Around 36 hours ago, Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 4 to the world - excellent build materials on it, but I believe that they - and Nokia - and others - are missing an important trick: what happens when you take your oh-so-portable smartphone out into the world. A world where the birds are singing, the people are smiling and the sun is shining. And you can't see a blessed thing on your smartphone's display. Returning to a theme from exactly a year ago, I compare some recent device displays to prove a very, very important point.
Read on in the full article.
Is there any reason why an IPS display should be incompatible with a transflective layer? I know Apple omitted it from the iPad but I see no reason for them to skip it on the iPhone, a device which is much more likely to be used outdoors.
Steve and his sunlight tests with sun, 1000W halogen behind him and awkward positions.
How can you possibly know the iPhone 4 will not perform as well on sunlight? Have you or anyone else tested it? No.
Knowing Apple do you really believe that they will go backwards?
I'm not an Apple fan but I seriously doubt it. This not Nokia we're dealing here.
There is no way they will go from the 3GS which is excellent outdoors to the new device with inferior performance.
This is wishful thinking on your part. Desperately trying to find faults with the new iPhone.
I am afraid you'll eat a lot crow when the iPhone is released.
Unregistered wrote:How can you possibly know the iPhone 4 will not perform as well on sunlight? Have you or anyone else tested it? No.
Knowing Apple do you really believe that they will go backwards?
I'm not an Apple fan but I seriously doubt it. This not Nokia we're dealing here.
There is no way they will go from the 3GS which is excellent outdoors to the new device with inferior performance.
This is wishful thinking on your part. Desperately trying to find faults with the new iPhone.
I am afraid you'll eat a lot crow when the iPhone is released.
Another example of extreme negativity towards AAS there. At no point in his text did Steve directly write that the iPhone 4 will have poor screen visibility in sunlight. He stated that an IPS screen is hard to see, and that the iPhone 4 has IPS, but made no direct comment about how the iPhone 4 performs. You are desperately trying to find faults in Steve's work, so get your own crow and season it, your lunch is ready.
The thing that puzzles me is my cheap compact digital camera. It has an LCD screen that is perfectly visible in all lighting conditions including direct sunlight, how does it do it?
slitchfield wrote:And I just do not see why manufacturers continue to ignore this problem.
Maybe because it isn't that big a problem? Or the number of complaints/potential sales they would gain doesn't warrant their investment?
It'd be interesting to know how high up 'sunlight performance' is on people's priority list when choosing a phone?
Fantastic piece of article!
As far as touchscreen oriented phones are concerned, outdoor readability is an absolute nightmare.
I have yet to use a touch based device that I can easily type and read a text message, I sure hope that the next best technology would be enough to address this issue.
The old Palm PDAs of the olden days have fairly good screens on direct sunlight, I can still use the whole functionality of the device without ever having to squint a bit.
The worst touchscreen on direct sunlight I must say is the SE P990i, you can hardly see a character.
Tacsiyapo!
HI with the new Super Amoled you have no problems with sunlight!
Check out:
http://www.oled-display.net/super-amoled
How about power consumption and battery life, the bane of the modern smart phone user? Or dramatically worse contrast ratios?
AMOLED displays have significantly reduced power consumption, especially when combined with smart UI design (e.g. dimming of non-focus areas of the screen, for example around a dialogue box).
As with all these things what's important to one person is less important to another. Steve places high importance to sunlight readability, others are happy to forgo it for improved battery life and dramatically improved contrast ratios.
"Steve places high importance to sunlight readability" Every pundit I listen to on podcasts and the like, they ALL complain that their otherwise wonderful touchscreen phones can't really be used outdoors. It's not just me. 8-)
Surely the whole POINT of a smartphone is that it lets us take our computing power out into the world, not just cowering in an office or living room?
Sure they may complain but again, how important is having a sunlight-legible screen in the scheme of things?
I'd like to have a better screen, be twenty years younger and hung like a baboon but you learn to cope...
How important is it? are you for real?
Even if you're out and about and want to order dinner it's next to impossible because we cant read the screen. I know as I do this every day.
slitchfield wrote:"Surely the whole POINT of a smartphone is that it lets us take our computing power out into the world, not just cowering in an office or living room?
It certainly is the point of being able to use the phone as a camera, which is one of the core strengths of the N8. How good is a camera if it has no viewfinder and you can't see what you are framing on the screen in good weather when you are more likely to be out using a camera.
And when you are likely to be out in the sun using the maps to navigate, trying to read the screen.
Dazzy wrote:How important is it? are you for real?Even if you're out and about and want to order dinner it's next to impossible because we cant read the screen. I know as I do this every day.
Ummm... yeah, I'm for real.
If you need your phone to order dinner and it's next to impossible because you can't read the screen, could I suggest a different restaurant/takeaway or a different phone?
morpheus2702 wrote:Ummm... yeah, I'm for real.If you need your phone to order dinner and it's next to impossible because you can't read the screen, could I suggest a different restaurant/takeaway or a different phone?
There are better real world examples, as personally I find that booking a restaurant table depends mostly on the speech capabilities of the phone, rather than the screen.
The aforementioned maps and cameras illustrate the problem better.
morpheus2702 wrote:Ummm... yeah, I'm for real.If you need your phone to order dinner and it's next to impossible because you can't read the screen, could I suggest a different restaurant/takeaway or a different phone?
You can't be for real.
I've yet to find a current phone that has a screen thats readily visible in strong sunlight. Its mildly irritating to have to walk into the shade in order to see who's calling, read/send a text.
My Panasonic camera is absolutely fine for daylight viewing - no problems whatsoever. So why is it so apparently difficult for such an effect on a mobile?
morpheus2702 wrote:I'd like to have a better screen, be twenty years younger and hung like a baboon but you learn to cope...
Finally we get to the root cause of your apparent issues.
clonmult wrote:My Panasonic camera is absolutely fine for daylight viewing - no problems whatsoever. So why is it so apparently difficult for such an effect on a mobile?
Touch screen is the problem I think. I still have some aincient Nokia dumb phones that are prefectly readable in direct sun, indeed my old N70 is.
clonmult wrote:You can't be for real.I've yet to find a current phone that has a screen thats readily visible in strong sunlight. Its mildly irritating to have to walk into the shade in order to see who's calling, read/send a text.
My Panasonic camera is absolutely fine for daylight viewing - no problems whatsoever. So why is it so apparently difficult for such an effect on a mobile?
Umm seriously, yes, I am for 'real'. I 'Shizzle ma nizzle' and all that funky stuff.
I'm not arguing the fact that walking in the shade is 'mildly irritating'. I'm just asking is it, for instance, in the top three considerations you take into account when buying a phone?
You have me down to a tee but I'm coping. 😊
morpheus2702 wrote:You have me down to a tee but I'm coping. 😊
You'll be pleased to know that there is nothing particularly impressive about baboon phallus. I've no idea why that expression is used.
Unregistered wrote:You'll be pleased to know that there is nothing particularly impressive about baboon phallus. I've no idea why that expression is used.
Best post... ever! 😊😊😊😊😊
I need to update my CV. How does a carthorse rate?
The N93i's display was transflective, giving the good outdoor visibility (even in direct Sunlight) and telltale rainbowing typical of that display tech. I used the N93 as my primary phone for a good few years until my need for a headphone socket and microSDHC slot combined with a desire for a larger screen for web browsing and pushed me towards at 5800 (which is one of the worst touchscreen TFTs for outside usage in my experience, no visibility in direct sunlight and limited visibility even in shaded outside conditions).
With that said, the 5800 display also beats every OLED touchscreen I've seen for outdoor visibility so I'd probably rank it lowest on your scale (certainly below typical TFTs). Then again I haven't seen an IPS TFT in direct sunlight that wasn't a mains powered monitor (with anti-glare coating) so maybe that will rank lowest (assuming Apple aren't going to use a transflective version of the tech for their new phone).
The high res screen on the iPhone and decent specs have made me seriously consider giving up on my long-term insistence on open devices, with the Samsung Galaxy S being the dark horse which could offer an alternative with its Super OLED display (although I have yet to see how that tech works outside and it seems to be an advance to just pump out more light itself to slightly mitigate the problem rather than the smarter solution that transflection offers).
No, the N93i had a TFT screen - the N93 had the transflective one etc. Great shame.
A non transflective display is a no go for me.
My wife owns the 5800 (non transflective), I have a N97 (transflective), and the different readability in (bright) sunlight is incredible.
On the 5800 you really can't read a thing, it get's washed out completely, the N97 remains read- and usable which is important to me since I spend a lot of time outdoors.
I thought that SE is the only company that's so far behind that they almost never use transflective screens in their phones, sad to see that others are closing up (or stepping back).
Non transflective? Never ever.
morpheus2702 wrote:Ummm... yeah, I'm for real.If you need your phone to order dinner and it's next to impossible because you can't read the screen, could I suggest a different restaurant/takeaway or a different phone?
LOL and what good would choosing a different restaurant do, you still have to find the number. A transflective layer adds about �5 to the cost of a handset so like Steve argues it's stupid not to add it to ALL phones.
Hi Steve
Please take a look at this video... the second one in Nokia's N8 guided tour...
And compare it with iPhone 4's video editing...
Nokia demonstrates N8 video editing capabilities:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/08/nokia-demonstrates-n8-video-editing-capabilities/
Best regards
Jens Ole
Walk down your local high street and see all the kids on their non-touch phones (Watch carefully or you'll get arrested!). If the manufacturers want them to move on to smartphones they will need to make screens that can be seen in sunlight.
I cannot understand why Nokia offer free navigation when the screens are so bad that one cannot see the map.
Spooner.
I currently use a Nokia N86; the display is very difficult to read in direct sunlight
I've previously used a BlackBerry Curve (transmissive TFT LCD display) which was easy to read under all lighting conditions