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AMOLED vs LCD vs TFT

So currently these 3 types of display techs(mainly their variants like Super AMOLED, Super Clear LCD, Super IPS LCD, LED Backlit LCD,IPS TFT etc) are the main kinds of display technologies which can be seen on the latest phones.
I have a few doubts regarding this topic.
1- Which technology gives the best color reproduction?
I know AMOLED sucks at this field.What about Super IPS n LED Backlit LCDs n TFTs?
2-Which one has the best viewing angle?
3-What is all this pentile matrix stuff about AMOLED Displays?
4-Longevity,which one lasts long without noticeable degradation?
5-One technologies main advantages/disadvantages over another

yzak58 said:
So currently these 3 types of display techs(mainly their variants like Super AMOLED, Super Clear LCD, Super IPS LCD, LED Backlit LCD,IPS TFT etc) are the main kinds of display technologies which can be seen on the latest phones.
I have a few doubts regarding this topic.
1- Which technology gives the best color reproduction?
I know AMOLED sucks at this field.What about Super IPS n LED Backlit LCDs n TFTs?
2-Which one has the best viewing angle?
3-What is all this pentile matrix stuff about AMOLED Displays?
4-Longevity,which one lasts long without noticeable degradation?
5-One technologies main advantages/disadvantages over another
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 amoled has very good contrast. but pixel density also important. Phone could have anyone of these displays and have varying dpi
2 IPS has the best viewing angle
3 i heard of that I've have to google it.
4. Longevity has too many variables. depends on use quality and always random dud phones so idk.
5. depends on what you want it for reading vs watching video the size of the screen quality of a product. you can get knockoff iphone with rentina like display doesn't mean cheap phone will last longer then a lessor display. It's more of a personal choice than an overall one better than another.

1. Depends if you're looking for real life looking colors or bright, vibrant colors. Out of the box AMOLED is the latter, while all LCD's are the former. However, all these screens can be adjusted (Android phones anyways), so it's not such a huge issue.
2. IPS LCD has the best viewing angle, but AMOLED is so close behind it's not a deal breaker. All other LCD's would be behind them, but the amount of which depends on the quality of the panel. iPod Touch viewing angle is terrible, while Xperia Play's is amazing for an LCD.
3. Pentile is just a different sub pixel arrangment. It can apply to LCD or AMOLED, it's just seen more on AMOLED's because it makes those displays last longer. Pentile screens don't look quite as crisp as RGB layout screens, but it's harder to notice with the 720p displays out there now.
4. Traditionally AMOLED doesn't last as long as LCD, but it seems to be panel specific. Some AMOLED panels can last really long. All in all you shouldn't see issues within a 3 year phone contract with either.
5. Totally personal preference. I like AMOLED's myself, mainly for the infinite black levels, vibrant colors, and very good viewing angles. Some people like LCD's because the colors out of the box are more natural. Also some like how there are 720p RGB layout LCD's on phones. AMOLED hasn't been able to do this yet, it has to resort to pentile for those resolutions. Then again, it's hard to notice at ~320 PPI

Ips > Amoled > LCD > tft
Sent from my U8150 using XDA

How about super amoled?
Sent from my GT-I8150 using xda premium

Personally i seem to prefer SLCD over SAMOLED, the whites are bluish and there's a weird hue in all colors except black in amoled, not sure why but the blacks are true blacks which is not the case in lcd where all colors are perfect except black is kind of grayish because of the back light.

Rick_1995 said:
Personally i seem to prefer SLCD over SAMOLED, the whites are bluish and there's a weird hue in all colors except black in amoled, not sure why but the blacks are true blacks which is not the case in lcd where all colors are perfect except black is kind of grayish because of the back light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My AMOLED colors were slightly off when I got my phone (a little on the warm side). With a quick color tweak the colors look amazing now, along with the true blacks.

noisyzero said:
How about super amoled?
Sent from my GT-I8150 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Super Amoled Plus and super LCD are the higher end panels and bring out the best of each technology. However nothing beats a good ips panel in my books. The colors are flawless, and the viewing angles impeccable. That is all I need.
Sent from my U8150 using XDA

Rick_1995 said:
Personally i seem to prefer SLCD over SAMOLED, the whites are bluish and there's a weird hue in all colors except black in amoled, not sure why but the blacks are true blacks which is not the case in lcd where all colors are perfect except black is kind of grayish because of the back light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMOLEDs provide true black because in this technology, each pixels produce its own light(unlike LCDs,in which a single lightsource illuminates the entire screen). And when black is needed to be produced,that individual pixel is completely shut down,thus zero light is emitted.Hence true black.

@Allanitomwesh
Ips > Amoled > LCD > tft
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Click to collapse
Sorry about the resurrection, but what aboit IPS TFT?
in case of motorola xoom2?

not a fan of AMOLED screen burnouts

ChinchilaO said:
@Allanitomwesh
Sorry about the resurrection, but what aboit IPS TFT?
in case of motorola xoom2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically IPS is a really good TFT panel. Like how a maybach and a c200 are both Mercedes. IPS being the maybach ofcourse.
And technically an LCD is also tft. But then it starts getting confusing if you go down that road.
Sent from my U8150 using xda app-developers app

amoled is much more colourful than the others.
A I-Phone 4 looks really pale beside a Galaxy S or a Galaxy S2.
Amoled has limited life-time and looses brightness.
The power consumption is dependent extremly on the brightness of the colour.

Martin L. said:
amoled is much more colourful than the others.
A I-Phone 4 looks really pale beside a Galaxy S or a Galaxy S2.
Amoled has limited life-time and looses brightness.
The power consumption is dependent extremly on the brightness of the colour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Power consumption is EXACTLY what interests me most about this. I remember reading a couple of years ago that Sony Walkmans using OLEDs offered vibrant colours while using far less power than LCDs. The trouble is I'm having trouble finding more information on this now that I'm looking at OLEDs in smartphones. Is this true, does OLED use less power, does it not use a backlight like LCD?
I'm dying to know because I bought a cool phone a few months ago, but hadn't learned about battery usage/capacity and now I HATE the phone for it. I'm looking at the OLEDs e.g. on the Motorola RAZRs (with 2000 mAh batteries) and I'm curious about them.
UPDATE: I just found a simple document composed from companies and organisations involved in OLED production which, they say is designed to eradicte myths on this. You can see the document here, and on power consumption, my brief understanding is this:
LCD: uses maximum power to display any image
OLED: uses minimal power on darker images, maximum power on brighter/whiter/colourful images - white/very bright images use more power than LCDs
This leads me to think that switching to OLED can only result in at least some benefit in battery life, no? I think most of us on Android are conscious of the use of black and white in the UI, wallpapers etc. so something like this would help. Is it a significant benefit? A backlight on a TV plugged into the wall is fine, on a smartphone I can see why it's a battery-killer. I note the caveat about OLEDs using more power for white and very bright images, but the way I see it, unless you're using a white wallpaper, this isn't an issue. I speculate a power saving when all is accounted for.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...sD8gJk&sig=AHIEtbR1--xI02ZyDoQZKtuuUS-sv_aKPA

So, if a TFT display is considered not quite as good as an AMOLED or an SLDC…how could a difference be noticed between the Xperia Z’s TFT display, the SGS4’s AMOLED and the HTC Butterfly’s SLDC3 – all 5 inches, all 1920x1080? Battery life/colour reproduction/daylight visibility?
Thanks for the input.

decision
I'm sorry for breakin' in this late, but... I hope to help in the future decisions.
We're mixing some things here:
LCD is a technology. AMOLED is another technology.
TFT is a sub technology that must be applied under one of the mentioned before.
TFT is an array used to feed large displays (a mobile phone is already a large display).
Since phone displays are "large" either LCD or AMOLED need an active controller to maintain brightness in each pixel.
This is A BIG difference between OLED (PMOLED) and AMOLED.
As SharpnShiny mentioned mp3 players/walkmans (small displays) can use OLED which use much lesser power than AMOLED.
In OLED/AMOLED displays each pixel produces it's own light, which can be a good power saving if most of the image is black or dark, because, in black the pixel just doesn't light up.
In LCD there's permanently (monitor ON) a "backlight". Even if the image is black! What the display does is block the backlight when it needs black.
About power consumption in either cases... I don't think there's a really noticeable difference because it depends a lot on the usage!
UPDATE: Sometimes the best way to save battery is to tweak several settings (including the Kernel) as the display brightness levels and thresholds.

dreis911 said:
I'm sorry for breakin' in this late, but... I hope to help in the future decisions.
We're mixing some things here:
LCD is a technology. AMOLED is another technology.
TFT is a sub technology that must be applied under one of the mentioned before.
TFT is an array used to feed large displays (a mobile phone is already a large display).
Since phone displays are "large" either LCD or AMOLED need an active controller to maintain brightness in each pixel.
This is A BIG difference between OLED (PMOLED) and AMOLED.
As SharpnShiny mentioned mp3 players/walkmans (small displays) can use OLED which use much lesser power than AMOLED.
In OLED/AMOLED displays each pixel produces it's own light, which can be a good power saving if most of the image is black or dark, because, in black the pixel just doesn't light up.
In LCD there's permanently (monitor ON) a "backlight". Even if the image is black! What the display does is block the backlight when it needs black.
About power consumption in either cases... I don't think there's a really noticeable difference because it depends a lot on the usage!
UPDATE: Sometimes the best way to save battery is to tweak several settings (including the Kernel) as the display brightness levels and thresholds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! That's what I intend to say. It seems many people misunderstanding about TFT.
TFT is not a panel technology in comparison with TN, MVA, IPS, PLS, AVS, AMOLED,....
1- Which technology gives the best color reproduction?
I know AMOLED sucks at this field.What about Super IPS n LED Backlit LCDs n TFTs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In other hand, Led-backlit is a similar case, it is a type of backlight, cause the LCD need the illumination. And there are 2 kind of LED, Edge and full-array. In mobile, almost is edge-led because of low cost and thickness. Full-array Led backlit only appear in several high-end TV models. The older tech is CCFL, which consumes more power
It means that a new LCD display which uses IPS panel also include a TFT layer and an edgeLed-backlit.
Sorry if any typo mistake. My bad English

Does anyone here know much about SAMOLED? I read in a phone review that it's more a marketing term than actual performance difference over AMOLED, but I'd prefer to double check that. For anyone who hasn't seen that term, the S is for Super (don't laugh yet!). I think the Motorola RAZR i and the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini are using SAMOLEDs.
I've been comparing my new and old phone screens when considering this thread. I have to say I prefer the TFT LCD screen more than anything. Even with a lower resolution, the images (video and static) is beautiful to me. My RAZR i has a higher resolution but a pentile matrix SAMOLED. It reminds me of phones 5 years ago, the matrix gives the impression of cheap pixel displays in my opinion - but I keep reading it's amongst the most battery-saving screens in the mainstream smartphone market and for that I am greatful.

I get noticeable battery drain difference by turning down the brightness on my AMOLED screen.
Decreased brightness also extends the life of the display.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

good work
SharpnShiny said:
Does anyone here know much about SAMOLED? I read in a phone review that it's more a marketing term than actual performance difference over AMOLED, but I'd prefer to double check that. For anyone who hasn't seen that term, the S is for Super (don't laugh yet!). I think the Motorola RAZR i and the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini are using SAMOLEDs.
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Click to collapse
Yes. SAMOLED is the Super AMOLED from Samsung.
I wouldn't dare to say that it's just a marketing stuff... Because it's a little about "sub-pixels" and their layout. I would say thay the AMOLED technology is there with Samsung's engineering so that picture could get better.
Pennycake said:
I get noticeable battery drain difference by turning down the brightness on my AMOLED screen.
Decreased brightness also extends the life of the display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I meant in my last post, under the UPDATE statement. Also try to tweak your phone's clock (if you haven't done it yet).
Mine (a poor 600MHz ZTE Blade) is working from 245MHz to about 650MHz depending on the load (from underclock to overclock).

Dark themes and power consumption?

Folks,
any experiences whether, on this device, a dark theme does save energy / battery power consumed by the display? I know dark themes do help on AMOLED displays but have no idea about the Moto G which apparently has an IPS panel built in...
TIA,
Kristian

nope, you already said it yourself. amoled turns off iindividual pixels(with their own backlight) giving almost perfect black levels and ofcourse battery saving.
ips panels only has one big backlight, that means even if the whole screen is dark you still see light shining through.
so you cant save power with ips panels

HelpMeruth said:
nope, you already said it yourself. amoled turns off iindividual pixels(with their own backlight) giving almost perfect black levels and ofcourse battery saving.
ips panels only has one big backlight, that means even if the whole screen is dark you still see light shining through.
so you cant save power with ips panels
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sorting me out.

Display

Amoled or OLED screens are overrated, Poco-f1 screen doesn't lag behind in any circumstances.:cool

Yeah, but it drains more power even with an all black setup.

Hemudon said:
Amoled or OLED screens are overrated, Poco-f1 screen doesn't lag behind in any circumstances.:cool
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Click to collapse
Lo. I wonder if you have ever used a Samsung device with sAMOLED display? Just place both a sAMOLED and a LCD display side by side and see the difference.

Rowdyy Ronnie said:
Lo. I wonder if you have ever used a Samsung device with sAMOLED display? Just place both a sAMOLED and a LCD display side by side and see the difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Previous phone was Galaxy S8, I don't find much of the experience difference.

IPS LCD and AMOLED displays has advantages and disadvantages
IPS LCD has that AMOLED doesn't have:
-Sharpness and Clarity is good
-Natural Colors (AMOLED is little saturated on Colors)
-Can recover to accidental burns or screen burns (AMOLED cannot recover on screen burns thus leaving white marks)
-Longer pixel life (AMOLED's pixel quality degrades over time)
AMOLED has that IPS LCD doesn't have:
-Improve battery life as turning off pixels without backlight (Good for Dark Themed apps, videos, photos)
-Brightness and Contrast is good
-Good Viewing angles
-Always-on Display (IPS LCD cannot support this due that it uses backlight rather than turning off black pixels thus increasing power consumption)
Verdict:
No clear winner. It is the preference of both users and the manufacturer on what type of display they want to use. This is why Xiaomi uses IPS LCD Displays because it is cheaper than AMOLED ones. The target is being a budget flagship-tier phone thus achieving it.

Rowdyy Ronnie said:
Lo. I wonder if you have ever used a Samsung device with sAMOLED display? Just place both a sAMOLED and a LCD display side by side and see the difference.
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Click to collapse
Yeah best done with a gray picture so you can see the burn in on the oled. After some burned oled I only buy IPS screens.
I can't understand the "true black" hype as there is no such thing in real life and as the brain even can interpret white as black if the contrast is right.
As long as OLED tends to burn in, it's a no-go for me.

faeArai said:
Yeah best done with a gray picture so you can see the burn in on the oled. After some burned oled I only buy IPS screens.
I can't understand the "true black" hype as there is no such thing in real life and as the brain even can interpret white as black if the contrast is right.
As long as OLED tends to burn in, it's a no-go for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Three reasons why Xiaomi should go the OLED route :
True black :
Here's an example of true black :
On you Poco, go to full screen settings and turn off the notch. Now to two top corners are rounded as the bottom ones. Now go to a dark room, as if you were using your phone at night. Well you still see the top corners of your phone's screen on. Of course that color is black, but it's awful. (In a dark room you see it better, but I see it in the sun as well).
Always-On-Display or AOD :
You can't have AOD on an ips panel. End of the story.
Brightness :
Outside in full daylight, I constantly have to block sunlight off the screen and put it right up to my face to see what's on it. OLED is way brighter.
Bonus :
Dark mode is here in the MIUI beta and coming to everyone later. MIUI 11 will have it out of the box. This means phones with OLED screens will have a great battery advantage over ips.

Also - OLED and AMOLED tend to use very low PWM which may give you a headache/migraine.
For instance - Xiaomi Mi 8 with AMOLED panel has backlight that flickers at 100 Hz, Samsung S9+ has AMOLED panel with backlight that flickers at 215.5 Hz while Pocophone has a backlight that flickers at 2315 Hz (source - notebookcheck reviews)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Why-Pulse-Width-Modulation-PWM-is-such-a-headache.270240.0.html

Rowdyy Ronnie said:
Lo. I wonder if you have ever used a Samsung device with sAMOLED display? Just place both a sAMOLED and a LCD display side by side and see the difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They have pros and cons, both of them. While sAMOLED has better contrast, black colour, and often better viewing angles, IPS has most of the time better colour accuracy and it's better to look at while exposed to direct sunlight. I mean, you use the one which suits you the best. Unfortunately, Xiaomi uses probably some cheat IPS panels, so they look worse compared to some higher end phone with IPS panels.

True black is just an excuse ??
And amoled panels aren't bad or anything. They are just over rated and people say. Amoled- amoled l. Look it's not that a big of a deal.
And battery consumption difference is just minor
Like 3 or 4% through dark mode in amoleds too
So what's the hype
I just said Poco-f1 LCD panel is just as good as OLED
If not it's only a difference of 19-20
Nothing more

Ill always prefer lcd. When i bought the phone i had to keep it on over night for data transfer via wifi as i had no pc , to keep the wifi transfer app alive i had to keep screen timeout to never, on morning i noticed lcd retention all over the screen ?(similar to amoled burn in but not permanent), had it been an amoled surely my screen would have to be replaced day 2 of buying a new phone. I had to use the phone screen a lot but the Lcd retention went away completely after around 8 hrs:victory:, so no amoled ever unless they fix burn in!

lol this thread is like a circlejerk. my poco f1 has crappier display than my a2. it has the lowest quality lcd possible. this comes from someone who has used over 37 android smartphones throughout this decade with many being top tier flagships.

But poco F1 has a comparatively dim display even for an LCD. Under heavy sunlight it becomes difficult to see the display. On S10 for example you can clearly see it in any condition. That is why they bumped up the brightness in the poco X2

is Red Magic 3 really AMOLED ?

Hi guys,
Having the Red MAgic 3, I am asking myself a question.
If I look at official site, it is said that it has a 6.65" AMOLED display.
OK.
But is this really true ?
If so, here are two questions :
- 1°) if it is AMOLED, why is there no "Always On Display" option that EVERY other OLED/AMOLED phone has ?
- 2°) if it AMOLED why does it look closer to my Xiaomi mi Max 3 than my Mate 20x or Galaxy A70 ? It's like a little "washed out" compared to Mate 20x even with "Vibrant colour" enabled.
Is there a way to check if it is AMOLED or any other technology or do we have to rely on the manufacturer description ?
Is there a way to have an app that will allow to set the display contrast/hue/saturation ?
Regards.

NexusPenguin said:
Hi guys,
Having the Red MAgic 3, I am asking myself a question.
If I look at official site, it is said that it has a 6.65" AMOLED display.
OK.
But is this really true ?
If so, here are two questions :
- 1°) if it is AMOLED, why is there no "Always On Display" option that EVERY other OLED/AMOLED phone has ?
- 2°) if it AMOLED why does it look closer to my Xiaomi mi Max 3 than my Mate 20x or Galaxy A70 ? It's like a little "washed out" compared to Mate 20x even with "Vibrant colour" enabled.
Is there a way to check if it is AMOLED or any other technology or do we have to rely on the manufacturer description ?
Is there a way to have an app that will allow to set the display contrast/hue/saturation ?
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, it's AMOLED. For some reason Nubia stripped out many of the options that were include in the Chinese rom. So no always on display.
2. It's a lower quality AMOLED panel. Because Nubia stripped out many of the options there is no way to adjust colors, contrast, hue, color temperature, etc.

It's a very bright-coloured AMOLED screen

changguangyu said:
It's a very bright-coloured AMOLED screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hum... Really ? Then I may have a defective unit !
Mine is really not "bright". Let alone "coloured". It"s more "washed out" here... at least compared to Huawei Mate 20x which also AMOLED I think...
I took an app that allows to set brightness, contrast and RGB. Will see if that is working all right.
Regards.

maybe you have a defective phone, since it is really amoled

NexusPenguin said:
I took an app that allows to set brightness, contrast and RGB. Will see if that is working all right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, which app is that?

NexusPenguin said:
if it is AMOLED, why is there no "Always On Display" option that EVERY other OLED/AMOLED phone has ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it's Nubia, and it'll be up to us to fix it ourselves with root and a rom

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.
Click to expand...
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
Click to expand...
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.