Help Super AMOLED (again) with PenTile subpixel matrix?

[tx_brandon]

Phones been out for a week or so now, any second opinions from owners out there?

 

[cooki3s]

The screen is definetly a lot brighter than the Desire screen. Didn't really compare the resolution (my eyes suck too hard to make a good comparison on pixel level), however the colours seem to be better aswell, as is the colour representation (the desire shows some versions of gray as pink, which this phone doesn't!). Sunlight visibility is ok.

Can only compare it to the Desire's amoled tho, don't have another high res lcd device.

 

[Bluebrain]

Got the Galaxy-S last week. Had the Desire before.

advantages to the Desire's AMOLED:
+ brighter
+ unbelievable black level
+ color-intensity more balanced (still not very good)
+ not pinkish in any way
+ fewer "fly-screen effect"

disadvantages:
- fly-screen effect still noticeable
- no improvement in sharpness at all (due to the PenTile Matrix subpixel alignment)
- not pinkish any more as mentioned but now green-ish (not that annoying like the pinkish Desire's screen but still noticeable in participial shades of grey)

The Milestone/Droid Screen is still a lot sharper and better balanced.
Especially small text and 1-Pixel lines simply look ugly.

Photos and Videos look great and let others make "ooh" and "ahh" but when it comes to readability of text and websites: there is no way around of zooming all the time (whereas you could read it easily on a Milestone/Droid)

But good news:
Due to the fact that HTC is running out of AMOLEDs (in fact Samsung does) because of the high market demand, they will sell some current models with SONY's new s-TFT LCD-Screen parallel to the AMOLED-Models!

 

[krammikk]

i have the galaxy s ,and i have have to say that text looks fine.If this thread wasn't created,most people wouldn't even notice the difference , in fact they would find it much better compared to other phone displays.Even if you did notice a difference,the quality of the images and video more than make up for it(writing this reply after watching watching a 720p version of 2012 on the phone).I personally think that the iphone 4's display will show better text clarity,but the fact of the matter is that i really don't like I os, and that's too much of a compromise for me just to get a better display.

 

[lcgreen]

So does this mean the Legend has a better screen when reading texts? I'm a Legend user thinking about the SGS but I read alot (.doc files, websites, etc) on my phone.

Does this mean when the same document is fully zoomed out, the Legend will have better legibility than the SGS (even tho the SGS is better for watching videos etc)

 

[Markiz]

So does this mean the Legend has a better screen when reading texts? I'm a Legend user thinking about the SGS but I read alot (.doc files, websites, etc) on my phone.

definitely not. legend has 4 times less pixels. even if penTile is as bad as some make it out to be, sgs will still be noticeably better for reading text than the legend.

 

[Bluebrain]

I also think, the SGS has a better readability than the HTC Legend.
480x800 with PenTile should still be better than 320x480 without!

 

[forza2020]

Crikey, this is all pendantic geekery gone quite mental.

My wife has an HTC Desire. When she saw the Galaxy S display she went "Whooo!"

 

[ghdtpdna]

Crikey, this is all pendantic geekery gone quite mental.

My wife has an HTC Desire. When she saw the Galaxy S display she went "Whooo!"

Terrible comparison.
They both utilize pentile matrix and SGS has better technology.
SGS is more like pentile version 2.

 

[EarlZ]

Since I got the Samsung Wave first, I noticed that the text quality is not that great, its not bad just lower than what I expected.. you can clearly see the evidence of pentile display.. I hope its not any worse on the Galaxy S

 

[Eazail70x7]

I was looking at my friend's Evo today and zoomed as far in on the text as possible and it looked very sharp. Me and my other friend couldn't really make out pixels (probably cause we don't know how lol)

It is noticeably sharper than my Moment. If the Epic 4G is as sharp as the Evo, I will definetly be content.

 

[Shocky]

Weird thread, I've read a book my my i9000, no problems at all reading the text, how far in do you have to zoom in to see this? this is as bad as looking for visable pixels when comparing to the iPhone 4. It's pathetic.

Maybe talk about something people can actually see, not buying a SGS over this is silly.

 

[Bluebrain]

I've got the Motorola Milestone (Droid), HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy-S.
The SGS' Display is better than the one of the Desire. Colors are more balanced and the screen is bigger and brighter.

But when it comes to sharpness, the Milestone is far ahead!

You MUST NOT compare the SGS with the HTC Legend, an old iPhone or anything else below 480x800 screen resolution! That's ridiculous!

Go and compare it with the EVO 4G, Droid X or iPhone 4 and you will see how a 480x800px screen CAN look like!

I use the SGS and it's OK for me - at the moment.
It's awesome lightweight, thin and has a great big screen.
But if anything comparable hits the market (here in Europe) with a "real" RGB Pixelmatrix, I'll be the first one to buy this device.

 

[Lee Mac]

i have the galaxy s ,and i have have to say that text looks fine.If this thread wasn't created,most people wouldn't even notice the difference , in fact they would find it much better compared to other phone displays.Even if you did notice a difference,the quality of the images and video more than make up for it(writing this reply after watching watching a 720p version of 2012 on the phone).I personally think that the iphone 4's display will show better text clarity,but the fact of the matter is that i really don't like I os, and that's too much of a compromise for me just to get a better display.

I noticed it on the Incredible the very first time I looked it, but I didn't understand why it looked that way since it was the same resolution as the Droid/Milestone. I thought it would have a better display since it was AMOLED. I had never heard of PenTile before to know what it was, nor was I looking for anything wrong with the screen, as I assumed it was just going to be better. I just knew that the screen looked pixelated. I bought a Nexus One after that and found it had the same problem. Now I know that PenTile destroys any benefits you get from the AMOLED if you use your phone for browsing the web, reading books, or responding to e-mail, which are the primary uses of my phone. I do not watch movies on my phone. The effect looks even worse on the Galaxy S than it did on the Nexus One and Incredible. Give me LCD until they can make AMOLED without PenTile. This is extremely frustrating.

I have to say, I'm surprised to not be hearing more about this. The reviews aren't even mentioning it. Engadget showed the difference between the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S in pictures, but they didn't explain why it was that way.

http://www.engadget.com/photos/iphone-4-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-displays-at-full-brightness/

 

[Lee Mac]

I was looking at my friend's Evo today and zoomed as far in on the text as possible and it looked very sharp. Me and my other friend couldn't really make out pixels (probably cause we don't know how lol)

It is noticeably sharper than my Moment. If the Epic 4G is as sharp as the Evo, I will definetly be content.

Unfortunately, the Epic seems to have the same screen as the other Galaxy S phones. I had an EVO, which uses a normal LCD, and it looked much better than the Galaxy S, for reading. The Droid X looks even better than the EVO. These PenTile devices just don't compare to a normal LCD screen, at the same resolution, for reading text. And even aside from the text issue, you can still see a dithered effect, the fly screen effect Bluebrain referred to, in solid colors. You can see the dots that make up a white background on a webpage. That is visible, and distracting, at a normal viewing distance, which for me is 9 to 12 inches.

 

[gerberman]

This has all gone very anal, Galaxy s is a great phone find someone who has one and try it, definatly dont decide by just reading forums, if very sharp text is the thing you want most get Iphone 4, if a great all round multi media experience is what your after I can recomend the GS

 

[Mithent]

Engadget showed the difference between the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S in pictures, but they didn't explain why it was that way.

To be fair, the iPhone 4 doesn't provide a very good comparison to the Galaxy S if we're talking about PenTile - the iPhone 4 has a much smaller dot pitch than any other phone and so it will be the sharpest device. The previous iPhone screens were mediocre and an odd aspect ratio, but I hope the iPhone 4 sets a trend with its high-resolution screen.

However, I'm not at all keen on the PenTile matrix either - I don't watch video or look at photos on my phone very much, and spend the great majority of my time reading text, as I expect many people do (whether that's SMS, email or web pages). I'd really rather not compromise on text quality even if the contrast ratio is great. Unfortunately there's not really any choice for high-end GSM Android phones at the moment - the Desire is the only other phone I'd consider, and it has a worse screen with PenTile.

 

[EarlZ]

So far in this forum there seems to be 1 person that worships PenTile Display like it was the god of displays and even fails to defend his claims.

 

[FK1983]

So is this why the screen on my sansung galaxy s looks like it has a "mesh" coating over it? is it also why small text looks rubbish compared to any other high resolution non pentile screen? and is that why the colour saturation is bad?

If i would have knew this phone had a pentile screen i would NOT have even got it, its bad it doesn't state this on the specs, lucky I'm in my 7 days "trial", my new iphone 4 is being delivered in the morning (with free bumper lol), an exchange at the door where they take the samsung and give me the iphone 4.

Lucky escape for me!

 

[galaxyS]

those who bit into this whole "pentile is bad" uproar are all being hysterical.. LOL

i guess this issue is a subjective matter..

 

[kashifmansoor]

i can confirm that the galaxy s is certainlyinferior to htc bd2.
I am disappointed by Samsung misleading to say it is best screen when even it is not WVGA

@Nex_1
If your main intention is to watch movies, go and get it! Colors are more vivid and black is true black.
But when it comes to text and readability, you see the difference.

@zafonic


Don't know if the Droid suffers from the same problem, but the Milestone has a huge problem with speech quality. Your conversational partner hears a lot of dropouts and in general, the overall speech quality is very bad.
As we found out, it has to do with the noise cancelling function with the second microphone of the Milestone.
And with all the fun a smartphone brings. A phone's main field of application remains making phone-calls!
Especially my friends begged me to call them back over landline because they only understand every second word I say. That's bloody frustrating, dude!

Secondly: other than the US Droid, the Milestone has a signed bootloader which only accepts signed images which makes custom roms impossible.

Thirdly: The milestone is not slow, but the Desires' 1GHz is just better. (since about 2 weeks overclocking of the Milestone is possible - well, long after I ordered my Desire)

Fourthly: The Desire was offered to me from my provider for as low as 180 EUR = 220 US$ ... you can't say no to this. At least I can sell it on eBay or give it to my wife.

I'd give anything to get an EVO 4G! (well, a GSM version of it)

 

[galaxyS]

ive come to realize that the problem is not with pentile, it's actually the eyes of those who perceive smaloed's screen to be worse for reading texts, etc. because of the said technology..

the text is fine on the galaxy S! try and look at it, zoom it or whatever, the text is fine..LOL

 

[FK1983]

ive come to realize that the problem is not with pentile, it's actually the eyes of those who perceive smaloed's screen to be worse for reading texts, etc. because of the said technology..

the text is fine on the galaxy S! try and look at it, zoom it or whatever, the text is fine..LOL

Errm, no its not fine....

I can see it easily on my Galaxy S, zoom out on any web site, the small text is all pixelated and you can't read it, also, see that "mesh" look on the screen that is really annoying me? that is the pentile display, same as the "grey" tint everything seems to have.

Trying to say it isn't an issue when MANY forums and sites say otherwise is silly, the pentile screen on this model is the main reason why people are now returning the phone!


If you honestly think this screen is good go and look at ANY other high res phone screen that isn't using a pentile display and you will see how bad the samsung s screen is compared to them.

 

[galaxyS]

Errm, no its not fine....

I can see it easily on my Galaxy S, zoom out on any web site, the small text is all pixelated and you can't read it, also, see that "mesh" look on the screen that is really annoying me? that is the pentile display, same as the "grey" tint everything seems to have.

Trying to say it isn't an issue when MANY forums and sites say otherwise is silly, the pentile screen on this model is the main reason why people are now returning the phone!


If you honestly think this screen is good go and look at ANY other high res phone screen that isn't using a pentile display and you will see how bad the samsung s screen is compared to them.

i dont know what you are talking about.. i've tried zooming in on pages and i don't see any problems .. and why would you read a site all zoomed out anyway? i dont get it?

do you have eye problems sir that you have to read 5 feet away from the screen? i mean seriously, any normal person will read a blog or site on a phone in normal view which will be zoomed in a little bit, depends on the person.. and even if it does have the mesh look to it, it's not something that will sway me from liking this phone as it is one of the most powerful phone to date Why would i choose an inferior phone that cant render great 3D graphics over this phone that can do that easily and does more?

 

[FK1983]

i dont know what you are talking about.. i've tried zooming in on pages and i don't see any problems .. and why would you read a site all zoomed out anyway? i dont get it?

do you have eye problems sir that you have to read 5 feet away from the screen? i mean seriously, any normal person will read a blog or site on a phone in normal view which will be zoomed in a little bit, depends on the person.. and even if it does have the mesh look to it, it's not something that will sway me from liking this phone as it is one of the most powerful phone to date Why would i choose an inferior phone that cant render great 3D graphics over this phone that can do that easily and does more?

LOL, if its not a problem why are so many buyers, forums and websites making such a big deal out of it? it is a BIG issue weather you want to admit to it or not.

And seriously, you talking about gaming on the android/samsung galaxy s lmao, the gaming scene is a joke on this platform, why have such a powerful gpu/cpu combo when there are NO games to show it off? none of the major companies/developers make games on android,

Compare games running on the galaxy s to the iphone 3gs (with its poor screen) and it still pis*es over the galaxy s, look at farm frenzy, nova, need for speed shift, doodle jump, settlers, the android versions look like basic java versions lol.

As a huge gamer this is also one reason why the samsung is going back and i'm getting an iphone 4, my 3gs is superb for gaming, so many superb games to play, the iphone 4 has a superb gpu/cpu and ram too and with the better screen is easily a match for the samsung galaxy s in terms of 3d graphics, it also has a MUCH better SDK for gaming.