Tiny property of AMOLED that I think is Hugely Important...

[wjdobie]

Blacks.
 

Both of my contract phones have had AMOLED Displays; a Lumia 800 and a Note 3. I am a huge fan of this technology simply because of one thing - The Black level.

It really bugs me on devices without AMOLED displays (iPads, iPhones, HTC One etc etc) that the blacks are not 'Black'. Something i really enjoyed about the Lumia 800 was that it was impossible to tell where the screen actually ended - another bonus being WP7's black background throughout the entire interface; (I thought this was a lovely attention to detail that made me enjoy using the Lumia, despite WP7 being, well, WP7) Samsung could have done this too with the Note 3 but they chose to add some Gimmicky fake metal texture to the bezels of the screen.

I think AMOLED Technology has a lot of room to grow (transparent, flexible displays etc) and there needs to be a watch with one (If there isn't already)

This post isn't super Insightful or whatever, but i Wanted to share my love for AMOLED - What do you think about them though? - I am obviously huge fan, but I don't know about others. I wonder what they would be like for gaming?

[Deletive]

For monitors VA panels have better whites/blacks then IPS and TN. Should check them out!  
 

[Bogica]

The Clear Black on the new Lumia's ensures that the black color actually is black even on IPS. As a Lumia 920 user I'm surprised how good the colors are. And the view in direct sunlight is amazing, like nothing I've ever seen before.

[wjdobie]

For monitors VA panels have better whites/blacks then IPS and TN. Should check them out!  

 

I dont actually know much about VA - I'll do some research!

 

The Clear Black on the new Lumia's ensures that the black color actually is black even on IPS. As a Lumia 920 user I'm surprised how good the colors are. And the view in direct sunlight is amazing, like nothing I've ever seen before.

I saw that the newer Lumias were not using OLEDs, I didnt know they were doing this though...

[Whiskers]

The biggest problem I have with AMOLED displays is still how rapidly
they deteriorate in quality compared to other displays. For example,
my Galaxy Note 2 has an AMOLED screen and over the first couple
of months began to develop a noticeably yellow tint to it. It's also got
several areas of the screen which are noticeably affected by burn-in
issues. Meanwhile, my iPhone 3G (which is at this point 6 years old)

still has no such issues in spite of being used considerably more
over time.

 

They have some great advantages, and the technology is improving
at a nice rate. But still, it has some frustrating limitations in comparison
to other technologies...

[Bogica]

I saw that the newer Lumias were not using OLEDs, I didnt know they were doing this though...

Oh yeah man, the displays are killer, superb. I use mine in direct sunlight quite a bit, it takes about 1-2s for the sensor to detect it's in direct sunlight and the display goes to fully viewable, 100%, it's amazing! Although when it comes to normal use, the max brightness on the lumia 800 is quite a bit higher than a 920 (manual setting). A friend of mine had a L800 and we compared it. Sunlight the 920 wins, while colors the 800 wins.

[wjdobie]

-- snip --

My lumia has a slight issue when the screen is completely black, displaying some 'dirty' areas (I don't know how to describe it really) but that phone survived a full cycle in the washing machine (I get it out every so often just to re-amaze myself)

As for the note 3, had it 9 months and its still fine i think, as for my iPad 2, which is 3 years old now I think, it suffers from pretty bad image retention...

[DildorTheDecent]

I'm pretty sure AMOLED cheats by switching the pixel off entirely to give it the black colour. 

[Glenwing]

I'm pretty sure AMOLED cheats by switching the pixel off entirely to give it the black colour. 

 

Black is the absence of light, how else would you display true black other than zero output?  That's the goal of black, the only reason LCDs don't turn off pixels entirely is because they can't, they wish they could.  That's one of the limitations of LCD technology that OLED isn't restricted by.  If it can have individual pixels with zero output to display true black, then more power to it.  That's not cheating, that's doing it better.

 

On a side note I wish people would stop calling it AMOLED (not you in particular that I quoted, just everyone) It's just Samsung trying to make it sound fancy, like in the early days of LCDs companies called them "TFT-LCD" as if it's a new stage of advancement over "normal" LCD tech, when in reality it's a totally redundant term.  LCDs that don't use TFTs are in basic readouts like microwave clocks or digital watches, any computer or phone-grade LCD will be TFT, we don't need to say TFT-LCD it because it's implied.  Same with AMOLED, any computer or phone-grade OLED display will be Active Matrix, you can just say OLED and the AM will always be a given if you're talking about phones or monitors.  It's like specifying that a laptop has a rechargeable battery (oooh).  Sure there are such things as non-rechargeable batteries, but for a laptop battery it's just silly to specify that, it's a given in that class of product.

 

Really, the rapid degradation of blue OLEDs is the only hurdle left to overcome for OLED tech to be viable in long term products like monitors and TVs that will be used for more than 3 days at CES (other than manufacturing costs and yields, things like that). That degradation is responsible for the color balance shifts over time as blue degrades in brightness more quickly than the other colors.  The other issue with lifespan is that each pixel degrades individually, so theoretically if you watched movies on an OLED monitor for 10 years straight with black bars and top and bottom, then went to the desktop of a computer, the spaces where those black bars were would be visibly more vibrant since those pixels haven't been used and haven't degraded at all unlike the rest of the screen.  This poses problems for professional users as different areas of the screen will shift in color balance in different ways, so you can't even recalibrate the screen to compensate, since any color adjustments will affect the entire screen at once.  If someone can come up with ultra-slow-degradation OLEDs with a blue color (red and green already have them) then these problems will disappear and OLEDs will be ready to take over the world

[xBlizzDevious]

I absolutely love AMOLED screens too and have continued to use Samsung phones for the past 5 years or so for that very reason (it's not the only reason).

 

AMOLED screens just have amazingly vibrant colours and can go from such low brightness levels to unbelievably bright - even in direct sunlight - and always look awesome. The true blacks are just a side effect of the way they work. And it's awesome. The "Gimmicky fake metal texture" on the bezels doesn't bother me at all (on the S4).

 

I don't think I could switch back to any screen other than AMOLED for mobile devices or IPS for desktop. Can't wait for AMOLED desktop displays that are affordable!

[Captain_Slow]

I'm pretty sure AMOLED cheats by switching the pixel off entirely to give it the black colour. 

 

why is that cheating?