The Google Nexus One Android phone is the pinnacle of Android mobile handsets, and boasts one of the new OLED screens in use in readily available mobile handsets. However, just how good is the screen? The guys at DisplayMate took a very in-depth and scientific approach and compared it to various displays, mostly the iPhone 3GS LCD, and found it woefully lacking. This summary says it all:
OLED displays are at the leading edge of display technology – they are still under development and still being perfected as a production display for use in consumer products. That’s interesting, but they still need to be judged in comparison to LCDs, which are the dominant display technology in all current mobile devices. In that regard, if the Nexus One display were an LCD it would rank among the worst displays we have ever seen in a shipping product. Some of this is undoubtedly due to poor integration of the display hardware with the Android OS and software. Much of it, however, is simply due to very poor factory calibration and quality control, especially with the lack of any credible color and gray scale calibration
Their tests include details on the PenTile pixel arrangement in use, the color-depth, and image qualities. The tests are still underway, as well, so keep checking back for upcoming results on color temperature, gamuts, and color shifts.
