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I am seeing a lot of reviews on various blogs putting down the Pentile screen that the Droid 3 has. However I have also seen many comments stating that the claims of distortion and pixilation are over exaggerated and only visible under magnification.
Since I trust XDA more than some random blogs I would like to hear what owners are seeing with the screen. Is the screen good? Bad? Bad when put next to the current market but good for everyday use?
I am personally debating upgrading from the Droid 1 so I am curious as to how the two stack up next to each other.
I played w a friends D3 today. U should upgarde. U wont be disappointed in any way at all.
stkiswr said:
I played w a friends D3 today. U should upgarde. U wont be disappointed in any way at all.
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+1. i'm coming over from the DInc's Amoled screen and I am very happy with the D3's. it looks great.
calash said:
I am seeing a lot of reviews on various blogs putting down the Pentile screen that the Droid 3 has. However I have also seen many comments stating that the claims of distortion and pixilation are over exaggerated and only visible under magnification.
Since I trust XDA more than some random blogs I would like to hear what owners are seeing with the screen. Is the screen good? Bad? Bad when put next to the current market but good for everyday use?
I am personally debating upgrading from the Droid 1 so I am curious as to how the two stack up next to each other.
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It will be in Verizon stores and Bestbuy on thursday so you can see for yourself. One benefit you wont get to try is that it is outstanding in direct sunlight so you will have to take everyones word on that.
To those who have it, when you say it is great in direct sunlight, is that with the brightness all the way up or is it visible even at low brightness?
reviews.
I too am concerned about the droid 3s screen. From what Ive read the pentile screens here here and here, it has trouble aliasing text, certain pictures show off more of a grid-like pattern in the pentile and diagonal lines sometimes look "craggy". FYI I found the last link pretty illuminating regarding the limits of a pentile screen. There's also always wikipedia.
Whether or not these effects are as exaggerated as some people claim, I'm not sure. I'm eager to hold one of these in hands to judge for myself. Considering I use my droid to read a great deal, I'm most interested in the aliasing of text.
My assumption is that while some of these reports of effects have merit, they are extreme cases and not completely indicative of Pentiles performance the majority of the time.
Lol I'm not sure what other people are telling you but I am sure the screen is clearer than the Droid one. Lol don't be so picky. I understand u love your d1 but the D3 IS leaps and bounds better in every way. Its s shame no 4g and 512ram but very nice phone.
I have the D3, and I upgraded from the D1.
I can say that under normal usage, the screen performs beautifully. I have mine set around 30% brightness (not automatic) and I can see pretty well in direct sunlight. Under some really bright sunlight, lighter colors do become a little more difficult to see.
I was skeptical of the pentile display originally as well, after seeing my girlfriend's AMOLED screen, but I am definitely happy about how it actually looks and performs.
It might just be me, but I think the D3's screen looks better than the DX2's PenTile, which I didn't like when I saw it. Wondering if they might be slightly different models.
I upgraded from a Droid 1, very happy. NinjaBlur's also not bad, actually.
That is great info, thank you all
My other concerns are minor and mostly the usual crop of "Bootloader" and "No LTE". At this point I am fairly sure I can live without both.
The memory is not an issue to me as I can do a ton with the D1 and run into few issues. Give me double and I will be good for a few years to come.
LTE kills your battery life though. Yeah, I want it, but 90% of the time I'm using my phone, I'm somewhere with Wi-Fi anyhow.
stkiswr said:
Lol I'm not sure what other people are telling you but I am sure the screen is clearer than the Droid one. Lol don't be so picky. I understand u love your d1 but the D3 IS leaps and bounds better in every way. Its s shame no 4g and 512ram but very nice phone.
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Are you saying you've handled the D3? Or have you done any research? Or are you simply stating that newer equals better?
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
straylight said:
Are you saying you've handled the D3? Or have you done any research? Or are you simply stating that newer equals better?
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
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Owned a heavily modded d1. Used a d3 today. It is a superior phone. I am not trying to sound arrogant. It just is. If u aren't concerned about 4g or unlocked bootloader then you may really like it. It was noce while I used it.
I got my D3 last Friday, and the screen looks great to me. I have had the DInc, DX2, ThunderBolt and Droid Charge. I knew what a 4" pentile screen looked like before I got it since I checked out the Atrix.
Now sure if I take out my 10x magnifying lens you can see the pixels, but who the hell is reading the display with a 10x magnifying lens? A blogger looking for traffic.
RaptorMD said:
I got my D3 last Friday, and the screen looks great to me.....
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Ha, honestly all I really wanted was some testimony from some people who've handled and or bought the D3. You guys have given me just that. Thanks!
I think the screen really nice. Better than the tbolt which I what I have until my d3 arrived. Take it from someone who works for vzw, its a very nice display.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P512 using Tapatalk
Had my D3 since yesterday (Monday) morning. IMO, quite honestly, the pentile screen is not a quality screen when it comes to visual fidelity. It is noticeably duller, and if you care about things such as pixelation, it may bug you. It does not bug me - as long as I hold it at 8" or beyond, it looks crisp to my eyes.
Basically, it still looks *good*, just not mind-blowingly amazing. For example, for straight up clean edges and colours, I would choose my wife's WVGA DInc2.
However, the pentile has some pretty profound positives. One is that it is far less battery intensive than other techs, which is a good thing when you consider the D3 has fairly meaty hardware. Another plus is the visibility - it has something close to a 175 degree viewing angle and seems to suck in sunlight instead of bouncing it back at you. That has got to be worth something.
My two pennies.
Here's some side-by-side photos of my Droid 1 and Droid 3.
The screen is plenty fine.
(sorry for the poor pictures...they were snapped with an iPhone 3)
I owned a Droid X2 for a while and the PenTile screen was bad enough to notice regularly and be bothersome.
I now own the Droid 3 (pre-ordered 7/7 overnight and got it 7/8). The smaller screen makes the PenTile pixels much smaller than I'd hoped and it's barely noticeable. As picky as I am, I thought it still might bother me (but I just couldn't live without a keyboard) but it really doesn't at all. If I'm not looking for it, I forget it even has the PenTile screen.
PenTile Displays
Many of the concerns and misinformation about PenTile display technology are being addressed at PenTileBlog.com. If you have specific concerns we would also like to hear from you there.
My Droid X2 has a pentile screen, and i love it.
Here are my initial impressions on Motorola's Droid Bionic in comparison to every other HTC phone I've had (EVO, G2, myTouch 4G, ThunderBolt).
The Good
Best speced phone on Verizon
Fastest phone I've ever had (thank you Dual Core + 1GB RAM)
Absolutely lag free browsing
Motorola's 4G chip is quite a bit faster than even the ThunderBolt
Very thin
Very light
Gingerbread 2.3.4 (with Google Talk video) straight out-of-box
Call quality is stellar (actually sounds like talking to person in real life)
Camera and video quality is quiet amazing
Stereo speakers are loud and very good sound quality
Vibration (Haptic Feedback) feel is really effective and different
Notifications light is very useful (I was originally a BlackBerry user)
Talk and Web simultaneously on Verizon (just like the ThunderBolt)
Motorola's Application Platform UI looks really sweet
Easiest root method I have used
Lots of great ringtones and notifications (especially the DROID ones)
I can actually tell it's a Verizon device now (for some reason I couldnt feel it with the ThunderBolt)
Extended battery is very thin
Tons of accessories on sale right on launch date
Free overnight shipping if buying online
The Bad
The display quality is terrible (even though it's higher resolution than every other phone I had)
I can see the jagged edges clearly and black between the pixels
Also unsure if it's the UI or the display but colors look very dull/distorted
True yellow looks like mustard yellow
True orange looks almost brown
Motorola's Application Platform UI (previously known as Motoblur) is no HTC Sense
It is a very unique look and feel but I already miss the smoothness of HTC Sense
There are so many things locked down from modding to the point where apps that are supposed to work have compatibility issues
Now Facebook can only sync ALL my contacts and not just the ones existing already on my phone (like it did with HTC)
Corporate E-mail doesn't have option to sync more than 30 days
E-mail accounts cannot have separate notification sound/vibration settings
No unread e-mail number displayed on the E-mail account shortcut icons
Market Apps on my account did not sync down to the phone upon first login like most HTC devices normally do
Storage defaulted to internal storage and no option to change to SD card as default
The reception is a bit worse than on my ThunderBolt
When traveling I get switched over to 3G a lot more frequently
Camera auto-focuses too often
Tethering takes too long to give an IP address to devices (sometimes 2-3mins)
Volume randomly overdrives speakers and crackles when sound is playing (very rarely though)
Phone gets very hot, very fast, especially when in use
Battery life for out-of-box condition is not much better than on the ThunderBolt
Official OEM Matte screen protectors are not full surface of the glass (just the display) (Fix)
Additional OEM holster/shell combo feels very cheap and uncomfortable texture (also pricey)
No kickstand (Fix)
No FM radio (Fix)
No flashlight app (Fix)
Activation process can be a bit tedious
Additional Comments
I'm willing to let the display quality slide
Motorola has invested into this Pentile technology quite hard
Battery saving reasons - Link 1 + Link 2 + Link 3
They arent changing it anytime soon
Its not really a specific to the phone issue since it has been used before in other Droid devices
It definitely looks better than other Droids I compared at the store
I am willing to accept the flaws of Motorola's Application Platform since they are still somewhat acceptable
Although reception is generally worse, the stability of the signal is much better and faster in lower signal areas
Will not judge battery entirely yet because it has not been cycled to full condition yet
A few apps are not fully supporting the phone entirely yet (although I will wait for app updates)
The Facebook sync existing contacts only issue
No option to sync IM contacts (like for AIM)
Can't get Skype video to show my camera (just black) - (Fix)
SpeedTest app doesn't support qHD resolution and shrinks the app (Fix - Latest Update)
Other very minor apps don't support qHD or missing features
Overall Opinion
Still testing prior to completing this section
Talk and Web simultaneously on Verizon (just like the ThunderBolt)
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You're just talking about LTE + Talk, correct? From what I remember from the FCC filing, the Bionic does not do SVDO on CDMA like the HTC Thunderbolt, since that was something special with the Thunderbolt's radio not present in the Bionic.
I am usually only a lurker but I logged in just to say, fantastic review! I like the bullet point approach as opposed to an essay.
Great review. I came from a Thunderbolt and the only thing I really miss is the kickstand. It's a pretty cool convenience.
Nice review, I'm thinking of getting the Bionic myself.
I totally forgot there's no FM radio on the Bionic.. Not that I ever used it on my Tbolt. I might have used it more if it didn't require headphones to be plugged in on my Tbolt.
My son has my old Thunderbolt, and one thing we checked out is what kind of signal we were getting in the same place. The Bionic consistently got two bars more than the Tbolt. I understand bars are relative, and therefore don't put a lot of stock in them. I'll try to find some app that actually measures the signal strength.
I haven't gotten around to looking at Exchange client apps yet, but just like with text messaging, I dislike depending on manufacturer apps for critical functions. I wonder if there is a client out there that does everything you want, and if that isn't the better approach? Even if it is a paid app, the price would have to be irrelevant compared to the benefit.
When I tether using Easy Tether Pro, the "connected" bubble comes up instantly on my laptop. What are you using? I'm hearing that wireless tethering doesn't work because Verizon has found a way to block it. There was an exploit that someone on the D3 forums found from elsewhere on XDA that provided a work-around. Are you using that?
Flashlight app can be downloaded. There are many. I am currently at 23hrs/70% battery with light usage, which is somewhat better than I remember doing with my Thunderbolt with dasBAMF. Also, I believe that the auto-sync of market apps was a function of the ROM rather than a stock feature of the Tbolt. For the case, you might want to consider the Otterbox Commuter. It was available day 1 but not offered by Verizon. The Defenders are huge and I can't see anyone who isn't in a rough-and-tumble occupation putting up with the size.
I don't remember Tbolt having Skype working. I went to a D3 when they came out, so it must have happened after that. I believe that a lot of what's bugging you now are things that will shakes out over the next few months, as they did with the Tbolt. I don't have faith that we'll get the kind of robust ROM'ing environment that the Tbolt enjoys unless someone defeats the encrypted bootloader. That, to me, is the real disadvantage to the Bionic and all other current Moto phones on Verizon.
I've had the Thunderbolt, Droid Charge and now the Droid Bionic.
So far the Bionic wins in every respect except for the screen. 4G connectivity on the Bionic is much more stable than on both the Thunderbolt and Charge. I frequently am in areas where there is no 4G, and the Bionic is the only phone I've used that seamlessly returns to 4G when it's available again. The Bionic may show fewer bars than the others, but when I go into Settings > Phone Info > Status, the signal readings are quite a bit better than I've seen on others.
For example, my Thunderbolt would range from -87 to -92 db in this one location, while the Bionic ranges from -83 to -89.
I came from the evo (rooted) and the sensation (had for 29 days then returned it). The sensation was by far the best device I have ever used or had. Battery life on that was amazing. The sensations qhd screen was almost perfect imo. The weight and feel of the sensation was perfect. Super slim and light. Only issue was T-Mobiles crappy service and wannabe 4g. Oh and I can't forget... sense 3.0 was great.
Now for the bionic. I picked it up on Thursday and also got the extended battery for it cause it was half price. I always hated the stupid lump on the back of the DROID x's. But with the bionic its not as bad. And the extended battery doesn't add much thickness either. Makes it feel right in the hand. My biggest complaint is the vibrate on this thing. Sounds like a 5 year old phone with a loud annoying vibrate. Especially the keypress vibrate. Crackles everytime i text. Now I don't know if I got a lemon but im gonna go to the Verizon store and see if there's do the same. Other than that... service is amazing. Call quality it great, speaker is loud and clear. The screen is where i need to stop being picky but im getting uses to it. It could be worse. Although some colors aren't just there. MOTOBLUR or whatever its called is different. But it works for me. Nothing like sense 3.0 but can't have everything. The bionic is fast. Very little lag with some apps. Not bad. Battery life with the extended battery is lasting me about 20hrs of heavy use. We will see how long I can keep the bionic knowing their is a new Htc device coming to Verizon. I don't think I will ever have another carrier again. Verizon has me now Haha.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
Well I just went to the Verizon store and after playing around with the Bionic I decided to make the purchase. The Bionic is a really nice device.
First impressions
Experience: 3 hours
Previous devices to compare with: iPhone 4, Nexus S, Nexus One
The pros:
- Speed: the Bionic is quite fast and snappy despite the Moto-Blur or whatever they call it now, and the bloatware.
- The screen: what most people seem to knock it for I actually find it to be a plus. The screen is plenty bright, the colors look good, and this is coming from someone used to Retina, and Super AMOLED. Compared to the Droid Charge (Super AMOLED Plus) sitting next to it in the store I thought the colors though less vibrant looked more realistic. As for the pixelation people complain about with these Droids, I personally don't really notice it at all unless I look really close at the battery indicator. But I normally do not hold the phone that close to notice it anyway.
- Call quality: is excellent, voices come through loud and clear. The first call I took on it the volume was only up about half-way yet it was still plenty loud to carry on a conversation in a mall full of people.
- Light weight: despite its size the Bionic is surprisingly light weight. It's noticeably lighter then the iPhone and maybe even a hair lighter than the Nexus S.
- Size and form factor: I find the screen to be a nice size, its not too large and not too small. Compared to the iPhone 4 and Nexus S, I find using the keyboard on the Droid Bionic much easier thanks to the bigger screen. Also the form factor of the Bionic is nice, it feels nice in my hand, and FYI it is not as thick as it looks on Youtube or pictures you might have seen. Its thinner than the Nexus S but thicker than the iPhone 4.
- Coverage: while spotty with 4G, the coverage is excellent with 3G and the device does not seem to suffer much from the "grip of death" like my iPhone 4 did.
The cons:
- Build quality: The reason the Bionic is so light is probably due to the fact that it is made mostly of plastic. The Nexus S got knocked for being plastic but the plastic on Nexus S seems more solid and less flimsy.
- Slow 4G: This is likely due to where I live and not the device itself seeing as I get about 2 bars of 4G in my house. I'm only getting about 8 mbps down which is not bad but nothing like the 12-18 mbps I've seen in some reviews.
- Bloatware: Though it doesn't seem to slow the device down much, there are quite a few Apps I'll probably never use that I'll be looking to get rid of in due time.
- Camera: The camera is decent, the pictures look good but not as good as they did from the iPhone camera.
Undetermined
- Battery life: the battery only had about 40% left with the initial power up, and is down to about 30% after activation which took like 10 minutes, set up, and some playing around which no doubt drained the battery quicker than normal.
Conclusion:
If you are currently using an iPhone 4 or you are an Android owner looking to jump to Verizon from another carrier and you can't wait for iPhone 5 or the next Nexus, the Droid Bionic is not a bad choice. It's plenty fast, its got excellent call quality, good coverage, and a nice screen.
nedu09 said:
I am usually only a lurker but I logged in just to say, fantastic review! I like the bullet point approach as opposed to an essay.
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I wanted the TB for a while but could not find anyone wanting short of a mortgage payment for one. My wife and I ordered two Bionics and can always take them back within 14 days (should be here either Monday or Tuesday). Droid Eris was a decent little phone once it was FIRST released, wife had Motodroid, I have Droid X right. THE pattern tends to be better workmanship/part quality on Moto devices but better software on HTC. I will need to try the screen out before I judge it.
This was an excellent review. Amazing details....
Thanks everyone for the compliments. I'm still in the process of testing more things out and I will be using this phone very actively this week for work so I will update this review very soon. I'm hoping I can get the battery properly conditioned now. Plenty more details coming soon.
Just wanted you guys to know that it does have an FM receiver, just doesn't have the App. Infact, if you have TitaniumBackup installed you will notice an FM radio driver installed on the system.
P3Droid posted on twitter that you can install the D3's radio apk on the Bionic.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Btw I'm coming from a DROID Charge, and prior to that a DX. I've only had the phone for a couple hours, so I'm not privy to say much, but so far, so good.
Screen is not as bad as people say it is. For one thing its much much more visible outdoors than it is on the Charge. Battery life seems more robust than my Charge running stock roms and kernels.
On the negative side, I find it to drop from 4g to 3g and back again as much as the Charge did which is very disappointing considering that was my only beef with the Charge and one of only two reasons I got the Bionic.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
For those not liking the missing FM radio, check out Tunein Radio.
It gives you'll the radio stations and it's streaming.
First Day of Work
Battery life on 4G is still on par with the ThunderBolt
Not having separate E-mail account notifications is really an issue (constantly checking my device if it's work related or not)
For some reason my phone seems quieter now than when I first got it and seems to have a softer version of this bug (Link)
Device switches between no reception and signal much faster than my ThunderBolt (ie. when coming out of the subway stations onto the street)
Also according to the battery manager this display is not consuming as much power as it did on the ThunderBolt (no longer #1 in power consumption percentage list)
I added a few fixes to the OP and an explanation to how the battery saving works on Pentile displays, see links.
open1your1eyes0 said:
First Day of Work - Battery life on 4G is still on par with the ThunderBolt; not having separate E-mail account notifications is really an issue (constantly checking my device if it's work related or not); for some reason my phone seems quieter now than when I first got it and seems to have a softer version of this bug (Link); device switches between no reception and signal much faster than my ThunderBolt (ie. when coming out of the subway stations onto the street); also according to the battery manager this display is not consuming as much power as it did on the ThunderBolt (no longer #1 in power consumption percentage list).
I added a few fixes to the OP and an explanation to how the battery saving works on Pentile displays, see links.
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I have separate ring tones for my email accounts uusing the Gmail app.
The newly updated Gmail app has the ringtones buried deep into the settings. It's like that on Honeycomb too.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
cdf3 said:
I have separate ring tones for my email accounts uusing the Gmail app.
The newly updated Gmail app has the ringtones buried deep into the settings. It's like that on Honeycomb too.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
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My main accounts are my work e-mail (Corporate E-mail) and I have two personal and professional Yahoo mail accounts. It's really quite bizarre that Motorola would overlook something as obvious as separating Corporate E-mail and Yahoo E-mail notifications. I still can't get over that.
Second Day of Work
Battery life is still terrible and I'm forced to stick to 3G for the majority of my day just like I did on the ThunderBolt (can pretty much confirm now it's not getting any better)
The notification issue is still a problem but getting used to checking my device more often now
The volume bug is beginning to be an issue now, I often miss E-mail notifications when I'm outside because it's too quiet
My biggest problem however is this Shell/Holster I purchased. This thing is terrible for protection and the holster is atrocious. The nice and shiny top and bottom of the phone is exposed to scratches and nicks in the shell and the holster barely holds the phone in place (While travelling in the subway and it fell out several times onto the floor when shuffling between people), already have a few nicks
Decided I am purchasing the extended battery now, however, it is more important for me to get this thing protected at all costs so I am buying the OtterBox Defender case. Unfortunately, this is not going to work with the extended battery as OtterBox refuses to account for them therefore I'm going to have to set aside the extended battery until Seidio releases their case.
Hi all,
I finally got a chance to go to the store to check one of these out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if I could justify spending the money to upgrade my D2G (not elligible for upgrade yet).
First Impressions:
- Screen: I read all the hysteria about how bad a pixelated screen looks etc. Some people said that you could barely see the difference unless youre holding the right up to your eye holes.. They are wrong. You can easily see the difference holding it at normal viewing distance. If you like the screen on the D2G it will take some serious adjusting to. It simply 'seems' like outdated tech and looks cheap.
-4G: This is the first 4G device I have ever used. It is shockingly quick (had 2 bars in Central NJ). I download a few apps (dolphin browser) and went to a couple of web pages. I also ran the speed test 19.6mb down // 3.99 upload. I went to youtube and loaded an HD video and the video never stuttered once (video time never caught up to buffering). I was very impressed with 4G and that is mainly the reason I wanted to take a look at the Droid Bionic.
- Stress testing:? Not sure what to call this but I wanted to see if I could make the phone hang up. Im not even sure if these are applicable to the hardware, but I ran 2 apps. The first of which was Google Maps, it didnt seem to be any faster than on my D2G. Scrolling isnt any more impressive neither is zooming in, I felt like the rendering speed was the same.
- Moto BLUR/UI whatever its called these days: Its still sucky you will want to root and change it.
I also downloaded a PDF and scrolled around that. Same issue, rendering doesnt seem any faster.
Im not even sure if something like this can be critiqued because these things arent even smooth on a regular PC.
Its clearly a good phone if you can deal with the screen thing. Once roms and stuff are developed for it, it will be even better. I would probably pull the trigger if i was elligible for an upgrade.
Just my 2 cents.
I personally wouldn't recommend the Bionic. I'm currently using one, as it "fell into my hands". There are many more options coming VERY soon which will have greater specs than the Bionic and won't have the terrible display.
I can't believe how much denial the people are in when they say that the screen is fine. If you say the screen is fine you're lying to yourself and everyone else, but whatever makes you feel better about your $300+ purchase I guess.
I will say that the Bionic has a leg up on my Incredible as far as outdoor viewing goes.
BerkleyJ said:
I personally wouldn't recommend the Bionic. I'm currently using one, as it "fell into my hands". There are many more options coming VERY soon which will have greater specs than the Bionic and won't have the terrible display.
I can't believe how much denial the people are in when they say that the screen is fine. If you say the screen is fine you're lying to yourself and everyone else, but whatever makes you feel better about your $300+ purchase I guess.
I will say that the Bionic has a leg up on my Incredible as far as outdoor viewing goes.
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Then I'm in denial and deny it! lol.. its not the best screen, but its not horrible! I think its quite ok.. the pixels don't bother me much, my battery life kicks butt compared to tbolt! Then again, im not one for watching movies on my phone I got a Sammy LED at home for that...
For those of us who:
-would rather watch a movie on something larger than a 4 inch screen.
-would rather fap to pr0n from a pc
-would rather play games on a pc, xbox 360 or ps3
-care about performance of the best 4g radio and so far the best processor/ram combo
OR have a connection for incredibly good deals on phones and don't really care...
Yeah, denial is the right term.
Like i've been saying - Rendering performance will not be hardly any different until Icecream comes out. Gingerbread is singlethreaded.. you're not going to see the OS take any advantage over dual core for a while.
The good news is that it's still just as fast as any other single core phone. If any app is coded to take advantage of dual core, it will shine in those but in average usage - you're not seeing any performance advantage here.
The pentile screen doesn't bother me. I can tell at times but still doesn't impact me. I would rather have better battery life than a non-pentile screen. I don't want the Thunderbolt battery issues.
After removing a bunch of bloatware, I kinda dig the new Blur. I was using CM7 with ADW Ex on top. It is running so butter smooth! I will probably go back to ADW Ex when a ROM comes out without Blur.
I got 30 days to try it out but I might exchange it for the HTC Vigor. Depends on what happens the next 30 days.
Diversion said:
Like i've been saying - Rendering performance will not be hardly any different until Icecream comes out. Gingerbread is singlethreaded.. you're not going to see the OS take any advantage over dual core for a while.
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While it's true it's barely worth mentioning. "YET" or "UNTIL" are key vocabulary for this CPU.
Coming from a droidx here... the screen looks a-ok to me on the bionic.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
I've been using htc phones since the ppc6600. Battery life has been terrible since then, and I don't see it getting any better, unless they do something magical. 6600:terrible battery life. 6700 terrible battery life. 6800: terrible battery life. Incredible : incredibly terrible battery life.
There seems to be a trend here. I do believe I am done with htc.
The battery life alone, to me, is worth the money.
No doubt that the screen is disappointing, but LTE is absolutely insane, and the phone is noticeably faster than the Sensation running a Sense ROM. Overall, I'm very pleased with my first Motorola device, and it was a steal at $179 from Amazon.
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Sent from my Droid Bionic.
I think that people are being to anal about the screen. I use the phone in direct sunlight now and it looks incredible. The text looks super sharp and you dont have to put your hand on top of the screen to block sun light. this phone is amazing. and yes better phones will be out and when you get that awesome phone that will come out in a few months another better phone will be out after that. is a never ending cycle. I love the bionic and i dont regret buying it. When i want to watch porn I use my computer or my galaxy 10.1 tablet. If you really really need a porn fix the bionic could take care of it too.
86shelby said:
I've been using htc phones since the ppc6600. Battery life has been terrible since then, and I don't see it getting any better, unless they do something magical. 6600:terrible battery life. 6700 terrible battery life. 6800: terrible battery life. Incredible : incredibly terrible battery life.
There seems to be a trend here. I do believe I am done with htc.
The battery life alone, to me, is worth the money.
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It's Sense. Put CyanogenMod on any HTC device, and you get amazing battery life. Can't wait for it on the Bionic.
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Sent from my Droid Bionic.
TheBiles said:
It's Sense. Put CyanogenMod on any HTC device, and you get amazing battery life. Can't wait for it on the Bionic.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sense didn't exist until after the 6800. I had cm7 on my DInc, it still sucked, battery wise anyway.
The hate for the screen is warranted, and not warranted. I don't know how to put that. I was adamantly against a PenTile screen and it was almost enough to put me off on this phone. I had seen it in store and focused on the screen, and it just annoyed me. Then I got some real time with it and it's seriously a bunch of nonsense. The screen is sharp, great colors, great in daylight. It's not AMOLED level there but it's a do-it-all screen.
The 4G is super fast, and the battery life is amazing. I came from a Droid X and it's an impressive phone. Suck it up on the screen and you'll forget about it in a day.
Vexorg said:
Hi all,
I finally got a chance to go to the store to check one of these out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if I could justify spending the money to upgrade my D2G (not elligible for upgrade yet).
First Impressions:
- Screen: I read all the hysteria about how bad a pixelated screen looks etc. Some people said that you could barely see the difference unless youre holding the right up to your eye holes.. They are wrong. You can easily see the difference holding it at normal viewing distance. If you like the screen on the D2G it will take some serious adjusting to. It simply 'seems' like outdated tech and looks cheap.
-4G: This is the first 4G device I have ever used. It is shockingly quick (had 2 bars in Central NJ). I download a few apps (dolphin browser) and went to a couple of web pages. I also ran the speed test 19.6mb down // 3.99 upload. I went to youtube and loaded an HD video and the video never stuttered once (video time never caught up to buffering). I was very impressed with 4G and that is mainly the reason I wanted to take a look at the Droid Bionic.
- Stress testing:? Not sure what to call this but I wanted to see if I could make the phone hang up. Im not even sure if these are applicable to the hardware, but I ran 2 apps. The first of which was Google Maps, it didnt seem to be any faster than on my D2G. Scrolling isnt any more impressive neither is zooming in, I felt like the rendering speed was the same.
- Moto BLUR/UI whatever its called these days: Its still sucky you will want to root and change it.
I also downloaded a PDF and scrolled around that. Same issue, rendering doesnt seem any faster.
Im not even sure if something like this can be critiqued because these things arent even smooth on a regular PC.
Its clearly a good phone if you can deal with the screen thing. Once roms and stuff are developed for it, it will be even better. I would probably pull the trigger if i was elligible for an upgrade.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your comparing a Droid 2 Global to a Bionic .... Bionic>"D2G"
---------- Post added at 04:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 AM ----------
The "VERY" part of your statement, stands out as if you know something the rest of "non" Verizon Wireless employee's would know... if you dont work for verizon wireless please share what these options are..if you do work for vzw i can understand if you dont because you dont want to get a lawsuit.
Thx for the detailed review while playing with a demo model in-store for how long?
*crack me up!
manolith2011 said:
I think that people are being to anal about the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm spending $200 to $300 on an smartphone it better have a damn good screen. No offense but the Bionic does not have a good screen. Yeah at times it can look good but anything with green for instance suddenly brings out the crap factor. If it doesn't bother you then enjoy it. As for me I'll wait until either the HTC or Samsung offerings are out both of which will have a better screen over the Bionic.
Greetings!
I am in the market for a new phone, and since I cannot get a Nexus 4, I am having a look at the Galaxy S3 (also 4G) and the HTC One X.
Obviously the 4G version is a bit more expensive, and I am wondering how the battery life on it is? Can you get through a day?
I am having a hard time deciding if the HTC One X has a better screen and camera, what do you guys think?
I had same dilemma a week ago... I've sold my SGS2 and I was waiting for N4.....
After reading more stuff about N4 and thinking throughout I've realized that N4 = iPhone on A-sterroids... Fragile glass all around, No SD card, fixed battery and some weird software issues.... It's like going backwards to me....
Now I'm very happy with my i9305 (S3 LTE)
Battery is awesome, CPU is lightning fast and thanks to 2GB RAM feels very smooth!! The Best part for me was the price, £370 for Unopened, brand new phone (eBay)!!! That's £39.99 less than N4 atm.... (£409.99 O2 PAYG)
Galaxy S3 LTE FTW!!
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
the battery life with 4G is definitely worse than just 3G. but i have no problem with that - you can always disable 4G if you need to.
as you can see in the above screenshot, data is either disabled completely, or they're using wifi. in this situation i could imagine 6 hours screen on time. if you have 4G enabled the whole time (and you're in an area with 4G), then i don't think you'll get 6 hours screen on time.
djembey said:
I had same dilemma a week ago... I've sold my SGS2 and I was waiting for N4.....
After reading more stuff about N4 and thinking throughout I've realized that N4 = iPhone on A-sterroids... Fragile glass all around, No SD card, fixed battery and some weird software issues.... It's like going backwards to me....
Now I'm very happy with my i9305 (S3 LTE)
Battery is awesome, CPU is lightning fast and thanks to 2GB RAM feels very smooth!! The Best part for me was the price, £370 for Unopened, brand new phone (eBay)!!! That's £39.99 less than N4 atm.... (£409.99 O2 PAYG)
Galaxy S3 LTE FTW!!
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you buy the phone at that price?
omniwolf said:
the battery life with 4G is definitely worse than just 3G. but i have no problem with that - you can always disable 4G if you need to.
as you can see in the above screenshot, data is either disabled completely, or they're using wifi. in this situation i could imagine 6 hours screen on time. if you have 4G enabled the whole time (and you're in an area with 4G), then i don't think you'll get 6 hours screen on time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats true. 4G will eat your battery quicker but it will be like that with every 4G phone. My phone Network is set to Auto Mode (4G included) but since 3UK havent got 4G I dont think disabling it will make any diffrence for battery... I'm using WiFi during the day,switching it off for the night... 31hrs+
on battery with over 6hrs screen on is a very good score...
Sebz4n said:
Where did you buy the phone at that price?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EBay UK...
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
I have read alot about the i9305 being inferior regarding battery life.
What I never really figured out, is that only the case when you have 4g turned on or is battery also worse when 4g is actually enabled?
I read even if you disable 4g, the LTE antenna is still on, only the signal is being ignored in favor of 3g.
In short, when I disable 4g and stick to 3g only, is battery life the same as with the i9300?
It's a good question, I'm testing with 4G enabled and in use today, going to try and test with 4G disabled tomorrow. Will let you know.
[edit] had to reboot my phone yesterday which spoiled the test. will try again next week [/edit]
Hi there, I can give you a bit of input regarding display (and a bit of battery) of the OneX vs S3 LTE:
I cannot judge the battery of the s3lte right now (only have it for 3 days) but it can't be worse than the OneX. The OneX hardly made it through the day when you thought of actually using it. With luck: 3 hours screentime. If you play a demanding game (and there are quite a few with bad coding) it's more like 2 hours.
If you're looking for the OneX, I would take a look at the One X+ as it has a better battery.
Display of the OneX on the other hand is the best I have ever seen. It's bright, it's sharp and with brilliant colours.
Compared in direct sunlight you can still use the one X when you can hardly see a thing on the S3.
The next thing: AmoLED has nice advantages like the close-to-real black, but it also has annoying disadvantages:
If you have good eyes you see the pentile matrix. This is annoying (to me) as a sharp red line actually looks like a low-res line with edges, whereas on the OneX this is a smooth line without any visible edge.
One more thing for the nitpicker: When on, but black (or very dark), the One X has an even "black" glow of the backlight. The amoled screen has spots that are clearly darker than others. This is only visible in total darkness and I don't know if it's only my S3.
If you plan on using the device for more than the typical 2 years, usually amoled is suffering from "burn-in" as colours wear out differently, meaning you will have shadows and colourtints over time with the s3, I guess (it was the same with s2 and other amoled devices).
I have both the one x and S3 lte, S3 wins for battery life, speed, expandable memory, removable battery. One X wins for screen, styling and sense kills touchwiz IMHO.
Both great phones but really struggled to get through a day with the one x, currently getting home with about 35% left on the S3 with 4G enabled but not available. I had about 4hrs screen time with 1.5hrs in calls, reasonable browsing on tapatalk and Facebook. I don't play games on my phones.
PenTile screen does suck a bit on the S3. Well it's not a deal breaker however as I only really notice it when looking at text (the letter semm blurred/jagged), it's not noticeable in Games or videos.
Maybe the S4 will have a regular display design again. The S1 was pentile, S2 not and S3 pentile again, so S4 could sport an improved 1080p non-pentile screen.
The Black Spots on completely dark screen are called "mura effect". I read it's a result of cheap manufacturing processes by Samsung Display. The device is relatively cheap in comparison to other high end devices, they have to cut fat somewhere...
While I don't find it tragic on my phone, I would never ever buy a TV with that.
I just sold my i9300 and will receive my i9305 hoepfully by tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it multitasks
I have to say that i opened my new nexus this morning with excitement. The build quality and style of the phone is great.
That being said as soon as i turned it on i was really disappointed with the screen quality. The colours look washed out like a cheap budget TV in a sun drenched room. Next to an S3 it cant even compare. Side by side comparison with an S3 leaves the nexus looking awful. I put phasebeam live wallpaper on both phones and there really isnt a challenge from the nexus. The blue corner on the nexus is nearly white the colours are so far off. I tried another live wallpaper called Magic Smoke 3D and the blue areas on the S3 are nearly white on the Nexus. Blacks are almost grey too its really poor. I know the OLED vs LCD debate but i think this is more an issue of a very good OLED vs a very poor LCD or at least very poorly calibrated LCD. The Auto brightness is so dim its also useless and i have to set it manually. Its so bad that its dimmer than my OLED which is insane.
Battery life is a real issue. i had nothing of note installed on the phone and went from 74% down to 0 in less than a half days use.
The loud speaker is tinny and sounds pretty bad and the ear speaker is sounding very odd compared to other phones i own.
Stock android has some nice points which i can appreciate but its lacking in other areas which arent easy to live with. No battery percent is a real stupid omission and i know you can mod the phone up but seriously not being able to dial a phone number directly from an email is pretty poor. took me a while to get the copy and paste working to do it.
Whilst a few things are Goolges fault i squarely lay the blame at LG since i saw the Optimus G and i thought the screen was terrible on that also and the other hardware issues are down to cost cutting and lack of care when it comes to colour calibration.
This phone is worth every penny at £280 and thats all its worth. Its nowhere near as good a deal as i believed before i got it in the post this morning. Its certainly not a £400-£500 Phone. Since LG is a screen company its a real shame they screwed this one up so bad.
Its going back to Google on monday and ill think ill wait for the S4.
Maybe try to calibrate it. Mine came out of the box looking good. After some calibration it is not far from the best screen I've used. Also in bright rooms and sun the screen rocks. Maybe you got unlucky?
Also I can get up to 6 hours of screen time usually around 4 though worth heavier use so I cannot relate to this at all
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
If you don't like it then just return it. This really isn't a difficult concept. However, for the price you paid you really can't argue about it.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
italia0101 said:
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know about stock android but i never realised just how lacking stock android can be in areas. Whilst some complex stuff is included other simple stuff is missing. You really dont know whats missing until a feature that you might use every day on an S3 is just not there in Nexus. This isnt as much as a deal breaker as the screen though.
I really dont want true to life screen quality anyway. its a phone and not a window. I want the red green and blues to pop and amaze everytime i look. The contrast should be high and blacks should be dark. With my nexus i have Blue which is actually White! Black which is grey and washed out. I really think i must have a bad sample or maybe its because i have a comparison phone to put the screen against.
irzero said:
I know about stock android but i never realised just how lacking stock android can be in areas. Whilst some complex stuff is included other simple stuff is missing. You really dont know whats missing until a feature that you might use every day on an S3 is just not there in Nexus. This isnt as much as a deal breaker as the screen though.
I really dont want true to life screen quality anyway. its a phone and not a window. I want the red green and blues to pop and amaze everytime i look. The contrast should be high and blacks should be dark. With my nexus i have Blue which is actually White! Black which is grey and washed out. I really think i must have a bad sample or maybe its because i have a comparison phone to put the screen against.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough, if thats how ya feel then thats how you feel
agree
italia0101 said:
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree with your answer, y asked a designer to choose which screen look better between the S3 and the Nexus 4, and she choose the nexus 4 because it has more realistic colors she said. I was a GSIII owner and I am not regreat about switching to the nexus 4.
Sorry about my english.
Just ordered mine last night. I too have an s3 right now.
I hope I'm not too disappointed.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
/Waaaaaaa
I mean really....
As someone who had an S3, went to a N4, then went back to an S3 I noticed the following things after going back to the S3:
The S3's screen is nowhere near as sharp as the Nexus 4's. I never thought the difference between pentile and non pentile was big, but it is. Text is far clearer. Colours between the two are preference. I like the pop of the S3s screen.
The S3 is a slow phone. The Nexus 4 craps on it for UI speed.
The Nexus is a beautiful device. It feels really nice in the hand and feels very high end.
The Nexus battery life is rubbish. I do not understand how people are getting 5 hours of on screen time - maybe they have everything turned off. I like to have wifi, gps, BT, 3g all turned on all the time and the Nexus 4 would barely get me through a day. The S3 easily does it and also has the option of spare battery. Also when gaming on the Nexus the battery goes down a % a minute at least. I played sworcery for 20 mins and my battery had gone from 80 to 50something%!
The Nexus 4 gets HOT during demanding gaming. Like, really hot. Changing the kernel fixed this - I don't know how.
I also missed the swipe left/right to call/message from touchwiz.
Stock android quick toggles, whilst looking really good aren't useful at all. All they do is take you to the settings menu.
I think that on screen buttons are far nicer and the back button being on the LEFT is the right place.
Forgot to add - The main reason I switched back was because of the Camera. It is ASS! Just take a look at the photo thread on these very forums for proof. Also lacks burst mode which is a bit annoying. It also took longer to render HDRs and they weren't that great. A lot of people think it's good because they came from a Galaxy Nexus , which had a mid 2010 5MP shooter in it.
I was a s3 user but I do like the nexus 4 color
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
I think the display is worse on the SGIII.
iPhone 5 for example uses Sharp IPS LCD panels and have won many tests against SGIII in terms of display quality and the Nexus 4 uses a newer and better display - though the IPS panel made by LG.
Or perhaps you just like oversaturated colors and the blueish tint that you get from OLED.
http://www.displaymate.com/Smartphone_ShootOut_2.htm
spoonboy said:
As someone who had an S3, went to a N4, then went back to an S3 I noticed the following things after going back to the S3:
The S3's screen is nowhere near as sharp as the Nexus 4's. I never thought the difference between pentile and non pentile was big, but it is. Text is far clearer. Colours between the two are preference. I like the pop of the S3s screen.
The S3 is a slow phone. The Nexus 4 craps on it for UI speed.
The Nexus battery life is rubbish. I do not understand how people are getting 5 hours of on screen time - maybe they have everything turned off. I like to have wifi, gps, BT, 3g all turned on all the time and the Nexus 4 would barely get me through a day. The S3 easily does it and also has the option of spare battery. Also when gaming on the Nexus the battery goes down a % a minute at least. I played sworcery for 20 mins and my battery had gone from 80 to 50something%!
The Nexus 4 gets HOT during demanding gaming. Like, really hot. Changing the kernel fixed this - I don't know how.
Stock android quick toggles, whilst looking really good aren't useful at all. All they do is take you to the settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting points, but yes the s3 definitely has better battery life than the nexus, unfortunately that is something the nexus isnt good at. But its the fastest android phone, maybe the optimus g as well? I dont know but the nexus is ridiculously fast. Im confident that future android updates will adress those battery issues. In the mean time there are great roms and kernels that give extra juice like franco's kernel or matrix kernel.
I also missed the swipe left/right to call/message from touchwiz.
I agree on the screen, washed out and viewing angles are horrible.
italia0101 said:
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
spoonboy said:
As someone who had an S3, went to a N4, then went back to an S3 I noticed the following things after going back to the S3:
The S3's screen is nowhere near as sharp as the Nexus 4's. I never thought the difference between pentile and non pentile was big, but it is. Text is far clearer. Colours between the two are preference. I like the pop of the S3s screen.
The S3 is a slow phone. The Nexus 4 craps on it for UI speed.
The Nexus battery life is rubbish. I do not understand how people are getting 5 hours of on screen time - maybe they have everything turned off. I like to have wifi, gps, BT, 3g all turned on all the time and the Nexus 4 would barely get me through a day. The S3 easily does it and also has the option of spare battery. Also when gaming on the Nexus the battery goes down a % a minute at least. I played sworcery for 20 mins and my battery had gone from 80 to 50something%!
The Nexus 4 gets HOT during demanding gaming. Like, really hot. Changing the kernel fixed this - I don't know how.
I also missed the swipe left/right to call/message from touchwiz.
Stock android quick toggles, whilst looking really good aren't useful at all. All they do is take you to the settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree on the sharp screen of the Nexus but thats LCD tech and any LCD with 300+ PPI gives that.
My S3 isnt slow though? i tend to use Omega Rom which is rapid. Its easily on par with nexus.
The 400 PPI S4 looks to be the phone for me that will give the sharp text
Dear soon-to-return-nexus-4-users,
You realize the Nexus phone, or any Nexus phone, runs Android WITHOUT any 3rd party skin/addon/UI/etc...?
Yes?
OK. Then Why you ***** about a certain feature exist in a certain 3rd party skin/addon/UI/etc... not available in plain Android?
Next, you should also realize that the pro of owning a Nexus phone is not only about getting updates faster, It's also about the development of Custom ROM/Kernels.
So if you buy a Nexus phone and expect to use it like S3 (i.e. without tinkering the device), you are buying it wrong and I do, REALLY do suggest you return it and go back to your TouchWiz phones.
Later.
it's true google calibration is a bit washed out and weak out of the box
but..
1) let the glue dry and screen burn in for a week or two
2) you can make the colours burn your eyes out with gamma control kernels if you want
irzero said:
The 400 PPI S4 looks to be the phone for me that will give the sharp text
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You won't be able to tell the differences under normal usage conditions. Trust me.
And I can already forsee tons of website will use magnifiers to tell you how small the pixels are and how sharp things are.
Let the glue dry?
richteralan said:
You won't be able to tell the differences under normal usage conditions. Trust me.
And I can already forsee tons of website will use magnifiers to tell you how small the pixels are and how sharp things are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Complete waste of phone battery and processing power IMO - why the **** would you want 400PPI when you can't even see the difference!
And no damn website would ever use 400PPI images - simply because they would be HUGE in size.
---------- Post added at 07:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:52 PM ----------
ferris2375 said:
Let the glue dry?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sarcasm i think.