Ordered my OnePlus last week (I'm upgrading from a Moto X 2015 Pure) and I'm looking forward to getting it. I've been looking over various reviews and came across this one by AnandTech, regarding the display color/accuracy:
The OnePlus doesn't score very high on the benchmarks that were used, but what I'm curious about is why OnePlus chose to render NTSC color space, instead of the more widely accepted RGB standard?
The author of the review states:
"After reaching out to OnePlus, explaining why the choice of the NTSC color space as a target doesn't make any sense, and showing the errors it causes with sRGB rendition, they told me that they now intend to offer an sRGB mode as an option in an upcoming OTA update."
Is this something that can be tweaked once I get the phone or will I have to wait? I know color accuracy may not be a big deal to many of you, a lot displays are overly saturated straight from factory anyways, but I've also been seeing reports of green tint etc by various reviews/users. I just wanted to post this information here and wanted to know what your thoughts/opinions are about this.
I feel the display has more of a blue tint than a green.
Some of the issues can be fixed through software, imo. Not all.
The display as it is, isn't as bad as that suggests. But it could be improved for sure. I think they've tried to oversaturate to compensate for the panel.
I think this was a gamble to actually appeal to more customers. This is not very surprising. TVs in the store also often have "presentation" mode with very vivid color (not correct ones) to catch peoples attention. Only those who care calibrate later for best color reproduction. In the store, vivid picture sells the device. Before technical analyses came out, there were plenty of reviews (if not all) saying how good display looks. Most were saying that sure, it would be good to have 2K, but this 1080 screen still looks great, etc. No complaints about color.
I think many people would point and say that screen with very vivid colors looks better next to perfectly calibrated (not so vivid screen). That is just how it is. For a company (Oneplus) that depends on internet sales (not sales through carriers) it probably wasn't a good decision after all. With so much hype and scrutiny going around "sRGB mode as an option" probably should've been there to begin with, so technical people have less to complain about and pop out colors crowd had their treat as well.
I think this was a gamble to actually appeal to more customers. This is not very surprising. TVs in the store also often have "presentation" mode with very vivid color (not correct ones) to catch peoples attention. Only those who care calibrate later for best color reproduction. In the store, vivid picture sells the device. Before technical analyses came out, there were plenty of reviews (if not all) saying how good display looks. Most were saying that sure, it would be good to have 2K, but this 1080 screen still looks great, etc. No complaints about color.
I think many people would point and say that screen with very vivid colors looks better next to perfectly calibrated (not so vivid screen). That is just how it is. For a company (Oneplus) that depends on internet sales (not sales through carriers) it probably wasn't a good decision after all. With so much hype and scrutiny going around "sRGB mode as an option" probably should've been there to begin with, so technical people have less to complain about and pop out colors crowd had their treat as well.
Yep. The panel definitely isn't bad quality. Anandtech gave it a poor review based on the calibration, not the quality of the actual panel itself. I can appreciate accurate displays and typically prefer them, but I can tell you this, most people will think the OnePlus 3 display looks great. The colors look about the same as the default adaptive display mode of the Note 5 and Galaxy S7, but the white balance is actually better (my OP3 has less green tint than my S7 Edge). If the Galaxy S7 didn't have the basic mode display setting that no one actually enables, Anandtech would have given it just as bad of a review as they gave the OnePlus 3.
As for sharpness, it's a non-issue. You can't even tell it's lower resolution than the S7 Edge unless you bring the phone about 6 inches from you face, and even then, it's not easy to tell.
Brightness is good too. I compared it to my S7 Edge out in sunlight today and the S7 Edge was only slightly brighter. Both were easily readable though.
At this point, I am leaning towards going back to the S7 Edge and returning the OP3, but it's not an easy decision. I have changed my mind back and forth several times. If I didn't already own an S7 Edge and was deciding between paying $800 or $400, it would be an easy choice... the OnePlus 3. It is soo close to providing an experience just as good as the S7 Edge. There are only a few small areas in which it falls a little bit behind, but those small improvements aren't worth double the price.
Yep. The panel definitely isn't bad quality. Anandtech gave it a poor review based on the calibration, not the quality of the actual panel itself. I can appreciate accurate displays and typically prefer them, but I can tell you this, most people will think the OnePlus 3 display looks great. The colors look about the same as the default adaptive display mode of the Note 5 and Galaxy S7, but the white balance is actually better (my OP3 has less green tint than my S7 Edge). If the Galaxy S7 didn't have the basic mode display setting that no one actually enables, Anandtech would have given it just as bad of a review as they gave the OnePlus 3.
As for sharpness, it's a non-issue. You can't even tell it's lower resolution than the S7 Edge unless you bring the phone about 6 inches from you face, and even then, it's not easy to tell.
Brightness is good too. I compared it to my S7 Edge out in sunlight today and the S7 Edge was only slightly brighter. Both were easily readable though.
At this point, I am leaning towards going back to the S7 Edge and returning the OP3, but it's not an easy decision. I have changed my mind back and forth several times. If I didn't already own an S7 Edge and was deciding between paying $800 or $400, it would be an easy choice... the OnePlus 3. It is soo close to providing an experience just as good as the S7 Edge. There are only a few small areas in which it falls a little bit behind, but those small improvements aren't worth double the price.
can you discern individual pixels because of the pentile technology that is used? that's really crucial. I'm not really bothered by some inaccuracies that the display might have. I'm using my note 4 with adaptive display which for sure is not accurate but i do like it. I think those innacuracies can be fixed with an OTA display profile or some tweaking with custom kernel. But pixelation cannot be fixed. So there you have it. Could you discern individual pixels. Ty for your review
Yep. The panel definitely isn't bad quality. Anandtech gave it a poor review based on the calibration, not the quality of the actual panel itself. I can appreciate accurate displays and typically prefer them, but I can tell you this, most people will think the OnePlus 3 display looks great. The colors look about the same as the default adaptive display mode of the Note 5 and Galaxy S7, but the white balance is actually better (my OP3 has less green tint than my S7 Edge). If the Galaxy S7 didn't have the basic mode display setting that no one actually enables, Anandtech would have given it just as bad of a review as they gave the OnePlus 3.
As for sharpness, it's a non-issue. You can't even tell it's lower resolution than the S7 Edge unless you bring the phone about 6 inches from you face, and even then, it's not easy to tell.
Brightness is good too. I compared it to my S7 Edge out in sunlight today and the S7 Edge was only slightly brighter. Both were easily readable though.
At this point, I am leaning towards going back to the S7 Edge and returning the OP3, but it's not an easy decision. I have changed my mind back and forth several times. If I didn't already own an S7 Edge and was deciding between paying $800 or $400, it would be an easy choice... the OnePlus 3. It is soo close to providing an experience just as good as the S7 Edge. There are only a few small areas in which it falls a little bit behind, but those small improvements aren't worth double the price.
Yep. The panel definitely isn't bad quality. Anandtech gave it a poor review based on the calibration, not the quality of the actual panel itself. I can appreciate accurate displays and typically prefer them, but I can tell you this, most people will think the OnePlus 3 display looks great. The colors look about the same as the default adaptive display mode of the Note 5 and Galaxy S7, but the white balance is actually better (my OP3 has less green tint than my S7 Edge). If the Galaxy S7 didn't have the basic mode display setting that no one actually enables, Anandtech would have given it just as bad of a review as they gave the OnePlus 3.
As for sharpness, it's a non-issue. You can't even tell it's lower resolution than the S7 Edge unless you bring the phone about 6 inches from you face, and even then, it's not easy to tell.
Brightness is good too. I compared it to my S7 Edge out in sunlight today and the S7 Edge was only slightly brighter. Both were easily readable though.
At this point, I am leaning towards going back to the S7 Edge and returning the OP3, but it's not an easy decision. I have changed my mind back and forth several times. If I didn't already own an S7 Edge and was deciding between paying $800 or $400, it would be an easy choice... the OnePlus 3. It is soo close to providing an experience just as good as the S7 Edge. There are only a few small areas in which it falls a little bit behind, but those small improvements aren't worth double the price.
Yep. The panel definitely isn't bad quality. Anandtech gave it a poor review based on the calibration, not the quality of the actual panel itself. I can appreciate accurate displays and typically prefer them, but I can tell you this, most people will think the OnePlus 3 display looks great.
Note: long post, a bit off topic, but mostly about the display.
I was very worried about this, especially as I already on OP2 and was wondering whether I should get the OP3. According to anandtech, OP3 is amazing in everything other than the screen calibration, just like the OP2. So thanks for the clarification. :highfive: It's annoying that they didn't cover some topics like audio/DAC quality and community development support. The amount of source code released is staggering, on par with a Nexus, even dash charge will work as they will release the binaries as stated on their GitHub. We got our first custom rom within an hour of the op3 announcement, which I believe is a new record. Many famous devs from other devices are moving to the OP3, like arter97, DespairFactor and sultanxda. And we already have grarak.
But I was also wondering(since I don't have a spectrophotometer) whether the default color profile on custom roms for the op2 and op3 are accurate or whether they are same as stock. I tried the threads, but couldn't find a satisfactory answer. I assume with kcal it could be fixed, but atleast for the OP2 I have found no color profiles that claim to have been a result of accurate calibration using a spectrophotometer. So I just boosted the saturation a tiny bit and it looks much better. You are right that the display looks good though, but users will never know the difference if they aren't exposed to accurate colors right? I wonder how anandtech knows that the display colors seem off just by looking at it.
And like the other user said, this is actually odd because oneplus sells through the internet, not retail, so they have no incentive to calibrate to appear "vivid", whatever that's supposed to mean. So I basically don't understand why oneplus would choose to calibrate their display like this.
About the resolution, atleast on my OP2 and a friend's Galaxy note 5(stock, friend isn't a power user) compared side to side(at different viewing distances), I could tell that the note 5 display was way better/sharper, atleast to me. And I actually went in expecting my op2 display to be better.
I don't know whether that was because of the colors or actual resolution or something else. I could also notice how freaking blue the op2 display was when we compared high res black and white pictures. To be fair, the black and white pic on the note 5 looked a bit yellow to me.
So to sum up, my questions are,
is the default color profile on custom roms for op2/op3 accurate unlike stock?
If not, is there an easy way to obtain an accurate display on these devices using kcal or something else?
Why do OEMs choose to calibrate displays inaccurately?
Is display accuracy a good thing or bad thing?
Regardless, I am most likely going to purchase an OP3(although I'm still skeptical about the display), since as you said, the numerous advantages dwarf the few minor flaws, and it costs half as much as many flagships. I'm currently in India, but will be going to the US in August to study undergrad computer science (maybe get into Android development as well!). So I'm probably going to have to wait to purchase the north american model instead of the global one for LTE reasons, will have to check. Kinda sucks. I wonder why oems have SO MANY different variants of the same phone(especially Samsung). One reason I can think of is they can't fit in all the LTE and other radios required to support all frequencies/bands without compromising on other parts of the phone.
I personally think a cool phone for some people would be one that has one large compromise, but is near perfect in everything else, like design, performance, and dev support. For example, a phone without cameras, but near perfect in everything else. Maybe if the op3 eliminated the camera and poured that money into the display and other minor flaws, it would have been even better! Just my opinion though.
Edit: hey I just realized, that's the strength of truly modular phones!!! You can choose your own compromises, like no large camera in favour of using that space for a larger battery, or some other combo! Ugh, that was so obvious..
Looks like Carl posted his thoughts on the latest Anandtech review (regarding the display):
"With our relationships in the supply chain, we know the BOM (bill of materials) of all other flagships. Out of all the devices that the OnePlus 3 gets compared to, it is one of, if not the most expensive to make. Do you think the price delta between a 2K AMOLED and a 1080p AMOLED is huge? It's a product decision, and spec by spec is not how to judge a product. The OnePlus 3 uses latest generation AMOLED made to our specifications by Samsung. The vast majority of our users, and reviewers love Optic AMOLED. It is NOT tuned to sRGB, and was never meant to be. sRGB tuning is a niche requirement and is not the right choice for the vast majority of smartphone users. Why do you think it's hidden under developer settings on the 6P? For those who need it, we've taken note, and have added it to the next OTA."
I'm no expert, but it seems like anandtech sticks to sRGB for a reason. I would not trust any party(oneplus, anandtech, anyone else) too much until I have more info. But you have to admit anandtech seem slightly more trustworthy since they give you "real" reasons and are a 3rd party reviewer unlike oneplus. Carl's reason was just that people like it and sRGB is not the standard(no reason provided). He didn't even respond to the usage of pentile amoled(last used in the Galaxy note 3 I believe). And im confused as to why he is citing expenses. That does not seem relevant (if we don't take into consideration that higher price means higher quality).
Usually your eyes just adapt to the display regardless of its color accuracy, since I don't think most people can't judge very well whether colors are accurate.(including me)
Thanks for the link though. Wonder when Android when implement some kind of color calibration standard. Or when some kind of metric for smartphone display quality/accuracy will be developed.
---------- Post added at 03:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:39 PM ----------
Here's another link. Note the last paragraph which I've also pasted here in hide quotes.
Ultimately, such quibbles over color gamut and the resultant color accuracy of the display may not be able to override the dominant discourse of subjectively evaluated color in a display, and many people prefer the look of an oversaturated display to that of a properly calibrated one. But within the debates that will undoubtedly take place over such a subject, it is crucial to keep in mind that regardless of personal opinion on display colors, color accuracy is a quantitative, objective analysis of display quality. While subjectively, one may prefer a display that has a color gamut larger than sRGB, objectively, such a display isn't accurate. Of course, including a vivid display profile isn't a problem, but there should always be a display profile that makes for accurate color.
@TritonB7 if you're on the oneplus forums (I'm not), I think it would be interesting if you posted there and linked them here to see what their response is.
---------- Post added at 04:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:50 PM ----------
I hope someone releases a guide on xda or elsewhere, how to calibrate displays accurately using kcal, or publishes a list of calibrated kcal profiles for different phones. Or maybe there already is a guide like that. I'll try searching.
can you discern individual pixels because of the pentile technology that is used? that's really crucial. I'm not really bothered by some inaccuracies that the display might have. I'm using my note 4 with adaptive display which for sure is not accurate but i do like it. I think those innacuracies can be fixed with an OTA display profile or some tweaking with custom kernel. But pixelation cannot be fixed. So there you have it. Could you discern individual pixels. Ty for your review
No, definitely not. If I put the phone about 6 inches from my eyes, I can see some very minor jagged edges on curved lines, but definitely not individual pixels. And at 1 foot plus and normal viewing distances it's very hard to tell that the screen is lower resolution than my S7 Edge.
can you discern individual pixels because of the pentile technology that is used? that's really crucial. I'm not really bothered by some inaccuracies that the display might have. I'm using my note 4 with adaptive display which for sure is not accurate but i do like it. I think those innacuracies can be fixed with an OTA display profile or some tweaking with custom kernel. But pixelation cannot be fixed. So there you have it. Could you discern individual pixels. Ty for your review
I just got my phone yesterday and very impressed with it having come from the Moto X Pure. I do see the display shift to blue hue when viewing the display at an angle, but I rarely ever do that and it's not enough to bother me. Also, I thought I'd link to this review regarding ota 3.1.4 ( you will need to use google translate).
For me, the "Optic AMOLED" is most problematic when it comes to having lots of text on the screen and reading text. Granted, that's an extremely important feature, but I just mean that as far as the experience of playing games, consuming media, looking at and taking pictures, and so on, the average user will probably be happier with an oversaturated display (re: more Samsung-like) than they would be with more faithful color reproduction. It seems like to the layman, oversaturation = better quality display, at least to a degree.
Hey everyone, just wanted to check back in and thank everyone for their thoughts on this matter. I also wanted let you all know that Anandtech just posted an update to their original review regarding the OnePlus3 display, stating:
To say that OnePlus's new sRGB mode provides a substantial improvement in display accuracy would be an understatement. The display has gone from being the most inaccurate display that I've seen in years, to being among the most accurate displays that we have on record.
No, definitely not. If I put the phone about 6 inches from my eyes, I can see some very minor jagged edges on curved lines, but definitely not individual pixels. And at 1 foot plus and normal viewing distances it's very hard to tell that the screen is lower resolution than my S7 Edge.
Mmmmh, its not a truly bad panel but view it in horizontal position and the lack of resolution which drops to around 320 PPI is just too apparent. My guess is the panel is a few generations old. Its the most obvious part where costs have been saved and I do wonder about Op' wisdom on this. Other than that its a good phone IMHO.
Mmmmh, its not a truly bad panel but view it in horizontal position and the lack of resolution which drops to around 320 PPI is just too apparent. My guess is the panel is a few generations old. Its the most obvious part where costs have been saved and I do wonder about Op' wisdom on this. Other than that its a good phone IMHO.
Yep. The panel definitely isn't bad quality. Anandtech gave it a poor review based on the calibration, not the quality of the actual panel itself. I can appreciate accurate displays and typically prefer them, but I can tell you this, most people will think the OnePlus 3 display looks great. The colors look about the same as the default adaptive display mode of the Note 5 and Galaxy S7, but the white balance is actually better (my OP3 has less green tint than my S7 Edge). If the Galaxy S7 didn't have the basic mode display setting that no one actually enables, Anandtech would have given it just as bad of a review as they gave the OnePlus 3.
As for sharpness, it's a non-issue. You can't even tell it's lower resolution than the S7 Edge unless you bring the phone about 6 inches from you face, and even then, it's not easy to tell.
Brightness is good too. I compared it to my S7 Edge out in sunlight today and the S7 Edge was only slightly brighter. Both were easily readable though.
At this point, I am leaning towards going back to the S7 Edge and returning the OP3, but it's not an easy decision. I have changed my mind back and forth several times. If I didn't already own an S7 Edge and was deciding between paying $800 or $400, it would be an easy choice... the OnePlus 3. It is soo close to providing an experience just as good as the S7 Edge. There are only a few small areas in which it falls a little bit behind, but those small improvements aren't worth double the price.
