I have been playing with the Nokia N85 (prototype) and present some more thoughts on the new OLED screen technology used. How does it perform outdoors, specifically in sunlight? Could this be the Achilles Heel of the technology and how big a problem is it? Your thoughts welcomed if you've used a device with an OLED display.
Read on in the full article.
I read/seen somewhere Nokia mentioning both the N96 and N85 will be released in October. The N96 started shipping in September... I wonder if Nokia is using delaying tactics with the n85. I can see n85 being the phone of choice over the n96. Perhaps they are pushing the n96 for early adopters or those who can't wait anymore...
I see OLED pluses far outweigh the minuses. It doesn't even look that bad in the photo... I can still make out what's on the screen. I hope Nokia starts using OLED in all their new N and E series.
An N95 screen isn't all that great in bright sunlight anyway. No great loss.
i was expecting the first fact (direct sunlight), but not, the second one ('always on' power-save clock). doesn't that noticeably reduce standby time? can we call it now 'power-waste' screen? 😉
i mean it's not like with LCD, where *literally* no power is used if the back-light is not on.
also, is it customizable? i guess it would already help if it at least could be inverted (so that only the numbers are visible, not the useless background stripe).
will be a pain for camera phones.
what with camera phones lenses scratching due to not having a cover and now a screen that can't be viewed with sun shining on it we are loosing options here quickly!
what with camera phones lenses scratching due to not having a cover and now a screen that can't be viewed with sun shining on it we are loosing options here quickly!
There are still lots of cameraphones with lens covers, the N79 for example.
But as Steve pointed out in an earlier article, a few scratches on (or near) the surface of the lens don't actually make a noticeable difference to picture quality.
Common sense means you'd think scratches would appear on photos, but when objects get so close to the lens they no longer become visible. The main danger of scratches and dirt on the lens is that the picture becomes too dark overall.
What are these horrible reflective coloured lines on the display? white colour looks more like a rainbow.
@Hardeep: relax, they're just a by product of having to photograph something with grid lines/pixels and then resample down the photos later to fit in the article. Moire fringes? Something like that.
The reality of the N85 screen is stunning.
No screen is going to be perfect everywhere and I generally think the n85 is going to prove to be an immensely popular handset. However, I feel you're being overly cruel to the 8510 - in comparible conditions (based on your photos) my 8510 performs as well as the n85 and only slightly worse than my n95.
After reading your article, i was surprised to see your comment that the screensaver is lit at all times. Hey! thats _exactly_ how OLEDs work, by lighting pixels up so that one can see what is being showed by the device. If the pixels are not lit, technically (in the OLED domain) there is no information to show!!
So it's not surprising that the sceensaver has to be lit. It is a necessity!!
Kaizer
That picture with the sunlit screen looks exactly like my N95-8GB when sunlit.
To be honest i never understood what people are talking about when they say that some screens are readable in sunlight. I can never see anything on any screen under those circumstances.
-sc
I recently bought a thing called an X-Gauge for the dashboard of our Smart. It uses a monochrome OLED display and I noticed the other day that it's perfectly readable in direct sunlight. So I don't think it's necessarily a fundamental problem with the technology, just the N85's implementation of it.
Tzer2,
Scratched lenses work at their worst shooing into the sun - as Steve's article showed. The N85 screen works worst when being viewed with sun behind you. If a phone with a screen like the N85 and no lens cover then the usefulness of the camera would be reduced - shooting would only be at an optimum when the light is from the side and as we all know taking photos is generally better with the light behind. Whether this will affect sales, I doubt it, but this is a genuine point.
As camera phones increase in quality people rely on them more and more - I would like to see people able to capture nice images.... Dismiss my point if you want but people will take less photos or have poorer quality images - like it or not that's the truth. It's hard to judge composition or focus when you can't see the screen.
Everything has a trade off and it often seems that people just ignore something if it does not fit in with what gadget they want to buy next.
In answer to scarcow, here's the N95 in more or less identical full sun. If anything, the sun's brighter today than when I took the N85 one...
So yes, there IS a difference here between the different technologies...
Well, my 5700's screen remains perfectly readable even in bright sunlight. I live in india and we have sunlight all day. I will still buy N85 as i spend more time indoor and colours look stunning on N85. I really liked that cat picture when comparison was done between N85, N95, N95 8gb. N85 wins clearly.
One more question- how much will be the life of N85's AM OLED screen? Is it blue, green or red?
Ketan
...but the pic of the N95 is closer to the camera, so it's screen will show up better. (simple test, the screens are the same size in these devices, they're not the same size in the photos)
oh man, please, grab an n85 when released and test for yourself... in sun n95 is better than n85... just it! tradeoffs! read the text!
Wait... All these comments talking about no lens cover... when did the n85 lose it's lens cover? All of the previews up until now included it as a main bullet point.
@unregistered: no idea about the lens cover thing --????!! The N85 certainly has one.
@stuart: oh give over 8-) The scale of the photo does not change visibility of the screen. Trust me, there's a big difference. However, it's not a total showstopper and adjusting the angle of the device helps.
The power consumption decrease is enough for me on its own.
Steve,
I am sorry I should have made my point clearer as I realise that the N85 has a lens cover. On the N85 the use of this screen does limit the use of its camera. An example of features that don't necessarily work well together but are good marketing bullet points...
I hope the N82 replacement doesn't use the same screen. Or it has an optical view finder!! That would be excellent!! haha i doubt that would happen though!
i'll be picking up this deivce as soon as it comes to america.
there is nowhere else to turn to aside from wm.
slitchfield wrote:And its demonstrably significantly less power hungry, as evidenced by the fact that I haven't charged the prototype N85 in two days and yet it's still showing full bars on the battery gauge. Impressive.
I suddenly remember my 6610 days where I had to charge the phone once in 3 days. Have not experienced that since I switched to Symbian 5 years ago.
Hey, even am interestede to know life of this screen. They say 14000 with 8 hrs usage, whereas with 24 hrs, its going to b even leser no. of days. do throw some light on this. my calculation says appr 560 days, which s pathetic.
OLED is that cool... Imagine having a completely black background i.e. no energy is used to display the pixels and you have a clock with something like this "9:58pm" in white which is 1-2% coverage = 1-2% of energy used compared to backlight technology. Obviously this is over simplified to get the point across but that's why the N85 can have a permanent time screen saver on.
@ Unreg...
My father used to make OLED concepts 10-12 years ago. You're right, their lifespan is horrible. His company ditched their research because of that.
It's discouraging if indeed the lifespan of this oled is that short. Maybe nokia's gonna replace them after it fizzles out?
is now longer than the typical user life of the phone
The reviewer could have wiped the N85 screen off at least before taking photo in direct sunlight. Its like it was left with smudges intentionally to unfairly bias buyers. Very tacky. I dont understand these reviewers with this direct sunlight test. I have no problem seeing my N76 screen in direct sunlight although according to many reviewers it fades greatly in direct sunlight. If I want to take pictures, Ill take them in \from the shade.
1) The battery lasts forever even on full brightness
2) The screen looks better than it does in the photos above!
3) It is highly readable in sunlight on full brightness (doesn't use much energy)
4) Photos/Videos look awesome on the screen