Has HTC Been Pulling a Switcheroo on Screens with Recent Units Due to Component Shortages?
If you are the owner of an HTC EVO 4G that came in a later shipment, you may be getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the screen you were promised. The same may go for upcoming shipments of the HTC Droid Incredible and HTC Desire, according to sources at OLED Display. Let’s get the EVO out of the way first. The guys over at Android and Me noticed a difference between the colors and quality of the images displayed on a newly purchased EVO compared to one that comes from older stock.
Their conclusion was that there are two EVO builds floating around, one numbered ‘002’ and one numbered ‘003’. The ‘002’ build uses a Novatek LCD (below on left) while the ‘003’ sports an Epson LCD (below on right). The two will definitely give you different results in terms of color reproduction as seen below. [You can check your own build by navigating to Settings > About phone > Hardware information > Hardware version, though there are reports of the displays not always being exclusive to a certain build.]
They say you may not notice the washed out look of the newer screen without having an old one to compare it to, and speculate that supply shortages similar to those concerning the Incredible and its Samsung displays may have led the company to search elsewhere for screens of a slightly lesser quality to help meet overwhelming demand.
The component shortages were first mentioned in relation to the stock crisis that has been plaguing the Droid Incredible on Verizon. A lack of Samsung-manufactured AMOLED displays was making it hard to keep units on the shelves. The report at OLED Display very well may confirm HTC’s switch to a different screen manufacturer, at least when it comes to the glass being used on the Incredible and Desire.
The new display said to be headed to future Incredible and Desire handsets will be the Sony-made Super TFT LCD. Why the switch rather than waiting out the shortages? Simply because Samsung needs all the AMOLED screens it can get for its own Galaxy S line of Android superphones. Now there is no physical proof just yet that a screen-switch is actually happening, so file it as a rumor until we get some kind of hard evidence.
But if HTC is in fact buying LCD displays elsewhere, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched that they had decided to do the same for the EVO. One thing is certain, if HTC is indeed trying to pull the switcheroo, they got some ‘splainin to do, but you commenters will no doubt aptly express your “polite” opinions below.
[via Android and Me, OLED-Display]