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Note3 AMOLED Screen Quality *edit: tested 6 devices so far*

hi,
i just started this thread to get your opinions regarding the display quality of the note3!
i have to admit upfront that i'm a hypocrite when it comes to amoled screens, so far i had to switch all of my amoled devices a least 5 times until i got a unit which satisfied me. done this with the first note, and also with the second.
as far as i can say the screen of the note3 is the best i've ever seen (by far better black-levels as note1 and note2), although i also identified a few flaws as well:
the color RED has very bad viewing angles: when tilting the device a little bit the color gets orange immediately.
try this by enter *#0*# in the dialer, and click on "red" then tilt the device. let us know how "your red" is, thx!
the gamma of the screen is totally screwed: can see down to "1" in gammatest.png:
the disadvantage of this is that you are actually able to see dark grey screens which you should not.
on the left side of the screen border there is a small strip which has also more gamma then the rest of the screen, in menus etc.
this is clearly visible when its dark around. also only visible when at least a little grey is to display, pure black is ok!
this week i will test one or two more note3's, just to have a comparison and to determine if the quality spread is as big as with previous devices. for note1 and note2 the differences between devices were really huge. some screens were near to perfect, most of them had flaws with color unevenness.
what are your impressions?
and: do you care?
regards,
markus
edit 03.10.2013:
just got my second note (this time from amazon.de): the screen is considerably better!! the "more gamma" strip on the left side is non existent on the second device, in gammatest.png the screen is much more uniform! also the red viewing angle is better, it still fades to orange when tilted, but not as much as with my first device!
conclusio: the big differences in screen quality are still existant, it's still luck of the draw if you get a decent one or not...
also the general build quality differs: on the second device the pcb is not exactly in the middle of the casing, the camera hole is not centered in it's protrusion, and the power button extends a little more out of the casing.
again, i may be a "little" freaky about this things, but for > €700 I want to have a decent device!
screen quality is very important for me, because i read a lot with the device, especially in dark environments where the left gamma strip i mentioned was really annoying! i also showed this to a few colleagues of mine, and they agreed.
edit 04.10.2013:
another finding: when CPU load is high, the brightness jumps between a lower (darker) and a higher (brighter) state, even if brightness is set to manual: both devices show this behavior, although not exactly identically: my first device needs more load to start with this (it takes longer), the second one starts the dimming relatively early.
how to test: load a stress test tool (cpu prime benchmark from google play) and let it run, set the brightness to manual maximum and wait.
you will see that after a few seconds the screen will go darker, and will switch between this states. this is independent from the brightness level, it is only better seen at maximum!
i guess this is some power and/or thermal limitation (when more cores are under heavy load), it would be interesting how this kicks in in summer when ambient temperatures are higher...
edit 25.10.2013:
just to let you know: i'm now through 6 devices, all of them had display flaws in terms of uneveness.
a issue most of the devices suffer is the lower dark half of the screen: on 4 of my 6 note3's the lower half of the screen has been signifcantly darker then t´he upper half,
one had a very bad gamme increase on the left 2mm, one had a bad gamma increase on the top 2cm. 4 had a warmer white, two of them were more cold (more blue). could be due to missing or wrong factory calibration...
what is gone is the "blotch issue" i had with sgs2, note1 and note2, and: black is now really black!
but on dark grey levels the uneveness is clearly visible, look at the attached "gammatest.png"
this shows the lowest grey tones. and should be a very visible gradient from top to bottom.
go in a totally dark room, open the pic, zoom in max, and navigate to the top left corner. then pull the
picture down, and look how the numbers fade. for example: "6" should be at the same brightness level on top
and bottom of the screen. it definitely is not...
go out and test for yourself, and post your findings!

Hi there, I should be receiving my N3 next Wednesday. Are the blacks the 'true blacks', as in taking the phone in a pitch black room and blacks cannot be seen?
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

cd993 said:
Hi there, I should be receiving my N3 next Wednesday. Are the blacks the 'true blacks', as in taking the phone in a pitch black room and blacks cannot be seen?
Thanks
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OLED screens are the only ones I know of that can get true black. With OLED the pixels make there own light so no back light is needed, thus black pixels are not being used at all so a black image has a nice inky black color. You notice it the best when you have a colorful picture with black in it.

Malkozaine said:
OLED screens are the only ones I know of that can get true black. With OLED the pixels make there own light so no back light is needed, thus black pixels are not being used at all so a black image has a nice inky black color. You notice it the best when you have a colorful picture with black in it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, but this is a wrong statement. all amoled screens so far were NOT totally black, even if you displayed a totally black image! the reason is that if the screen is active the display controller is powered (which is the case when displaying a black image, and not if the screen is "off") which can be seen as a faint and VERY dark glow. you can only see this when the room in which you are is totally dark, and your eyes had time to accommodate. to make it worse: on all AMOLED devices i've seen so far there were patterns (like hair lines and blotches) in this grey glow, due to the manufacturing technique used (lithography).
see for reference:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1365032
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1986338
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1949306
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=32803480#post32803480
and so on...
so the question of cd993 is reasonable!
answer: note3 is the first device where i cannot see this dark glow, even in a total dark room! so a big improvement on this side. not sure what they changed, but the glow is definitely gone!

Red turns orange here to, but it doesent bother me as the screen is nice overall. Much better than my note 2

Red turns orange when screen is tilted, yes. Black are true blacks in Note 3. If you go to a pitch black room, and display a completely black screen in Note3, the phone will blend in and disappear.

Thanks guys, cannot wait to receive my device!!
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

TML1504 said:
hi,
i have to admit upfront that i'm a hypocrite when it comes to amoled screens, so far i had to switch all of my amoled devices a least 5 times until i got a unit which satisfied me. done this with the first note, and also with the second.
regards,
markus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please make a quick guide of what to test and what to look for on a new note 3, in order to decide whether or not to return or warranty claim. Basically: On arrival, what would you check for, and what result would make you return it and get a replacement? How much of any issue would be ok for you to keep it..?

N3 screen : brighter and look better than Note 2 and S4 but still can not compare to the best IPS screen about white color

TML1504 said:
i have to admit upfront that i'm a hypocrite when it comes to amoled screens, so far i had to switch all of my amoled devices a least 5 times until i got a unit which satisfied me. done this with the first note, and also with the second.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll do that with any Android phone whether LCD or AMOLED because their screens aren't individually calibrated (iPhone's are). So there's some degree of acceptable production tolerances that means all built won't be identical. So whatevery you went through before you'll go through again with the N3.

Oled = true black
LCD = true white
Sent from my note 2 ya bish!

Today I got my N3 and all I can say its SUPERB!!! Abs everything

My only concern with AMOLED is the blotches that show on a grey screen in a dark environment like the first time I noticed it using Facebook. I had to replace my first Note II and even the second has some blotches but not quite as big and bad.
I've attached a grey background for your convenience to see if your AMOLED has blotches. You'll need to be in a dark environment like reading at night without the lights on (simulate by going into the bathroom and turning off the light).

mi7chy said:
My only concern with AMOLED is the blotches that show on a grey screen in a dark environment like the first time I noticed it using Facebook. I had to replace my first Note II and even the second has some blotches but not quite as big and bad.
I've attached a grey background for your convenience to see if your AMOLED has blotches. You'll need to be in a dark environment like reading at night without the lights on (simulate by going into the bathroom and turning off the light).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My ps vita has those blotches really bad!
You only see them in a pitch black room but I think they are the same thing.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

Pointing out to OP that the leaking light on the Note 2 (and s3) is extremely reduced in the S4 and Note 3 - you should not compare the Note 3 with the Note 2 in that aspect.

Black wallpaper on n3 = better battery life then?

Other than seeing imperfections in impractical situations, is there anything about the display that is actually bad in normal use? I mean do you see whites on this phone and think, hmm that's more of an off-white or is it like so small in difference that you need a color spectrometer to prove that it's not "true" white?

mi7chy said:
My only concern with AMOLED is the blotches that show on a grey screen in a dark environment like the first time I noticed it using Facebook. I had to replace my first Note II and even the second has some blotches but not quite as big and bad.
I've attached a grey background for your convenience to see if your AMOLED has blotches. You'll need to be in a dark environment like reading at night without the lights on (simulate by going into the bathroom and turning off the light).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you mean. I had that on my note 2. Not so on my note 3. When I open black screen in a pitch black room, the phone becomes completely invisible as it blends in perfectly with the dark. And yes, I'm not exaggerating. It's the deepest black I've ever seen on any display, it's like the phone is actually turned off.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Hi Guys!
Need info about PURPLE SEMARING. Does the Note 3 has this issue? Because all the S4 has this semaring issue although it has a pitch black. Please confirm this purple smearing. If it's totally pitch black and without smearing it will be the perfect screen out there
Thanks guys! :highfive:

iede said:
Hi Guys!
Need info about PURPLE SEMARING. Does the Note 3 has this issue? Because all the S4 has this semaring issue although it has a pitch black. Please confirm this purple smearing. If it's totally pitch black and without smearing it will be the perfect screen out there
Thanks guys! :highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completely pitch black...
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

[Q] At night, black is not black

Got my OnePlus last night and generally I love it. But I have one showstopper that I'm hoping has a fix that I just don't know about. Is there something wrong with my phone, or is there a fix, or is the problem with me that I’ve become perverted by AMOLED?
See, I use my phone to read at night before bed. Lights totally off, and the black background is just not black, it's grey. My last two phones are a Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Nexus, both of which have AMOLED screens. From what I've read, the AMOLED has a very deep black because apparently the lighting is per-pixel, so the pixel is literally not even on when black is on the screen, right?
So when I read at night, the lit pixels are a deep amber orange, and the black pixels are...black. On the OnePlus, the deep amber orange is washed out (comparatively), and the black pixels are...grey. This is pretty much indistinguishable if there's any visible light in the room, but at night with all the lights off, it’s very obvious since I’m used to the AMOLED black. This shows up in both my ebook reader, Moon+, and in Chrome and Gallery when downloading a "pure black" photo. I even use a program, Screen Filter, to dim the screen down below the lowest brightness setting, but the black background is still too bright for me. And yes, it’s there without Screen Filter.
Again from my reading on this, I seem to find that LCD screens (which the OnePlus has) light the whole screen for their backlight, so this may be pretty much inevitable. Is this accurate?
I’d post a photo, but in the kind of low light conditions I’m talking about, no photo would show that kind of contrast. At least no photo I know how to take.
PS - This does not appear to be the "yellow screen" problem I've been reading about. The colors seem consistent from top to bottom. But I'm not very good at color distinguishing.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

You're just used to AMOLED displays, the blacks on those are much deeper because it's not actually lighting up when it's displaying black, it's displaying nothing at all. This is because there's no backlight, each pixel is made up of three LED's, so when it's displaying black none of those LED's are firing up. An LCD display is completely different, even when it isn't really displaying anything (black) it's being lit up by the backlight. There's nothing you can do about this.
Transmitted via Bacon

timmaaa said:
You're just used to AMOLED displays, the blacks on those are much deeper because it's not actually lighting up when it's displaying black, it's displaying nothing at all. This is because there's no backlight, each pixel is made up of three LED's, so when it's displaying black none of those LED's are firing up. An LCD display is completely different, even when it isn't really displaying anything (black) it's being lit up by the backlight. There's nothing you can do about this.
Transmitted via Bacon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said.... the OP can adjust his screen settings accordingly to emulate a "AMOLED" experience as previous phones such as N4,N5 has done this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54321008&postcount=6 try those settings it might satisfy the OP when it comes to blacks being blacks and not gray

Anyone has "backlight" in the Always On display?

I noticed that when I have Always On display at maximum brightness, the device turns on many random white pixels in the area that was supposed to be black, kind of simulating a LCD backlight.
It is noticeable by exposing the sleeping phone to a bright light so it will go to maximum brightness while Always On, then turning off the lights while the brightness is at maximum you can see the "backlight" (white pixels in the black area). As soon the phone adjusts the brightness you can't see it any more.
Here are some pictures, comparing maximum brightness, low brightness and also comparing to a S8.
https://imgur.com/a/pZgzT
Please note that by taking a picture makes it more evident, in reality it looks just like a LCD backlight, not a star constellation like in the picture. Even though it is not bad in reality I am concerned because this should not happen in a black screen in an OLED display right?
I tried replicating this with a regular image and I cannot, I can only see it while in Always On display.
Anyone else having similar issues with the regular Pixel 2? Or even in the 2 XL? I did not notice this happening when I had the 2 XL.

My blacks have always had that LCD type backlight look. I was wondering the same thing but I've seen others with it so I just assume it's the design. Not keen on it but it's not the end of the world for me

To me it only happens in always on display. If I have a black picture on my screen it doesn't show this "backlight"

Display isn't bright?

Have had the Note 20 Ultra from T-Mobile since Wednesday and then phones been be great except for two flaws. One is native gestures still not working 100% smooth with third party launchers - which is okay, I am using FNG anyway, but another is the screen brightness.
Despite being in direct sunlight, the panel doesn't get bright. Samsung claims 1500 nits of brightness, it definitely doesn't get there through either manually sliding the brightness or setting it to auto brightness. Definitely isn't as bright as my OnePlus 8 Pro.
I've annoyingly factory reset the phone to no avail. Anyone else having issues?

Yes, it's not great .... my Note 8 is brighter in normal use.
The panel does get brighter in strong daylight but the maximum manual brightness is poor.

AhsanU said:
Have had the Note 20 Ultra from T-Mobile since Wednesday and then phones been be great except for two flaws. One is native gestures still not working 100% smooth with third party launchers - which is okay, I am using FNG anyway, but another is the screen brightness.
Despite being in direct sunlight, the panel doesn't get bright. Samsung claims 1500 nits of brightness, it definitely doesn't get there through either manually sliding the brightness or setting it to auto brightness. Definitely isn't as bright as my OnePlus 8 Pro.
I've annoyingly factory reset the phone to no avail. Anyone else having issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is some kind of protection bec extra brightness for long time damage Amoled displays so they decided to limit it in normal usage

It's bright but the white point is um, weird.
Reminds me of the Surface Pro IPS panels, always, always, too green!
And the ability to adjust RGB levels has nary an effect!
I want the ability to calibrate the display properly FFS!
I know it's a decent display but gimping the calibration ability makes about as much sense as putting bias ply tires on a Ferrari!

cpufrost said:
It's bright but the white point is um, weird.
Reminds me of the Surface Pro IPS panels, always, always, too green!
And the ability to adjust RGB levels has nary an effect!
I want the ability to calibrate the display properly FFS!
I know it's a decent display but gimping the calibration ability makes about as much sense as putting bias ply tires on a Ferrari!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you read what samsung say about its Dynamic Amoled panels you will understand why the white looks weird , they have implemented a Hardware blue light filter which filters the harmful blue light emissions that is why all new samsung displays show white a llitle yellowish , It might not be the best looking but is is safe for your eyes and renders a more accurate colors.

hoss_n2 said:
If you read what samsung say about its Dynamic Amoled panels you will understand why the white looks weird , they have implemented a Hardware blue light filter which filters the harmful blue light emissions that is why all new samsung displays show white a llitle yellowish , It might not be the best looking but is is safe for your eyes and renders a more accurate colors.
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Click to collapse
What's the point of having that?
It's clearly inferior to my professional displays.
Proper calibration and white point is *everything*.
It does NOT look yellowish, it has too much green.
That looks horrible.
After using it for a day I cannot believe how much better my Mac, 11 Pro Max and S20 Ultra looks.

Can you please tell me if the screen isn't bright if adaptive mode is turned off? (120hz)
Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

Brava27 said:
Can you please tell me if the screen isn't bright if adaptive mode is turned off? (120hz)
Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Its significantly brighter with it off

mickeyleah said:
Its significantly brighter with it off
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Click to collapse
Yeah, that is what someone pointed out. Thanks

Compared to the Note 10+ it's significantly brighter even in 120Hz, and I often need to lower it even with the adaptive brightness on.
It's somewhere around 1/5 or 1/6th of the brightness bar.

Note20 Ultra screen wearing poorly after a year

So I've had the Note20 Ultra 512 GB since release last year. Image retention has always been there, but never resulted in burn in so I ignored that. However, now the screen uniformity is getting worse. The area around the fingerprint sensor and a rectangle about half an inch around the edges of the screen are a different darkness level. It's very visible on gray screens and medium colors at any brightness. I also have an S20+ that is not exhibiting any of the issues I see here. I remember having my Note 9 under neon lights and the half inch ring was noticeable, but could not be seen in normal lighting or dark environments. I was hoping to pass this phone to a family member when the S22 Ultra comes out, but I have concerns about screen longevity. Anyone else noticing this?
See this for an example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyNote20/comments/l0svom

The S22U is worse from what I'm seeing; a lot of display issues. Display just going black after a reboot or charge, whatever... dead as Zed.
Plus no SD card slot, no native spen and running on the dog OS Android 11. All that for a premium flagship price. Yes, well...
What brightness level are you running it at?
Use it in direct sunlight except occasionally for a few seconds?
I keep my N10+ at less than 50% about 99% of the time. I use dark mode and near black wallpaper. Minimum red icons. Mostly because I prefer not burning out my eyes but also OLED preservation. I use manual brightness control only.
At 2 years my heavily used 10+ shows no display degradation even compared to my new one.
See what you, use ScreenTest to make sure you actually have any changes with the display. You really shouldn't. If you been conservative with your brightness and you have degradation it's likely a design and/or manufacturing fubar.
Samsung runs hot and cold. This year has been a bad year for Samsung.
Next year isn't any better plus Android OS is tanking. Even if Samsung does manage to pull a Note out of their assets, I'll wait a year to buy it.
See what kind of feedback it's getting and if the Android OS completely turns into a sour green Apple
I punched out and went with a know good workhouse for the next 2-3 years. I just wasn't liking what I saw... and the 10+'s just keep on ticking.

blackhawk said:
What brightness level are you running it at?
Use it in direct sunlight except occasionally for a few seconds?
I keep my N10+ at less than 50% about 99% of the time. I use dark mode and near black wallpaper. Minimum red icons. Mostly because I prefer not burning out my eyes but also OLED preservation. I use manual brightness control only.
At 2 years my heavily used 10+ shows no display degradation even compared to my new one.
See what you, use ScreenTest to make sure you actually have any changes with the display. You really shouldn't. If you been conservative with your brightness and you have degradation it's likely a design and/or manufacturing fubar.
Samsung runs hot and cold. This year has been a bad year for Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using it at 40-50% brightness. The screen looks fine in decent lighting, but in a darker room I can see the shaded areas clearly. When using a light theme or pure black, everything looks great as well. I just find it odd how much more noticeable artifacts are on these screens than on the S20+ and Note 9.

Guyinlaca said:
Using it at 40-50% brightness. The screen looks fine in decent lighting, but in a darker room I can see the shaded areas clearly. When using a light theme or pure black, everything looks great as well. I just find it odd how much more noticeable artifacts are on these screens than on the S20+ and Note 9.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not excessive...
The ScreenTest app will help you see what is degraded. Blue pixels tend to degrade first, red last.

is the original screen protector still on?

raul6 said:
is the original screen protector still on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The US models don't come with screen protectors. The glass has held up decently with only 2 tiny hairline scratches that are only visible in sunlight.

Guyinlaca said:
So I've had the Note20 Ultra 512 GB since release last year. Image retention has always been there, but never resulted in burn in so I ignored that. However, now the screen uniformity is getting worse. The area around the fingerprint sensor and a rectangle about half an inch around the edges of the screen are a different darkness level. It's very visible on gray screens and medium colors at any brightness. I also have an S20+ that is not exhibiting any of the issues I see here. I remember having my Note 9 under neon lights and the half inch ring was noticeable, but could not be seen in normal lighting or dark environments. I was hoping to pass this phone to a family member when the S22 Ultra comes out, but I have concerns about screen longevity. Anyone else noticing this?
See this for an example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyNote20/comments/l0svom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow I have exactly the same issue. Exactly the ring and rectangle above. I thought it was because of some image that created such a high contrast, but since you have the same issue then it's a hardware issue.
And it's only visible on some shades of grey. Not on black, not on white. So strange

since many devices have the same burn-in pattern, do you believe it has something to do with its internal components (rather than the display's pixels)?
Like the charging circuit for example?

This problem is getting much worse and is now visible at all times regardless of brightness. It likely will result in an unusable screen soon. I will try reaching out to Verizon and/or Samsung to get a resolution. This is totally unacceptable for a phone that only been used a little over a year. Here is what it looks like at 50% Brightness, and 10% Brightness. The Note 9 and 10 Plus lasted over 2 years with no such problems.