Phones Have you found any benefit to 1440p displays?

[kasakka]

So 2560x1440 displays started arriving on Android phones largely as an arms race to one up competitors phones rather than as a feature we actually needed. I think we can all agree that for anything up to around 5.5" 1080p is perfectly fine.

Back in the day when I first got a 1080p phone the most important thing I noticed was that non-mobile websites became readable without zooming because there was just more pixels to represent tiny, tiny text. Do you feel your 1440p phone does this any better? While 1440p certainly looks more like printed paper as you can't see individual pixels, have you found any real benefit to it in actual use?

 

[tbayrgs]

I'm sure the pixel peepers in this forum will claim otherwise but I don't notice a difference when switching between my 6s+ and 6P. Outside of VR, I'd wager differences in things like color gamut and accuracy as well as contrast and brightness will have far greater impact than that jump in pixel density.

 

[Hanzu Lao]

No difference.

 

[kasakka]

Outside of VR, I'd wager differences in things like color gamut and accuracy as well as contrast and brightness will have far greater impact than that jump in pixel density.

VR is a good point though, the added resolution does make a big difference there in mitigating the screen door effect. But it's not exactly everyday use of a smartphone.

 

[macfacts]

VR is a good point though, the added resolution does make a big difference there in mitigating the screen door effect. But it's not exactly everyday use of a smartphone.

From the main big phone makers, the current 1080 displays aren't much cheaper than the phones with 1440, so why not buy a phone with 1440 resolution display. The customer doesn't save any money.

 

[kasakka]

From the main big phone makers, the current 1080 displays aren't much cheaper than the phones with 1440, so why not buy a phone with 1440 resolution display. The customer doesn't save any money.

Yeah my next phone will most likely have that. I'm mainly trying to gauge if people feel there is an actual benefit to having one in the first place.

 

[spriter]

I do notice it on text when zoomed in but it's not exactly something I do often.

I'd agree 1080 on 5.5 devices is fine for IPS. I'm actually very happy with how 1080 looks on a 6.44-inch display (Mi Max). However, I'm not so sure about OLED pentile 1080 at 5.5 inches after seeing the OnePlus 3 and Redmi Pro.

Horses for courses: if it doesn't bother the user, it doesn't really matter.

 

[admob71]

They look awesome, what's the problem.. why wouldn't you want the sharpest resolution available?

 

[Michael Goff]

They look awesome, what's the problem.. why wouldn't you want the sharpest resolution available?

At some point, you're reaching diminishing returns and just wasting battery power.

 

[nviz22]

Idk if this is due to their 1440p displays over 1080p ones, but I have seen some amazingly bright panels from Samsung.

 

[MRU]

1440p with AMOLED is pretty much a necessity because of the diamond pentile matrix where your missing a sub pixel for every three pixels compared to LCD pixel arrangement.

Because of that sub-pixel array the difference between a 1080p LCD and 1440p AMOLED is not anything as stark as the raw PPI number would make it appear as the actually affective PPI is much closer to each other.

For VR where you are essentially magnifying part of that screen and bringing them closer to the eyes than you would ever do so in normal usage, the higher PPI really does benefit, however everything is a trade and whilst more PPI for VR produces a better image generally, it also requires more power and generates more energy resulting in greater performance impact and heat generated. So swings and roundabouts ...

 

[kasakka]

Because of that sub-pixel array the difference between a 1080p LCD and 1440p AMOLED is not anything as stark as the raw PPI number would make it appear as the actually affective PPI is much closer to each other.

I could not tell much of a difference between the 5" AMOLED Oneplus X vs 5.5" LCD Oneplus One. Maybe at larger size the AMOLED issues are more glaring, I don't know.

 

[MRU]

I could not tell much of a difference between the 5" AMOLED Oneplus X vs 5.5" LCD Oneplus One. Maybe at larger size the AMOLED issues are more glaring, I don't know.

Yeah the X had a nice screen actually. But I'm sure the smaller screen size and hence higher PPi covered up the sub pixel defecit.

 

[Lloydbm41]

So 2560x1440 displays started arriving on Android phones largely as an arms race to one up competitors phones rather than as a feature we actually needed. I think we can all agree that for anything up to around 5.5" 1080p is perfectly fine.

Back in the day when I first got a 1080p phone the most important thing I noticed was that non-mobile websites became readable without zooming because there was just more pixels to represent tiny, tiny text. Do you feel your 1440p phone does this any better? While 1440p certainly looks more like printed paper as you can't see individual pixels, have you found any real benefit to it in actual use?

It isn't an arm's race in the terms you are thinking of. The future of screens from TVs to phones is resolution. The higher the screen resolution the more 3 dimensional you can make the image look tricking the brain into seeing depth. VR is also a tech that is pushing this, but realism and 3d without the need for glasses is the ultimate goal.

 

[Tsepz]

1440p with AMOLED is pretty much a necessity because of the diamond pentile matrix where your missing a sub pixel for every three pixels compared to LCD pixel arrangement.

Because of that sub-pixel array the difference between a 1080p LCD and 1440p AMOLED is not anything as stark as the raw PPI number would make it appear as the actually affective PPI is much closer to each other.

For VR where you are essentially magnifying part of that screen and bringing them closer to the eyes than you would ever do so in normal usage, the higher PPI really does benefit, however everything is a trade and whilst more PPI for VR produces a better image generally, it also requires more power and generates more energy resulting in greater performance impact and heat generated. So swings and roundabouts ...

This.

Especially with larger AMOLED displays. Comparing the 1080P display of my mates Note 3 to the 1440P of my Note 4, there is a difference due to how AMOLEDs are designed.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I could not tell much of a difference between the 5" AMOLED Oneplus X vs 5.5" LCD Oneplus One. Maybe at larger size the AMOLED issues are more glaring, I don't know.

Comparing a One+ to itself (regardless if one is OLED and the other is LCD) is kind of funny. You do realise the 1+ x and 3 only have HD screens, not QHD like you find on Samsung phones. The actual ppi difference between your 1+ x and 1 is very little, so you wonder why you couldn't see a difference?

Put an S7 Edge or Note 7 next to an iPhone 6+ (I haven't seen a 7+ yet to compare) and you will see a huge difference between IPS 1080p and OLED 2K. If anyone says they can't see the difference, they either have bad eyesight or are lying to themselves. Your 1+ phones don't compare either.

 

[Zwhaler]

1440p is objectively better in display quality. There is no disputing that. Photos look incredible. Video looks more life-like. Text obviously looks sharp. And my favorite: satellite on Google Maps looks more realistic!

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

From the main big phone makers, the current 1080 displays aren't much cheaper than the phones with 1440, so why not buy a phone with 1440 resolution display. The customer doesn't save any money.

When purchasing a phone with the vast amounts of choice these days, there are always trade offs between handsets. The screen is not necessarily at the very top of everybody's list, I know it isn't on mine. I know full well the screen on my smartphone isn't classed as the best on the market but it's plenty good enough for me.

 

[Radon87000]

Huge difference.You should have watched a 4K video on the Xperia Z Premium.Clarity was mind blowing.2K will obviously be better than 1080P

Although personally I would take a 1080P OLED over a 1440P LCD.OLED makes everything else look substandard

 

[Radon87000]

1440p with AMOLED is pretty much a necessity because of the diamond pentile matrix where your missing a sub pixel for every three pixels compared to LCD pixel arrangement.

Because of that sub-pixel array the difference between a 1080p LCD and 1440p AMOLED is not anything as stark as the raw PPI number would make it appear as the actually affective PPI is much closer to each other.

For VR where you are essentially magnifying part of that screen and bringing them closer to the eyes than you would ever do so in normal usage, the higher PPI really does benefit, however everything is a trade and whilst more PPI for VR produces a better image generally, it also requires more power and generates more energy resulting in greater performance impact and heat generated. So swings and roundabouts ...

Since you know a lot about this do RGB OLED have this flaw?

 

[kasakka]

Comparing a One+ to itself (regardless if one is OLED and the other is LCD) is kind of funny. You do realise the 1+ x and 3 only have HD screens, not QHD like you find on Samsung phones. The actual ppi difference between your 1+ x and 1 is very little, so you wonder why you couldn't see a difference?

I was comparing AMOLED 1080p to LCD 1080p regarding MRU's post and possibly due to the size difference could not find any difference in them.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I was comparing AMOLED 1080p to LCD 1080p regarding MRU's post and possibly due to the size difference could not find any difference in them.

Of course you wouldn't see much of a difference between two displays at 1080p in terms of ppi. Not even sure why you commented on that, since we are discussing 2k vs 1080p.

 

[MRU]

Since you know a lot about this do RGB OLED have this flaw?

As far as I am aware all current AMOLED Panels used on smartphones are pentile and Samsung's are diamond matrix pentile.

With a 1440p diamond matrix panel.

1440P has 3,686,400 Pixels. On a 1440P AMOLED screen there are 3,686,400 Green SubPixels, 1,843,200 Red Subpixels, 1,843,200 Blue Subpixels.

This means there are 7,372,800 lighting elements in a 1440P OLED Screen


A 1080p LCD had 2,073,600 Pixels with 3 subpixels per pixel

This means there are 6,220,800 Lighting Elements on a 1080P LCD Screen



So the difference in actual pixels is almost affectively the same. So someone saying a 1440p AMOLED screen is vastly sharper or night/day different to a 1080p LCD screen is mostly imagining the differences than actually seeing anything majorly tangible. They may indeed be confusing brightness and saturation differences and not actually resolution / sharpness.

A 1440p LCD on the other hand has 11,059,200 lighting elements which is significantly higher than the current crop of pentile Amoled displays on devices.

So yes, should a full RGB OLED panel arrive it would have the same 11,059,200 lighting elements but offer the benefits of increased contrast over the LCD and would likewise be much better than the 1440p pentile in the Super AMOLED devices we have today.

Indeed if they could go to full RGB AMOLED it would mean they wouldn't need to go to 4K to improve sharpness and the quality even in VR Scenario would be improved significantly over what they offer now and it would be much more resource friendly than a 4K panel.

So yeah, if we can get full RGB OLED on a device in 2017 it will be better all round arguably than the 4K diamond matrix pentile which again because of that subpixel arrangement wouldn't provide much benefit over a 1440p LCD or RGB OLED and would require far more power and resource to power which would be a negative.

I could hazard a guess that Apple's reluctance at taking on OLED is because they are waiting for the full RGB OLED panels to arrive. If RGB OLED does arrive next year it will be great for all ...

 

[Saturn1217]

I read a lot of ebooks on my nexus 6p (1440p display). Yes, I can make the font much smaller and have the text still be smooth on my 6p compared to my old Nexus 5. But I would not voluntarily decide to read text at that size even if it was in print. I'm 30 btw, so this isn't a eye-sight thing. I just don't want to read super tiny text. I think most normal people are this way. So no I don't think 1440p has greatly improved my life. I remember getting the 1080p Nexus 7 2013 (after the 720p Nexus 7 2012) and being really happy with the increase of resolution. After that point I don't care anymore. Feel the same way about retina MBPs vs the Macbook Air display to be honest. As long as I can't see pixels at a reasonable viewing distance I don't care.

I'm much more concerned about color accuracy and dynamic range of brightness in a display than pixel density at this point. Most manufacturers highlight how bright a display can get, but far more important to me is how dim I can get it in the dark.

 

[kasakka]

Of course you wouldn't see much of a difference between two displays at 1080p in terms of ppi. Not even sure why you commented on that, since we are discussing 2k vs 1080p.

Because MRU said that AMOLED vs LCD, you'd need more resolution on AMOLED to match LCD. I was skeptical about that as I haven't really seen that AMOLED displays would look any worse.