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[Diprosalic]

Neither do I. My gs1 and 2 are just fine.. Nothing wrong with the build quality.

i dropped my GS1 hundreds of times, threw it against the wall at least ten times and ran over it with my bike once. still fine with no big scratches. just some signs of usage.

 

[w1ck3dn1nj4]

Price. You can get a One X here at the minute on a 12 month contract for £36 a month with 300 mins, 3000 texts and 500MB of data, steal of a deal.

^Yup exactly. That’s how I see it as well. It all boils down to what consumers perceive as what offers “the best bang for the buck” at the end of the day. Last time around was such a landslide victory for Sammy because GS2 was clearly the best and smartest choice (given the marginal pricing difference) over their competition.

It is not so clear cut this time around as HTC appears to have upped their game with aggressive pricing. If Sammy thinks they can ride on their previous success by attempting to introduce a premium for their brand, they better think again because things can turn around quickly. That’s the beauty of an open ecosystem like android. The beneficiaries are the end consumers who get to enjoy greater freedom, choice and flexibility because of the ease of migration to a similar competitor anytime a player drops their game.

 

[w1ck3dn1nj4]

Good read...lots of pics

http://www.mobile-review.com/review/samsung-galaxy-s3-fl-en.shtml

Pentile vs. IPS LCD2

 

[DrFunk]

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-S-III-Preview_id3029

Phone arena preview

Gonna be big

 

[kehs]

Good read...lots of pics

http://www.mobile-review.com/review/samsung-galaxy-s3-fl-en.shtml

Pentile vs. IPS LCD2

To my mind PenTile is a good example how fobias are born. If you can see subpixels feel free to buy phones, which have more of them. I can only envy that you see the world differently from the majority of people. A word of caution though - modern day TVs have comparable or even lower screen resolution that that of Galaxy S 3. People who can spot PenTile must suffer every time they switch on TV. The placebo effect is as strong in the world of technology as in other areas of life.

Awesome.

 

[Red]

Awesome.

I don't know about that. Modern day TVs have comparable or higher resolution than the SIII, unless they are talking resolution by size, but even then you view a phone much closer than you would a television. Defects may not appear easily, but I think it is a safe bet to say that certain images will suffer on a pentile screen, even with such a high ppi (thin, straight diagonal lines, for instance). I have a 42" 720p TV and pixelation is obvious from about 2-3 feet away. You can count each pixel as a block on the screen. My phone now has 256ppi, and it's easy to see pixelation even on rounded letters.

Claims that a pentile screen is terrible regardless of resolution are of course overblown, but it's also clear that nonpentile is preferable. I mean, if you were given the choice, which would you pick?

 

[Husker86]

Awesome.

This only became a lesser issue when phones went 720P. PenTile was noticeably inferior on the 800x480 screens, yes, even without holding the phone to your eyes. My Mom's GSII looks so much better than her previous Epic 4G even with a lower dpi.

 

[tokkun]

My impression was that the majority of complaints about Pentile screens was not that they had lower sub-pixel resolution, but that they exhibited color fringing.

 

[Red]

My impression was that the majority of complaints about Pentile screens was not that they had lower sub-pixel resolution, but that they exhibited color fringing.

I've seen a lot of both.

It's tough to make a call from early impressions. Tough for most of us to offer an opinion without actually seeing it and holding it in our hands.

Didn't the Galaxy Nexus have a hit-or-miss screen? Some people had trouble with color fringing, but others didn't? Or was that a different issue?

 

[kehs]

I don't know about that. Modern day TVs have comparable or higher resolution than the SIII, unless they are talking resolution by size, but even then you view a phone much closer than you would a television. Defects may not appear easily, but I think it is a safe bet to say that certain images will suffer on a pentile screen, even with such a high ppi (thin, straight diagonal lines, for instance). I have a 42" 720p TV and pixelation is obvious from about 2-3 feet away. You can count each pixel as a block on the screen. My phone now has 256ppi, and it's easy to see pixelation even on rounded letters.

Claims that a pentile screen is terrible regardless of resolution are of course overblown, but it's also clear that nonpentile is preferable. I mean, if you were given the choice, which would you pick?

When you get near the resolutionary 300ppi mark, the argument over diagonals falls apart. You'll never use a device with that kind of resolution so close that you'll notice it.

Clearly an equal subpixel layout is better than a pentile, but I'll always go SAMOLED pentile over any LCD until they do something about those blacks.

 

[-COOLIO-]

great previews.

 

[Red]

When you get near the resolutionary 300ppi mark, the argument over diagonals falls apart. You'll never use a device with that kind of resolution so close that you'll notice it.

Clearly an equal subpixel layout is better than a pentile, but I'll always go SAMOLED pentile over any LCD until they do something about those blacks.

I haven't used any >300ppi phone outside of the iPhone 4S (and a minute or two with a One X), so I can't give much of an opinion on that. I can say my Droid Bionic, even with a similar ppi to that of my iPad 3, is much more noticeably pixelized -- and I am guessing that is because of the screen's pentile matrix.

 

[Good Job Bob]

Only, the screen isn't better at all. Unless you go by white brightness or the insignificant detail bump (near unnoticeable except under close inspection). On the flip side, the S3's screen has better black levels, contrast, colour accuracy, viewing angles and sunlight viewing, oh and it's a teeny bit bigger too (at virtually no physical handset size difference).

Reminds me of the LCD vs Plasma debate. And I go plasma every time.



P.S, The S3's body is polycarbonate, not plastic. I'm willing to guess it is more durable than the One X as well. But who knows.

Except the S3 does not have better color accuracy, viewing angles and sunlight viewing.

The only thing that's better on the S3's screen is the contrast and black levels --- at the expense of nearly everything else.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Owning a Dell Venue Pro (Pentile), and never noticing any more pixelization than the HD7 (Non-pentile), I doubt the supposed pixelization will bother me much. I think a lot of users are harrowing on that and the backside of the unit because, face it, those are the two only downfalls of the device for power users. And neither of those issues bother me so, this thing is as good as bought.

 

[nib95]

Except the S3 does not have better color accuracy, viewing angles and sunlight viewing.

The only thing that's better on the S3's screen is the contrast and black levels --- at the expense of nearly everything else.

Are you actually reading any of these previews? Seriously...

Posted already, but yea...Is there a comparison that conflicts with the following you know of or something?

It's also the one with the better screen: the 4.8" Super AMOLED has superior contrast, viewing angles, sunlight legibility and, thanks to the screen saturation modes, greater flexibility. It does use a PenTile matrix, but it hardly makes any difference at those ppi levels.

 

[w1ck3dn1nj4]

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-S-III-Preview_id3029

Phone arena preview

Gonna be big

Extract

Samsung has been an innovator when it comes to screen technology in phones. Its AMOLED-based screens have been customer favorites for a long time now, and obviously the company intends on sticking with that tech in the long term. In the Galaxy S III, what we have is an enormous 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display, with resolution of 720x1280 pixels. As with every AMOLED screen, this one has extremely saturated colors. In some situations, like when browsing the web, for example, this doesn't look great, as we aren't really used to such “colorful web” experience. It doesn't seem natural, so to speak. However, in many other situations, like viewing photos, watching video or playing games, having such vibrant colors really pays off. When you combine that with the great contrast (black color that is completely black, not just very dark gray, as in LCD displays), multimedia consumption does get much more enjoyable.

Many were actually disappointed when it was announced that the S III will use a PenTile matrix for its screen, instead of a regular RGB one as in its predecessor. Just recently, Samsung USA's Philip Berne shed some more light on why Samsung decided to stick with PenTile. Obviously the reason is in the longevity – according to Samsung, a PenTile-based AMOLED screen will keep its initial quality for a longer time, compared to an RGB AMOLED one, which will suffer from deteriorating blue subpixels over longer periods of time. Well, since we don't really find the traditional drawbacks of the PenTile screen to be that visible in the GS III, that seems like a good decision by Samsung. If you look very closely at the screen of the Galaxy S III, you will notice some pixelization going on here and there, but when you look at the screen from a normal distance, those nasty dots aren't really visible, due to the high resolution.

 

[w1ck3dn1nj4]

When you get near the resolutionary 300ppi mark, the argument over diagonals falls apart. You'll never use a device with that kind of resolution so close that you'll notice it.

Clearly an equal subpixel layout is better than a pentile, but I'll always go SAMOLED pentile over any LCD until they do something about those blacks.

I don’t know much about Pentile displays and am trying to learn more about it before making my mind up on which android flagship or stick to the next iphone, but what I find absolutely astonishing (and it’s not just those black levels), is that from the evidence of the pic above, as well as many others from the site I linked earlier, the overall image quality of GS3’s pentile display appears distinctly superior to HOX’s lcd2? Can’t be just me who’s noticed there’s an overall lack of sharpness or oomph to HOX’s which seem contrary to popular opinion that lcd2 is better? If those pics are representative of what we actually get, I’ll take SG3’s pentile anyday lol.

 

[nib95]

Also important to note is that the S3 defaults with "Dynamic" mode turned on (which is what I assume Phonearena tested with), same as with Sammy's LCD's. But the S3 also has a "Normal", "Cinema" and "Natural" mode which you can choose based on colour preference. This breadth of flexibility is fantastic and very welcome imo.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Owning a Dell Venue Pro (Pentile), and never noticing any more pixelization than the HD7 (Non-pentile), I doubt the supposed pixelization will bother me much. I think a lot of users are harrowing on that and the backside of the unit because, face it, those are the two only downfalls of the device for power users. And neither of those issues bother me so, this thing is as good as bought.

You just reminded me how portrait qwerty's are pretty much non existent on android. Thats a shame.

 

[Good Job Bob]

Are you actually reading any of these previews? Seriously...

Posted already, but yea...Is there a comparison that conflicts with the following you know of or something?

Notice how better color accuracy isn't one of their claims.

 

[kehs]

Notice how better color accuracy isn't one of their claims.

Yea, I'm always really upset that my color proofs don't like up when I use my phone to show clients their work.

Wait...

Bigger gamuts, better contrast, better battery life, better blacks. Those things are always better than color accuracy and negligible sharpness differences especially for smaller mobile devices.

 

[Good Job Bob]

Yea, I'm always really upset that my color proofs don't like up when I use my phone to show clients their work.

Wait...

Bigger gamuts, better contrast, better battery life, better blacks. Those things are always better than color accuracy and negligible sharpness differences especially for smaller mobile devices.

I'm always going to prefer the display with better color reproduction.

I've seen plenty of AMOLED displays, I get the appeal but the color accuracy and burn-in turn me off.

 

[Gr1mLock]

Whatever im willing to submit to my samsung overlords. Just show me the US version already.

 

[-COOLIO-]

Notice how better color accuracy isn't one of their claims.

but viewing angles and better sun light viewing are.

i also prefer the vibrant colours for both media and normal use. it'll also be better at reproducing natural colours if that colour is say... black.

 

[Good Job Bob]

but viewing angles and better sun light viewing are.

i also prefer the vibrant colours for both media and normal use. it'll also be better at reproducing natural colours if that colour is say... black.

Trading in accurate color reproduction for vibrancy just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[kehs]

Trading in accurate color reproduction for vibrancy just rubs me the wrong way.

You can correct color accuracy through software. Same can't be said for the other things.

 

[Good Job Bob]

You can correct color accuracy through software. Same can't be said for the other things.

The lack of a full RGB matrix prevents the displays from having color accuracy comparable to quality LCDs, even with tons of tweaking.

 

[kehs]

The lack of a full RGB matrix prevents the displays from having color accuracy comparable to quality LCDs, even with tons of tweaking.

That would be true if the total gamut is smaller(which early samoleds were). In the case of the the GS3/GN the gamut is larger that SRGB/AdobeRGB.

 

[kharma45]

Phone Arena has their video preview up, pretty lengthy for a preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on1VgsO-LC8&hd=1

 

[-COOLIO-]

Trading in accurate color reproduction for vibrancy just rubs me the wrong way.

well instagram made a shitload off of the idea. Almost every movie applies filters to itself. Artificially different colour can have a certain appeal over natural colours. Vibrant colour differences also allows the mind and eyes to process an image faster, which can be useful with games

 

[The Faceless Master]

When you get near the resolutionary 300ppi mark, the argument over diagonals falls apart. You'll never use a device with that kind of resolution so close that you'll notice it.

Clearly an equal subpixel layout is better than a pentile, but I'll always go SAMOLED pentile over any LCD until they do something about those blacks.

yeah, i need my blacks.

 

[Mudkips]

The pixel density really helps mask the sawtoothed look compared to the nexus one's screen.

I have had a Nexus One and a Galaxy Nexus. You could tell on the N1 due to it's low resolution. You cannot tell on the GN at all unless you are pushing the phone to your face.

Might as well just have half the resolution in one direction entirely then if then think people "can't tell". It's that kind of thinking that brought us shitty chroma sub sampling schemes for video.

With a typical MPEG 4 video on one of these screens you get 1/3 of the color information in one direction. (Or 2/3 in one direction, 1/2 in the other.) And yes, many people absolutely can tell.

That would be true if the total gamut is smaller(which early samoleds were). In the case of the the GS3/GN the gamut is larger that SRGB/AdobeRGB.

This has nothing to do with gamut and everything to do with resolution.
You're subsampling your chroma. And if you're viewing content that already subsamples your chroma (most jpegs, nearly all mpeg video) , your fucking it up even more.

 

[Cipherr]

Phone Arena has their video preview up, pretty lengthy for a preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on1VgsO-LC8&hd=1

Lol, at the end of that he also said that the S3 is just flat out the better phone over the OneX. Poor HTC.

Edit: Goddamn people are salty as shit over the AMOLED stuff. Buy a OneX then for crying out loud. I have seen a Galaxy Nexus Screen, then immediately afterward handled a One X. I know the differences between the two screens, and the S3 is shaping up to be even better than the GNexus. I love the OneX's screen, but it seems thats its just not the better phone here. It wins a bullet point or two, the majority of which extremely miniscule. The S3 sweeps the wide range of the rest including performance, battery life, UX and other things like storage capacity and likely carrier availability. THOSE are things most people care about and are aware of, not what the screens look like under a microscope, or which screen has reds that are slightly more red than REAL red.

I mean hell, and thats leaving out the S3's superior camera and all that.

 

[345triangle]

the TV comparison is absolutely laughable.

i'm not going to say it should affect your purchasing decision because obviously some people don't notice it, but even on a sharp screen like the galaxy note's i find pentile really unpleasant. solid blocks of white have a green tinge to them, and white text on darker backgrounds have a gross mottling effect, without even getting into the fact that you have much lower functional resolution for things like small text on zoomed-out websites. oh, and pretty much all japanese text looks terrible on pentile, though i guess that's less of a concern for most.

it's why the PS vita (super AMOLED plus) has a much better screen than the galaxy note (super AMOLED) despite having much "lower" resolution. i was seriously considering a galaxy note but went for a phone with a 720p LCD screen instead because i just couldn't get past the pentile display after playing with it in stores. the GSIII will have all the same problems as the galaxy nexus, only magnified because it's been stretched out to 4.8 inches. didn't mind the gnex? you probably won't mind the GSIII, then, but i and a lot of others most definitely will.

i was really hoping to see the first proper 720p super AMOLED plus display on the GSIII because i think that would've taken the crown, but for now the HTC one X has the best display on a phone hands down.

 

[kehs]

This has nothing to do with gamut and everything to do with resolution.
You're subsampling your chroma. And if you're viewing content that already subsamples your chroma (most jpegs, nearly all mpeg video) , your fucking it up even more.

This is true, but most people don't view their movies or pictures through a microscope.

 

[Zaptruder]

the TV comparison is absolutely laughable.

i'm not going to say it should affect your purchasing decision because obviously some people don't notice it, but even on a sharp screen like the galaxy note's i find pentile really unpleasant. solid blocks of white have a green tinge to them, and white text on darker backgrounds have a gross mottling effect, without even getting into the fact that you have much lower functional resolution for things like small text on zoomed-out websites. oh, and pretty much all japanese text looks terrible on pentile, though i guess that's less of a concern for most.

it's why the PS vita (super AMOLED plus) has a much better screen than the galaxy note (super AMOLED) despite having much "lower" resolution. i was seriously considering a galaxy note but went for a phone with a 720p LCD screen instead because i just couldn't get past the pentile display after playing with it in stores. the GSIII will have all the same problems as the galaxy nexus, only magnified because it's been stretched out to 4.8 inches. didn't mind the gnex? you probably won't mind the GSIII, then, but i and a lot of others most definitely will.

i was really hoping to see the first proper 720p super AMOLED plus display on the GSIII because i think that would've taken the crown, but for now the HTC one X has the best display on a phone hands down.

Placebo out the wazoo man. Shame that you get so wrapped up in the tiny details that you lose sight of the bigger picture.

Having had both GNote and S2, I'm much happier with the G-Note screen, because the quality is holding up much better. I had striations going on in the S2 after a few months of use. Plus the colour was noticeably overblued compared to every other screen around - done to overcompensate for the deterioration of the blue sub pixels.

 

[nib95]

The lack of a full RGB matrix prevents the displays from having color accuracy comparable to quality LCDs, even with tons of tweaking.

See below.

That would be true if the total gamut is smaller(which early samoleds were). In the case of the the GS3/GN the gamut is larger that SRGB/AdobeRGB.

Plus the vibrancy is only an issue if you leave it at the default "Dynamic" colour mode. There are three others to choose from (as has also been mentioned in this thread just a few posts up).

 

[345triangle]

well hey, it would be nice if i didn't notice the problems with pentile, sure. though i still think i'd miss the objective advantages in clarity brought by a 720p LCD, which is what i would call "the bigger picture" when discussing something as granular as the subpixel arrangement on a mobile phone screen.

though yeah coming from a GSII, 720p pentile will probably be a lot more flattering. that phone's screen is great but the resolution dated it pretty fast.

 

[Zaptruder]

well hey, it would be nice if i didn't notice the problems with pentile, sure. though i still think i'd miss the objective advantages in clarity brought by a 720p LCD, which is what i would call "the bigger picture" when discussing something as granular as the subpixel arrangement on a mobile phone screen.

though yeah coming from a GSII, 720p pentile will probably be a lot more flattering. that phone's screen is great but the resolution dated it pretty fast.

It's not that I don't think you can't see the problems with the screen. It's easy enough if you press it against your face.

But the placebo part is that because you know about the 'problem' you fixate on it beyond its actual functional effect.

Like if there was some sort of screen/perception testing program, that screen would pass with flying colours, but you would still find a reason to complain.

 

[longdi]

aside from nicely calibrated colors, one x also has pretty awesome shadow details. hard to see sammy amoled hd screen beating it tbh.

 

[zedge]

aside from nicely calibrated colors, one x also has pretty awesome shadow details. hard to see sammy amoled hd screen beating it tbh.

According to this it beats it in almost every way. Especially those that matter most.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_iii_vs_htc_one_x-review-759.php

 

[kehs]

aside from nicely calibrated colors, one x also has pretty awesome shadow details. hard to see sammy amoled hd screen beating it tbh.

Shadow details?

 

[longdi]

maybe in benchmarks, but anyone could compare the screen of G.Note and Nexus with One X...unless sammy made a huge leap in their amoled hd 'pentile' tech, i doubt S3 comes close to one x slcd2 picture accuracy and shadow details..

 

[ep85]

I personally like looking at pictures of people lurking in the shadows, so i guess the one x must be for me.

I was blah on the GS3 when it first got announced, I'm still blah about it now, but now I'm also blah about the One x. So i don't know what to do anymore...

 

[-COOLIO-]

not to knock the discussion at all, seriously, but it's amusing how we can argue the mild difference between pentile and rull rgb so much when weve been looking at crt tvs for most of the past 20 years. technology is awesome

 

[nib95]

As an iPhone (4S) user myself, I don't know what I find more painful, washed out blacks or obtuse colours. Thankfully, I hear the colour thing with Samsung phones can be sorted with software or pre-sets. Of all the phone's I've actually personally used, I found the Galaxy Nexus's screen to be the best. Doesn't have the washed out blacks and lack of contrast of the 4S, but also doesn't have the burnt colours of the Galaxy Note (bare in mind my friend had his Note set to the default Dynamic setting).

Honestly though, the 4S's black levels are appalling and really do ruin the viewing experience overall. No idea if the One X's fares better (never used it).

Must say, will be good to have Flash functionality back. Watching the video above, there are loads of cool features Sammy has added that haven't been mentioned, such as video preview thumbnails and the mood board for music playback.



EDIT: Urgh at LCD blacks.

 

[Good Job Bob]

The 4S' black levels being appalling and ruining the whole viewing experience is some wild hyperbole.

No, it doesn't have the perfect black levels of AMOLED; but they aren't appalling by any definition of the word.

 

[nib95]

The 4S' black levels being appalling and ruining the whole viewing experience is some wild hyperbole.

No, it doesn't have the perfect black levels of AMOLED; but they aren't appalling by any definition of the word.

Certainly bad enough to affect regular usage imo. No hyperbole at all in that, just plain honesty. Weirdly, my 4S actually has worse black levels than my old 4. Lord knows why, maybe it's just default brighter, but it's also ever so slightly cooler in colour too.

But yea, many many times when viewing photo's or video's the black level/contrast has bugged me. Certain images and video just don't "pop" because of it and shadows or darker spots just don't have that depth.

Sort of like comparing a decent Plasma to a non-LED LCD TV.

 

[Good Job Bob]

Certainly bad enough to affect regular usage imo. No hyperbole at all in that, just plain honesty. Weirdly, my 4S actually has worse black levels than my old 4. Lord knows why, maybe it's just default brighter, but it's also ever so slightly cooler in colour too.

But yea, many many times when viewing photo's or video's the black level/contrast has bugged me. Certain images and video just don't "pop" because of it and shadows or darker spots just don't have that depth.

Sort of like comparing a decent Plasma to a non-LED LCD TV.

Either you have a faulty 4S or you're just weird; the 4S is still widely held as having one of the best screens on the market.

Either way, have fun with OLED's whites!

 

[nib95]

Either you have a faulty 4S or you're just weird; the 4S is still widely held as having one of the best screens on the market.

Either way, have fun with OLED's whites!

More likely because of the resolution and ppi. Less so because of black levels, contrast or even colour accuracy imo

I don't have an OLED screen, but the S2's whites are pretty horrid too. Sort of like a bluey white. But I think it's less of an eye sore than the iPhone's black's. But that's just me. Colour accuracy on the 4S is better than the Sammy phones set to dynamic, but my personal preference is the Galaxy Nexus. Here's hoping the S3 has Galaxy Nexus style colour reproduction, or can be tamed with the different presets.