The Nexus One's Dirty Display Secret - 16 Bit Color

[ElusiveByte]

(I just went through the really silly and overly long method of taking screenshots on an android)

Your test is invalid. You can't take a screenshot using software and expect to see display artifacts!

For illustration, you could take a screenshot while you use a black and white monitor, and the screenshot could still come out as full color. (It depends on when in the rendering stack the video data was extracted.)

The screenshot will contain the raw data that is meant to be displayed before the display processor optimizes it for display on the particular screen that is being used. The raw data will contain simple data like "make this pixel 100% white". The display processor on the N1 has to interpret that for the PenTile arrangement of pixles, where no single pixel is even capable of making itself white. Each pixel has to borrow either red or blue from a neighboring pixel in order to display white.

So get out a good digital camera and take a real picture please!

 

[$ahil]

Lol @ at you if you use a cell phone for "serious photography"

 

[ManMythLegend]

Its the quality of default gallery.

Hopefully this will make Google fix that ugly mess.

BUT
As with the touch screen test there full of crap and having tests done by morons.

Pic from left to right
nasa pic , n1 gallery , BnB gallery.
Taken with my cam so the AF beam may have skewed some of the res, but the quality of the BnB gallery is much much better then default gallery and in no way has the banding shown above.

 

[ikon]

Here's some quick shots I took, forgive my photography skills, low light condition.

gradient
color
color pattern
nasa

All these images were viewed through the stock android browser.

 

[Talderon]

OLED Displays (and AMOLED Displays) are inherently High-Definition displays. Technical specifications found all over the web show that all AMOLED Displays have a higher luminescence, higher contrast ratio and are all made to display "True Colors".

You can find this information with minimal searching and effort, so reports of this nature (and I take everything from Gizmod with a grain (or 50) of salt) are over stated and to just get ratings, page views and freak out the competition.

As stated in this thread already, this really just amounts to a software/OS issue.

 

[AnerisDroid]

I took a look at that NASA picture and it looks smooth without any banding. I don't know about the color banding you posted above, but this is all suspect. Probably someone doing sloppy testing and/or biased.

I also took a look at the Mars Sunset photo and it looks smooth without any banding... in fact it looked better than the iPhone photo they showed on that web page. Maybe it's just me, but my screen looks better in all instances than my sister's iPhone, camera, web, games, etc.

 

[yakboy]

the gallery app is appalling, it drops t the resolution and the quality of the pictures when viewed. Luckily they are fine on your PC.

one thing I haver noted with the N1 screen is that it doesn't appear to be a square grid of pixels but more a hexagon arrangement. This is highlighted by single pixel width lines in apps displaying as a tiny ring of beads. I am wondering whether this unusual pixel alignment had anything to do with the artifacts some people are seeing?



Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

 

[gerryk]

I submit that there is banding in the iPhone image also. In fact the bands appear broader, which would imply a lower pixel depth. That said, they are less distinct, which would seem to imply rendering faults in the iPhone rather than the N1. The bands are more apparent towards the left half of the image. I am referring to the image pair on the linked site, BTW.
Also, a 3.7" mobile device doesn't render as well as a studio monitor which probably costs 2x as much? OMGWTF??

 

[vido.ardes]

Well I've just viewed this image on my Hero screen (which is limited to 16k colour due to android 1.5) and it looks smooth as it does on my PC so even if it was 16-bit screen, it wouldn't look as bad as it does in their photos

 

[Rusty]

The hardware is quite capable of displaying the images properly, it's down to the software.

 

[Hegemony]

So say you all?

If so, thanks. I will certainly add the N1 to my list of next phone candidates.

I think that's the consensus. I don't see this on my N1 either.

I looked at that Gizmodo page on my N1, and their comparison images looked different. If the N1 was the problem, shouldn't the two images look the same when viewed on the phone?

 

[MedioGringo]

Yeah it's the crappy Gallery app. Also, the browser compresses images. I took an image of a sunset in the browser that had those awful "bands," downloaded it, then viewed it in Multi-Touch Gallery for Droid: no banding.

The camera app will also show high res uncompressed images, unlike the gallery.

I can't believe that any site called displaymate would overlook these issues before claiming the iphone is better at everything. Perhaps that was the result they wanted to find?

But I also can't believe how crappy the gallery app is. Mine thinks my SD card is empty all the time or randomly decides to rearrange the thumbnails.

 

[sooper_droid12]

Only 16-Bit Color !?!?!?!?

THIS IS FALSE! IT IS 24-BIT. OLED will always offer better contrast, so the "washed out" display of the iPhone LCD is to be expected. However, at the end of the day, "washed out" doesn't necessarily equate to inaccuracy. In fact, in a comparison between the DROID, Nexus One and iPhone (three of the best displays on the market), using Konica Minolta CS-200 Chromameter, the DROID came out with the most accurate display (98%), with the iPhone and Nexus One being equally inaccurate (-40% and +40% of the standard color gamut, respectively).

However, what I don't agree with in the DisplayMate article is that the OLED display is "typical of a cheap display." Right now, Samsung is the most prolific manufacturer of OLED displays for mobile devices. At the production release of the N1, only Samsung had an OLED available. Is it still a new technology? Yes. Is it still in it's infancy? Yes. But is it cheap? No. It's about as good as it gets at this stage in AMOLED development. In that way, the N1/Desire got the best of what's out there as far as AMOLED (at the moment).

What's being touted now is SUPER AMOLED. This is the next generation of AMOLED that will be viewable in direct sunlight (which is another current drawback for AMOLEDs on the Omnia II, N1 and Desire). There's no news regarding how many bits of color will be available on these displays.

..

 

[MedioGringo]

This is true and I believe one of the biggest drawbacks of the N1/Desire display. Honestly, there's no excuse for a 16-bit display on a high-end phone. The display makes up for the lack of spectrum with overly saturated colors. OLED will always offer better contrast, so the "washed out" display of the iPhone LCD is to be expected. However, at the end of the day, "washed out" doesn't necessarily equate to inaccuracy. In fact, in a comparison between the DROID, Nexus One and iPhone (three of the best displays on the market), using Konica Minolta CS-200 Chromameter, the DROID came out with the most accurate display (98%), with the iPhone and Nexus One being equally inaccurate (-40% and +40% of the standard color gamut, respectively).

However, what I don't agree with in the DisplayMate article is that the OLED display is "typical of a cheap display." Right now, Samsung is the most prolific manufacturer of OLED displays for mobile devices. At the production release of the N1, only Samsung had an OLED available. Is it still a new technology? Yes. Is it still in it's infancy? Yes. But is it cheap? No. It's about as good as it gets at this stage in AMOLED development. In that way, the N1/Desire got the best of what's out there as far as AMOLED (at the moment).

What's being touted now is SUPER AMOLED. This is the next generation of AMOLED that will be viewable in direct sunlight (which is another current drawback for AMOLEDs on the Omnia II, N1 and Desire). There's no news regarding how many bits of color will be available on these displays.

Dude, have you not been reading the posts? It's just the gallery app and the browser that are compressing the images. The display on the N1 looks better than my desktop's monitor. Seriously.

 

[Rusty]

This is true

No it's not, it's a 24bit display.

 

[mi_canuck]

That review wreaks of iphone fanboism and propaganda... any reason to slam the Nexus One, the sites take their shots....

 

[eriku16]

That review wreaks of iphone fanboism and propaganda... any reason to slam the Nexus One, the sites take their shots....

What I don't understand is why Dr. Soneira, with his hefty credentials went out of his way discredit the Nexus. There was no testing of other phones with AMOLED displays. It was just the N1 vs iPhone. His testing criteria was flawed and it was more like a biased fanboi comparison.

 

[sooper_droid12]

No it's not, it's a 24bit display.

I retract my statement. You're right. I was going off old data from pdadb. They updated the information to include the N1 and Desire as being 24-bit displays. However, in researching the displays, I noticed that the AMOLED technology that Samsung employs is a PenTile matrix display, which is why they call it "Visual VGA," in that the actual resolution of the N1/Desire display isn't 800x480, but "appears" to the human eye as 800x480, due its use of a 2x2 sub-pixel structure. Based on an official at the company that Samsung acquired to make the AMOLED screens, he said what was important is what the human eye perceives and not what is actually there. Even so, this is likely to be why some people have noticed the N1 display to be "dotty."

Either way, I will retract my statements above. It is 24-bit.

 

[QrafTee]

Well, good to hear that it was just garbage. I would've still picked up a Nexus One, but it was worrisome.

 

[DellyBelly]

So say you all?

If so, thanks. I will certainly add the N1 to my list of next phone candidates.

This has nothing to do with the thread; but are you in the legal/justice profession? I haven't heard the "So say you all" since I was a juror.

 

[inspiron41]

This has nothing to do with the thread; but are you in the legal/justice profession? I haven't heard the "So say you all" since I was a juror.

they use it battlestar galactica

 

[kilofox]

What I don't understand is why Dr. Soneira, with his hefty credentials went out of his way discredit the Nexus. There was no testing of other phones with AMOLED displays. It was just the N1 vs iPhone. His testing criteria was flawed and it was more like a biased fanboi comparison.

Ah the "fanboi" defense.

If the Nexus Gallery is compressing images, then criticism is warranted. It is beyond me why a device with such a lovely screen would degrade pictures displayed on it.

Displaymate reviews monitors/displays of all types and brands, to inject fanboism into their reputation only reveals the true fanboi.... you.

No product is perfect... including the N1 or iPhone.

 

[DellyBelly]

Ah the "fanboi" defense.

If the Nexus Gallery is compressing images, then criticism is warranted. It is beyond me why a device with suck a lovely screen would degrade pictures displayed on it.

Displaymate reviews monitors/displays of all types and brands, to inject fanboism into their reputation only reveals the true fanboi.... you.

No product is perfect... including the N1 or iPhone.

I don't agree or disagree with the findings; but if your are testing "Monitors/displays" shouldn't you be eliminating "software" factors?

For what it's worth, opening that pic in the browser doesn't produce that affect, so in the testing world this "test" should be invalid or viewed with some healthy skepticism (definitely would be at my company).

 

[kilofox]

I don't agree or disagree with the findings; but if your are testing "Monitors/displays" shouldn't you be eliminating "software" factors?

For what it's worth, opening that pic in the browser doesn't produce that affect, so in the testing world this "test" should be invalid or viewed with some healthy skepticism (definitely would be at my company).

However they didn't use the phone's browser in their test. In the testing world you have to reproduce the test to validate the results.

A monitor is only as good as the software that drives it. And since its impossible to separate the N1 from its display... they should be considered as one.

To accuse Displaymate of fanboism or bias just because they have something critical about the N1 is a knee jerk reaction.

 

[kilofox]

The Nexus One's Dirty Display Secret - Page 2 - xda-developers

Load this image in the browser:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/154221main_20060807_PIA07997_060802183716.jpg

You will probably see banding, but it will disappear when you scroll or touch the screen. When you let go it will come back.

As rotohammer explains over at xda: " If I use this picture http://photos.upi.com/slideshow/lbox/7fc13f2a01438c144c13596ef3adaca2/MARS-ROVER.jpg, Which is at 800x616 pixels, I don't see the banding. That tells me its the scaling algorithm in the OS, app or GL library thats causing the stepped gradient, not the AMOLED display itself."

I think this is the answer folks. Thanks for all the comments!