Database Users

Pictures of my Desire HD vs Samsung Galaxy S2

you may find this useful:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=13469463#post13469463

Well done, whilst I agree the Samsung screens are brighter, seeing the S2 has confirmed to me that I really don't want one (other than the fact that there just isn't any way on this earth I would choose a Samsung P.O.S.). That is ugly and does the S2 not do black?
(and maybe a better comparison would be one that doesn't compare a dark background on the DHD verses a bright colourful background on the S2 -nothing like a good bit of biasing is there?).

The GS2 really does seem like a great phone. Although in that third pic, I do like the colours of the Desire HD better. The 'Brightness' text actually seems whiter on the HD and the popup box itself looks darker.
Could you post some better comparison pics where both phones have the same background at lets say 100% brightness and 50% brightness?
Also some battery life comparisons in a couple of days? Ideally with the exact same video playing on both devices and the same settings for both phones, to get a fairly accurate comparison between the two?

Mr_JMM said:
Well done, whilst I agree the Samsung screens are brighter, seeing the S2 has confirmed to me that I really don't want one (other than the fact that there just isn't any way on this earth I would choose a Samsung P.O.S.). That is ugly and does the S2 not do black?
(and maybe a better comparison would be one that doesn't compare a dark background on the DHD verses a bright colourful background on the S2 -nothing like a good bit of biasing is there?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that was unintentional, post updated with new like for like pics

Personal preference I guess but I have no problem with the colours / screen on the Desire HD and like I said, not keen on the excessive contrast and a phone is more than just a screen.
I'll be getting another HTC in a few months time.

[Q] A few questions about the Omnia 7

I'm thinking about getting an Omnia 7 and I have a few questions about the device that I was hoping you could help me with:
(1) How is the call quality? I saw a review that made this out to be the biggest gripe with the phone.
(2) How good is the (A)GPS? I recall seeing complaints about it. It is pretty important for me that the GPS is fast and accurate. At least not worse than my current $100 nokia symbian s60v5 handset, which has in fact been very reliable.
(3) How annoying is the amoled screen? I know it looks great in terms of color, contrast and viewing angles, but I've seen some seriously angry threads elsewhere regarding the faux resolution issue with pentile matrix. 653x392 is it?
(4) Also, can you view the screen with polarized sunglasses in both portrait and landscape? I reckon it would go black at some angle, but is it a clever 45 degrees like the Iphone or 90 degrees like for instance the ipad? (youtube.com/watch?v=78GdcXCM9nk&feature=related)?
(5) I've seen a lot of 720p video recording samples and they all seem a bit jerky? From what I understand it is a CPU limitation? I also recall SonyEricsson had a similar problem with the same CPU on one of their handsets and they improved it slightly by tweaking the codec to dynamically lower recording quality? Anything like that happening on WP7 or Omnia 7? Any other fixes?

I'm thinking about getting an Omnia 7 and I have a few questions about the device that I was hoping you could help me with:
I think you should wait a little, to know when new devices will appear. (with Mango update comes new devices)
(1) How is the call quality? I saw a review that made this out to be the biggest gripe with the phone.
Phone call quality : quite good but not excellent, even with all firmware updates.
(2) How good is the (A)GPS? I recall seeing complaints about it. It is pretty important for me that the GPS is fast and accurate. At least not worse than my current $100 nokia symbian s60v5 handset, which has in fact been very reliable.
For me A-GPS is good, fast and accurate
(3) How annoying is the amoled screen? I know it looks great in terms of color, contrast and viewing angles, but I've seen some seriously angry threads elsewhere regarding the faux resolution issue with pentile matrix. 653x392 is it?
Wait for a Super AMOLED PLUS (the "plus" is the big difference : http://www.oled-info.com/super-amoled-plus-resolution-explained
(4) Also, can you view the screen with polarized sunglasses in both portrait and landscape? I reckon it would go black at some angle, but is it a clever 45 degrees like the Iphone or 90 degrees like for instance the ipad? (youtube.com/watch?v=78GdcXCM9nk&feature=related)?
I have polarized glasses : it's black about 45°.
(5) I've seen a lot of 720p video recording samples and they all seem a bit jerky? From what I understand it is a CPU limitation? I also recall SonyEricsson had a similar problem with the same CPU on one of their handsets and they improved it slightly by tweaking the codec to dynamically lower recording quality? Anything like that happening on WP7 or Omnia 7? Any other fixes?
720p is a litte laggy, new devices (with new processor like the MSM8255) will not have any problem

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. And yes, I am waiting for the specs (and prices) of the new phones before I act. But I doubt that any of the new phones, like the Sea Ray, will be anywhere near €200 like the Omnia 7 is now on Ebay. Hence my ambivalence.

Is it still wise to get the Omnia 7? Or just wait for the Mango devices?

(1) In the UK on Three, the call quality is just fine, its better than my friends Blackberry Torch. Apparently there is a new Radio software that should improve it for everyone.
(2) The AGPS is ok I suppose, It works. GPS initially takes a minute or two (the VERY first time its used but afterwards, it gets a lock within 15 seconds) Accuracy is fine.
(3) The AMOLED screen has amazing quality but when looking at the screen VERY closely, the straight lines are very slightly jaggy. All AMOLED screens are arranged in the pentile pattern. The Super AMOLED Plus screens have the pixels arranged in a more traditional manner. However its not much of an issue for me, its probably wise to have a look at a Super AMOLED screen and judge for yourself!
(4) Not sure really, I can view the phone fine with 3D cinema glasses to pretty much most angles as without.
(5) I've shot a 720p video and it seemed fine to me! I doubt its a CPU limitation, its most likely the software which needs tweaking. Again, its probably wise to test one of these devices out to see how it performs. I think only one WP7 device has the MSM Snapdragon (which has an Adreno 205 GPU instead of our Adreno 200. Also its a die shrink which would use slightly less power)

[Q] Poor Video Quality?

I just received my Google Nexus 10 yesterday. After reading all the great reviews about the video quality I must admit I was shocked how poor it was. Don't get me wrong, it isn't awful by any stretch. The detail is certainly there and there is so much detail it might actually be detriment to the product because I can pick up compression artifacts and pixelization I didn't even know was there on some of my videos. However, this really leads in to what I think the source of the problem is on this device, that is, the black level. The first video I took a look at was Ice Age since it came with the N10. If black level is off on animations they can look washed out and it certainly did in this case. My projector on a 100" screen could actually reflect a better image in my opinion. Moving over to other videos like a 1080p MKV of Battleship displayed some improvement, but the poor black levels were still there. Oh, and I should mention this was with using MX Player.
So, are others seeing something similar? Again, I'm not trying to really downplay the image entirely because the detail is certainly there, but again, I'm disappointed by the black level. Is there possibly a way to adjust it that I'm not aware of? All I can seemingly find is Brightness and that doesn't do enough. Perhaps a gamma control would help? Any guidance from others is appreciated.

U get ice age free with N10?
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

verusevo said:
U get ice age free with N10?
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Yes.

2 posts? Troll?

Techie2012 said:
2 posts? Troll?
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Thanks for the welcome. Did people say the same about you when you had 2 posts? Trust me, your accusation is utterly ridiculous. This is simply my first Android device and this was my initial impression. I hoped that there might be some kind of workaround or fix so I simply did a Google search for a Nexus 10 forum and wound up here. As I allued to in my initial post there are plenty of things I like about the device and black level might not be a deal killer, but if there was a way to resolve it, why not pursue it?

Techie2012 said:
2 posts? Troll?
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Only 245 posts and a member since February of this year? You must clearly have very little to contribute anywhere since you don't have at least a 1k post count or year+ membership (sarcasm btw; post count and join dates means absolutely nothing in determining a person's status lol)
I believe a few others have mentioned black levels not being optimal on the N10. I myself don't really see it as a problem, but then again I rarely watch videos. I believe Contrast itself might be a better option to modify over Brightness, but I'm pretty sure Contrast isn't adjustable currently.
Possibly when Kernel development matures enough, we may be able to modify screen settings, but I don't think we're there quite yet. Maybe some video players might have an option for adjustments?

Those frequenting here have varying social skills. Be tolerant.
Suggest posting some pics of screen's black level, alongside another device used as a baseline. A thousand words and all that.
Also suggest searching Play store for "display settings" and try out the various widget/apps available.

That's seriously put me off buying this tablet now.
A poor black level can ruin video quality. I know this because my laptops black level is shocking bad, picture below.
Now I might either get a Note 10.1 or wait for something with a high res screen and a good black level.

Haha you guys are funny.
Anyway back to the original question, this device has a LCD screen, and like most LCD TVs, the black is not as black as you'd like or you would see on a PlasmaTV or Amoled screen.
If black levels are highly important to you, i'm sorry to say you bought the wrong device.

Ok, so I took a previous poster's advice and got a hold of an iPad3 with Retina Display and compared it against the N10. The difference was not as significant as I thought it might be. Ultimately, I didn't think either producing razor sharp images with inky blacks and that is because they don't my own HDTV's (LED) in my home along with my home theater projector crush both devices. Why? Well, first, I wasn't aware that the contrast ratio was so poor on all the tablet devices. Most of my other products have something like a 50,000:1 contrast ratio whereas the tablets are around 1000:1, a very big difference. Also, I'm accustomed to watching BluRays on those displays. BluRay quality just doesn't seem to exist on these tablets right now. So was I expecting too much from the N10? Yes.
Spending some time with both devices side-by-side allowed me to sort of critique both on my own terms and decide which one I like best. I'm probably an atypical user so my opinions here are my own and I don't expect others to find the same items valuable.
1. Display - the iPad wins here, but not by as much as I might have thought. Whites are more warm and not as bright on the N10 when compared to the iPad. Blacks are also better on the iPad, but I expected it to be a dramatic difference. It wasn't. I've included some images to this post that will help you see the difference a bit more. There are some images where the difference looks very pronounced, but that is the digital camera really exposing the faults of the N10 and making them appear more significant. I wouldn't say that is the case in reality. Also, something you'll notice from the images is the light leak. It is there on the N10, but not on the iPad. Too bad Samsung couldn't have done a better job here. It would have made it appear as a more quality product.
2. Form Factor - I find the form factor of the iPad better than the N10. I like to use portrait mode more often than most I think and the iPad gives you more space to work from horizontally when doing so. This makes web browsing much easier and I actually feel more cramped using the N10 to browse via landscape. I would MUCH prefer the N10 to have the iPad's shape.
3. Weight - I would have never thought 50 grams or whatever it is would make a difference, but to me it does and the N10 is a clear winner here. After handling both devices for some time I simply enjoyed holding the N10 more. The lightness made for a more enjoyable experience.
4. Rubber Backing - When I saw on this on the N10 I thought it was sort of a gimmick, but I really like it. Again, it just seems to feel more comfortable holding it.
5. Heat - I have no idea why, but the back of the iPad got pretty hot while using it. The N10 had some slight warmth, but ever since I've used it it has stayed relatively cool.
6. Speakers - The N10 really crushes the iPad here. The front two speakers are awesome and can push out good volume. Going back to the iPad with its rear mono speaker almost feels silly in comparison.
7. Web Browsing - The winner here is the iPad. Pages came up more quickly, they are easier to scroll through (only slightly), and are displayed better. In portrait mode the clear winner is the iPad since you have more horizontal space to work with, something I like.
8. Off-axis viewing - Not that you ever really need this because tablets are really made for a one person audience to be looking at the device head-on, but I did notice it. For whatever reason the iPad had a better image once you move off-axis from the device. The N10 was washed out more quickly as you moved off-axis.
9. Bugs - Oh man, Jelly Bean has them. I have essentially the base image on the N10 and I've already seen the battery information incorrect (stuck), freezes, my folders just disappearing after the device becoming frozen, and some other very quirky things. The iPad in comparison was stable. The iPad just feels a bit like driving a Lexus. It doesn't really do much to excite you, but it does what it is designed to do and does it well. The N10 is probably more like a BMW X6. Is it a sports car or an SUV? No one really knows. It does some things that are really neat, but in other categories it sort of falls apart. Just my own silly analogy.
So which will I keep. Based on all the criteria above I would say it is very close and probably a tie in my mind, but I'm leaning toward the N10. I'm not sure why, but I struggle a great deal with going to a closed environment like the iPad is. It feels boring to me and I just think I might enjoy tinkering with the N10 more. If I give it more thought I might change my mind, but for the moment this is where my head is.
I hope all this might help someone. If anyone has any questions about the comparison or the images please feel free to ask.

A lot people seem to crank the brightness even when they don't need it. The N10 with the back light turned up definitely has poor black levels but it's actually pretty decent when below 40%(more comfortable to view also)

I agree. I'm totally unimpressed by the video quality of Nexus 10. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here, but my older Galaxy Tab 2 P3100 had much better video quality than this. The colors are totally messed up and the it just seems bland and boring.
Frankly, I don't think this is an iPad killer in anyway, and I'm not an apple fanboy either. I had to download apps just to get the Volume to a reasonable level eventhough it has stereo. Wow, the ipad claims much less but delivers more, Nexus 10 claims tall but falls short.
Thinking about getting back the iPad 4 if the Nexus doesn't grow on me. Sorry, Nexus. Android has failed you :crying:

JPW1 said:
Most of my other products have something like a 50,000:1 contrast ratio whereas the tablets are around 1000:1, a very big difference.
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The 50,000:1 contrast ratio is actually dynamic contrast ratio. How dark the screen is at it's lowest brightness and how bright the screen is at it's highest brightness. It's really just a marketing gimmick.
The real static contrast ratio could be anywhere between 1000-5000:1. Not a huge difference at all.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23137918

Looking at your screenshots I can definitely say you have the brightness set waaaayyy to high on the Nexus 10. Turn it down and the picture will be drastically better.

And for the other little problems you have to wait some time. Most of them will be gone with the first good custom roms/kernels. The device is still brand new.

I tried both the Transformers and Ice Age films streaming from google play, and I thought the video was pretty poor. Wifi signal was strong.

Video quality from all the streaming services I've used on Android have relatively poor quality. If you are attempting to benchmark the device's fidelity then I suggest making a high bit rate rip of a Blu-Ray
The high bit rate 1080p and 1440p videos I've seen look pretty great, but I agree videos from streaming services look pretty awful in terms of both blurriness and contrast.
Also, the hardware decoders like most devices do not have as high of picture quality as some software decoder. For instance, for the same video the hw decoder will look softer than the sw decoder in MX Player

Can someone please find photos of display, up very close? for V.small text?

Not a single review has produced a picture like this yet
http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_327/it_photo_163531_52.png (but that's old)
I want to see the S3 vs S4 display on REALLY small text.
Check out this website on the phone, scroll to the bottom and choose "full page" http://www.theage.com.au/ the 'non mobile' version looks like crap on an S3 due to the pentile DPI being not high enough. - I'd love to know the S4 vs S3 on ultra fine text.
Unfortunately NO ONE is taking shots like this in review, sigh

wizzbang3 said:
Not a single review has produced a picture like this yet
http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_327/it_photo_163531_52.png (but that's old)
I want to see the S3 vs S4 display on REALLY small text.
Check out this website on the phone, scroll to the bottom and choose "full page" http://www.theage.com.au/ the 'non mobile' version looks like crap on an S3 due to the pentile DPI being not high enough. - I'd love to know the S4 vs S3 on ultra fine text.
Unfortunately NO ONE is taking shots like this in review, sigh
Click to expand...
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I may be getting one ahead of retail release, will try and get those photos. I cannot believe that at a DPI of 441 anything is visibly noticeable to the naked eye, so for myself I'm not getting hung up on this.

NZtechfreak said:
I may be getting one ahead of retail release, will try and get those photos. I cannot believe that at a DPI of 441 anything is visibly noticeable to the naked eye, so for myself I'm not getting hung up on this.
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Your effort would REALLY be appreciated - no damn reviewer online is competent enough to do it.
Ideally
S3, S4, Iphone 5 and HTC One all at similar range on the same web page- specifically the S3 vs the S4 though, as they are such comparable phones.
I've heard people speculate pentile can be as bad as "40% worse" then same DPI of a normal display
So 1920x1080 - 40% = only 1152x648
Food for thought
(I've also heard 20% worst, 25% worse and 33% worse)

wizzbang3 said:
Your effort would REALLY be appreciated - no damn reviewer online is competent enough to do it.
Ideally
S3, S4, Iphone 5 and HTC One all at similar range on the same web page- specifically the S3 vs the S4 though, as they are such comparable phones.
I've heard people speculate pentile can be as bad as "40% worse" then same DPI of a normal display
So 1920x1080 - 40% = only 1152x648
Food for thought
(I've also heard 20% worst, 25% worse and 33% worse)
Click to expand...
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I wouldn't say it's worse in a percentage like that
it still has 1920x1080 blue and red subpixels, it just shares the greens as far as I'm aware of

wizzbang3 said:
- I'd love to know the S4 vs S3 on ultra fine text.
Unfortunately NO ONE is taking shots like this in review, sigh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't have a good camera and definitively no macro mode, so it might not help, but here is my two cents:
- picture from S4 hpics.li/edae2bd
- picture from HTC One : hpics.li/c745d54
- and the same on S3 : hpics.li/bcb10ce
[Sorry, not allowed to post attachements and/or URL, so copy paste]
My own opinion: can't seems to distinguish any pixel on S4 and One, but as screen is brighter on One and less blurry, seems better.
PS : whole screen just to see how small it is, so very difficult to read with eyes : hpics.li/5e304c3
[Edit: Use copy paste in browser to see pictures. If someone can make a post with inner pictures, feel free to do this]

I really liked the sgs3 display. It wasn't the brightest, nor the sharpest, but any pixelation caused by the pentile layout seemed to be very round and subtle in comparison to pixelation caused by rgb pixels... maybe just me though.

pYlOne75 said:
Doesn't have a good camera and definitively no macro mode, so it might not help, but here is my two cents:
- picture from S4 hpics.li/edae2bd
- picture from HTC One : hpics.li/c745d54
- and the same on S3 : hpics.li/bcb10ce
[Sorry, not allowed to post attachements and/or URL, so copy paste]
My own opinion: can't seems to distinguish any pixel on S4 and One, but as screen is brighter on One and less blurry, seems better.
PS : whole screen just to see how small it is, so very difficult to read with eyes : hpics.li/5e304c3
[Edit: Use copy paste in browser to see pictures. If someone can make a post with inner pictures, feel free to do this]
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Click to collapse
Hey thanks man - pics a little shabby due to no proper camera - but got most of what Iwanted answered. The improvement from S3 -> S4 is huge, even if the one is a bit better again, the S4 looks much more usable.
If anyone else can nab some more ultra fine text shots like that with a camera camera, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks man

Right around 4:05 this video shows you a decent shot of the sub-pixel arrangement but nothing stellar. I'm sure as time passes we will get this content.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hdQd5sD2ww

pYlOne75 said:
Doesn't have a good camera and definitively no macro mode, so it might not help, but here is my two cents:
- picture from S4 hpics.li/edae2bd
- picture from HTC One : hpics.li/c745d54
- and the same on S3 : hpics.li/bcb10ce
[Sorry, not allowed to post attachements and/or URL, so copy paste]
My own opinion: can't seems to distinguish any pixel on S4 and One, but as screen is brighter on One and less blurry, seems better.
PS : whole screen just to see how small it is, so very difficult to read with eyes : hpics.li/5e304c3
[Edit: Use copy paste in browser to see pictures. If someone can make a post with inner pictures, feel free to do this]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'
Actually looking at it extensively the colours on the S4 look much worse than the S3 - is the S4 set to low brightness mode perhaps? It's definitely crisper and more readable and less over saturated (good) but almost excessively dull.

MrNineties said:
Right around 4:05 this video shows you a decent shot of the sub-pixel arrangement but nothing stellar. I'm sure as time passes we will get this content.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hdQd5sD2ww
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Yeah I've seen that one before - thanks - but it's actually too close to be honest, you can't really get a good idea of the quality - whereas the other photos in this thread are much more user friendly - close to what the limits of human eyesight can see, that's good / realistic for every day use.

wizzbang3 said:
'
Actually looking at it extensively the colours on the S4 look much worse than the S3 - is the S4 set to low brightness mode perhaps? It's definitely crisper and more readable and less over saturated (good) but almost excessively dull.
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It was set to Auto + 5 for brightness. I took a new pic at high brigthness. And please note that software isn't final yet, so you'll have different settings in final software. Color accuracy might be adapted. And I'm quite sure it will differ from my sample.
New S4 with full brighness : hpics.li/cfaaca1
---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 AM ----------
Two more pictures with my no-macro camera as close as possible.
S4: hpics.li/7ed6128
One: hpics.li/1b76d3c
One full width, just to notice that it shouldn't be a problem on both handsets, even at 5cm of the eyes : hpics.li/2182e11 :cyclops:

Definitely appears to be a superior screen to the S3, no question. I'm pretty convinced I'm snapping one up - thank you!

Xperia Z Review...

I have read a few reviews on the Xperia Z on here. But I would like to give me input .
User Interface:
It is very much like a lighter version of Xperia Gingerbread devices. And looks much nicer in my opinion. Sony has done pretty good in keeping it close to stock while giving there own skin too. The lock screen is fancy although I do miss the lockscreen shortcuts like on Samsung and LG devices.
Speed:
Pretty laggy to start with. Which I am sure you will all agree is not very acceptable for a phone of this much power. But after installing a custom ROM is flies like it should do. I can't tell any major speed differences between this and any other high end smarphones. But it gets me by. And this is making me wonder why I even bother with benchmarks when it is getting more further apart from actual user experience.
Screen:
The screen is gorgeous. I don't look at my phone from the side. Which sounds pretty stupid to me. It is much better than the nexus 4 who's colours look washed out. When it comes to PPI you cant really see a difference to be honest. I am using the display calibrator and my settings are the following: Saturation 3.3 and hue 210. This is the best option for a more balance of colours In my opinion..
Design:
I have no issues with design. I remember watching the following video before I got the phone and thought it was amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3yMw2L3tJA
However. This video is pretty misleading. I dropped my phone on solid concrete about 5 feet high. IT now has a few dents at the bottom. But screen is fine and back has only minor scratches. Of course I bought a case straight away! Apart from that the actual design is sexy! much better than the S3 or even HTC one in my opinion. The flaps are annoying. BUT THEY SERVE A PURPOSE.
Camera: Camera I also have no problems with as I am not a professional photographer. The only complaint is the lostt of fine detail. But in some cases this just helps the photos look more stunning and "smooth". Depedning on your opinion. Burst mode is just too noisy for me. So it'll do for me.
There you have it guys. short and sweet. IF you would like to know my opinion on other features etc. Please do not hesitate to say.
I may be selling this to get the Galaxy note 10.1. As I am a sucker for big displays and to be brutally honest Samsung. I never text or call. just facebook, Internet, whatsapp and youtube.

Very detailed