Mobile phone display mega shootout: The full picture

29 November 2010
There are so many of them that it’s pretty hard to make up your mind. It all boils down to LCD vs. LED although this simple fact is easy to overlook. You can go ahead and blame it all on marketing but that’s one thing that just can’t be black or...

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • tAE
  • 01 Dec 2010

Anonymous, 30 Nov 2010Yeah yeah, ignore what you will. http://theiphonefever.blog... moreSo the ip4 is the only phone that uses gorilla glass huh??? Tip... Kinda hard to be critical when ur bias to begin with.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • FJT
    • 01 Dec 2010

    Why does the iphone gets bashed right away?  It's as if Apple is forcing anyone to buy the iphone.  The simple fact that rewiewers always include the iphone in comparison reviews, just shows that the iphone is indeed a great phone.  Use a little common sense.  So for those who keep on saying that the iphone is no good, you guys may want to reassess yourselves.  Maybe it's you that's no good.

      • K
      • Kyle
      • j9I
      • 01 Dec 2010

      That's the beauty/horror of the internet. It allows you to research to find out what's best for you, but it also sucks you into a black hole of opinion and politics.

      Web journalism (if you'd call it that) loves to pick it's winners and losers, so people are drawn to what everyone else thinks is the best of the best instead of what might actually work for them. That's a little discouraging because conformity is so boring.

      So yes, if the phone you value due to clarity (or any other reason) has an LCD screen, then that's the right phone for you. Screw what anyone else says about it.

        • A
        • Adam
        • j{1
        • 01 Dec 2010

        Kyle, 30 Nov 2010"You should also be aware that accurate colours and co... more
        It's true but gsmarena also should point out that LCD is not bad in every aspect. The way gsmarena constantly bash and degrade LCD screens makes you feel that their outdated and that they don't have any points over oled screens. While the fact is that they still have their advantages over oled screens.

        What's more confusing is that even though they keep repeating that the iphone4 has a brilliant screen, it seems that they forgot that it's still considered LCD, which means if LCD were to push to their limits they would still be very impressive.

        In my point of view, LCD screens still can perform excellent and we don't need to be upset if our next phone will be an LCD screen.

        Just an idea though!

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • pT$
          • 30 Nov 2010

          " just accept that they looked at each screen and made a judgement call on what they thought was the most appealing."

          Surely this is the whole point! It's a judgement call, there is no scientific basis or testing, just someone saying "yeah, that one looks better." If only the whole world was so simple.

          "S-LCD was sharper than AMOLED (which uses an unusual matrix with fewer sub-pixels) and offered better color reproduction along with better contrast." http://www.gsmarena.com/amoled_vs_slcd_htc_desire_screens_fight_it_out-news-1932.php

            • K
            • Kyle
            • j9I
            • 30 Nov 2010

            "You should also be aware that accurate colours and colours that "look nice" are not necessarily the same thing. No phone OLED/AMOLED/super-AMOLED screen is yet to have accurate colours."

            I wasn't referring to colour accuracy, I was saying based on face value which display was most pleasing. Instead of falling back on specs to make a determination that GSM Arena must have been mistaken, just accept that they looked at each screen and made a judgement call on what they thought was the most appealing.

            Even Apple recognizes that saturated images are pleasing to people, ergo the default processing they apply to images from the camera on the iPhone.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • Lax
              • 30 Nov 2010

              Anonymous, 30 Nov 2010Yeah yeah, ignore what you will. http://theiphonefever.blog... moreOh and noobs, the HD RECORDING is the competition, not the HD screen, WTF would you have HD resolution that you have on a 42" screen on your phone?

              's called scaling, get a clue.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • Lax
                • 30 Nov 2010

                Yeah yeah, ignore what you will. http://theiphonefever.blogspot.com/2010/05/iphone-4g-screen-multimedia-flop.html said months before anyone knew what iPhone 4 would look like that capacitative is a mistake and they were right!

                That's what causes the broken screens. Cheap glass that doesn't flex! And considering how easy it scratches resistive would have been a far better choice.

                No one else o the net ever analyzed that and I bet apple is stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. In fact iPhones are cheap so they can break and you have to buy another one.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • pT$
                  • 30 Nov 2010

                  "....but coming from a photographic background..."

                  You should also be aware that accurate colours and colours that "look nice" are not necessarily the same thing. No phone OLED/AMOLED/super-AMOLED screen is yet to have accurate colours. Yes the blacks are black but colours are, in general, severely over saturated. I was happy with my HTC desire with OLED screen (lovely blacks and great colours) until I saw the HTC desire Z. Text on the Z is much better and there is also no colour banding. The pentile matrix of OLED screens really needs a mention here as blurry text and banding are two major problems when compared to standard LCD technology. I use my phone more for texts, e-mail and internet browsing and not as a photo/video viewer or games machines but each to their own.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • sm@
                    • 30 Nov 2010

                    One aspect Gsmarena forgot to judge the screen reviews by is how durable they are,its a concern of many a buyer.

                    Judging by these stats the iphone 4s rates quite poorly:

                    http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/iphone-4-screens-break-82-more-than-3gs-20101012/

                      • S
                      • Sails
                      • ntg
                      • 30 Nov 2010

                      Kyle, 30 Nov 2010I don't own any of these phones or any other smartphone, bu... moreNow there is a comment I can fully agree with. These days it seems way too many people only look at resolution.

                        • K
                        • Kyle
                        • j9I
                        • 30 Nov 2010

                        I don't own any of these phones or any other smartphone, but coming from a photographic background, I would say that true blacks are more important than resolution.

                        Keep in mind that the key is contrast. Being able to display a pixel as pure black instead of grey causes all the other colors around it to be emphasized.

                        The same paradigm applies in photography. The pixel-peepers will zoom in on a picture to 'diagnose' it and examine the flaws, but the purists will look at the picture as it is and make their judgement.

                        In my opinion, those who are live and die by the numbers (pixel peepers) sometimes forget to look at the big picture. In this case, that would be, put two devices side-by-side and tell me which one appeals to you more. I think this is what GSM Arena has tried to do here.

                          • M
                          • Mac
                          • f34
                          • 30 Nov 2010

                          All the phones are great here. Buy what suits your pocket or pleases you. No phone is perfect. There are new technologies coming soon and hence all these phones will fall behind and then what happens?

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • tAE
                            • 30 Nov 2010

                            Anonymous, 30 Nov 2010U don't get it , I don't care who brought what up I don't c... moreImportant aspect! Lol err ops

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • tAE
                              • 30 Nov 2010

                              Ted, 30 Nov 2010Peace, get ur eyes checked or something.... or if u really ... moreU don't get it , I don't care who brought what up I don't care who was replying to who,
                              Get a life? Coming from someone who apparently disses and bashes phones for no apparent reason ?? People I'm glass houses shouldnt throw stones... It really doesnt bother me as after using the gal s and ownin the htc desire IMO ip4 has the better display. Fact is I don't like Trollers and comments like 'did u read the article or are u confused?' trying to belittle people just to prove a point isn't exactually mature bro..
                              Anyways at the end of the day how many people when looking for a new tv or whatever will be like ' wow the blacks are so black!'.....it comes down to resolution.
                              Again, image quality comes down mostly to resolution. Image quality - the most impotent aspect of screen performance ... As I said doesn't really bother me... Tryin to make a point ... Kinda hard to be critical when ur bias to begin with

                                • T
                                • Ted
                                • TKb
                                • 30 Nov 2010

                                would beg to differ here.... in Malaysia at least, iPhone is for the ordinary people whereas Android etc phones are for the professionals.... try asking 10 ppl here in Malaysia with iPhone, i bet u'll get 8/10 who didnt even know the underlying technology is or the lack of it in some cases.... again, not saying iPhone is bad, but it's actually an accessories here more than a phone cuz when u tell someone about it's antennagate thingy, they'll just say nvm cuz they can get some pouch etc for it. wouldnt that be against a phone's function rather than owning it for the sake of owning it?

                                  • A
                                  • Ahmed
                                  • fv$
                                  • 30 Nov 2010

                                  Great work GSMArena...

                                    • s
                                    • sam
                                    • srg
                                    • 30 Nov 2010

                                    what the ....? another anti iphone discussion by gsmarena....it concludes c6 better than retina display of iphone hey... undrestand the way iphone is its not for ordinary people .it has a different style and only professional knows a different between a toy and a phone. take a look how samsung benchmark apple in all aspects but there is something in iphone that only the ones who use it undrestand

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 0mU
                                      • 30 Nov 2010

                                      I have Wave and my mom has SE Aino, and Aino is little better in sharpness (I know it has almost four times less resolution)and a lot better with brightness, when I compare them side by side my Wave looks so poor. Also there is also "burn in" problem with Super Amoled. Still I use it but I'm not so certain in the future of Amoled unless the next generation brings some brightness and sharpness improvements.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • sXG
                                        • 30 Nov 2010

                                        Anonymous, 30 Nov 2010Resolution is useless??? Why so many phones competing now i... moreiphonefail.com is an Amateur Blog for idiots.

                                        Ignore him.

                                        Funny how they can nitpick EVERY aspect of the iphone. That's bordering on OCD.