By When AMOLED display supplies dried up and HTC was forced to make a decision between keeping their phones out of stock or switching screen technologies, they wisely went with Sony’s SLCD screen to keep production flowing on the HTC Desire and other handsets that once used Samsung’s technology. The SLCD version of the Desire has now been moving on to shelves and with that, a proper comparison is in order. As a bonus the video below includes a look at a traditional LCD display on the HTC HD2. So, did HTC make the right call or is SLCD a poor replacement for the original AMOLED? You decide.
[via UnwiredView]
I can rarely view videos because Youtube is blocked at work for me. I would find it very useful if in situations like this you could sum up the video textually so I could get an idea of their conclusions (or at least hear your opinion based on the video). I would appreciate that even if Youtube wasn’t blocked, as sometimes I don’t have the time to watch a video but I’m still interested in the topic.
On my computer screen, the differences appeared minor. The AMOLED screen did appear sharper, but, as the reviewer stated a couple of times, the SLCD screen had more natural colors. IMHO you are talking about minor technical differences that the average user won’t notice.
@MVTom: That’s very strange because normally the SLCD would be sharper where the AMOLED screen would have more natural colors. AMOLED has that stupid Pentile Pixel distribution, causing it to be blurrier than it should be.
How about labeling which is which (amoled or Slcd) on each of the phones?
Never mind, I just saw the labeling at the bottom of the screen
OMG! He’s got 3 hands!
@Ahmed Eltawil
ROFL… couldn’t stop hearing someone screaming that out each time the HD2 showed up…
@dellbx
I had to watch it three freaking times before I saw the incredibly faint labels at the bottom. He couldn’t just say “AMOLED on left, Super LCD on right”?
How’s about a power consumption test?
If I had the choice, it would be AMOLED. The viewing angle and bright sun performance of the SLCD are deal breakers.
I’d go for AMOLED.
…okay, so I watched this on my AMOLED Desire.
Amoled for the win as a matter of fact it did win in every way
I don’t really care about the itty bitty differences…what masters to me is a higher resolution on a big screen cellphone.
Am I alone in finding Amoled screens too saturated and rather trashy looking?
When I first saw a Legend and a Desire I was not impressed.
Still, given the batteries in these phones are rubbish, I wouldn’t touch either.
“Am I alone in finding Amoled screens too saturated and rather trashy looking?
When I first saw a Legend and a Desire I was not impressed.
Still, given the batteries in these phones are rubbish, I wouldn’t touch either.”
You’re not alone, I find my Desire oversaturated and unrealistic as well. Even worse is the pink tint at low brightness, and the tendency towards a blueish saturation at high brightness, which makes calibration (there have been a few attempts on the Nexus One) of the screen completely redundant – unless you can calibrate the colors separately for each brightness level, what works at low brightness isn’t going to work at high brightness.
But what’s even worse is the pentile matrix – blue and red subpixels are shared between adjacent pixels, making rendering black text on white backgrounds nearly impossible, and resulting in very bad text rendering. The letters look “torn” and very aliased, but in a way far worse than low resolution will do.
Am I the only one who thought the HD2’s screen looked far better than both of the others? :p
I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, bemymonkey. I assume that either the phones you have/have seen are broken, or you’re using ridiculous levels of hyperbole – “making rendering black text on white backgrounds nearly impossible, and resulting in very bad text rendering” – That’s simply not true. “Very bad” suggests it’s bordering on unreadable. It looks absolutely fine and crisp on my AMOLED Desire.
Compare the meerkat?
Simples.
Looked about the same to me. How does the power consumption differ?
I was hoping that SLCD brough better direct sunlight performance, but from the video, it’s equal or maybe even worse than the AMOLED, which was itself HORRIBLE (I had an AMOLED Nexus)… I don’t blame the technology so much as HTC’s implementation of it… It would appear HTC is unable to make devices with screens without either a) super reflective glass, or b) an airgap between the actual screen and the digitizer glass… Any airgap will cause major reflection issues… This is why the iPhone DESTROYS most all phones (BB’s are good too) in direct sunlight… you can actually use an iphone in bright sunlight – because Apple has designed their screens with absolutely zero airgap… and thus no reflection… There may be another cause for HTC’s p!$$ poor performance in bright sunlight, but I’m thinking that’s why… Truly disappointing…
SLCD is almost a let down… although I’m assuming it’s not pentile pixel arrangement like the AMOLED??? Is SLCD *true* 800×480? AMOLED isn’t … it’s like 600×333 or something to that effect, due to the pentile pixel arrangement…