One major Challenging issue, in my opinion,is the screen brightness levels
>>>especially on direct sunlight:
In this interesting link CNET has been doing Screens test of : Galaxy Note 2 vs. Apple iPhone 5
It would be GR8 if we can "custom control mega boost brightness" upon individual use....
and try to get close to iphone 5 outdoor brightness
Anyone willing to face the challenge
,
Thread moved.
I dont know why you misplaced the thread since I know you are a long time user, but pease do not do it again.
XDA Senior Moderator
This confirms my finding that Note 2 no longer has the "immeasurable" black levels like that in S1 and S2! They are more like this year's Panasonic Plasma TVs which is quite a disappointment as I have got used to the true blacks in S1 and S2 and they look quite gray and underwhelming in Note 2 even if latter has better accuracy and resolution. Also the viewing angles are significantly compromised with off axis bluish tint which dint exist in S1 or S2 either. Poor show Samsung!
Samsung annonced officially, the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini.
it has 4.3" qHD disply, android 4.2.2 but with out most of the features of S4 (like no double shot, no 360 panorama), has S Health but with out S4 sensors like temperature sensor, barometer and humidity sensor
chipset is most likely Snapdragon 400 at 1.7Ghz with 1.5Gb of RAM and internal storage is 8Gb with Micro SD card slot for expanding it.
rest of connectivity options and usual, wifi, bluetooth,GPS with GLONASS etc...
also has IR blaster for remote controlling.
the phone has dimensions of 124.6 x 61.3 x 8.94mm and weighs 107g which is cool
battery is user replacable and is 1900mAh.
no word on pricing. samsung will show it off on June 20 and most likely to reveal pricing then.
available color options are Black Mist and White Frost.
i kinda like it except the qHD screen. it should have been at least 720p but all its success depends on its pricing.
what do u guys think?
The SIII Mini always struck me as a bit pointless, having neither the spec to appeal to those that like phones with a bit of muscle or the price point for those that want a decent phone on a budget. It didn't really satisfy anyone and I have a sneaky feeling we're going to see more of the same with this.
Definitely not more of the same, but then the s3 mini was especially useless. Rumors/leaks have the ATT version of the s4 mini at 720p (presumably pentile, but no confirmation). But gsmarena just confirmed that the version announced for europe is NOT pentile. It's got the same RGB s stripe as the Note 2. At 4.25" with qHD, it has a very respectable 259ppi that is at least as sharp as a Galaxy S3, and maybe slightly sharper. I'd almost as soon have RGB qHD as 720p pentile, so at least I know for sure what I'm getting. It comes with air view and multiwindow, which is kinda surprising.
http://www.androidbeat.com/2013/05/gs4-mini-720p/
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_mini-review-932.php
If this is $300, I'm gonna be very happy. If $350, I'm gonna be a little happy. If $400, I'm gonna be not very happy, but might get it anyway.
fortunz said:
Definitely not more of the same, but then the s3 mini was especially useless. Rumors/leaks have the ATT version of the s4 mini at 720p (presumably pentile, but no confirmation). But gsmarena just confirmed that the version announced for europe is NOT pentile. It's got the same RGB s stripe as the Note 2. At 4.25" with qHD, it has a very respectable 259ppi that is at least as sharp as a Galaxy S3, and maybe slightly sharper. I'd almost as soon have RGB qHD as 720p pentile, so at least I know for sure what I'm getting. It comes with air view and multiwindow, which is kinda surprising.
http://www.androidbeat.com/2013/05/gs4-mini-720p/
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4_mini-review-932.php
If this is $300, I'm gonna be very happy. If $350, I'm gonna be a little happy. If $400, I'm gonna be not very happy, but might get it anyway.
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I saw it in a video (closely), and it's not as sharp as S3.
I don't know but it's clueless to compare the number of subpixels to say which is sharper.
With the lower ppi, Note 2 is still a little bit sharper than S3 because they scale it the same as S3 (by adjusting ppi) and no pentile effect on Note 2. But they cannot do the same on a smaller screen like S4 mini-
hung2900 said:
I saw it in a video (closely), and it's not as sharp as S3.
I don't know but it's clueless to compare the number of subpixels to say which is sharper.
With the lower ppi, Note 2 is still a little bit sharper than S3 because they scale it the same as S3 (by adjusting ppi) and no pentile effect on Note 2. But they cannot do the same on a smaller screen like S4 mini-
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Click to collapse
It's clueless to think you can make a screen sharper through scaling (presumably, you meant adjusting "dpi"). And to claim subpixels have nothing to do with sharpness but still hail the Note 2's lack of a pentile effect as responsible for it's sharpness. What do you think the pentile effect is? And to think you can divine screen sharpness through an encoded web video. Trust me, you can't.
You can pixelate software elements through improper scaling, but you can't sharpen a low density screen through software scaling. For example if you zoom in enough (a form of 'scaling') on a small image even viewing it on a super sharp screen, yeah, it'll look bad, but that's not the screen's problem. If you've got a low density screen, the sharpest of images will look crappy no matter how you scale them. The S4 mini is sharp for the same reason the Note 2 looks sharp: because they share the same complete RGB matrix and almost the same density.
Pentile is nothing more or less than false advertising, a way of artificially inflating the raw spec. It's not the worst thing in the world, it just requires a much higher purported ppi to reach the same sharpness as an RGB matrix screen.
Again like the S3 mini, Samsung is trying to milk more money out of the S4 series but now targeting the mid-range side. Average consumers will probably buy this as there is an "S4" tag on it and is much cheaper than it's big brother.
fortunz said:
It's clueless to think you can make a screen sharper through scaling (presumably, you meant adjusting "dpi"). And to claim subpixels have nothing to do with sharpness but still hail the Note 2's lack of a pentile effect as responsible for it's sharpness. What do you think the pentile effect is? And to think you can divine screen sharpness through an encoded web video. Trust me, you can't.
You can pixelate software elements through improper scaling, but you can't sharpen a low density screen through software scaling. For example if you zoom in enough (a form of 'scaling') on a small image even viewing it on a super sharp screen, yeah, it'll look bad, but that's not the screen's problem. If you've got a low density screen, the sharpest of images will look crappy no matter how you scale them. The S4 mini is sharp for the same reason the Note 2 looks sharp: because they share the same complete RGB matrix and almost the same density.
Pentile is nothing more or less than false advertising, a way of artificially inflating the raw spec. It's not the worst thing in the world, it just requires a much higher purported ppi to reach the same sharpness as an RGB matrix screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think you understand my opinion, maybe due to my bad English. To say clearer, what I mean is the Note 2's screen's scale is basically the same as Galaxy S3 with the same 320 dpi - zooming from 4.8 to 5.55 inch. This means, a same font of texts, a word with a length of 120 pixels on S3 (1/6 of the total length) is still 120 pixels on Note 2 (also 1/6 of the total length), but 15.625% bigger in real-size (what you actually see). So is the result is what you can see clear on S3, you can see it CLEARER on Note 2. That's is the technichque Samsung usually implements, like on Note 8.0 that make it much more sharper than iPad mini in browsing. If we compare a same line of texts with 5mm of "real size", the result from a screen like One X basically has 18% more pixels to illustrate the detail of the text, which results in being clearer than Note 2. And if you really have a Note 2 (i'm using it), when visiting some websites in desktop mode (like xda forum, lol), the text is very small and not crisp anymore.
But how about Galaxy S4 Mini? "The S4 mini is sharp for the same reason the Note 2 looks sharp"? OK, now we will consider the same thing as Note 2 above. For a line of texts equivalent to 1/6 total length of the screen, it takes only 93.33 pixels, which means noticeably less than S3 and Note 2 with smaller "real size" also, so it cannot be as sharp as S3. And in fact, Samsung did rescale from 320dpi to 240 dpi on Galaxy S4 Mini, which also means for a same font of texts, the number of pixels for displaying increases about 15.3%, so from 93.33 pixels I said above now it is appox. 108 pixels, which is not too far from Galaxy S3, and the payoff is the screen is cramped. So we cannot say "because Note 2 is sharp so Galaxy S4 Mini is also sharp"
About Pentile screen, it is not totally "nothing more or less than false advertising", but more like "false understanding of the major and the misleading criticisms". Why? Because most of people don't understand what is "Pentile". In fact, this "technology" can ONLY be used on OLED (AMOLED) technogy, which has the uneven luminance and lumious time of different color subpixels. Even experts cannot show the "exactly" ppi of an Pentile Amoled screen (because even with Pentile, different stripes layout leads to different result), while some people try to do an easier way that comparing the total number of subpixels, which is totally false. In fact, Galaxy S4 has 623 subpixels/inch, slightly higher than Blackberry Z10 (615) and iPhone 5 (565), but it is MUCH more sharper and not really different from the normal RGB 1080p screen like Xperia Z.
With Pentile screen, the main culprit of all criticism is not the lack of subpixels, but the uneven scale of pixels (because they're not real pixels) and uneven big-small gaps redundant. That's why they call the subpixels layout of S4 is innovative while still Pentile, because it is much much better than the traditional matrix on Galaxy S3 and together with the high ppi reduces most of Pentile problem (in fact, with traditional matrix, even with 441 ppi probably there will be something there)
Does or can S4 Mini have stock or by a custom rom have Air & Motion gestures ??
AndyTimE said:
Does or can S4 Mini have stock or by a custom rom have Air & Motion gestures ??
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No, the sensor isn't there.
i wish this could be my next phone
I'm considering this too as my next phone.
Compact, powerful, enough RAM and a non-pentile qHD display.
mpokwsths said:
I'm considering this too as my next phone.
Compact, powerful, enough RAM and a non-pentile qHD display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was recently announced that CM10.1 is being prepared for i9195 version. Is there any info of whether it will also be supported for i9190 international version (without LTE and NFC)?
I also suppose we need a separate ROOT thread for it as nor 9192 neither 9195 procedures might fit.
mpokwsths said:
I'm considering this too as my next phone.
Compact, powerful, enough RAM and a non-pentile qHD display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too
But only if i will find it around to 300€ in next months, and if there will be a good support on XDA
Hi Is there usb otg on galaxy s4 mini ?
KaptanJack026 said:
Hi Is there usb otg on galaxy s4 mini ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at the moment. MHL isn't supported either.
metaxaos said:
It was recently announced that CM10.1 is being prepared for i9195 version. Is there any info of whether it will also be supported for i9190 international version (without LTE and NFC)?
I also suppose we need a separate ROOT thread for it as nor 9192 neither 9195 procedures might fit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No info. There isn't a root for the 9190 yet - the 9192 and 9195 procedures do not work on the 9190 and will probably brick your device.
hello, does anyone know when this phone will be available in the usa? can not find any info on this
if this is in the wrong forum please move, thanks
Which phone should i buy? sIII or s4 mini
Get the S4 mini if you want to future-proof yourself.
The S3 mini specifications are quite outdated
Whosat said:
Get the S4 mini if you want to future-proof yourself.
The S3 mini specifications are quite outdated
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Click to collapse
No, i said between the normal s3 4.7" and s4mini. S3is cheaper here and has more ROMs and development
soraxx said:
No, i said between the normal s3 4.7" and s4mini. S3is cheaper here and has more ROMs and development
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Click to collapse
Hmm, you've mentioned the main benefit of getting the S3 I guess.
Also, the S3 has quad-core as opposed to the dual-core S4 mini. S3 has 1 GB of ram only though.
There are also more accessories for the S3 than for the S4 mini because the mini has a smaller market and is also a newer device.
S5 didn't really excite me as much as previous galaxy releases but I would still be willing to upgrade if the outdoor visibility has improved even a bit, which is something they claimed. Can anyone that has the phone or has played with it (outdoors or at least near a window with the sun up) confirm that it has better outdoor visibility when compared to S4? If it IS better, is the difference negligible or comparable to that of an IPS LCD?
e: been looking online for reviews and hands-on videos but none seem to touch on the topic
e2: Found an article finally. All signs point to a much better screen all around
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...-OLED-screen-to-date-can-hit-698-nits_id54767
cl_l said:
S5 didn't really excite me as much as previous galaxy releases but I would still be willing to upgrade if the outdoor visibility has improved even a bit, which is something they claimed. Can anyone that has the phone or has played with it (outdoors or at least near a window with the sun up) confirm that it has better outdoor visibility when compared to S4? If it IS better, is the difference negligible or comparable to that of an IPS LCD?
e: been looking online for reviews and hands-on videos but none seem to touch on the topic
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Click to collapse
The S4 has the lowest glare coefficient of any device DisplayMate has seen. The S5 will most likely be better.
I did a bit of research on this today. Even posted a similar question just minutes after you did.
The S5 has 500 nits brightness. The S4 struggled to hit 300 nits. So, the S5 should be ~40% brighter. As long as the screen isn't overly reflective, then the S5 should be light years better for daylight / sunlight visibility.
What I'd like to know is how it compares to the Note 3 which is the current leader [for Android] when it comes to daylight visibility. I'd also like to know how the S5 compares with the Xperia Z2.
S4 has the lowest light reflection coefficient (least glare) of anything ever tested at DisplayMate. They haven't tested the Note 3, but with the higher brightness I guarantee the S5 will be on top.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
SolarTrans said:
S4 has the lowest light reflection coefficient (least glare) of anything ever tested at DisplayMate. They haven't tested the Note 3, but with the higher brightness I guarantee the S5 will be on top.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Sounds great. I don't know about other people but in the Miami sun it's usually hard to see my S4 on auto-brightness with power saving turned off
Ah. It's brightness was fairly low, but the glare was also insanely low. With the S5 being so bright, it should be pretty good
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
cl_l said:
S5 didn't really excite me as much as previous galaxy releases but I would still be willing to upgrade if the outdoor visibility has improved even a bit, which is something they claimed. Can anyone that has the phone or has played with it (outdoors or at least near a window with the sun up) confirm that it has better outdoor visibility when compared to S4? If it IS better, is the difference negligible or comparable to that of an IPS LCD?
e: been looking online for reviews and hands-on videos but none seem to touch on the topic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its way brighter outdoor.
One review I read said that the M8 on auto was impossible to use in the sun with polarized sunglasses. The S5 has had no issues on everything I've read.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
SolarTrans said:
One review I read said that the M8 on auto was impossible to use in the sun with polarized sunglasses. The S5 has had no issues on everything I've read.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far so good for me on the S5.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
Found this article and remembered posting a question here. For those of you that are still curious: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...-OLED-screen-to-date-can-hit-698-nits_id54767
Samsung Display also talks about things like the diamond pixel arrangement of the display, and its power efficiency (27 percent more efficient than Full HD LCD displays of the same size). It’s basically another confirmation, this time from the horse’s mouth, that the Galaxy S5 has one of the nicest displays ever seen on a smartphone, and also goes to show how far Samsung’s AMOLED displays have come in a matter of four years.
Hi there,
After 3-4 months with my yotaphone 2 I want to share my experiences with it's and other display technologies...
Yotaphone 2 has a very good OLED display. I directly compared it to Samsung Galaxy S4 / S5 and my new Xiaomi Redmi Pro 32GB/3GB version (not to confuse with Xiami Redmi Note 3/4 pro which use IPS LCDs).
S4 / S5 / Yotaphone 2 seem to have the same display panel. Colors and overall image match 99% (they are great). Just the S4 and S5 seem to allow a higher brightness than the yotaphone 2 does. On the other hand yotaphone 2 allows you to go very dark while keeping a good image quality.
Compared to Xiaomi Redmi Pro (chinese OLED) the redmi pro doesn't convince too much. Especially green colors on the redmi pro look somewhat synthetic. Red is OK but not as embracing as on Yotaphone 2. Other colors seem similarily good.
Furthermore (not that much hardware related) yotaphone 2 has a perfect automated brightess control. The best i've seen yet. With S4/S5 and redmi pro I always need to fine-tune in some situations because of auto brightess reacting slowly or brightness going max when not needed.
Maybe someone here or out there on the interwebz cares about comparison of OLED technology displays. They are NOT the same. My opinion:
Most tests / reviews only state that there's LCD and OLED with some of their pros and cons. That's all. But of course there are differences in OLED technologies. Chinese OLED's like that of the redmi pro tend to being not that advanced. They feature sharp image and high resolution but color / black and overall image quality don't match advanced OLEDs like samsung's I would say they reach about 80% of samsung's / yotaphones display quality.
Nice info. Thanks for sharing.
On my side I have to admit that I am deeply impressed with some feautures of my Yotaphone 2, being one the AMOLED display. Although it is not as good as the one I had with my Samsung Note 4, something quite expected, as the other one was one of the top displays with better pixel density and area.
The only complain for the panel might be the maximun brightness that it is also lower to top samsung ones and that the display shows some more reflections that those, making it a little worse on direct sunlight. I also tend to believe that this display tends to be a little more energy conservative than the top Samsung ones, as with a smaller battery, I usually get better screen time than with those Samsung top models (which have a better/bigger screen, but also a bigger battery).
Anyway, it is one of the top displays I've seen.
Best regards,