Does the D3 have a pentile screen?

[bplewis24]

I don't believe the D3 and the Atrix have the same type of Pentile screen. I believe the D3 (and DX2) has a RGBW pentile display and the Atrix has a RGBG display.

AnandTech - Motorola Droid X2 Review - A Droid X with Tegra 2

We'll know for sure when Anandtech releases their review of the D3.

Brandon

Atrix's RGBW as well. Since you refer to anandtech - AnandTech - The Motorola Atrix 4G Preview

RGBW or RGBG - pentile is pentile - one pixel on a pentile screen is formed by less than one physical color group.
That's where power savings come from - at this resolution there are 33% less pixels to control compared to classic RGB stripe display.

I've read that review several times...where do you see that they claim it's RGBW?

This is from the DX2 review:

RGBW is a different layout with different purpose, and dare I say different results.

On webpages, RGBW actually looks pretty good, with black text being nice and sharp on a white background. This is one place where RGBG just never could do a perfect job, but RGBW does. I actually have no problem with RGBW for black text on white backgrounds.

In our tests, the X2 results definitely show how much having that white subpixel can help.

Notice how far down the Atrix falls on that graph?

Also, here is the pertinent text from the Atrix review:

Note the ordered grid structure of the subpixels in the iPhone 4's display vs. pattern on the Atrix. PenTile is usually most bothersome when reading text - click the images to see them at full resolution.

Personally I was bothered a bit by text rendering (particularly aliased text on zoomed out web pages) on the qHD screen. For the most part, the qHD display was pleasant to look at and its PenTile upbringings didn't bother me.

Looking at the macro shots it's hard to tell because they aren't shots of the same color, so that's not definitive. But clearly "pentile is [NOT] pentile" as you suggest.

Brandon

 

[bplewis24]

Wait so, is D3's resolution really worse then the D1?

No. Look at the comparison pics of the DX vs the DX2 screens from the Anandtech review and it's clear which is the higher resolution. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4483/motorola-droid-x2-review-a-droid-x-with-tegra-2/5

Brandon

 

[leobg]

It is more than clear on the macro shot Atrix' screen uses pentile subpixel technology in RGBW configuration.
DX2 screen is larger so you shouldn't really compare it with Atrix/D3.

Atrix is the first phone to use LCD display with pentile subpixel configuration. I haven't personally seen D3 yet (since I am not in the States), but I have seen the Atrix myself (we have it here). Compared side to side with my D2global, atrix screen looks visibly grainier.
I am pretty sure D3 uses exactly the same display as Atrix.
If somebody with a D3 here has a good camera with nice macro lenses, please take a picture of the D3 screen showing some solid color stripes and post it here. Picture is worth a thousand words.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[BenLand150]

If this shows anything..

Droid 3

Droid 1

 

[bplewis24]

Benland, those pics don't really help show us anything. You have to use a very good camera with a macro mode that can get close enough to see the subpixel structure of the comparative screens.

Thanks for the attempt though. It does show the contrast of the D3 being superior to that of the D1.

Brandon

 

[leobg]

Brandon is right the photos are too low res and out of focus to be able to see the details we are looking for. I will try to post some pictures of a Droid 2 Global display when I get a chance. But this IMO is unnecessary. For anyone trying to understand this debate, head over this site: PenTile Blog.
Pentile matrix technology has some advantages as well as disadvantages compared to traditional RGB stripe. What weights more - judge yourself.

 

[BenLand150]

Haha, well, worth a shot.

 

[Jerrod6]

I have OG driod using Adw launcher themes. All of the themes I prefer have backgrounds with dark colors such as black, maroon, deep red, blue and turquoise. I have the screen brightness turned to max so that these dark colors get displayed vividly. My icon text is white, Icons are gold or blue. I do use white backgrounds with black text for the browser

I checked out the pentile blog and see that it says the pentile may be more noticeable on fully saturated dark colors. It sounds like pentile may be good for displaying bright whites but not intense darks.

Next I looked at the section of the blog comparing RGB stripe text to Pentile RGBW text. The biggest distraction that immediately jumps out at me is that the pentil example does not have continuously vertical lines. It seems to have dots instead of a smooth continuous flow. Like I said it was very distracting to my eyes. Of course I am viewing this on my 30 inch Pc screen but it is at least 2 feet away from my face.

Do I have reason to be concerned if my next phone has a pentile display?

 

[TyrantII]

Do I have reason to be concerned if my next phone has a pentile display?

Just go into the store and check it out yourself. I was worried, checked out the D3's screen, and was laughing at how bad I was misled if I was to believe all the chatter online.

I could see the pixle matrix, but only when holding it a 10 inches away from my face and only in things that were green. At normal use distance, I couldn't see it at all.

The benefits in sunlight and battery life way out weight the disadvantages IMO. My phone is from quick internet use, phone calls and navigation and is frequently used when walking around. Having it stay charged and able to see it in the sun makes more sense then worrying about if I can edit my 14 megapixel raw photos on it, or if it's showing a streaming movie in 100% perfectly replicated color.

I have a computer and a nice TV for that stuff.

 

[radsaq]

As a hobbyist photographer and professional programmer who can spot a screen/color defect a mile away, I was rather concerned about the screen on the D3. After spending a while sitting in the VZW store comparing the color in photos on my flickr feed between my D1 and the D3 demo model I was pleasantly surprised.

For one, despite the increased screen size over the D1/2, the D3 screen looks a lot sharper than the DX2 (more so than I would have imagined with the lesser difference between 4" and 4.3"). The colors look pretty accurate, although just a touch too cold. The gamma looks a little too high (but this isn't necessarily bad given that these days most displays come that way and people are used to it). Black and white text looks extremely sharp, and the resolution on games looks superb.

The only obvious problems that I can see are that yellows are too green, and reds leave a trail when moving across the screen.

 

[bplewis24]

The moto screens are definitely cooler/colder, but I actually prefer that to being too warm.

Brandon