Rezound vs. Nexus displays: Super LCD vs. Super AMOLED

[sdsubasketball]

Alright, so how do you guys like the Rezound's screen in comparison to the Galaxy Nexus's screen? I've been wanting to get a phone with Super Amoled (well SAMOLED+, but Nexus has regular SAMOLED). I notice the screen pops out more to me and is more attractive. How do you all deal with this while having the Rezound over the Nexus? Does it affect you?

 

[mangopositive]

For me, accurate colors, a higher pixel density, and whites that don't have a bluish tint trump "colors that pop."

 

[BlueBiker]

I'd like to have more vivid colors, deeper blacks, better viewing angles, and sunlight visibility, but the incredible sharpness and perfectly uniform display area (no grain, no splotchiness, no fringing, no banding) are very appealing. Both displays are terrific and neither is perfect.

Personally I'm not experiencing any sense of suffering or deprivation for having to endure the Rezound's display.

 

[olbriar]

The blotchy pixels that are reported being seen by the Nexus group in the darker part of a vid would concern me. I've not seen the Nexus screen so I'm no judge. I would carefully examine both displays prior to a purchase for they say that displays are perceived differently from different people. I'm super happy with the Rezound's screen but that certainly doesn't make it superior.

 

[sdsubasketball]

what do you guys think of the blacks not being as black as superamoled? For me I feel like the screen might look too cheap, but maybe it's better than I think?

Does the screen appear good in outdoor conditions such as sunlight?

 

[BlueBiker]

what do you guys think of the blacks not being as black as superamoled? For me I feel like the screen might look too cheap, but maybe it's better than I think?

Does the screen appear good in outdoor conditions such as sunlight?

I think you already decided that you like the Nexus screen better, and there's no point in any of us trying to talk you out of it. They're both excellent screens with different strengths and weaknesses, and they're both excellent phones too. Why worry? Just get the phone you want!

And no, the Rezound's screen isn't very visible in sunlight.

 

[nynvolt]

I like the brighter colors on the Razrs screen under some circumstances, but it appears almost cartoonish and can look unnatural, if that makes sense. I'm 100% satisfied with the Rezound screen. The Nexus had the same look as the Razr to me. Blacks are black unless you set it side by side with the Razr, even then its still black, but you can see a definite differance, the whites are better on the Rezound but still looks good on the other two, just have a bit of tint to them. You'll get used to whichever you pick. I have yet to feel any phone envy, this phone rocks.

 

[TxGoat]

At the risk of sounding fanboish, I'm going to throw out a couple of scenarios that you may want to take into consideration. They don't both directly relate to your screen question, but you might want to consider then regardless.

The first scenario is lets say you're going on a long trip and want to dump a lot of 720p media on your phone in an attempt to keep yourself entertained with more than just Angry Birds or Sudoku. A good 720p movie is going to run at least a few gigs of memory. Bringing a spare SD card or installing a larger one isn't an option afforded to you by Samsung. Sure you can bring an extra HD and use the feature that allows you to connect directly to the media, but will AA or United try to charge you a mini-bag fee?

Second scenario, you say screw the extra SD card I'll just stream a 720p movie via 4G. If I may direct you to all the "Connection issues"/"Poor battery life" threads that are littering the Nexus forum. Streaming regular video is one thing, but streaming 720p, you're going to want a consistently strong 4G signal unless you like seeing the little ring-o-buffering animation.

Even if you find yourself completely infatuated with the screen on the Nexus, which I will concede that I wish the Rezound had a little more color dialed in, in order to get the most out of the screen, you're going to want to view 720p content on it. The two choices for that are local media or streaming, neither of which are executable on the Nexus nearly as well as they are on the Rezound.

 

[sleightofhand]

I had the galaxy nexus and now have the rezound. I like the rezound much more then the nexus. The screen is crisper, colors are true and there are no black issues.

The black issues i mention are when you watch video with dark scenes you get strange random blotches of lighter or blueish black streaks thru the dark areas on the nexus. There was a work around in getting an app to adjust contrast and brightness but once you get it adjusted you lose the super black look of the screen (nexus). I really notice the black loss in text.

The reason i returned my nexus was dropped calls and poor camera. I have not dropped a call with a phone in my home area, which is raleigh nc in years so this was troubling. My wife used to drop calls on her rogue while i would have a good connection on my dinc, so i feared it was just a samsung problem. If i miss anything its ice cream sandwich, but then again its nice to just sync over my facebook contacts and such with some of the nice sense add ons. It was maddening not to get the easy syncing of those contacts for me as everyone i know is on facebook and not google plus.

 

[SamMax]

Exactly the only really black you will see on the Nexus is the black on menus not on video. The black on video as mentioned by sleightofhand is not very black, it's more of a blotchy mess.

I really like the pop on colors that amoled provides but I like the Rezound's screen better for overall viewing because it's consistent and natural.

 

[crankerchick]

I had the Rezound for just shy of 5 weeks and now have a Galaxy Nexus. I came from an OG droid and WinMo phones before that.

The Rezound by far has more accurate colors while the Nexus is a saturated mess to anyone who looks for accuracy in colors. Sure the colors pop and things like games look nice, but skin tones look incredibly overdone. I do photography on the side and so have a liking for more natural and accurate colors. The Galaxy Nexus display is for people who walk in BestBuy and are drawn to the LCD on the walls with their bright bright screens (under awful lighting) and saturated colors. I'm not saying it's a bad screen, I'm saying it is a saturated screen.

I do see some vertical banding on my Nexus that are visible on white and gray backgrounds. I have to go up to about 30-40% brightness before it starts to be less visible and 50% before I can no longer discern it. I don't run my screen that high unless I'm charging or watching a video or in a really brightly lit area.

The Rezound display, in my opinion for what I like, is just stunning. The Galaxy Nexus screen, while it might be great for AMOLED, is not really my cup of tea.

That being said, I'm not editing photos on my phone and when I'm watching a video on youtube, it's usually to laugh, not to be caught up and enthralled in the cinematic wonder of it all. When I want the best experience for those activities I edit photos my PC with IPS displays or watch the movie on my HDTV.

For what I use my smartphone for, I prefer the Rezound screen, but it's not a dealbreaker for me--it's just a phone. I think the iPhone retina displays and Rezound LCD screens are more natural and accurate while the Nexus is more vibrant and saturated. None are without their flaws though, so it's all about what fits best. Blacks certainly aren't as deep on the Rezound, but colors are overdone on the Nexus so it's give and take.

 

[TJGoSurf]

This is a great graph talking about pixel density. I know the Nexus has ICS but I'm a whore for HTC.

 

[BlueBiker]

Blacks certainly aren't as deep on the Rezound, but colors are overdone on the Nexus so it's give and take.

Pretty sure there's a setting on the Nexus to dial back the saturation.

 

[sdsubasketball]

I want this phone, what I'm hearing from you guys and the specs and all, it sounds like a great phone. The screen, ICS, and community support is bothering me, but if I can get past that, I might just get this phone. Plus I don't have a lot of money right now to go from phone to phone, so I have to choose wisely. I have been wanting the Galaxy Nexus for a while now, but hearing about the issues and poor camera are bugging me, plus Amazon doesn't have any for sale at the moment.

Well thanks for your opinions!

 

[A2Aegis]

I want this phone, what I'm hearing from you guys and the specs and all, it sounds like a great phone. The screen, ICS, and community support is bothering me, but if I can get past that, I might just get this phone. Plus I don't have a lot of money right now to go from phone to phone, so I have to choose wisely. I have been wanting the Galaxy Nexus for a while now, but hearing about the issues and poor camera are bugging me, plus Amazon doesn't have any for sale at the moment.

Well thanks for your opinions!

About the community support, I've been worried about the same thing in my debate between the Nexus and Rezound, but I think we'll see it explode once they get S-OFF. But we'll just have to wait and see. All it takes is one person to be dedicated to a device, I mean, just look at the OG Droid getting a ICS build.

 

[skater57]

All I have to say about this screen is its amazing no pixelation accurate colors really white whites(I compared it to my droid incredible 2 and the whites have a yellowish hint to them) I love this screen I could never go back to anything less than HD

 

[miltk]

just an opinion cuz i like to give unsolicited opinions.
it's just frigging amazing that one can stream movies on a phone in the first place!!!!!

BLACKS: go outside and look around you. there are no blacks. black is when you look at black paper in a closet at night with all the lights turned off in the hallway. otherwise "black" is just really some very dark shade of gray. you won't even see black in a movie theater,,,unless maybe you're watching Avatar or some computer animated film.

all i ask for is NO tinting, NO bleed - good localized color....technology should have advanced at least that far by now. images will look sharp because they ARE on the 4" screen, and if you have to blow up an image 50x to make comparisons then what's the point.

just look at a stream or surf the web, and say "i like it" or "i don't"

 

[andr01d]

The Rezound's screen is readable in the sunlight. I'm reading and typing/thumbing this in the sun right now with the sunlight hitting the screen. The only catch is we'll have to set the brightness to the max. It's not a transflective panel, but works ok (may run down the battery pretty fast with max brightness)

 

[BlueBiker]

Hey all, just want to report back that after many months of hyper speculation and analysis, I finally saw and played with a real live Nexus on Saturday.

Nice screen!

My takeaway is that while it does suffer from various artifacting and other maladies that have been discussed here and elsewhere, in the real world it is stunning. Specifically, the sharpness is great even on small text, and the colors looked vivid w/o being cartoony.

I had speculated that at HD resolution the PenTile graininess would no longer be noticeable, and for me it isn't. I didn't look specifically for off-whites or banding issues, but they didn't jump out at me either. There's not much on earth sharper than a Rezound display, but I think we've passed the point where PPI makes a large difference to even a discerning user.

Bottom line: My Rezound has a terrific display, but I'd probably prefer Nexus' overall. My advice to a prospective buyer is please don't rule either of them out based on reports if you haven't auditioned them yourself.

 

[misan23]

Hey all, just want to report back that after many months of hyper speculation and analysis, I finally saw and played with a real live Nexus on Saturday.

Nice screen!

My takeaway is that while it does suffer from various artifacting and other maladies that have been discussed here and elsewhere, in the real world it is stunning. Specifically, the sharpness is great even on small text, and the colors looked vivid w/o being cartoony.

I had speculated that at HD resolution the PenTile graininess would no longer be noticeable, and for me it isn't. I didn't look specifically for off-whites or banding issues, but they didn't jump out at me either. There's not much on earth sharper than a Rezound display, but I think we've passed the point where PPI makes a large difference to even a discerning user.

Bottom line: My Rezound has a terrific display, but I'd probably prefer Nexus' overall. My advice to a prospective buyer is please don't rule either of them out based on reports if you haven't auditioned them yourself.

I felt the opposite, at least with respect to the sharpness. To my less than stellar eyes, text was a pain to read and I kept feeling like there were smudges on my glasses (there weren't) or that something was wrong with my eyes.
For text reading, comparing in store the nexus, razr, rezound and a bionic, the Rezound was by far the easiest to read with. Movies was a tie, maybe an edge to the nexus. Pictures for ME was by far the rezound as its display is far more true-to-life.

 

[BlueBiker]

I felt the opposite, at least with respect to the sharpness. To my less than stellar eyes, text was a pain to read and I kept feeling like there were smudges on my glasses (there weren't) or that something was wrong with my eyes.
For text reading, comparing in store the nexus, razr, rezound and a bionic, the Rezound was by far the easiest to read with. Movies was a tie, maybe an edge to the nexus. Pictures for ME was by far the rezound as its display is far more true-to-life.

And... your observations are completely valid. 20yrs ago my eyes might've come to the same conclusions. I think both of us are pretty damn happy with our Rezounds.

 

[kishin14]

And... your observations are completely valid. 20yrs ago my eyes might've come to the same conclusions. I think both of us are pretty damn happy with our Rezounds.

Me three. Very happy indeed. I've love to have the super-amoled's superior outdoor viewing but not at the expense of the inferior video playback. I cannot stand any type of artifacting, color banding or other screen issues while watching movies on my phone. It takes away from the immersion factor. This phone does the best job of mirroring the PQ of my flat screen TV. Sometimes I'll watch half of a movie on my TV then watch the other half in bed on the rezound and I honestly don't feel like there is any loss in quality.

 

[Frisco]

And... your observations are completely valid. 20yrs ago my eyes might've come to the same conclusions. I think both of us are pretty damn happy with our Rezounds.

Stop it you guys. You're turning me away from my "decision" to buy a RAZR (Santa brought me three, not one, not two, but three Verizon gift cards ).

The peeper thing that olbriar brought up early on in this thread is a huge deal.. it's remarkable how two people will look at a display and see it differently as to quality, differences in eye sight are not all there is to it, either.

For me there is a sort of bad "neon" effect even at low brightness levels to lcd screens. The Samsung Fascinate seemed the best I've had. I need to do a lot of handling of these things in the store before spending those gift cards.

 

[jkc120]

The blotchy pixels that are reported being seen by the Nexus group in the darker part of a vid would concern me. I've not seen the Nexus screen so I'm no judge. I would carefully examine both displays prior to a purchase for they say that displays are perceived differently from different people. I'm super happy with the Rezound's screen but that certainly doesn't make it superior.

That was me. I am sure I didn't make any friends in the Nexus forums but the artifacts (color banding, dark gradients) were way too annoying for me to live with for 2 years with as much video as I watch in a dark room. This rezound screen is GORGEOUS. No remorse at all. The nexus screen is great but the artifacts for me were the reason I switched to the rezound. That and the much better signal on the rezound.

 

[kishin14]

That was me. I am sure I didn't make any friends in the Nexus forums but the artifacts (color banding, dark gradients) were way too annoying for me to live with for 2 years with as much video as I watch in a dark room. This rezound screen is GORGEOUS. No remorse at all. The nexus screen is great but the artifacts for me were the reason I switched to the rezound. That and the much better signal on the rezound.

Nice to see that you finally came around