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iPhone XS Max Apple OLED vs LCD quality/clarity

Apple's OLED vs. LCD: Which is better/clearer?

  • OLED

    Votes: 137 69.2%

  • LCD

    Votes: 51 25.8%

  • Depends (explain)

    Votes: 11 5.6%
  • Total voters
    198
I prefer OLED because colours are more vibrant but I think resolution is import too. I’m quite sensitive to lower resolution panels. I’ve had my max next to an XR and I found that the text isn’t as sharp and of course the colours are duller.

It’s not just the Xr and the max.

I had an iPad mini 4 and whilst I was on maternity leave I gave it to my cousin who went back to Thailand to teach English. Anyhow now that I’m back at work I needed a smaller tablet for commuting as my iPad Pro is too big. I decided to try out the fire HD 8 as it was on sale for Black Friday, it’s 720p. I lasted 2 weeks before I went and bought new another iPad mini 4. The screen was just too low res for me. Text was blurry and colours were dull and mutted. These screens are both LCD so the issue here is the resolution.
 
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As Askash.nu said in post #1, there is no ‘right’ answer here. Everyone’s perceptions will vary pending what they are used to using for previous displays and how they are able to differentiate the core differences between LCD and OLED.
 
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I honestly don't care either way. I have an OLED iPhone XS and a LCD iPad Pro. Both look great. For the iPhones it comes down to which size you prefer and what your budget allows.
 
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kasakka said:
For the iPhones it comes down to which size you prefer and what your budget allows.
Click to expand...

Very true. General consumers don’t care OLED vs LCD (Let alone they don’t even know the differences between the two), it’s the size they are choosing they are most comfortable with.
 
janeauburn said:
Have the same phones here. To my eye, the 8 Plus looks a tad sharper. Subjectively, it's also often easier to read for some reason.

The obsession with the importance of "true black" that the OLED proponents have is beyond my understanding.
Click to expand...

The benefits of OLED becomes apparent on larger screens like a TV or larger monitor. A 65" OLED is amazing. The way it handles blacks compared to a backlit LED is impressive.

But I agree on a 5" or 6" phone the "True black" is not as important or noticeable.
 
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janeauburn said:
Have the same phones here. To my eye, the 8 Plus looks a tad sharper. Subjectively, it's also often easier to read for some reason.

The obsession with the importance of "true black" that the OLED proponents have is beyond my understanding.
Click to expand...

I'm using a standard 8, so lower resolution and it still looks fantastic.

purged said:
I can imagine them in the living room, the type who chooses the "dynamic" storeroom floor preset on their 4K TV, and then cranks the "color", "contrast" and "sharpness" settings all the way up. Probably leaves motion smoothing on too, and stretches 4:3 content to 16:9. Looks great.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda this guy, although not to this extreme. I like to turn on the Tritanopia (Blue/Yellow) filter under Display Accommodations every once in a while to really crank up the blues on my phone. You wanna talk about colors popping...
 
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You only need to watch a battery life test between LCD phones and OLED phones to see the obvious advantage of OLED screens.

The XR always dies before everything else.
 
OLED is definitely the best display tech currently unless a user suffers from PWM, or values
a lower priced iPhone.

Apple, Samsung, Huawei, LG, Google, Sony, etc., all use OLED displays in their top flagship phones.

OLED does have drawbacks though, it is far from perfect.
 
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OLEDs are mesmerizing, especially the one on the new iPhones. I wished I had one on my laptop lol

And about the Xr battery life - it's the longest not because LCDs are more power efficient but because the phone has fewer pixels, which still plays a role in the battery life. If the OLED iPhones had the same resolution as the Xr, they would be the longest lasting iPhones.

Also not sure if 3D Touch plays a role here.
 
davedvdy said:
OLED is definitely the best display tech currently unless a user suffers from PWM, or values
a lower priced iPhone.

Apple, Samsung, Huawei, LG, Google, Sony, etc., all use OLED displays in their top flagship phones.

OLED does have drawbacks though, it is far from perfect.
Click to expand...

And expensive , probably why the apple flagship iPad Pro has perhaps the best lcd display out there for a tablet.
 
Other than a true black screen I could not tell the difference between OLED and LCD iphones... You can put one of each screen in front of me and I would not be able to tell you which is which.... the OLED screens from Apple are so dull that I really don't see any difference over the LCD at all.
 
Act3 said:
And expensive , probably why the apple flagship iPad Pro has perhaps the best lcd display out there for a tablet.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and Apple makes great LCD displays. The iPad Pro and XR both look very good.

I'm sure pricing plays a role...OLED is far less common in TV's for example. You could buy maybe 2 or 3 Samsung 4K TV's for some of the pricing of OLED sets (not counting their QLED sets which are a lot pricier than the standard UHD ones).
 
alpi123 said:
OLEDs are mesmerizing, especially the one on the new iPhones. I wished I had one on my laptop lol

And about the Xr battery life - it's the longest not because LCDs are more power efficient but because the phone has fewer pixels, which still plays a role in the battery life. If the OLED iPhones had the same resolution as the Xr, they would be the longest lasting iPhones.

Also not sure if 3D Touch plays a role here.
Click to expand...

its actually both. Lower resolution display, but also LED consumes less energy than OLED. especially since iOS UI is white everywhere. If they had a dark mode, there would be power efficiency gains since those pixels are shut off completely. Enough to be overall more power efficient than LED? I honestly dunno. I had a jailbroken X with dark mode, and it definitely helped with battery life... but still enough to surpass XR? Granted it was on ios 11, and my XR ios 12, and jailbreak reduces battery somewhat too running additional stuff but i dont think so...

Also helps that XR battery capacity is close to XS Max,
 
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nickchallis92 said:
Click to expand...

https://www.macworld.com/article/3318198/iphone-ipad/iphone-xr-benchmarks.html

7E27856F-CFED-4DB0-B51E-173EC72FC648.jpeg
 
nickchallis92 said:
You only need to watch a battery life test between LCD phones and OLED phones to seeThe XR always dies before everything else.
Click to expand...

This is a broad stroked statement. You should take the time to research how many members have had stellar battery life on the XR. And we all know, battery life is variable for everyone based off the user and settings.
 
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Call me crazy, but, I prefer Apple’s LCD to any OLED panel, including the one used in the XS Max. For clarification, I used an XS Max for a bit but now use a (Product)RED XR. Loved both, but my wife wanted a Max and I wanted a red XR so I swapped with her and we are both stupid happy with the decision.

OLED is great, don’t get me wrong, and Apple has done some fantastic work to mitigate things like burn-in and such. I like infinite black levels, but I absolutely do not find that a deal-breaker like some do. Also, I’m perfectly fine with 326 PPI on a small display. I’d rather have the added battery gains.

One issue I cannot get past with OLED is black crush/smear. I know most folks won’t care about it that much, and they’d rather have their infinite blacks, but I do a lot of my phoning (that’s a word, right?) in low light, both at home and at work. A side effect of OLED is black crush/smear and it’s absolutely indicative of a technology that just isn’t fully matured yet. For now, and I know I’m in the minority, I’ll take Apple’s LCD if given the option.
 
You only need to watch similar videos that test the 8+ with its LCD screen that also dies in half the time of any OLED product.
 
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