It's time for round 2 of the
AMOLED vs. S-LCD match. It's not cut-and-dry, S-LCD does well in
contrast and color reproduction, though not so well when it comes to
the promised lower power usage and sunlight legibility.
You've probably heard - there's a nasty AMOLED shortage, which has
forced makers like HTC to switch from AMOLED to S-LCD for some of its
models, like the HTC Desire.
We've already seen S-LCD vs. AMOLED once, but now there are a few more macro shots and more tests. Here's how the S-LCD HTC Desire did against its AMOLED twin.
S-LCD was sharper than
AMOLED (which uses an unusual matrix with fewer sub-pixels) and offered
better color reproduction along with better contrast. AMOLED parried
with more vibrant colors and darker blacks.
Viewing angles on both HTC Desire phones turned out to be very good,
but the S-LCD handled vertical angles better, while the AMOLED screen
did better when titled sideways.
Sunlight legibility gave a slight edge to AMOLED and a test to
verify HTC's claims that S-LCD uses less power than AMOLED showed just
the opposite - AMOLED did 30% better. Unless you put the two versions
of the HTC Desire side by side, you probably won't spot the image
quality difference.
But the power usage gives the AMOLED Desire the edge. Still,
tomorrow HTC is announcing something - we have our fingers crossed it's
the HTC Desire HD and Desire Z, but we'll let you know as soon as we
find out for sure.