Galaxy Note 4: Extremely Accurate Colors

[Sevanw]

I was so sure I was getting my first iPhone with the 6 Plus. But reading some of the threads on this forum has made me take a second look around. More specifically, the Note 4. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm now actually considering a Samsung. Us Windows Phone guys have some issues with Samsung because of their half ass support of Windows phone. But since I've decided to leave that OS and buying my next phone outright, I want to make the right choice first time out. PhoneArena seems to have tested the color accuracy on the Note 4, and it seems pretty darn spot on. This is huge for me. But the Note 4 also seems to have other calibrated screen modes to suit various tastes. The crazy screen resolution, metal frame, stylus, and replaceable battery is just gravy. I took a close look and feel of the Note 3 at BB, and I gotta say the back feels really nice and grippy. Hope the Note 4 has the exact same feel.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Finally-Galaxy-Note-4s-Super-AMOLED-screen-to-have-super-accurate-colors_id60375

 

[pdqgp]

Even the Note 3 was pretty dang good.

http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_Note3_ShootOut_1.htm

 

[Tig Bitties]

The Galaxy S5 was rated the top best smartphone screen ever produced.

So I would expect Samsung to up their game and make the Note 4 even better.

 

[Technarchy]

The Galaxy S5 was rated the top best smartphone screen ever produced.

So I would expect Samsung to up their game and make the Note 4 even better.

The S5 is best AMOLED screen of all time and can easily be compared to LCD screens. A first for this industry. Needs just a touch more brightness for day time use, but not much.

And after experiencing those black levels and contrast, nothing short of the best LCD panels compare.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The S5 is best AMOLED screen of all time and can easily be compared to LCD screens. A first for this industry. Needs just a touch more brightness for day time use, but not much.

And after experiencing those black levels and contrast, nothing short of the best LCD panels compare.

And that's a huge improvement cause I remember how hard you were on the S3 display. LOL

 

[Technarchy]

And that's a huge improvement cause I remember how hard you were on the S3 display. LOL

S4 was better, but still lacking. Note 3 was an obvious breakthrough, but the S5 really took AMOLED into the big time.

The S3, c'mon man. Fast forward a couple of years and everyone should be able to admit now that the S3 screen was pretty bad by any standard.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The S3, c'mon man. Fast forward a couple of years and everyone should be able to admit now that the S3 screen was pretty bad by any standard.

I will admit, I would have a problem going back to that by today's standards. But at the time, the saturation was pretty good when viewing videos. Pictures weren't that great to view on though.

 

[Dreamliner330]

Unless the Note 4 makes a huge leap, I have no idea how anyone could use an AMOLED screen. Uniform sub-pixels >*.

In terms of clarity, I prefer the iPhone 5 screen to the Galaxy S5 screen.

I had too many Android phones with crappy screens. I can see the grain immediately when I look at a GS5.

 

[ritholtz]

Based on the reviews, Samsung putting lot of effort in this direction starting with S5 and note 3. They improved further with S5 LTE-A in bridging the gap with best screen which is iphone. Surprisingly there is not much power consumption penalty with AMOLED with increase in resolution to 2k (S5 vs LTE-A).


http://www.anandtech.com/show/8258/evaluating-samsungs-qhd-amoled-displays

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8314/galaxy-s5-ltea-battery-life-performance

 

[The Game 161]

Note 4 screen is stunning. Easily best one out there for me.

 

[cracksoup]

Unless the Note 4 makes a huge leap, I have no idea how anyone could use an AMOLED screen. Uniform sub-pixels >*.

In terms of clarity, I prefer the iPhone 5 screen to the Galaxy S5 screen.

I had too many Android phones with crappy screens. I can see the grain immediately when I look at a GS5.

That it crazy because there simply isn't any grain. I'm very sensitive about what screen I use, it has to be very sharp. I've never had any problem with my Note 3 at 380ppi. Samsung doesn't use the same pentile matrix as they did on the S3 for example which looks horrible. The S5 has been rated as the best screen on the market by a professional testing lab and I've never heard anyone having complained about the S5 display not being sharp enough.

 

[Dreamliner330]

That it crazy because there simply isn't any grain. I'm very sensitive about what screen I use, it has to be very sharp. I've never had any problem with my Note 3 at 380ppi. Samsung doesn't use the same pentile matrix as they did on the S3 for example which looks horrible. The S5 has been rates as the best screen on the market by a professional testing lab and I've never heard anyone having complained about the S5 display not being sharp enough.

I dunno, I'll have to look again, but it can't even draw a 1 pixel thick straight line because it does not have uniform subpixels. It's like building a house with warped 2x4's.

Click to hear a reviewer note the grain. She has some wonky thoughts once and a while though. But I certainly notice grain on every AMOLED screen I've ever seen (Most palatable on the Note 2, but that resolution was waaaaaay to low for the screen size).

 

[Kiezpirat80]

Here is the full diplay shoot-out from DisplayMate:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/samsung-galaxy-note-4-note-edge-display-t2877199

Best Smartphone Display

With the Galaxy Note 4 there are many significant improvements over the Galaxy Note 3 that we tested a year ago, but also with the Galaxy S5 that we tested in March, and the Galaxy Tab S that we tested in June. The most impressive improvements are in the pixels per inch and resolution, the Absolute Color Accuracy, Peak Brightness and screen readability in High Ambient Light, and display Power Efficiency. See the main Display Shoot-Out Comparison Table for all of the measurements and details.



Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements, the Galaxy Note 4 is the Best performing Smartphone display that we have ever tested. It matches or breaks new records in Smartphone display performance for: Highest Absolute Color Accuracy, Highest Screen Resolution, Infinite Contrast Ratio, Highest Peak Brightness, Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light, and the smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle. Its Color Management capability provides multiple Color Gamuts – a major advantage that is not currently provided by any of the other leading Smartphones. The Galaxy Note 4 delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier display performance: it is the first Smartphone display to ever get all Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in all test and measurement categories (except one Yellow for a Brightness Variation with Average Picture Level) since we started the Display Technology Shoot-Out article Series in 2006, an impressive achievement for a display. The Galaxy Note 4 has again raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch.

 

[Bishope1999]

Unless the Note 4 makes a huge leap, I have no idea how anyone could use an AMOLED screen. Uniform sub-pixels >*.

In terms of clarity, I prefer the iPhone 5 screen to the Galaxy S5 screen.

I had too many Android phones with crappy screens. I can see the grain immediately when I look at a GS5.

But grain where? on the UI?

Grain, is usually a product of movies recorded on films. Film naturally has grain, that isn't a bad thing. Before, with lower resolution movies like DVD, we wouldn't notice the grain as much, but now with higher resolution screen and Blu-ray movies, grain on films will become very aparent. It's not a bad thing because it is the way the movie was filmed. A lower resolution screen will not be able to pick up the grain as well.

Noise, is more so with movies or videos recorded on digital cameras, or photos taken. They will develop noise, depending on the lighting condition and the camera sensor, but the higher resolution of the display, the more the noise will be apparent. If the resolution of the display is lower, it will be harder for it to display grain or digital noise as that information is lost in the down conversion.

Now, grain or noise on the UI of the Galaxy S5 makes almost no sense. I have the GS4 and Samsung didn't add artificial grain or digital noise to the Touchwiz UI, so I'm not sure where are you seeing this "grain." Possibly over sharpening is what you are seeing?

Grain
http://images2.static-bluray.com/reviews/7400_14_1080p.jpg

Noise
http://images2.static-bluray.com/reviews/6518_40_1080p.jpg

 

[clevin]

Unless the Note 4 makes a huge leap, I have no idea how anyone could use an AMOLED screen. Uniform sub-pixels >*.

In terms of clarity, I prefer the iPhone 5 screen to the Galaxy S5 screen.

I had too many Android phones with crappy screens. I can see the grain immediately when I look at a GS5.

every time I picked up a LCD, I see uneven brightness, more obvious with larger screens. It's simply unavoidable.

SuperAMOLED has no such problem, and it's... simply stunning. I had HTC ONE X before, supposedly best LCD at that time, it really cannot compare to the feeling of seeing true "Black".

I get AMOLED is not for everyone, but for me, its a hell better than any LCD.

 

[Shuri]

I was so sure I was getting my first iPhone with the 6 Plus. But reading some of the threads on this forum has made me take a second look around. More specifically, the Note 4. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm now actually considering a Samsung. Us Windows Phone guys have some issues with Samsung because of their half ass support of Windows phone. But since I've decided to leave that OS and buying my next phone outright, I want to make the right choice first time out. PhoneArena seems to have tested the color accuracy on the Note 4, and it seems pretty darn spot on. This is huge for me. But the Note 4 also seems to have other calibrated screen modes to suit various tastes. The crazy screen resolution, metal frame, stylus, and replaceable battery is just gravy. I took a close look and feel of the Note 3 at BB, and I gotta say the back feels really nice and grippy. Hope the Note 4 has the exact same feel.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Fina...-screen-to-have-super-accurate-colors_id60375

I saw this and the work that Samsung has done is amazing. I'm pretty sure Apple and other manufacturers not building own screens would have wanted this screen but simply wouldn't get it from Samsung just yet.

To date I liked the OLEDs screens for the possibilities they offer (e.g.light up only certain areas), but not their overall look. Now I can't wait to get a phone with such an awesome screen on a device not as big as a Note.

 

[Sevanw]

OK I think this pretty much sealed the deal for me. I normally don't care for reviews as most are just opinions. But what I do care about are reviews with actual observable and measurable data. No opinions. Just give me the facts and I'll decide the rest. Thanks to for posting the displaymate shootout above. The good Dr at displaymate has now reviewed the Note 4 and the results are perfect. This guy's got some real credentials as wel, so these results have some solid credibility.

From the article:
"When Automatic Brightness is turned On, the Galaxy Note 4 reaches an impressive 750 cd/m2 in High Ambient Light, where high Brightness is really needed – it is the brightest mobile display that we have ever tested."


http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_Note4_ShootOut_1.htm

 

[spinedoc77]

OK I think this pretty much sealed the deal for me. I normally don't care for reviews as most are just opinions. But what I do care about are reviews with actual observable and measurable data. No opinions. Just give me the facts and I'll decide the rest. Thanks to for posting the displaymate shootout above. The good Dr at displaymate has now reviewed the Note 4 and the results are perfect. This guy's got some real credentials as wel, so these results have some solid credibility.

From the article:
"When Automatic Brightness is turned On, the Galaxy Note 4 reaches an impressive 750 cd/m2 in High Ambient Light, where high Brightness is really needed – it is the brightest mobile display that we have ever tested."


http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_Note4_ShootOut_1.htm

He also talks about the very dim mode, which is important formviewing in the dark?

 

[Oohara]

He also talks about the very dim mode, which is important formviewing in the dark?

That would be awesome. I currently have to use the Screen Filter app to avoid waking up my girlfriend when I read late at night. Usually I bring the brightness down to 50% of the current minimum (Note 2).

 

[spinedoc77]

That would be awesome. I currently have to use the Screen Filter app to avoid waking up my girlfriend when I read late at night. Usually I bring the brightness down to 50% of the current minimum (Note 2).

I thought this was awesome:

"Super Dimming Mode

The Galaxy Note 4 also has a Super Dimming Mode that allows the Maximum Screen Brightness to be set all the way down to just 2 cd/m2 (nits) using the Brightness Slider. This is useful for working comfortably without eye strain or bothering others in very dark environments, or affecting the eye’s dark adaptation, such as when using a telescope. The display still delivers full 24-bit color and the picture quality remains excellent."