Reviews - Page 8

The display measurement experts at DisplayMate posted a very interesting article comparing LG's 65" 4K OLED TV (the 65EG9600, which costs $5,999) and Samsung's top of the line 65" 4K LCD (the UN65JS9500). DisplayMate performed dozens of tests, comparing those two high end TVs in several scenarios.

Black level comparison, OLED (left) vs LCD (right)

DisplayMate finds that the OLED TV outperforms the LCD in all the tests - the only category in which the LCD outperformed the OLED was brightness with average picture level higher than 25%. Specifically the OLED offers a higher contrast, a higher color accuracy, much better viewing angles, faster response time and higher power efficiency.

Towards the end of 2014, Home Depot started to offer several Acuity Brands OLED luminaries, with prices starting at $199. This was exciting - as these are the cheapest OLED lamps ever, and it is the first time OLEDs are offered at a major retail channel.

The nice guys at Acuity Brands sent me a Chalina 5-panel OLED luminaire (wall-mountable version) for a review here at OLED-Info. So first of all I want to thank Acuity for this. I will post a short review, focusing mostly on my experiences with this lamp, and people's reaction to it.

My friend Raymond from DisplayMate posted the first review of Apple's Watch display. It's a great article and well worth a read. His main conclusion is that the Flexible OLED display is excellent, and Apple did a very good job in its implementation. In fact Raymond says that "there is absolutely no question that for smart watches, OLED is the only way to go for a great display".

The OLED provides very nice and accurate colors and a pleasing picture quality. It compares very good to the iPhone 6's LCD display. DisplayMate tested a single edition, one with a Sapphire display (more about this below). This is a 42 mm panel (312x390, 302 PPI) - most likely made by LG Display.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note Edge back in September 2014 - the company's first mass market flexible OLED phone. The Nice guys at Samsung Israel sent us a review unit a few weeks ago - and here's our hands-on review.

As always this is not a full phone review - we leave those to the experts and for people that actually love mobile phones. We will focus on the display - and our experiences of having this device for a few days. The first part is written by Ron, and then Roni will give her own views.

Samsung will start shipping the Galaxy S6 and its curved-display variant the Galaxy S6 Edge in the US next week, and the reviews are in. Engadget says that the GS6 is Samsung's best phone ever, and the display is absolutely gorgeous. We're not surprised - we already know that the new Super AMOLEDs are best mobile displays ever.

Both the GS6 and the GS6 Edge sport a 5.1" 2560x1440 (577 PPI) super AMOLED display, curved on both edges on the S6 Edge. Engadget says it the curved flexible OLED looks very cool - but as expected it is not very useful.

LG's 2nd-gen flexible OLED phone, the G Flex 2, has started shipping in Korea, and Engadget posted the first review of this interesting new phone - and they really like it. They say it has a stunning design, it offers good performance and it's a lot better than the original G Flex. Regarding the display, the reviewer says that it's very crisp and it offers deep blacks and punchy colors.

The G Flex 2 uses a plastic-based flexible OLED display (5.5", Full-HD, 403 PPI) protected with a new glass cover developed by LG that is reportedly 20% stronger than the latest Gorilla Glass 3. The screen curves from top to bottom, with a curvature radius of 700 mm. The G Flex 2 has self-healing back coating, a Snapdragon 810 Octacore 2Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, LTE, 16/32 GB of storage, 13 MP camera, fast-charging battery and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Garmin's Vivosmart is the second device (after Huawai's TalkBand) to use Futaba's flexible (conformable) PMOLED displays. We're happy to post this hands-on review of one of the first flexible OLED devices on the market...

The Garmin Vivosmart

Garmin defines the Vivosmart as an "activity tracker plus smart notifications", which is really to say "an almost-smartwatch fitness band". Which it is. The Vivosmart is indeed a fitness band that can display steps, calories, distance and all the other fitness staples. On top of that, it can also perform basic smartwatch tasks like receive vibration alerts for phone calls, text messages and emails. How well does it do all those things? We'll get to that.

A few weeks ago, LG Electronics in Israel were kind enough to send me a 55" curved OLED TV (the EA9800, or the 55EA970Y as it is called in Israel) for a review on OLED-Info. So first of all - thanks guys, that was very cool of you!

LG released this OLED TV back in August 2013. It's been reviewed repeatedly since, with one apparent conclusion: that this TV offers the best image quality ever! So to get it out of the way - yes, It really does! The TV, even to my non-professional eyes, offers a superb viewing experience. LG now offers even newer TVs (the 55’’ curved FHD 55EC9300 and the 65’’ 4K curved 65EC9700) that can supply a superior image quality, but sadly haven't yet arrived in Israel.

Engadget posted a review of Samsung's Galaxy Note Edge - and all in all they are very happy with the device. They state that it is pretty much a Galaxy Note 4 - but more expensive and of course with the curved display - which still seems like an experiment in design.

Regarding the screen, Engadget says it looks great - and it's similar to the Note 4. DisplayMate also confirmed this a while back, SDC's plastic OLEDs offer pretty much the same performance as SDC's glass-based OLEDs. Some people like and adore the curve, it's certainly an attention grabber. Engadget did not find it to be very useful though and the review said that eventually he disabled most of the widgets on the edge. For left-handed users, the phone is not ideal a the curve is in the opposite direction.

Consumer Reports says that OLED is the best display technology, as it combines the best features of plasmas and LCDs. They say that the emerging technology is "really going to shake up the television industry".

"What we like about OLED is that it delivers on the deep black levels and unlimited viewing angles that we've come to expect from the best plasmas," said Claudio Ciacci from Consumer Reports. "At the same time it delivers on the power efficiency, super-thin bezel design and also the bright picture that we've come to expect from LCD TVs."