AMOLED phablet ?

[A_vidReader]

Hi,

I am planning to purchase a 5.5" phablet that will serve as my next e-reader, mainly to read pdf books that can be tolerably read in landscape mode (these form a substantial part of my pdf book collection). I'll keep on reading larger pdfs (books/documents) on my PC/laptop as I do now. I am not keen on tablets because they are too heavy for me to hold for an extended period. I can't comfortably read on my side for long.

I've been using a small-screen (LCD) smartphone for almost 5 years now to read ebooks (epub, html, txt mainly, (and sometimes reflowable pdfs too)). I use black background with a lighter foreground along with a screen dimmer app, and can read for hours without much discomfort. The small screen allows for only 80 words or so at a time, but if the book is engrossing enough, it doesn't bother me to keep pressing the volume key to turn pages, -- in fact, usually I'm not even aware of this activity! The small size is so convenient that I'd be happy enough with this setup itself, if not for my pdf books.

I'm trying now to decide between an AMOLED screen and an IPS LCD screen. I am kind of leaning towards an AMOLED with the following expectation (I have never owned one myself, nor seen one in my kind of use):

Even at the lowest brightness setting that allows for comfortable reading, my LCD screen still lets some light through the black background, that is quite noticeable in a dark enough room (even though it doesn't hurt my eyes). I suspect an AMOLED screen will not have this problem, and so, will even allow me to turn the brightness level still further down while keeping reading convenient. This ought to help in terms of energy efficiency as well.

Unfortunately, I couldn't possibly test this hypothesis out in a showroom. So I'd very much appreciate any help in this regard from experienced members who might have already tried out this scenario, and so, can guide me. Thank you very much for your time.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by A_vidReader

Hi,
Even at the lowest brightness setting that allows for comfortable reading, my LCD screen still lets some light through the black background, that is quite noticeable in a dark enough room (even though it doesn't hurt my eyes). I suspect an AMOLED screen will not have this problem, and so, will even allow me to turn the brightness level still further down while keeping reading convenient. This ought to help in terms of energy efficiency as well.

Unfortunately, I couldn't possibly test this hypothesis out in a showroom. So I'd very much appreciate any help in this regard from experienced members who might have already tried out this scenario, and so, can guide me. Thank you very much for your time.

The advantage of Amoled: when the screen is black, it's off. So, my phone (5.7" AMOLED) doesn't leak any light when I select a black background. In fact, the colours I have for background reading on my Freda application is RGB(0, 0, 0) as background and RGB(50, 50, 50) as ink colour. I tried those colours on my tablet (8" LCD) and they were unreadable due to the light leakage as you described.

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

The advantage of Amoled: when the screen is black, it's off. So, my phone (5.7" AMOLED) doesn't leak any light when I select a black background. In fact, the colours I have for background reading on my Freda application is RGB(0, 0, 0) as background and RGB(50, 50, 50) as ink colour. I tried those colours on my tablet (8" LCD) and they were unreadable due to the light leakage as you described.

I'll back Sweetpea's comments here. I have two mobile phones that I read on fairly regularly, one having an LCD and the other an AMOLED screen. For night-time reading I use dark red RGB(128,0,0) on black RGB(0,0,0). On the AMOLED screen that works just fine; on the LCD screen the light leakage makes the reading experience quite unsatisfactory (for me, and also for my wife, trying to sleep alongside, as there is actually enough screen illumination to disturb her).

[HarryT]

Perhaps worth being aware of a couple of disadvantages of AMOLED compared to IPS LCD:

1. Although it uses less power than LCD when most of the pixels are off, it uses more power when the pixels are on so, dependent upon your primary usage of the device, it may have a shorter battery life than a comparable device with an LCD screen.

2. Unlike LCD screens, AMOLED is subject to pixel "burn in", so in the long-term screen quality can degrade. It all depends how long you anticipate keeping your device for. If you plan to keep it for several years, this may be a consideration.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Perhaps worth being aware of a couple of disadvantages of AMOLED compared to IPS LCD:

1. Although it uses less power than LCD when most of the pixels are off, it uses more power when the pixels are on so, dependent upon your primary usage of the device, it may have a shorter battery life than a comparable device with an LCD screen.

2. Unlike LCD screens, AMOLED is subject to pixel "burn in", so in the long-term screen quality can degrade. It all depends how long you anticipate keeping your device for. If you plan to keep it for several yeares, this may be a consideration.

My Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is going on five years old, and hasn't had pixel burn in. You just need to set the screen to turn off if you are inactive for more than two or three minutes.

[A_vidReader]

Thanks everyone for your help. I am reassured now by the experiences of Sweetpea and Jim Chapman that my expectation for reading on AMOLED (light on black) is in the right direction.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Perhaps worth being aware of a couple of disadvantages of AMOLED compared to IPS LCD:

1. Although it uses less power than LCD when most of the pixels are off, it uses more power when the pixels are on so, dependent upon your primary usage of the device, it may have a shorter battery life than a comparable device with an LCD screen.

Yes, I'm aware of these concerns, and figured that for my kind of use I have much more to gain than lose by switching over to AMOLED. I always prefer dark themes anyway (even apart from my primary interest -- reading on a black background). So potentially shorter battery life (for predominantly white/light screens) is probably not going to be that much of a concern for me, I hope.

2. Unlike LCD screens, AMOLED is subject to pixel "burn in", so in the long-term screen quality can degrade. It all depends how long you anticipate keeping your device for. If you plan to keep it for several years, this may be a consideration.

Regarding this, I'm reassured by Phogg's experience. Even before that, I had reasoned that, since the blue pixels are likely to die sooner, it will probably not hurt my kind of reading (with blue turned all the way down anyway). So I was kind of leaning towards an AMOLED anyway, to experience for myself how it actually turns out overall.

Even the LCD screen on my current smartphone (almost 5 years old now) is getting darkish on the corners (like the vignette effect on photos), and also along one edge. While I'd be happier without this problem, it has failed so far to stop me from reading.

Thanks again for all your help. Looks like an AMOLED it is.