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The original iPhone still has the best screen

C

CaliforniaKing

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 5, 2011
49
0
Here is a comparison between the first generation iPhone and the iPhone 4S. They are both set at the same brightness level, yet the original iPhone has a brighter and much more vibrant screen. What does the iPhone's screen quality(not resolution) seem to be getting worse?
BM0Ul.png
 
I do agree that the first gen iDevices, excluding the iPad, have very good screens. I've always though my 1G iPod Touch's screen was better looking and more colour accurate then my 3Gs and 4S.
 
Wow, 4S on the left looks like it's at 50% brightness.


My 4S at full brightness looks like it is really at 60% compared to my 4.
 
You have an iphone 4s.... yet the Apple page displays with IOS4 ads on Apples page, along with IP4?

That's.... weird.
 
CaliforniaKing said:
Its a screen cap I had stored on each phone for comparison from a backup.
Click to expand...

Umm.
If it were a screen cap, the phones wouldn't be showing different times, different battery levels, different carrier information, etc.

That is a 4S though. It has the two antenna breaks on the left and it says No SIM (which means it can't be a Verizon iPhone 4).
 
Just compared my two. It's really not so simple, and the old screen is not better in *any* way.

Subjectively the 2g screen DOES look brighter. I had them both set at 50%, auto brightness off. I also compared at 100%. The 2g always "looks" brighter.

But looking beyond that initial "that one seems brighter", and really comparing.. they are actually about the same brightness I reckon. The difference is that the 4s has MUCH higher contrast. That means the bright areas are similar, but the dark areas are much darker - meaning the maximum brightness is around the same but the 2g puts out more light. That's a very bad thing - you want blacks to be black, not medium grey. Because of that, the 4s screen looks MUCH clearer than the 2g, even ignoring the higher resolution. I'd say you get the same brightness, but more contrast, which is a huge improvement.

Besides that, yeah there's the huge resolution increase. The 2g looks blurry, text is all smeary (and very hard to read when it's small). The 4s is super crisp.

The 2g has tons of 'light leak' too. When viewed from an angle, blacks turn a bright blue. This doesn't happen on the 4s. It's a sign of a very bad screen.

Also, look at the colours. The 4s looks pretty normal. The 2g? Safari's grey toolbar is lilac! The metal strip on the iPhone in the screenshot is pink! How can that possibly be better?!
 
This makes me realize how lucky I am to have gotten a beautiful screen on my 4S, which is even brighter and cooler than both my previous 4 black and girlfriend's 4 white.
 
psonice said:
Just compared my two. It's really not so simple, and the old screen is not better in *any* way.

Subjectively the 2g screen DOES look brighter. I had them both set at 50%, auto brightness off. I also compared at 100%. The 2g always "looks" brighter.

But looking beyond that initial "that one seems brighter", and really comparing.. they are actually about the same brightness I reckon. The difference is that the 4s has MUCH higher contrast. That means the bright areas are similar, but the dark areas are much darker - meaning the maximum brightness is around the same but the 2g puts out more light. That's a very bad thing - you want blacks to be black, not medium grey. Because of that, the 4s screen looks MUCH clearer than the 2g, even ignoring the higher resolution. I'd say you get the same brightness, but more contrast, which is a huge improvement.

Besides that, yeah there's the huge resolution increase. The 2g looks blurry, text is all smeary (and very hard to read when it's small). The 4s is super crisp.

The 2g has tons of 'light leak' too. When viewed from an angle, blacks turn a bright blue. This doesn't happen on the 4s. It's a sign of a very bad screen.

Also, look at the colours. The 4s looks pretty normal. The 2g? Safari's grey toolbar is lilac! The metal strip on the iPhone in the screenshot is pink! How can that possibly be better?!
Click to expand...

Did a comparison myself with my original vs 4. 100% same results. Contrast, viewing angle, leakage on original, but not on my 4. Though the original IS brighter, that's not a saving grace here. Although on the original the home button works better, and it feels better in my hand than the 4... But that's another subject. ;)
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
Did a comparison myself with my original vs 4. 100% same results. Contrast, viewing angle, leakage on original, but not on my 4. Though the original IS brighter, that's not a saving grace here. Although on the original the home button works better, and it feels better in my hand than the 4... But that's another subject. ;)
Click to expand...

In regards to this post, I feel like the first gen devices were better made. Whenever I push in the home button on the new iPod Touch, it feels like it's pushing in towards the side, and it's about to fall off. Never felt like that on my first gen iPod Touch. :( Luckily, iPhones have better buttons than the iPods do
 
The only reason the older phones are brighter is due to light leak. The newer phone have higher resolution, better contrast and more accurate color reproduction.

If you think brighter is better, then by all means, keep using the old phone. I'll stick with my 4S though. All those that understand technology won't argue that 4S is better than the Edge phone.
 
Not with my original iPhone 2G (which I still have as a collection) vs. my new 4S.

The 2G images were a little washed out compared to the vibrant 4S images.

The 2G images were not brighter either and the image resolution is not even close.
 
Screen on my 4S is way better than the 4. Auto brightness enabled on both, same brightness setting.
 
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