBolt if you don't have the patience.

Screen cap from thisismynext's review of the Bionic:

http://1876.voxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bionic31.jpg

 

[Teegunn]

I've come to the conclusion that there are some Pentile screens that look better than others. A buddy of mine got the Bionic today and brought it over so I could use it a bit. Really liked a lot about the phone, but it's screen compared to my DX2 was not only washed out, but very pixelated. To the point I have to question if there isn't something wrong with his screen. My DX2 is very bright, the colors pop (compared to my DX) and an overall upgraded screen from my DX except for very slight pixelation when viewed very close up looking for it. I expected the Bionic to be as good, if not a little better than my DX2 and his was not. I didn't tell him because he was so geeked about the phone, but I felt like it. Hopefully it was just a bad screen and they are not all like that on the Bionic.

 

[Vehtemas]

Was interested in buying, visited Vz store this morning.

Pentile display is a joke. Worst display I've seen on a "high end" phone in years. iP4 has been out for well over a year with a fantastic screen and Moto has the gall to throw this trash into the market. Even OG Droid screen is dramatically superior to Bionic.

Pass and wait for HTC Vigor or Samsung Prime. Get a nice used TBolt if you don't have the patience.

Screen cap from thisismynext's review of the Bionic:

http://1876.voxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bionic31.jpg

To me that picture looks perfectly fine hahaha

 

[WizeGuyDezignz]

I don't want to make a war at all in here, but this post is for anyone that doesn't like their pentile Bionic and is going to take it back or is thinking about it. People who don't agree, please don't flame me for this. This post isn't directed at you if you're happy. If you're happy, then that's all that matters.

If you are going to return this or move to something else, for a stop-gap solution, I have to recommend the Charge. The screen is downright beautiful. And if you think it's too oversaturated, there is a solution if you are willing to root.

If you were to root, which I HIGHLY recommend anyways, then put the GummyCharged FE 2.0 rom on your phone. That rom includes a custom kernel by IMoseyON (developer). His kernel made the colors a lot more natural and stripped away the oversaturation (cartoony look).

Not only is my phone completely smooth and with excellent battery life, the colors look amazing and natural all while still having that awesome SAMOLED look. I would highly recommend it. Then I would highly recommend holding out for the Prime to see how that looks. The screen should also be fantastic along with the phone I would imagine.

That's just my $.02.

 

[Mercutio]

Check out swappa.com for used phones. I got my TBolt on there... Used Android phones only, and if it doesn't come in the description described by the seller, Swappa will supposedly help you get your money back form PayPal.

Also, most phones on there are already rooted

 

[Russellmaniakw]

I don't get why people only started ripping on these pentile displays when the qHD screens started popping up. Don't LED screens have a similar construction? I just played w/ a Bionic and the screen didn't seem any worse than my friend's Droid Incredible which I always though looked a little pixelated as well.

 

[xmr405o]

I'm not seeing the pixelation in this screen. Maybe I'm not holding it close enough, but at 6 inches I see none.

Just my $.02

+1

You really really have to be looking for flaws to notice things like that. The icons on the homescreens look great so to me that's all that matters. I wonder if the battery icon and all the other icons on the notification bars are formatted differently that makes it look pixelated. Also, if the screen was that bad...then the wallpaper of those green reeds (i think that's what they are) would look pixelated too but they look fine to me.

I still prefer AMOLED screens but I don't think the Bionic's screen is terrible.

 

[sean76]

I think its just plain whole heartedly ridiculous that Motorola is using a screen like this for they're high end phones. Im sorry I dont see the logic at all. Listen im a fan of having the newest stuff. But this screen should not be on a phone that retails for $589...no way! Those that say its great, or omg your nuts, its so clear,,,really need to go look at a Samsung phone. And yes, like some have stated, its an ok screen, but seriously...Not for a Flag ship phone.

And I found a beautiful dead pixel on my screen already.. lol, man do I wish I held on to my Charge...

 

[Lars]

I was expecting a disaster but I'm fine with the screen. Not as good as the X but better than the Fascinate. Better than any iphone 1-3 and I'll take it over the smaller iphone4 screen though that one is razor sharp.

 

[Teegunn]

Like I said in an earlier post, I am beginning to believe that there are some crappy Pentile screens out there. When I saw my buddy's Bionic today it was NOT the same quality or brightness that my DX2 has. I will withold complete judegment until I get to see some other Bionics in person but I am betting that there is a quality issue with some of the pentile screens.

 

[Mercutio]

Don't LED screens have a similar construction?

The original LED screens, from early-mid 2010, did in fact have a similar problem. This has since been fixed.

Newer, high quality LED screens are typically referred to as SAMOLED. SAMOLED screens are amazing and have none of the ridiculous issues afflicting the OG Incredible and Bionic.

 

[Poundfoolish]

I'll give my two cents and ask a question too. I heard all the bad reviews about pentile and I figured it was just picky people hating on the technology so I went and bought the Bionic when my local Verizon opened yesterday morning. At first I didn't notice anything. It looked okay. I noticed the pixelization in certain parts but didn't care too much. Then late last night after rooting and restoring all my apps from the Droid Incredible to my Bionic things went south. I started up the three games that I play the most to see how the Bionic's super speed handled them and immediately noticed the coloring. I play all three of those games all the time so I know exactly what they look like and seeing them on the Bionic makes me wonder about taking this phone back and waiting for a different phone without pentile. The colors are way washed out when I compare side by side with my Incredible. I would advise to check out at Verizon first. Maybe download your favorite app or photo and compare it with what you have now. Maybe it will grow on me but I'm not hopeful right now.

My question: is there anyway to bring these colors to life? Turning down the brightness helped a little bit but is there some crazy hack on the other pentile phones that helps the colors pop a bit more? I know the screen is hardware related but I'm just doing some wishful thinking here. I love the phone...just hate the screen.

You've got it backwards though because no OLED display (in a mobile device) is accurately reproducing colors. The Bionic's color's aren't as washed-out as the Incredible's (and all other OLED displays) colors are blindingly over-saturated and unrealistic.

Compare an LCD to the Bionic to see where it stands.

 

[Mercutio]

Galaxy SII SAMOLED screen may be slightly oversaturated, but blows away everything else available - even edges out iP4 retina in many ways.

This is how a high end smartphone screen should look;

First pic, Retina mid 2010, SLCD (Nexus) early 2010, SAMOLED (GS2) early-mid 2011:
http://images.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SLCD-Retina-SAMOLED.jpg

http://clovetechnology.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/2011-05-10-07-44-34.jpg

http://blog.galvintan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/gs2_home.jpg

 

[Mercutio]

Separate from LED talk, here is an in-depth look at PenTile displays from Droid-Life:

A Closer Look at the DROIDX2 and its qHD Display, PenTile at its Not-so-Finest - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

 

[schimm]

Galaxy SII SAMOLED screen may be slightly oversaturated, but blows away everything else available - even edges out iP4 retina in many ways.

This is how a high end smartphone screen should look;

First pic, Retina mid 2010, SLCD (Nexus) early 2010, SAMOLED (GS2) early-mid 2011:
http://images.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/SLCD-Retina-SAMOLED.jpg

http://clovetechnology.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/2011-05-10-07-44-34.jpg

http://blog.galvintan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/gs2_home.jpg

What's battery life like on the galaxy? Im still using the droid x since my renewal doesnt come up till march but i wasnt bothered by the pentile when i viewed it at BB last week when i held the phone, a photon at normal viewing distance. Bad battery life would bother the heck outta me.

 

[Mercutio]

No intention of dragging this thread off topic. If you want to know about battery life with SAMOLED screens, then read on. Let's not go too far along this path though; I will not post any more on this subject.

What's battery life like on the galaxy? Im still using the droid x since my renewal doesnt come up till march but i wasnt bothered by the pentile when i viewed it at BB last week when i held the phone, a photon at normal viewing distance. Bad battery life would bother the heck outta me.

Battery life is very good.

Note that SGSII is 3G, not LTE.

Samsung Galaxy S II review -- Engadget

"The story of the Galaxy S II's battery life cannot be told without returning to its luscious screen. Being an OLED panel, the 4.3-inch display here doesn't use one single backlight as LCD screens do, and instead only illuminates the pixels that are needed to actively display content. This is the reason why it can generate truer blacks than any backlit panel, but it also permits the user to optimize battery life by doing such things as switching to a darker wallpaper or reading ebooks against a black background. We didn't actually bother with such tweaks, we were too busy exploring every one of the myriad features on this phone, but the option's there as an extra dimension of obsessive control if you care for it. As to the Galaxy S II's actual endurance, we found it highly competitive with the latest batch of Android phones. After 20 hours, half of which were filled with the above tinkering and exploration, we managed to drag the Galaxy S II down to 15 percent of its original charge. This was with our usual push notification suppliers, Gmail and Twitter, running in the background and while constantly connected to our WiFi network."

 

[johnlgalt]

OK, I want to see the exact same pic on all three phones - then and only then can you make a real distinction. The same websites is nto a fair comparison, b/c AFAICT Android does nto use webkit for the browser, else it would just be Chrome on the phones. Therefore, showing websites in iPhone browser and Android browser is not a fair comparison.

Second, unless the Moto DROID is rooted and running Android 2.3.4, still not going to be a 100% fair comparison for multiple reasons - first off, hardware rendering of any kind (if it exists) and second because of the fact that the resolutions are different.

 

[FragDroidX]

The original LED screens, from early-mid 2010, did in fact have a similar problem. This has since been fixed.

Newer, high quality LED screens are typically referred to as SAMOLED. SAMOLED screens are amazing and have none of the ridiculous issues afflicting the OG Incredible and Bionic.

You are partly correct. Both Samsungs AMOLED (think Droid Incredible and Nexus) and SAMOLED (all Galaxy S phones) are pentile. SAMOLED+ is the first OLED that is not pentil.