HTC thunderbolt screen quality

[lamoglinsgal]

The screen is great. Vibrant colors, resolution is fine (people get carried away with that), viewing angles are good...

But it's not SAMOLED. Sitting by itself I thought it looked about the same until I put it next to my Fascinate. The Fascinate's screen is a little move vivid with most colors(with whiter whites, blacker blacks.)

But the T-Bolt's screen is more than suitable for the device. It does look good and is on par or better than most screens out there.

I agree. I had Amoled on my Inc and the screen on it is definitely more vivid, but the T-Bolt is definitely up to par.

 

[ChiTownJim]

I agree. I had Amoled on my Inc and the screen on it is definitely more vivid, but the T-Bolt is definitely up to par.

Yeahincredible with amoled is more vivid and deeper blacks. But the SLCD on the TB has better whites, better viewing angles and is slightly better in direct sunlight

 

[UBRocked]

Yeahincredible with amoled is more vivid and deeper blacks. But the SLCD on the TB has better whites, better viewing angles and is slightly better in direct sunlight

I know you are coming from an amoled screen, but when I compared the T-Bolt to the Fascinate (super amoled), I noticed that whites on the Fascinate were brighter and whiter. The whites on the thunderbolt are a little more off white from my vantage point.

Not compliant worthy...just an observation.

 

[djb28]

Dude this is were it gets dicey! While in reg lite both screens are beautiful, TB holds its own, of course with a small edge to the Fascinate because of the Super Amo.
However,
In direct sunlite is where the Fascinate really hands the TB a beat down! There is no comparison, there is no contest! I was in my truck yesterday with the sunroof open, got a phone call, and I must say it was pretty tuff to see the screen with the brightness all the way up. Ive been in that same scenario with my Fascinate many times, and I can always see my screen crystal clear! Ohhh well, that's the trade off for speed and real 4G!

That could really make a difference for people like you and me. I love using the phone in my vehicle and i used it a lot out doors over the winter, hiking and snowmobiling.

The navigation worked great to show me roads close by even while i was in fields 2 miles off main roads. Its gonna be a hard choice. For you its speed. I just want to be able to see it and have it function properly where i need it most. I cancelled my order for now. I am going to go to Verizon store and check this out. Thanks man!

Im rooted on the fascinate anyway. My quadrant is 2300. Not that it means anything, But its fast, and i have no speed issues or hang ups.

 

[ChiTownJim]

I know you are coming from an amoled screen, but when I compared the T-Bolt to the Fascinate (super amoled), I noticed that whites on the Fascinate were brighter and whiter. The whites on the thunderbolt are a little more off white from my vantage point.

Not compliant worthy...just an observation.

The whites on the incredible had a slight blueish tint I only notice when comparing to the iphone4 and thunderbolt. I would have loved the fasicate screen in 4.3 on the TB

 

[UBRocked]

The whites on the incredible had a slight blueish tint I only notice when comparing to the iphone4 and thunderbolt. I would have loved the fasicate screen in 4.3 on the TB

Agreed! The point to make as far as I'm concerned though...is that the T-Bolt is so much better than the Fascinate...I don't feel like I'm loosing much because the screen is not quite to the same level.

I did put my phone in the universal GPS mount on the way home from work yesterday. Brightness was at a medium setting...and I had a little trouble viewing some text with the direct sunlight (it was pretty sunny). But the phone was also 2 feet away from me. When I put on a YouTube video, I could see the video just fine so I'm not really seeing the "direct sunlight" problems that some are.

 

[plim]

it's all about perspective. compared to my incredible, my screen is significantly worse. the colors are washed out, low contrast, and there is a green tint on white screens. i held up the same pic on my inc and tb and showed my wife and she saw the difference immediately.

this is also my 2nd tb and they were the same (the first one had to be returned b/c the rep screwed up my contract).

i wish there was some sort of gamma correction app. i think this screen could really use it.

 

[sean76]

That could really make a difference for people like you and me. I love using the phone in my vehicle and i used it a lot out doors over the winter, hiking and snowmobiling.

The navigation worked great to show me roads close by even while i was in fields 2 miles off main roads. Its gonna be a hard choice. For you its speed. I just want to be able to see it and have it function properly where i need it most. I cancelled my order for now. I am going to go to Verizon store and check this out. Thanks man!

Im rooted on the fascinate anyway. My quadrant is 2300. Not that it means anything, But its fast, and i have no speed issues or hang ups.

Id keep rockin with the Samsung if I was u and wait to see what VZW has in the pipeline. If you could stomach Motorola, the bionic is on its way. There Qhd screen is really nice and very usable in the outdoors. My Atrix screen is perfect to me, took a few days coming from the Fascinate because the blacks are not as rich on the MOTO. But after a week with it, I love the screen.

 

[ChiTownJim]

Agreed! The point to make as far as I'm concerned though...is that the T-Bolt is so much better than the Fascinate...I don't feel like I'm loosing much because the screen is not quite to the same level.

I did put my phone in the universal GPS mount on the way home from work yesterday. Brightness was at a medium setting...and I had a little trouble viewing some text with the direct sunlight (it was pretty sunny). But the phone was also 2 feet away from me. When I put on a YouTube video, I could see the video just fine so I'm not really seeing the "direct sunlight" problems that some are.

I don't think the direct sunlight is a big problem , I was outside with the phone all day and it was very sunny and never did I struggle to see the screen . ican see it much better then on my Incredible

I had the Fascinate for about 6weeks and outside the screen I didn't like the phone so I went back to the Incredible. The Thunderbolt is superior to both of those phones by leaps and bounds

I also held it up to my roomates and girlfriends EVO screen both max brightness and the Thunderbolt screen is MUCH better

 

[Peshybutter]

My brother has a Samsung Galaxy S Facinate which had an AMOLED display, i previously had an incredible with an SLCD and now i have the thunderbolt with an SLCD. When comparing them side by side.. The Galaxy S's AMOLED shits on everything...i wasn't so surprised by that because i know AMOLED is far superior to LCD technology...but what did surprise me is the difference between the Incredible and the Thunderbolt. The blacks in the incredible are MUCH MUCH MUCH darker than in the Thunderbolt...Also the colors arnt as vivid as the incredible either....i am actually really disappointed with the Thunderbolts SLCD. I also noticed that the incredible had a slightly yellowish tint when it displayed whites in comparison to the thunderbolt which is the only positive thing i noticed with the screen besides the size. Also the viewing angle on the thunderbolt is AWFUL. I just don't understand why the screen look worse in terms or vividness and contrast (how gray the blacks look instead of being black) ...when comparing it to an incredible...The thunderbolts screen looks washed out almost as bad as the droid X's.... Its just a shame they have all this hype for the first flagship Verizon LTE phone with that awful display.. I'm more disappointing in HTC because they make very well built quality products...I guess i will have to wait for the Samsung Galaxy S2 to come out on Verizon which wont be available until the end (Verizon takes FOREVER to get devices) of the year to be satisfied....

 

[milan03]

you are gonna have trouble looking at any type of screen in sunlight

Actually that's not true. iPhone 4's screen under the sunlight look much better than my thunderbolt. I think it has something to do with the panel being too far inside on the bolt. iPhone's screen is IPS and very close to the glass.

 

[sean76]

Yea after a few days you can really see the blacks on the TB are not on par with the SLCD of the incredible, that is an Answer HTC would have to answer....Maybe its because the TB has a reg LCD after all? I don't have the EVO any more to compare it to, but if history serves me right, the TB screen does not look light years ahead of the EVO'S reg LCD. I bet we got jipped...lol. ohhh we'll, I don't care I'll use this TB until the Bionic comes out (luv they're new QHD displays) and just throw the TB on eBay without hesitation.

 

[Air Force One]

I'll tell you I came from a Nexus One with AMOLED screen and I'm very happy with the TB screen. The Nexus One was not Super AMOLED, but still...

Colors on TB match the Nexus One and the brightness is better on TB...black levels are not nearly as good on TB.

I thought i'd take a major hit in quality going from AMOLED>Super LCD but that was not the case at all.

 

[rajuabju]

I am loving the screen. Looks better than anything else I've seen yet. In sunlight, its viewable still (but obviously not as easy). No shocker there.

Viewing angle is better than any previous phones I've had, and not even close.

 

[ChiTownJim]

I'll tell you I came from a Nexus One with AMOLED screen and I'm very happy with the TB screen. The Nexus One was not Super AMOLED, but still...

Colors on TB match the Nexus One and the brightness is better on TB...black levels are not nearly as good on TB.

I thought i'd take a major hit in quality going from AMOLED>Super LCD but that was not the case at all.

Came from the same screen on an Incredible and I agree with you I wasn't sure what to expect . I think the Incredible had slightly more vivid daker colors but whites are much better on the TB and the big thing is the Incredible was almost worthless in direct sunlight and the Thunderbolt is actually decent in direct sunlight which is AWESOME

 

[shocka]

my two cents... overall i think the screen is great. whites and colors are very true. they don't have that oversaturated "pop" of SAMOLEDS but i prefer the more realistic tones here. i would like the option of turning the brightness up to "11" for bright sun outdoor use. i'm sure they were trying to keep the screen from gobbling up juice even faster but i'd still like the option to notch up the brightness when needed.

 

[slinky]

Yeahincredible with amoled is more vivid and deeper blacks. But the SLCD on the TB has better whites, better viewing angles and is slightly better in direct sunlight

Hard to remember my Incredible but I think it was much better in the sunlight. For me, TB:

- Impossible to see in the sunlight, difficult to see with autobrightness, which does a much better job of optimizing screen (or the sensitivity on low end is terrible)

- In indoor areas the screen is nice, vivid, rich colors

 

[John316]

Do you think there will ever be another HTC phone with a (S)AMOLED display? Or has Samsung stopped selling their displays to competitors?

 

[Teegunn]

Samoled takes the cake IMHO. My Dinc had the amoled, and it was very nice. I chose my DX over the Inc for the much larger screen real estate. It makes a BIG difference. Pre release videos I saw of the Tbolt next to the Evo it seem the Tbolt had a dimmer screen. Could have been display settings on each unit were different I suppose. I'll be in a verizon store or BB soon and I will compare side by side with my DX. Overall, how the screen looks is VERY important to me though as the screen is involved with almost every aspect of actually using the phone. Crappy or even average screen = lose IMHO.