yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Z General] Astridax93:
Your screen is much better than the one I have in front of me :'(. I really am starting to wonder whether one or two early batches of screens had manufacturing flaws. This is ruining what could have been a killer phone!

Actually I might redact what I said a bit. Now with the adaptive brightness switch on and at half to full brightness the black levels are far better than the LG. The difference between my initial and second comparison was a simple change. The phone comes with a set of screen protectors in the box which I applied. Without them the screen seems to appear much brighter with better contrast. The only reason I could see for this would be if the protector was causing additional reflections.
[Xperia Z General] CaFFeiNe666:
so probably would be good my idea to wait a little before buying it (also cause i don't know if i want to take xperia z or htc one), so would be possible that new production units will have the "better display"
[Xperia Z General] LordManhattan:
Looks like i'm going to hold off a little before i get it, in case a bad batch is doing its rounds around the world.
[Xperia Z General] kbadone:
Can someone upload the launcher from DoCoMo variant? I really hate the greyed background in the app drawer!
[Xperia Z General] lloydbf:
If I set my brightness that high (with adaptive enabled) it scorches my eyes.

I have brightness set to MINIMUM on the slider and it's still fairly bright.

What's going on there?
[Xperia Z General] Warren.D:
Has anyone tried taking a screen shot of their home screen yet and see the difference Brava engine does when you view it?

I just did. Looks amazing!! Kept flicking back and forth from home screen and album lol

Hopefully Sony will enable this as a function we can enable through the UI in a future update.
[Xperia Z General] Trollololol:
in this vid from ces 2013 the guy has black(not gray) bar on the bottom of the zl. (skip to 1:10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSt9_AQxq80

i think it has something to do with the settings.

also this guy has a black bar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvcJJj-VdVw&feature=youtu.be
[Xperia Z General] LordManhattan:
Yeah, i've seen a couple of them with black nav bar (on Youtube). I no longer have any idea what's going on.
[Xperia Z General] ssj_jaypee:
do you think maybe it has something to do with screen calibration settings.

I'm sure all the units have the exact same screen. wouldn't make sense to ship some with better screens.

I remember seeing the screen calibration software in settings. Is this available? can anybody with an xperia z check?
[Xperia Z General] Warren.D:
It's not available as of yet (hopefully it'll come in the future)

Sent from my Sony Xperia Z!
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
Reading this thread is like watching a dog following his own tail :)
[Xperia Z General] bucho2004:
Let me add some more fire to.a.burning thread, I have the Xperia z for 2 days and while initially not wowed by the screen coming from a note 2, I now much prefer it. Like so many other users state, there is just something wrong when viewing black level colour popping amoled screen or the othe rPopping screens. After an initial wow moment, my eyes don't like looking at for long\certain amount of time. Just like a tv in store demo, and after u bring it home. A big wow factor on high contrast vivid setting, that you switch to when showing off to your friends, but then quickly tone it a whole lot down when u actually want to watch something. Lol! My Xperia z is alto more natural onthe eyes and much more pleasant screen to actually spend time on. Not just to show off. And its super sharp too. Which is noticeable. Now I have noticed that the grey bacground menu doesn't help the matter. Also if you checkthe apps on homescreen are more vivd in colour than apps on the menu. Which aadds to people's illusion that screen looks washed out when in fact it's just the Sony is design
[Xperia Z General] dibdin:
Would you guys say that whites are pretty decent? No hint of yellowish tone to them?
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
Depends on how you hold your screen :)

If you look down from it the white is a tiny bit blue, if you look up from it is slightly yellow, if you look strait on to it it is white. Generally speaking it is very nice to read from in my opinion no eye strain.

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 AM ----------

Completely true.

Yesterday I did a comparison with the One X that my brother owns. He used to have the XS, his impression was that he could notice the sharpness of the 1080p screen. While looking at photos of his newborn the skin tone on the One X was totally of, as was the color of his clothing. The way he put it was "on the one x my son just doesn't look like my son". Also he said that if you use your phone as a computer/tablet he preferred the Sony screen but if you use your phone more as a phone he would prefer the One X screen. I really agree with him.
[Xperia Z General] cqchin:
the display is actually quite nice, yup. no eye straining. at least i played it on my friends phone for some time and i dont feel anything uncomfortable. xperia z is da best ! =)
[Xperia Z General] dartagnan04:
Totally agree!

I'm gonna end it by buying the XZ (as soon as is available on web stores) and try it for a few days. if the screen is not OK, I'll resend it! End of the storie.
[Xperia Z General] hebbe:
nearly everyone who actually owns the device doesn't complain about the screen. this should be an indicator :)

the ones complainig haven't seen the device on their own, or went to s shop.
[Xperia Z General] lloydbf:
Can someone post a comparison of what they believe to be a bad batch screen versus a good one?

I can't fault my screen tbh, it's good but of course it's no OLED so black won't be that great, ever.
[Xperia Z General] jonmorris:
Different people like different settings. In Japan/Korea most TV sets are set up to be very high in contrast and saturation, while in the West they are more toned down - or were. Seems everyone now equates quality with how bright or vivid a screen is, even if things aren't natural.

I guess this is why it might have been nice to have had some options, but then I guess simply having the option of BE2 to be on or off is a start.

You will always see differences with side-by-side comparisons. Over the years of doing tests, I've often found differences with two of the same handset next to each other. The difference is that most people don't compare with anything else, so you don't see differences in colours or the tone of the whites - your eyes compensate.

In fact, even many OLED screens with very green whites look fine unless someone was to put an LCD screen next to it, where it can become quite obvious.
[Xperia Z General] hndr_haryanto:
See what happened? V is better in my opinion

Display comparison: Xperia Z against Xperia T and Xperia V
[Xperia Z General] AlienCraB:
You mentioned a Sony made display calibration software in the official ROMs, I seem to be unable to find it, how may I access this software if you might inform me please, I wonder if it's a debug code I need to enter on the dialer or something.

- However one thing I've noticed is that the Bravia Engine 2 really really makes a huge difference to the colours and the contrast, do you know of a way of enabling the BE to be operating throughout the whole OS instead of just images and videos? I've seen the BE2 being imported to some other devices that run ICS. Do you think I might be able to simply install those back on after root and achieve this perhaps?
[Xperia Z General] Stedus:
Found this one from Esato
[Xperia Z General] cqchin:
i havent use a xperia z before.. but i saw some reviews saying its viewing angles are moderate although not the best.. is that ture ?
[Xperia Z General] Lusterboi:
Propaganda from Samsung, they probably pay people just to come here everyday and post bad reviews haha. I know that I would not even visit the Samsung thread if I don't intend on buying their device, I really don't know why some of the people still come here for.

I have had Sony devices are a while now and while their screens are not as popping in color, they are much easier on the eye. Don't know why this is the case, but it's true. My eyes strain less while looking at Sony devices. Can't wait for release in US.
[Xperia Z General] AlienCraB:
Right, so I just got off the phone with Sony customer support in Tokyo, they addressed the most common questions we have in the following manner alongside my personal thoughts:

- Bravia Engine 2 is and will be available only for photos and videos, no plans to widen that through the whole user experience. In my opinion this is idiotic as they have such an incredible technology to dismiss all possible complains about the screen of the Xperia Z and ZL both and they are for some reason not using it efficiently. Is there something I'm missing here?

- The background colour of the Android buttons being dark-gray for some people and black in some; they simply said that it might be slight differentiation in the software used in different regions, however they added that it is very unlikely that the case is as I put it to them and that it might simply be that some people call dark-gray => black and some people prefer real blacks over dark-gray'ish blacks. No comments from my side there, that just sounded silly to me.

- About why the display calibration tool that we saw in CES is missing, they said that they could not find such a software on their own devices at this time anyway, therefore dismissed its existence. That's weird as we've seen pictures of such software allowing customization of things like saturation, hue, colour settings etc. but then it might just be something custom for people to test it out on CES only.
[Xperia Z General] lloydbf:
My Z looks like the bottom one when I switch its brightness to 0%.

At 100% it looks like the top one.

Either I have a good screen or the shot is BS.

All in all I like my screen a lot though, if anything it has to be a good one.
[Xperia Z General] ssj_jaypee:
same. my xperia Z screen looks amazing. I'm 100% happy!
[Xperia Z General] dibdin:
+2
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
Having used one now I don't think it's the actual screen that is poor but the colours & design used in its UI. Looking at pictures in the gallery it looked good but then on things like the menu screen it just looked washed out
[Xperia Z General] lloydbf:
Mine doesn't look washed out on the menu either.

I have compared it to my Xperia S and it has it beat for sure. At the same brightness level the S is really glowy.
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
One thing I found made a difference was turning on the adjust to light levels option, this improved the gallery but I wonder if it caused the washed out look in the menu? Do you have that turned on or off?
[Xperia Z General] lloydbf:
This depends. It will wash out your display because it effectively LIMITS the brightness output.

Try this; switch it on and turn the brightness up all the way. Then take the tick off. There will be a serious brightness change.

However, I always have this on, and I set my brightness at about 20%.
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
I should add I haven't got one I was trying one out as my possible next phone. I just cannot warm to the HTC One so I am seriously thinking of getting an Xperia Z. My two remaining concerns are the battery life, though my Arc back in the day was fine in this respect and the camera performance which again got fixed with the first firmware update on my Arc.
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
In terms of battery life it is similar perhaps a bit better than my old arc s.

But I suspect that it will be better since I play more with it and battery is not yet on its full capacity
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
Good to hear. From what I have read it seems the camera has the same issue I felt the Arc had at first in that the noise reduction was over zealous on it and that as a result you lost fine detail.
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
It is a bit overzealous in that respect, but I never pixel peak with a camera phone. Photos are a lot better than my old arc s tough
[Xperia Z General] ajsouter:
The title of this thread is a misnomer! (although the OP had a specific point to make)

I have now spent 48 hours with my XZ in the UK. I really like the display. It is sharp, vibrant and realistic in terms of colour and saturation. I could not get on with the amoled display of the HTC desire and the samsung galaxy. Too unrealistic imho. The bravia engine takes it to another level for movies and pictures: It will impress your friends!

I was hesitating with the iminent release of the HTC one. I have absolutley no regrets. It is a beautiful phone and a beautiful display.
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
What would you say the ergonomics are like on it as it's quite a large device and also rather square.
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
Not as good as the Arc:) the weight is nice, the feel is good far more premium than the Arc. It is easy for me to type with one hand. But resting the phone in the palm of your hand you will notice it after een hour or two. So now it rests on my pink most of the time and that works fine. But it is not a ergonomic wonder.
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
Shame. The Arc was a more rounded design especially on the back where as the Z has a flat back and is squarer so perhaps that's the difference size aside.
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
It's mostly the not so rounded corners. But to me the Arc was the best phone I ever held in terms of ergonomics
[Xperia Z General] Vivoin3d:
coming from the galaxy S II, I love this screen and it's size. Quality is awesome, color reproduction is very good and love the realistic color tone (hated the high saturation on the samsung) and the size is perfect for me. I might have slightly bigger hands, but I can use the Z with just one hand.
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
Worrying as I ended up sending my GS2 back because I couldn't get on with the ergonomics as it was so square.
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
I think the z is a bit wider and a bit more square than the s2. So I would certainly try before you buy :)
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
Thanks for all your help here.
[Xperia Z General] lloydbf:
This is basically a two-hand phone. I can't use it with one hand, altho I have little ***** hands so your mileage may vary.
[Xperia Z General] abd_alazeez2002:
Note that XZ ui is light at the ram compared to HTC sence ui which known as ram eater ( sence 5 is wonderful)

More ram used might lead to more battry drainage.
[Xperia Z General] Al Gore:
Posted in the wrong thread - japanese vs euro screens

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=38702400&postcount=20
[Xperia Z General] belek1979:
not nice sony... and they show that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=nloQkZo4Xr0!

(ZL)
[Xperia Z General] reudyfam:
Slighty off-topic, but this video looks amazing on the Z!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_okcNVZqqI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
[Xperia Z General] belek1979:
it looks amaizing on any device, especially sony 87 in 4K
[Xperia Z General] ajftl:
Agreed on the screen. Colors are bllahhh. I have a butterfly also and that screen is beautiful compare to this Xperia z. Oh well.
[Xperia Z General] Maedhros:
I agree, the Z's screen is nice, but Sony really could have had a better one.
[Xperia Z General] NZtechfreak:
Got mine today, indeed the screen is quite a big disappointment. Worse than my Butterfly by a wide margin, blacks and contrast not as good, viewing angles quite poor (and not only in relative terms Vs the Butterfly, but also absolute terms - I haven't seen a device that wasn't a budget device have washout that bad at even modest off-angle views in quite some time). It may well end up the worst FHD screen out there this year - worse than the Butterfly (which in turn is worse than the HTC One, apparently), worse than the Oppo Find 5 (see GSMArena for comparison), worse than the Padfone Infinity, in all likelyhood worse than the SIV. Sony should have done better there.
[Xperia Z General] Cookie Ninja:
I've seen the reviews, played with 3 demo phones at the sony marketing and compared side-by-side with the sgs3, butterfly and the iphone5. I agree the colours are more washed out than the competition, but that still does not change my decision in buying this phone:

1. The colour reduction is not so drastic, and seems to be more realistic and life-like (not saturated).

2. Playing with the brightness and contrast (reducing to 20% or less & auto brightness on) on all phones makes this difference less discernible (except in the amoled displays of sgs & iphone).

Seems more like a non-issue to me. Ymmv.
[Xperia Z General] katamari201:
Honestly you knew what you were getting into well before making the purchase. The very first videos of it at CES showed a **** display, even worse than a good non-ips lcd like s-lcd. But fanboys and delusional idiots, who are still creating threads about how the docomo Xperia z is a fraud of some kind, have yet to let go. You could send both of them the two phones, and they will continue to keep the one with the **** display, because of some screwed up pride and irrationality.
[Xperia Z General] NZtechfreak:
People do get invested in their phones, even to the point of denying obvious deficiencies at times, no doubt about it.
[Xperia Z General] hndr_haryanto:
Must look at this

Xperia Z: European and Japanese displays compared
[Xperia Z General] Renzo4000:
Still not a good comparison, why?

Look at this picture:

You can see the left unit has much more lightbulb reflections, that's why the screen looks more grey-ish. Therefore they should take two pictures at exact the same position of the camera and switch both phones. Although a much better comparison would be in complete darkness with a fixed camera position. And finally, the difference between the UI settings won't help decide which one had better blacks / viewing angles.
[Xperia Z General] stefanve:
Also DoCoMo could have changed the Gama or other settings as the original article states the differences seem very minor if noticeable at all. This doesn't point to a different panel just different settings.

source:

http://mobiltelefon.ru/post_1362318685.html
[Xperia Z General] :
So where's this so called screen calibration tool that was coming to the Z? 4.2.2?
[Xperia Z General] dartagnan04:
So I spend some time an another forum, and it seems there is some real differences between phones.

A guy go and buy his XZ to a Sony store. Unpacked and turned on right in the store. The screen was washed out, like a white filter on it. After some times spend with the after-sales service, they unpacked another XZ. And guess what, the screen was good.

They said they will consider this issue. Not sure of what they will do with it. But for me, it means there trully are 2 different displays. Don't know if it's hardware (2 screens for one model) or software (error on the default calibration).

BTW, my XZ is now ordered . And if there is a problem with that screen, I will tell you so and send it back.
[Xperia Z General] doministry:
And also the european Xperia Z has grey bars, japanese has black ones..
[Xperia Z General] archibal74:
Please tell me the price in Japan
[Xperia Z General] subcode:
Mine is washed out too...like there is more gamma. Any link from the forum you mention?
[Xperia Z General] edyboy:
how about a video. focus on the background image as they are similar picture. you will see international model has bit washed out color.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/here-is-ho...ng-for-ntt-docomo-in-japan-fare-side-by-side/
[Xperia Z General] stiffler191:
AGREEEEED!!!
[Xperia Z General] vicedens2002:
Although this is a ZL the black levels are awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1GGl6otIdY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
[Xperia Z General] jonmorris:
You can see differences with all screens when they're side by side. But most people don't have another phone at the side.

The human eye is a bit funny like that. You see a white screen and it looks white. Then you should another white screen but now it looks more grey, yellow or green. How didn't you notice before??

I can't get why people are making such a fuss or believing the words of reviewers that are giving an opinion and likely didn't do very thorough tests. I know some people do very thorough testing but most others give a subjective view.

Go and see one for yourself - seriously! It's perfectly adequate and it doesn't really matter what any other screen is like. I can't think of any high end phone screen that is so bad you might not buy it because of that alone.
[Xperia Z General] dartagnan04:
Yep. But I'm not sure it's gonna help you. That's a french forum.
[Xperia Z General] Super Chimp:
Maybe it's just me but photos/videos of screens never look the same as when you see them in real life with your own eyes.
[Xperia Z General] jonmorris:
Part of that will be the obvious things like glare, but also the settings of the camera - which may compensate for a bright screen and turn down the exposure etc.

I often see that people doing photos turn the brightness way up, but that can then make the rest of the phone look dark if the camera operator isn't manually setting things up. A dim screen can often make the whole thing look better, but then you risk the appearance of washed out colours and a lower contrast.

As you say, looking in the flesh is the only real way - or we have all of the different devices photographed by the same person in exactly the same lighting conditions.

I can get why a TV needs a large viewing angle, but a phone screen is looked at straight on in almost all cases. Why wouldn't you look head-on? The Xperia Z can be looked at from a wide angle anyway (I've got some el-cheapo tablets where the screen either disappears or goes into negative, which this obviously doesn't do) but for the rare occasions you might twist the screen, it's hardly a problem.

I can't speak for every manufacturer but I know that in the TV biz, televisions are generally set up with higher contrast and saturation in APAC regions.. it's what users expect. In Europe, you'll see a more toned down display (default). Perhaps that's what Sony was thinking here, although clearly it should have given the option to change things as people WILL make comparisons - and I bet there are loads of people in Japan that might want a more conservative setup and people here that want it looking super-vivid.

Anyone serious about TV will tell you to disable any 'dynamic' modes on a TV as you lose a load of detail, so perhaps the Xperia Z actually ends up having a better overall combination of colour, contrast and detail than all the other handsets people are comparing against. I mean, we all know how bad OLED can be - but users accept these deficiencies because of the infinite contrast ratio.

I have to say that when not watching films, such as reading forums on Tapatalk, OLED is king. Swings and roundabouts basically.
[Xperia Z General] LordManhattan:
I sent an email to Sony Nordic about two weeks ago, asking if they are using two different screens in the Z. Well, two weeks have gone and I just received a reply.

I'm on my phone now, so I'll post it when I'm on my computer (soon).
[Xperia Z General] dartagnan04:
... Suspense!!!
[Xperia Z General] LordManhattan:
Alright, i'm back. Here's the reply i got from Sony Nordic (Norwegian office). A swede replied, so i'll translate it to english.

So, according to Ali, Sony does not use two different type of screens, so it might even be a calibration problem? This is hard to tell though since we don't have the mythical calibration tool/app.
[Xperia Z General] reptile64:
The screen is awesome!! Colors, responce and clarity are great! The viewing angles are indeed disappointing! But who cares... I use my phone straight on my face at all times :P
[Xperia Z General] LordManhattan:
I have emailed Supercurio; also known as XDA's display expert - and he's also interested in finding out what exactly is up with the Z's display (not the viewing angles, but the color inconsistency and variance between devices), so he'll do some research and post an article about it on his blog when he's finished. So now, we wait.