Reviews - Page 6

DisplayMate posted a review of Samsung's latest OLED display - the 6.4" 1440x2960 (516 PPI) flexible Super AMOLED used in the Galaxy Note 9. As we've seen many times before, Samsung managed to significantly improve its OLED quality - and DisplayMate says that this is the best mobile display ever tested.

In the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung concentrated on significantly raising the on-screen absolute picture quality and absolute color accuracy by implementing precision factory display calibration. This could have been a response to the excellent calibration done by Apple in the iPhone X.

Samsung introduced its Galaxy S9 flagship phone a couple of days ago, with its flexible 5.8" 1440x2960 (570 PPI) Super AMOLED display (6.2", 529 PPI, on the S9 Plus).

Display measurement experts from DisplayMate already tested the new display (with a pre-production GS9), and published a comprehensive report. As expected, Samsung continues to improve its OLED displays, and the GS9 again is announced by DisplayMate to be the world's best ever mobile display, better than the iPhone X OLED.

Korea's Cetizen posted an interesting review of the burn-in of 3 flagship OLED phones, the iPhone X, the S7 Edge and the Note 8. Cetizen displayed the same image on all three phones for 510 hours (!) at full brightness.

As you can see in the image above, the Note 8 has very visible burn-in, while the two other phones perform better. Cetizen say that the iPhone has the best display in that regard. Apple did in fact confirm that the iPhone X suffers from burn in, but also said that it engineered the display to be the best in the industry in reducing the effect of OLED burn-in, though - and apparently this engineering works.

Display measurement experts DisplayMate posted a review of LG's latest OLED TVs, specifically a 65" OLEDE7 model. DisplayMate performed an extensive set of tests and LG's OLED performed exceptionally well throughout all of the Lab Measurement Tests and Viewing Tests. DisplayMate says that "it is unquestionably the best performing TV that we have ever tested or watched".

LG's 2017 OLED TV is "visually Indistinguishable from perfect" and it breaks many TV display performance records. It is far better than the best Plasma TVs ever tested and is even better than the $50,000 Sony Professional CRT reference studio monitors that up until recently were the golden standard for picture quality, according to DisplayMate.

Tom's guide posted an interesting review that compares the OLED display of the iPhone X (5.8" 1125x2436) to the OLED displays of the Galaxy Note 8 (6.3" 2960x1440) and the Google Pixel 2 XL (LGD 6" 2960x1440 pOLED). This is Apple's first OLED phone, but Tom's Guide finds it superior to the OLEDs used by the other phones, especially if you want a realistic color reproduction.

The review shows how the iPhone is brighter than the other displays (574 nits, compared to 438 nits no the Pixel 2 XL and 408 nits on the Note 8. This test was performed for full-screen content. The Note 8 can actually achieve 1,240 nits but on specialized conditions and only when a small part of the screen is active.

Apple has not started shipping its much anticipated OLED iPhone X, but a reporter at the Wired received an early unit and has posted a review after a week of using this new device. There's a lot to like in Apple's new flagship phones - a great form factor, great cameras, fun animoji's and a large potential. Besides being expensive, the reporter also complains about Face ID problems and says that the phone and it's black "notch" at the top is an "aesthetic setback".

The reviews is very happy with the OLED display - as it covers almost the entire phone, the iPhone X has a large display (5.8" 1125x2436 flexible Super AMOLED) in a relatively compact form factor. It's only slightly bigger than the iPhone 8 while it has a display that's almost the same size as the one in the iPhone 8+. The display quality itself is excellent - "I found the display a noticeable, and greatly pleasurable, advance over my iPhone 7, whether watching The Big Sick, streaming a live football game, or simply swiping through Instagram".

eMagin announced its BlazeTorch consumer sports enthusiast OLED night-vision goggles back in November 2016, with aims to release it by the end of 2017 for $999. According to the very-enthusiastic review below, the BlazeTorch is excellent - but eMagin hiked the price up to $1,699.

The BlazeTorch started shipping in 2017, although it is no longer available. The Price was supposed to be $999 but some reports suggest eMagin is increasing the price to $1,699. Hopefully eMagin will start shipping it again and we will update if and when they do.

Both LG (the V30) and Google (Pixel 2 XL) recently introduced smartphones that use LG's new pOLED smartphone displays, both with the same display - a 6" 1440x2880 (537 PPI).

An early pre-production review of LG's V30 claimed that the display suffer from serious quality issues, and now reviews of commercially-sold units confirm the display problems.

A couple of days ago we reported that Android Authority reviewed LG V30's display, which uses LGD's flexible pOLED panels, with very positive results - saying that LGD's mobile OLEDs are highly competitive with Samsung's latest Super AMOLED displays.

Ars Technica also posted an early review of a pre-production V30 device, but its conclusions are very different. While the display sounds great on paper, Ars Technica says (and it's got photos to prove) that in a dark room the display suffers from a grainy image and horizontal banding. The light level is also woefully uneven, with hotspots blazing out of the left and right corners.

Android Authority performed some preliminary tests of LG V30's display, which uses LGD's flexible P-OLED panels. AA says that the first impressions are very positive, and LGD's mobile OLEDs are highly competitive with Samsung's latest Super AMOLED displays (AA compared the V30 to the Galaxy S8, although to be fair SDC has since improved its OLEDs).

LG's color temperature is quite higher compared to the OLED of the GS8 - 8500K vs the GS8 7500K. On manual brightness both phones are able to reach almost the same brightness (421 nits on the V30, 398 nits on the GS8), while on automotive mode the LG reaches 606 nits and the GS8 only 535 nits (DisplayMate says the GS8 should reach 1,020 nits - but AA could not reach this high brightness in these tests). AA reviewers say that the LG V30 is quite comparable to Samsung's display in terms of black levels and vibrant colors.