iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4(S) vs. Samsung Galaxy S3 Display Shootout

[_Refurbished_]

http://www.displaymate.com/Smartphone_ShootOut_2.htm#Table

I just finished reading the above article. It goes into fine detail about the display quality of the new iPhone 5, compared to the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S3. Everyone is hell bent on "screen size" these days, but screen size is merely one aspect of a display.

I would put myself ahead of most people when it comes to knowledge about display technology and calibration. I'm not a professional by any means, but I prefer to have my TV's and monitors calibrated. I have a 58" Samsung plasma that is ISF Calibrated, and it looks outstanding compared to its original settings. When I show people the difference compared to "out of the box" settings, they are blown away.

That's a topic for another thread. What we're focusing on here is the quality of the new iPhone 5 display, compared to the behemoth Samsung Galaxy S3 and the aging iPhone 4 / S displays.

The very first thing that jumped out at me was the color accuracy results of the iPhone 5 and the over-saturation of the Galaxy S3. One thing I notice every time I use a Samsung phone is its poor color accuracy. ESPN.com, for example, displays reds that look straight out of a comic book. For me, it doesn't matter how big your screen is, how dark your blacks are, or how high your contrast ratio is. If color reproduction looks fake and over-saturated, what's the point?

While shopping at an outdoor mall recently, I stopped by a Samsung Galaxy S3 marketing booth. Outdoor visibility was terrible on the Galaxy S3, compared to my severely outdated iPhone 4. Outdoor visibility is another big component for smartphone displays and it's an area OLED is clearly far behind on. The article, unsurprisingly, agrees with my hands on results.

To conclude, the article goes into much more detail about other important aspects that go into display technology, such as screen reflections. Hopefully this article can help educate people and provide insight why Apple chooses IPS over OLED.

 

[Dontazemebro]

Agree. The SG3 is way too over saturated. I have an iPhone 4 and a one X and the one X has a better screen than both the 4 and SG3.

I'm waiting to see how the 5 compares to the One X, the merged panel should probably give it a bump

 

[_Refurbished_]

Agree. The SG3 is way too over saturated. I have an iPhone 4 and a one X and the one X has a better screen than both the 4 and SG3.

I'm waiting to see how the 5 compares to the One X, the merged panel should probably give it a bump

Agreed, the One series is my top choice for Android phones, simply due to its IPS panel. My big qualm with that phone is the web browser. It's not buttery smooth like the iPhone or Galaxy. Otherwise, it would be my top iPhone opponent. I do want to see how the X handles the web though, maybe their software will improve.

 

[204353]

I've always found LCD tech to be superior to AMOLED (disregarding the 3GS display and those before). I think that Samsung's displays, especially the PenTile ones, look horrible.

And the over-saturation... It looks absolutely disgusting to me! I had a Galaxy S and a Nexus S for a while. Both had horrible displays compared to the iPhone's Retina display on the 4/4S. The Galaxy S III doesn't seem to be much better, judging from what I've observed of my friend's phone.

 

[protobiont]

Interesting... I was under the impression that OLED was more power efficient than LCD panels. I guess that was an incorrect impression?

 

[204353]

Interesting... I was under the impression that OLED was more power efficient than LCD panels. I guess that was an incorrect impression?

OLED uses less power when displaying dark things (since the light is given off by each individual pixel and can be dimmed all the way to black), but I believe that LCDs win by a mile when it comes to bright content.

 

[Oohara]

I agree, the colors on the S3 screen are quite garish. Everytime I look at that screen it's like it stings my eyes. Could it be recalibrated though, like the GNex screen?

 

[blackhand1001]

Agreed, the One series is my top choice for Android phones, simply due to its IPS panel. My big qualm with that phone is the web browser. It's not buttery smooth like the iPhone or Galaxy. Otherwise, it would be my top iPhone opponent. I do want to see how the X handles the web though, maybe their software will improve.

The One X actually does not use an IPS panel. It uses a Vertical alignment (LCD2) panel similar to S-PVA which is also used in samsung/sony high end television sets. It gives much better contrast than ips and has very little off angle glow. Its more power efficient than IPS. I actually prefer S-PVA over IPS as it offers wider view angles than IPS in reality even though many will tell you otherwise. A few years ago there were several high end monitors that used S-PVA. Unfortunately because of the obsession with IPS panels many of them were phased out and replaced with IPS which while good is inferior in a few ways, especially the rapid drop in black levels off angle and the low contrast in general.

Left Monitor is IPS (u2410) while the right monitor is S-PVA (2408wfp).

 

[_Refurbished_]

Very nice blackhand, didn't know they were upgrading their screen tech. I'll have to check it out.

 

[ixodes]

A Different Result

Here's an article of interest.


"Samsung Galaxy S III's display is thinner and has a greater range of colors than that of the Apple iPhone 5, an IHS iSuppli teardown analysis revealed Tuesday."



http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...oes_iPhone_5_s_teardown_reveals?taxonomyId=15

 

[zbarvian]

OLED looks good at first, but then it just looks lurid. The iPhone 5 definitely has the better display.

 

[cynics]

Did I miss it or did they just use the off the shelf screen settings in that article? The OP talks about screen calibrations and all so I'm hoping I just overlooked where they set the screen on the phone.

Samsung sells TV's set to "pop" when it's on a shelf. The preset "standard" is nearly perfectly calibrated. I imagine they would do the same with their phones. Dynamic is the "pop" and standard is the more realistic.

I just don't know if the US version has that setting or not.

 

[matttye]

AMOLEDs are great for outdoor visibility IMO, mainly because of their low reflectivity.

The only reason they're not as good as other displays outdoors are because they're usually not as bright. An AMOLED display doesn't need to achieve the same brightness level as other types of screen to get the same visibility outdoors.