Displaying Black

[dt.white 62]

Has anybody else noticed the poor performance of the display when attempting to display different black levels?

I've tried to use this tool https://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/monitor_black.htm and there's a massive jump from (3,3,3) to (4,4,4). The display is unable to properly show these deep blacks.

[CornholioGSM 338]

...i mean that it is problem of all amoled displays...default color is black - led(in pixel) is off...and really dark grey is problem.it is step between led on and off.

On tft, retina etc displays is never visible black due technology...because under these displays is always powered on backlight foil and all is "grey".

soo if you want really black you need amoled...but not too good greyscale....if you want approx good grayscale then you must buy tft,stn,retina etc phone.

AND i am not sure...fx use pentile matrix RGBW?

Edited December 21, 2019 by CornholioGSM

[dt.white 62]

7 hours ago, CornholioGSM said:

...i mean that it is problem of all amoled displays...default color is black - led(in pixel) is off...and really dark grey is problem.it is step between led on and off.

On tft, retina etc displays is never visible black due technology...because under these displays is always powered on backlight foil and all is "grey".

soo if you want really black you need amoled...but not too good greyscale....if you want approx good grayscale then you must buy tft,stn,retina etc phone.

AND i am not sure...fx use pentile matrix RGBW?

I understand what you're saying but my previous phone, a Lumia 950, also has an AMOLED display and is far better at producing these deep greys, so it can't just be that.

[Gon009 70]

I also had a phone with AMOLED display before and did not have problems like that. The difference between black in pixels turned on and off was barely noticeable.

Back to Pro1, I have some images on the phone where blacker spots on the picture are completely black and I experience some heavy color distortions. This doesn't happen at brightness above 50%. However I believe this is not caused by AMOLED turning off pixels but because of other colors being distorted, making a difference between almost black and completely black just huge.

I can show how this photo looked like in my old AMOLED phone if you want.

 

Here's example, the image I use in examples is not mine! Unfortunately I don't have a good camera to show how extreme the differences are, I'm using my old phone for this. The image below is the most extreme case of this bug when it's most noticeable:

Photo of an image on Pro1 with ~60% brightness:

 

Here's 0% brightness:

Colors become bleak and you can see lots of black spots, especially on the bottom-right and where the head connects to the neck. In these areas AMOLED pixels turn off. I think they should turn off, it's just that other colors are incorrect and become extremely bleak instead of becoming darker, making a transition from almost-black to completely-black just bad, It looks much worse in real life than in these photos.

 

But I ask everyone to try the same on the same image on your Pro1, go to the completely dark room, try opening the image in 100% and 0% brightness:

 

You can also download it directly from the source: https://www.deviantart.com/fellfallow/art/CLOSED-Inky-Beast-731904319

Edited December 21, 2019 by Gon009

[Benni 183]

The display on the MotoZ begins to flicker when you turn the brightness too low.
I prefer not so great colours over (bad) PWM.

[Gon009 70]

12 minutes ago, kontakt said:

The display on the MotoZ begins to flicker when you turn the brightness too low.
I prefer not so great colours over (bad) PWM.

Still, Pro1 is quite expensive phone and the screen itself is very bright, even on the lowest settings, my old phone can go lower than what Pro1 can. Also, "too low" shouldn't be less than 50% when it comes to Pro1. As I said, my previous phone could not only go with even less brightness, it also had no problems with colors at all.

Btw, there's also a small gif showing the changes, you can see than below 50% something wrong is happening with colors: https://imgur.com/a/bqBUglI

Edited December 21, 2019 by Gon009
I used incorrect word

[david 929]

Which app are you using to display the picture?  Have you tried more than one?  It may not matter, but just a thought.

On my Relay 4G, with a super amoled screen, I don't see the same issue.  The lower right in the picture is a bit problematic due to lack of details in the original, I think, but it does seem like colors are severely muted and details in the neck scales are lost in your photos of your pro1 screen.  Were those taken with flash off?  

[Hook 3,021]

Yes, I see what @Gon009 is describing, although i don't often lower my brightness.  And how bad the effect is varies-- not as noticeable with photographs (though still there).  What it seems to be (and I'm not technical enough to describe this in terms of what the pixels are doing) is that, as brightness lowers, there is a gray-green wash over everything. I'm thinking it could be that the brightness slider is yoked with contrast adjustment so that rather than losing just brightness, you are lowering contrast as well.  And/or saturation.

Hopefully this is software rather than hardware.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Hook

[Gon009 70]

55 minutes ago, david said:

Which app are you using to display the picture?  Have you tried more than one?  It may not matter, but just a thought.

On my Relay 4G, with a super amoled screen, I don't see the same issue.  The lower right in the picture is a bit problematic due to lack of details in the original, I think, but it does seem like colors are severely muted and details in the neck scales are lost in your photos of your pro1 screen.  Were those taken with flash off?  

Tried both default app and third-part one, same effect. I wish I had a better camera to take photos of the screen but this is all I can do. yes, these were with flash off, taken in complete darkness.

 

47 minutes ago, Hook said:

Yes, I see what @Gon009 is describing, although i don't often lower my brightness.  And how bad the effect is varies-- not as noticeable with photographs (though still there).  What it seems to be (and I'm not technical enough to describe this in terms of what the pixels are doing) is that, as brightness lowers, there is a gray-green wash over everything. I'm thinking it could be that the brightness slider is yoked with contrast adjustment so that rather than losing just brightness, you are lowering contrast as well.  And/or saturation.

Hopefully this is software rather than hardware.

Exactly this, gray-greenish wash over everything, like some light of single colored pixel group was being not properly set. I also see, as you described, that instead of losing brightness there's just something going on with colors. Can you confirm that everything is fine as long as brightness is above 50%?

I also hope it's a software issue, I wish there was someone with Elephone U Pro to confirm this.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Gon009

[Gigadoc2 54]

On 12/21/2019 at 1:12 PM, Gon009 said:

I also hope it's a software issue, I wish there was someone with Elephone U Pro to confirm this.

Why Elephone U, is it known to have the same screen as the Pro1? (It does look similar)

[Rob. S. 1,661]

Yes. it is. @divstar here with a broken screen/glass on the Pro¹ already replaced it successfully with a spare part for the Elephone!

Edited January 25, 2020 by Rob. S.

[Gigadoc2 54]

15 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

Yes. it is. @divstar here with a broken screen/glass on the Pro¹ already replaced it successfully with a spare part for the Elephone!

That is very good to know. I already lost my included screen protector and now am worried to death (I've never before spent so much money on a phone) that I will scratch my screen. So if I actually ruin it there is at least some way to fix it :D

[divstar 164]

3 hours ago, Gigadoc2 said:

That is very good to know. I already lost my included screen protector and now am worried to death (I've never before spent so much money on a phone) that I will scratch my screen. So if I actually ruin it there is at least some way to fix it 😄

I feel your pain. Just buy a spare screen in advance - if you want to afford it - it'll ease your pain.

[ncvb 5]

Apologies for multi posting.

Both screens brightness set to ~10%;

Black fill is not black anymore 😞

On 1/25/2020 at 2:00 AM, ncvb said:

 

Have the same, looks awful.

Is it software issue, or we just have bad AMOLED?

[Slion 1,201]

7 hours ago, ncvb said:

Apologies for multi posting.

Both screens brightness set to ~10%;

Black fill is not black anymore 😞

I don't have that greenish tint even when putting the brightness to zero. Possibly a bad batch of displays.

[VaZso 1,998]

15 minutes ago, Slion said:

I don't have that greenish tint even when putting the brightness to zero. Possibly a bad batch of displays.

I have a greenish colour at low brightness and also brightness is not really changing at lower levels.
However, I suggest you to check in the same app's screen as it is not completely dark but grey.

Otherwise, I will receive my pre-order soon, so then I may be able to compare if there is any difference between the last batch and a very early production unit.

Edited January 26, 2020 by VaZso

[MvBoe 31]

What about the "green effect" on the devices now delivered?

Could someone please write something about it according to an device from the last delivery?

[Slion 1,201]

1 hour ago, MvBoe said:

What about the "green effect" on the devices now delivered?

No such things on mine.

[david 929]

3 hours ago, MvBoe said:

What about the "green effect" on the devices now delivered?

Could someone please write something about it according to an device from the last delivery?

I spent some time looking at the dragon picture at various light levels.  I am not seeing the harsh transition from black to near black in the lower right that is shown in those camera photos.  To me, it looks like jpg compression artifacts in the photos posted, but it is unclear if those were introduced in the photo process or are like that on the original screen/app being used to display the photo.  I only see harsh transitions at under 40% brightness in that picture, and only in the far right side of the lower right of the photo, in 3 areas.  I have to look hard to see it.  It isn't as pronounced as the camera photos.

As for the comparison of the two phones in the clock app, that app does not have its background set to black.  It is a shade of gray.  (VaZso mentioned this, but I didn't understand what was being said.)  It probably means the darker phone can't distinguish black from dark gray.  Here is a true black image:

This looks black on my Pro1 screen at 0% and 100% brightness.

I can't say whether the screen/software are doing a perfect job of lowering brightness of colors as the brightness level is lowered, but I don't think I am seeing any green tint to the dragon picture.

[Hook 3,021]

I suspect the January OTA did some fixing of this.  I used to get the greenish grey wash effect when I lowered my brightness past 50% when I first got my Pro 1 in December, but I don't get it anymore and the black rectangle in David's post above looks fine at all brightness levels.

[Adrienspawn 126]

Below 45% the dragon starts to appear even brighter than at 55% as the black becomes green-grey instead.

I would definitely expect this to be remedied by an update or screen replacement but will let them deal with the factory production and shipment first while it gets figured out.

[Hook 3,021]

1 hour ago, Adrienspawn said:

Below 45% the dragon starts to appear even brighter than at 55% as the black becomes green-grey instead.

I would definitely expect this to be remedied by an update or screen replacement but will let them deal with the factory production and shipment first while it gets figured out.

Are you sure you have the January update installed.  Because, while I clearly saw what you describe in December, when I have the Dragon Pic on my phone now, it no longer does that. I don't know what other explanation there could be unless something happened differently when I reflashed my phone in january, starting with the October factory image provided by Chen.  It's weird.  My phone seems to be fine now at all brightness levels.

[elvissteinjr 359]

This is what a black to white gradient looks like on mine with the brightness set as low as possible, though the cut-off already starts being clearly visible about 50% or something.
I have the latest update installed, unless I really managed to flash the wrong boot image when rooting. If so, I guess it'll be taken care of with the next OTA instead.

This unit is from the latest batch, #344.

Edited February 23, 2020 by elvissteinjr

[divstar 164]

Yes, the pro1's screen sucks. It has a greenish touch to it.

[FlyingAntero 871]

17 hours ago, Adrienspawn said:

Below 45% the dragon starts to appear even brighter than at 55% as the black becomes green-grey instead.

I would definitely expect this to be remedied by an update or screen replacement but will let them deal with the factory production and shipment first while it gets figured out.

I have this same effect on my unit. It has been there since I got the device last month. During first day, I installed all updates (including January) but issue is still there.

16 hours ago, Hook said:

Are you sure you have the January update installed.  Because, while I clearly saw what you describe in December, when I have the Dragon Pic on my phone now, it no longer does that. I don't know what other explanation there could be unless something happened differently when I reflashed my phone in january, starting with the October factory image provided by Chen.  It's weird.  My phone seems to be fine now at all brightness levels.

Maybe I should try to flash factory firmware and check if reflashing does something.