started shipping the PEN E-PL1 from Olympus, a Micro-Four Thirds system compact digital camera for US$599.Amazon
If you’re a proud owner of Canon’s latest compact low-light wonder, the S90, you’d be excited to hear that Lensmate has something special for you: the Custom Grip.
The Custom Grip for the S90 is individually 3D CNC machined from a solid block of aircraft-grade aluminum before being glass-bead blasted, black-anodized and nickel-sealed for durability and good looks.
Designed by Richard Franiec the Custom Grip “sits about 1.5 mm lower than the retracted lens, so it does not affect the pocketability of the camera.” VHB (very high bond) 3M clear transfer film is used to permanently hold the Custom Grip to the S90. It can also be removed without damaging the finish. Check out all 25 photos of the Custom Grip for the S90: looks absolutely wonderful. And the price is a reasonable US$32.95. Image Source: Lensmate
SERIES OVERVIEW
This is Part II of a comprehensive multi-part article series with in-depth measurements and analysis for displays on the Google Nexus One and the Apple iPhone 3GS. It is produced as a collaboration between DisplayBlog and DisplayMate Technologies. We will show you the good, the bad, and also the ugly unfinished rough edges and problems lurking below the surface of each of these displays and display technologies. Each article will be introduced and discussed on DisplayBlog by me, Jin Kim, followed up with a detailed technical analysis and measurement data on the DisplayMate website by Dr. Raymond Soneira. There will be three parts to this series:
Parts I and II will be rolled out and expanded in several stages over a period of about a week, so be sure to check each day for updates.
INTRODUCTION
What more can be said of the iPhone than what has already been said. The gist of it is: Apple completely revolutionized the smartphone market with the iPhone. No question about it. There is much going for the iPhone: Multitouch that actually works. An elegant and beautiful device. A legion of developers creating hundreds of thousands of apps that enhance the iPhone’s capabilities. And little things like visual voicemail, the iPod app, and mobile Safari that makes browsing on the little display as pain-free as can be, etc. But not everything is perfect. And in this article we will be looking very closely at the display: the 3.5-inch 480xRGBx320 pixel format TFT LCD.
Everyone seems to think all displays regardless of platform need to have a 16:9 aspect ratio. Hogwash! The most applicable is the TV but even then if you’re watching a lot of film you’re better off getting one of those incredibly wide Philips TVs with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is just one small part of the entire experience of a display-based device. Take for instance the iPad: it has a 1024xRGBx768 pixel format and that’s an “old” 4:3 aspect ratio. But think about the usage scenario for the iPad. I haven’t used one so I can’t say for sure but I think I’ll be using it for more than watching the occasional video: blogging, checking email, reading e-books, flipping through photographs, etc. Books aren’t wide. Most photographs aren’t wide. I’d rather have a portrait display for blogging. I do think email might benefit from a wide display but if you’re the type of person who prefers writing dissertations to texting, the portrait mode will provide a better more focused experience. So clearly, the display on the iPad needs to fit in with all of its usage scenarios. The same logic applies to the iPhone: the 480xRGBx320 pixel format has a 3:2 aspect ratio and it works quite well.
I have often hoped that Apple would raise the bar and incorporate an OLED display on the iPhone. There are many benefits of using an OLED on the iPhone: superb contrast, deep blacks, a thinner display, better power management via UI tweeks, etc. There are some drawbacks too: limited lifetimes relative to LCDs, differential aging of the primary colors’ phosphors, more power draw if UI isn’t tuned for OLEDs, etc. Even though we have seen some imperfections on the OLED implementation in the Nexus One, I still hope Apple puts an OLED display into its next-generation iPhone. The Nexus One is the result of many companies working together and from what I have seen recently it seems that Apple’s approach of taking total control (sans the wireless carrier part) over bringing a smartphone to market results in a better experience. So it is just my guess that Apple would be the company to correctly implement an OLED display into a smartphone. I could also be completely wrong: Apple could use a 24-bit IPS TFT LCD instead.
COLOR & IMAGE QUALITY
The iPhone 3GS makes use of 18-bit color plus dithering to emulate 24-bit color. Each color (Red, Green, Blue) has 64 intensity levels. 24-bit emulation has been implemented well on the iPhone 3GS with artifact-free photographs and test patterns that show smooth intensity scales. In general the quality of images and UI elements are very good across the board. The weak link would be under-saturated colors and less-than-ideal contrast. Although scaling always takes away some quality the engineers at Apple have done a solid job, however, there were minor compression and/or scaling artifacts showing up on 480×320 images. These images were imported into iTunes, synced to the iPhone and then displayed using the Photos app.
The DisplayMate Multimedia Edition for Mobile Displays test patterns we were able to show some intensity scale irregularities in 256-level intensity color ramps due to the limitations of 18-bit plus dithering. At low intensities there were screen mottling and irregularities. And even with images at the display’s native 480×320 pixel format there were rescaling and/or compression artifacts.
The iPhone 3GS was compared side-by-side with a professional Sony high definition studio monitor using a large set of DisplayMate Calibration and Test Photographs. The results were less-than-ideal: images were under-saturated and exhibit low contrast. In other words, the images looked washed out. The culprit? A small color gamut and shallow intensity scales.
When a new product is imminent Apple engineers fly to Asia and live there for weeks to make sure everything is perfect. Overall factory calibration and quality control for the iPhone 3GS’ display is very good. White point, color and grayscale tracking is accurate and images are relatively free of artifacts. We will dig deeper into color gamut but even with a less-than-ideal color gamut colors on the iPhone 3GS are accurate. The shallow intensity scale resulted in low contrast and under-saturated colors. This could be corrected by changing the gamma curve to track closer to 2.2.
DISPLAY TEST RESULTS
Peak Brightness: 428 cd/m²
This level of brightness is excellent and is at the highest level for mobile displays. You will be able to see the display in all ambient light conditions except when the sun is hitting it straight on.
Black Level Brightness: 3.1 cd/m²
You want black to be black. On the iPhone 3GS black is dark gray and a lot grayer than you’d want. Overall image quality suffers because of a rather high black level brightness.
Contrast Ratio: 138
Because of the high black level brightness contrast ratio is low. Images look washed-out.
Screen Reflectance: 9.2%
Screen reflectance is the most important specification for a mobile display and the iPhone 3GS does exceptionally well and coupled with very high peak brightness allows you to view the display in bright ambient environments.
High Ambient Light Contrast Rating: 47
A rating of 47 is excellent and rates as one of the best mobile displays for viewing in bright ambient light environments. Clearly Apple was thinking about users in sunny environments, like Cupertino, CA. For mobile devices like smartphones, high ambient light contrast rating is a much more important specification than contrast ratio, unless of course you’re almost always in a relatively dark room.
Dynamic Color and Dynamic Contrast: n/a
The iPhone 3GS does not make use of dynamic color and contrast, a good thing since this feature often distorts images.
WHAT’S UP NEXT
In the next several days Dr. Raymond Soneira and i will be adding more interesting display test results for the iPhone 3GS:
For screen captures, more technical and in-depth explanations please visit DisplayMate.
The Pulse Mini by T-Mobile is a smaller and cuter Pulse. The Android smartphone is smaller but it still packs quite a punch. The Pulse Mini is manufactured by Huawei and runs Android 2.1, sports a 2.8-inch touch display with a 320×240 pixel format and is powered by Qualcomm’s MSM7225 CPU. The number of pixels on the rather smallish display is on the low side so if you’re addicted to texting make sure you have hands that are smaller than average.
The Pulse Mini will be available in April in the UK and Germany. I have been told that mobile users in Europe like to go unlocked and prepaid and that’s exactly what the Pulse Mini is. The contract-free price in the UK is £99.99 (about US$155).
I am not sure why there continues to be a preference for soft, or touch, buttons. I actually loath them because they are not accurate enough. I would much prefer physical buttons. If those touch buttons were pushed below to where the other buttons are the display could have been made a bit bigger. And do we really need such a big round thingamajiggy on such a cute smartphone? Source: T-Mobile
SERIES OVERVIEW
This is Part I of a comprehensive multi-part article series with in-depth measurements and analysis for the displays on the Google Nexus One and the Apple iPhone 3GS. It is produced as a collaboration between DisplayBlog and DisplayMate Technologies. We will show you the good, the bad, and also the ugly unfinished rough edges and problems lurking below the surface of each of these displays. Each article will be introduced and discussed on DisplayBlog by me, Jin Kim, followed up with a detailed technical analysis and measurement data on the DisplayMate website by Dr. Raymond Soneira. There will be three parts to this series:
Parts I and II will be rolled out and expanded in several stages over a period of about a week, so be sure to check each day for updates.
INTRODUCTION
There have been lots of excitement about the Nexus One’s OLED display. In this series of articles Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies, and I dive into a scientific analysis of the Nexus One display.
First, let’s go through some of the major websites touting the OLED display on the Nexus One:
The Nexus One is slim and curvaceous, and the OLED display is just stunning. -cnet
The 3.7-inch, 800×480 AMOLED screen is undoubtedly the best we’ve seen on an Android phone yet, delivering crisp and bright colours and much less glare than the LCD efforts found on HTC’s older Android handsets and, of course, the iPhone. As a result, your eyes won’t start going squiffy after a few hours squinting at it. -Electricpig
Even though the screen is the same size and same resolution as the Droid, it’s noticeably better. The colors are much more vibrant and the blacks are blacker, as evidenced by putting both side by side and hitting up various websites and loading various games. The pinks on Perez Hilton and the blues on Gizmodo just popped a lot more on the N1, and made the Droid (which was actually considered to have a great screen) seem washed out. The same feeling carries over when you compare the Nexus with the iPhone 3GS. And it’s pretty damn bright, compared to the other two phones. This is probably the best screen we’ve seen on a smartphone so far. – Gizmodo
Different users may have different initial impressions on placing the AMOLED side-by-side with a more traditional backlit LCD screen–Ars Deputy Editor Jon Stokes found the AMOLED to be a striking improvement, but to me it first came off as dark and underwhelming. However, upon extended use, I have to say, this is better. … The brightness gamut is excellent. … The OLED screen also has a much better viewing angle than a traditional LCD screen; this could be important for some car dock setups. Overall, I don’t think I’d trade this screen for the brighter Droid screen, or any other non-OLED screen. – Ars Technica
Although the Motorola Milestone has a screen with the same size as the Google Nexus One’s – 3.7 inches – and a few extra pixels (854×480, to the Nexus One’s 800×480) too, the Nexus One’s panel still outclasses it. That’s because it uses a different type of display, AMOLED, which many tip to be the next big thing in mobile. We’re not going to argue with them: it makes the Google Nexus One’s screen look absolutely glorious. Photos don’t quite do it justice, but take our word when we say the colours the screen produces are deeper and richer than on any previous Android phone. -Fonehome
The OLED screen on the Nexus One is spectacular–blacks looked inky black. Next to an iPhone and Motorola Droid, the colors on the Nexus One were vivid. – PCMag
As you can see everybody loves the OLED display in the Nexus One. This particular OLED display makes use of a special PenTile Matrix sub-pixel structure developed by Clairvoyante and now Nouvoyance. I had the pleasure of meeting Candice Brown Elliott, Founder and CEO of Nouvoyance, Joel Pollack, Sr. VP of Strategic Sales and Marketing, and Tony Botzas, Director of System Apps and Engineering, at their Cupertino location on February 3rd. The meeting was prompted by my post Nexus One Pentile Matrix OLED Display where I argued that the 3.7-inch OLED display in the Nexus One did not have a “resolution” of 800×480 but rather a much less 533×480. After two and a half hours I came out with a new-found appreciation for what Nouvoyance has achieved: Candice and her team have developed a deceptively elegant display system based on a deep understanding of human biology and psychology as they relate to vision. And in doing so has enabled a high-resolution OLED display requiring a simpler manufacturing process and lower costs.
Let’s get to the issue of whether the PenTile Matrix used in the Nexus One has a pixel format of 800×480 or not. The answer is complicated. And the reason is because we are dealing with the human visual system, which involves not just the biological functions of the eyes but the connections they have with the brain and how the two interact. I do not pretend to be an expert in this regard but the one thing I do know is that our visual system is brilliantly complex. We won’t get into that here.
What 800×480 really means is 800xRGBx480 and that in turn means there are 800 horizontal pixels and 400 vertical pixels and within each pixel there is a Red, Green, Blue sub-pixel. But how does 800×480 apply to a sub-pixel structure that is different? Therein lies the difficulty. Now we have to move away from discrete hardware specifications to vision.
The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has a method to measure resolution especially when comparing displays with different sub-pixels. The VESA Display Metrology Committee has a definition for resolution in Section 303-7 of Flat Panel Display Measurements Standard Version 2.0:
… the number of alternate black and white lines that can be displayed with a stated minimum contrast modulation.
I would include: … that can be displayed and viewed … The minimum contrast modulation is 50%, but what in the world is contrast modulation?
… the difference between the white-line luminance and black-line luminance divided by the sum of the white-line luminance and the black-line luminance.
Hmm… I think the easiest way to think about this thing called resolution is this: the resolution is dependent on the number of black and white lines, either horizontal or vertical, with a certain level of contrast, meaning you need to be able to visually differentiate the black and white lines. So, let’s move from vision back to hardware specification: does the Nexus One’s PenTile Matrix OLED display have a resolution equivalent to a 800xRGBx480? The answer is: yes, it does.
The PenTile Matrix OLED display is the result of combining our understanding of vision biology and psychology. The result enables the manufacture of an OLED display sporting a resolution equivalent to the very best that LCD technology can offer and does not cost much more to manufacture. Unfortunately technology’s first generation is almost always wrought with imperfections. Samsung Mobile Displays (SMD) takes the brilliance of PenTile and makes it into a 3.7-inch OLED display. But that’s just the display. In the case of the Nexus One the SMD-manufactured OLED display is then integrated by HTC. Google’s Android smartphone OS is then mated to that hardware with software running on top of the OS. So how did Nouvoyance, SMD, HTC and Google do with the Nexus One? Let’s find out.
COLOR & IMAGE QUALITY
The PenTile Matrix OLED display used in the Nexus One uses 16-bit color. Most high-end smartphone displays make use of 18-bit color plus dithering to emulate 24-bit. The red and blue on the Nexus One have only have 32 possible intensity levels; the green has 64. Because screen colors are the result of mixing the red, green, blue the colors on the Nexus One are coarse, inaccurate, exhibit noticeable false contouring, and have a green & magenta tints in images. The iPhone’s TFT LCD makes use of 18-bit color plus dithering with 256 possible intensity levels for all three red, green, blue colors, resulting in smooth images and photographs.
The Nexus One has a high resolution, equivalent to a 3.7-inch 800xRGBx480 TFT LCD. Although resolution (pixel density) is much higher on the Nexus One compared to the 3.5-inch 480xRGBx320 pixel format on the iPhone 3GS, colors are over-saturated, grayscale was inaccurate and there are display artifacts, probably resulting from processing errors in hardware, firmware, software or all of them. Google and HTC decided to incorporate a fairly high-pixel count image sensor for the camera and it seems something wasn’t finely tuned enough. The Android OS seems to be employing some sort of pixel scaling to fit the entire OLED display resulting in poor image quality. As I have often said in previous posts any type of scaling, even when done well, deteriorates quality, but the initial scaling algorithm used in the Nexus One produces dropped pixel content, color fringing, and moirés.
The Nexus One was compared to a calibrated professional Sony studio monitor using a large set of DisplayMate Calibration and Test Photographs. All of the photos on the Nexus One exhibited gaudy color especially in common objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, grass and even a can of Coca-Cola. Color and intensity false contouring and noise from excessive processing were present in many of the photographs. Initially, the over-saturated images on the Nexus One might look punchy and vibrant but over time these images will certainly become unpleasant. A recommendation might be to make use of the ambient light sensor to control gamma, color gamut, color saturation, and edge enhancement in addition to display brightness.
If the OLED display was judged in comparison to LCDs used in smartphones, it would rank among the worst we have ever seen in a shipping product. The poor integration among display hardware, the Android OS and software in addition to sub-standard factory color and grayscale calibration are to blame. For a high-end smartphone like the Nexus One that require high performance in regards to rendering photographs, video and web content this lack of quality control is surprising and not acceptable.
The OLED display in the Nexus One looks like a prototype and these are the reasons why:
Google, HTC, and Samsung Mobile Display has delivered a high-end “superphone” with the Nexus One incorporating an unique display using the PenTile Matrix OLED display system. But they have a lot of work ahead of them to make sure the next version (the Nexus Two?) addresses all of these problems in the display.
DISPLAY TEST RESULTS
This section explains all of the measurements incorporated in the article. All measurements were made using DisplayMate Multimedia Edition for Mobile Displays to generate the analytical test patterns together with a Konica Minolta CS-200 ChromaMeter, which is a Spectroradiometer. All measurements were made in a perfectly dark lab to avoid light contamination. All devices were tested with their backlight set for maximum brightness with the light sensor-based automatic brightness control turned off, and running on their AC power adapter with a fully charged battery, so that the battery performance and state was not a factor in the results. For further in-depth discussions and explanations of the tests, measurements, and their interpretation refer to earlier articles in the DisplayMate Multimedia Display Technology Shoot-Out article series and the DisplayMate Mobile Display Shoot-Out article series.
Peak Brightness: 229 cd/m²
Peak white luminance is the maximum brightness of the display. In the case of the Nexus One it was 229 cd/m². This level is adequate for normal indoor ambient light settings but will make it difficult to read outdoors.
Black Level Brightness: 0.0035 cd/m²
Almost all displays exhibit a dark gray instead of true black and LCDs are especially prone to this. Since OLED is an emissive technology the display on the Nexus One produces black that is very close to true black and was too low to measure with the CS-200, so Konica Minolta loaned us its flagship CS-2000 Spectroradiometer, which measured the black level brightness at just 0.0035 cd/m². In a dark ambient setting the Nexus One’s OLED display looks ridiculously amazing.
Contrast Ratio: >45,800:1
At greater than 45,800:1 the Nexus One’s OLED display exhibited an incredible contrast ratio, the highest DisplayMate has ever measured. Any contrast ratio over 5,000:1 is only visually significant with dark image content in dark ambient light settings.
Screen Reflectance: 15.5%
The screen reflectance on the Nexus One was a relatively high 15.5% and among the highest that we’ve measured for mobile devices. This is not good. Screen reflectance is the most important specifications for a mobile display. The display reflects a certain percentage of the surrounding ambient light that adds to the screen background and washes out the display. The higher the screen reflectance the harder it is to see the display. This becomes more problematic in high ambient light environments. The screen reflectance measurements were done in accordance with VESA FPDM 308-1, Reflectance with Diffuse Illumination, using an integrating hemispherical dome and a calibrated diffuse white reflectance standard.
High Ambient Light Contrast Rating: 15
Contrast rating measures display contrast in high ambient environments and is the ratio of peak brightness to screen reflectance. Higher values mean the display is easier to see in bright environments. The Nexus One’s contrast rating is a low 15, which means the OLED display is difficult to see in high ambient light environments.
Dynamic Color and Dynamic Contrast: Colors Blown by 28%
Dynamically adjusting color and contrast based on an internal automatic image processing algorithm is a good idea but extremely difficult to do right. Dynamic color and contrast control frequently distorts images and at the least this should be an option that can be turned off if the results are not satisfying. On the Nexus One dynamic color and contrast control seems to be implemented and blows out color by 28%.
WHAT’S UP NEXT
In the next several days Dr. Raymond Soneira and I will be adding more interesting results from the Measurements and Test Pattern Tests for the Nexus One:
For screen captures, more technical and in-depth explanations please visit DisplayMate.
Modistech claims to be the only company that is developing flexible OLED surface lighting in South Korea. The aim of the company is to develop a “paper-like, fabric-like and film-like” flexible OLED panel for surface lighting. White, orange and red colors are being optimized for commercialization into the desk lamp and automotive markets. OLED lighting is softer than LED lighting, produces color that is close to natural color, has less glare leading to less eye fatigue.
Modistech is minimizing the number of substrate processes, making use of roll-to-roll deposition, and incorporates a company-developed encapsulation material to reduce manufacturing costs to just 10% of glass-based OLEDs. A 150x150mm flexible OLED panel for indirect lighting is scheduled for commercialization in 2010. It looks like a white OLED lighting panel can also be used as a light source for the backlight in LCDs. Source: OLEDNET
I personally think it would be best to have a global model number: Samsung’s EX1 in Europe is the TL500 in the US. Canon does this too. Nevertheless the EX1 or TL500 was introduced on February 20, 2010 and makes use of a 1/1.7-inch CCD image sensor, which is larger than what is typically found in compact digital cameras. The Schneider KREUZNACH lens is impressive too: 24mm f/1.8, which means it is wide angle and very fast. Samsung claims the sensor and lens combination allow for “better photos in low-light environments” with a max ISO of 3200 combined with a DRIMeIII image processor. Samsung makes use of Dual Image Stabilization technology. I am not sure if that means the TL500 makes use of both optical and in-body digital IS. You can also record video at 640×480 encoded in H.264.
An interesting feature is the articulating 3-inch AMOLED display:
Compared to the traditional TFT-LCD found on most digital cameras, the EX1’s AMOLED provides users with a higher contrast ratio, deeper blacks and more accurate, vivid colors, even when viewed from an angle or in direct sunlight.
I wonder how you’re supposed to take a picture with the display articulated toward the front without an optical viewfinder. Hmm. Although I will get fairly deep into details regarding Samsung’s AMOLED displays in a soon-to-be-released Nexus One technical review, just because the colors are more vivid does not necessarily mean more accurate colors, on the contrary, the colors are likely to be quite inaccurate. The claimed higher contrast ratio thanks to deeper blacks is believable but the ability to view the AMOLED in direct sunlight with deep blacks and vivid colors is questionable. Samsung also claims more efficient power consumption but that would only apply when the photographs are generally on the darker side. Design wise, on the front of the TL500 is the text “F1.8″ and on the back is “AMOLED”. Tacky. Source: DPReview
For all you shutterbugs out there, make sure to grab a Gorillapod Magnetic (pre-order
During Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010, LG’s Skott Ahn, head of the company’s handset unit, shared that it will not be developing its own smartphone platform, at least not for the next two to three years. Samsung, LG’s cross-town rival in South Korea, has gone the other way and developed its Bada (means ocean in Korean) smartphone OS. In the competitive sea of smartphone OSes the move by Samsung can be seen as not-so-smart and just greedy. We have six main smartphone OSes at the moment: Apple’s iPhone OS, Nokia & Intel’s MeeGo, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series, Google’s Android, RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s webOS.
Even with a long history of developing portable electronics and a fantastic smartphone OS, Palm is struggling to keep up with the competition. I think LG has made a wise decision to concentrate on what it is better at: hardware. LG will be focusing on developing Android and Windows Phone 7 Series smartphones. The company also expects the smartphone market to standardize into just three OSes in the next couple of years. Source: Fierce Wireless via phoneArena, Engadget
Hexxeh: If you have an ION GPU doing the graphics work and running Chrome OS (ChromiumOS), make sure to download and install the latest Hexxeh build called Flow: it takes full advantage of NVIDIA’s ION GPU. The already featherweight OS should start flying now.
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.