[Desire HD General] lynxboy:
This is part of a full review I will be posting on here once I have had a bit more time with the phone, any feedback would be appreciated. I'd like to answer any questions people have in the final review.

The screen.... the screen.... Seeing as the size of it dominates the entirety of the phone, this was always going to be an issue for many people! Before the phone was released I was actively following the LCD vs S-LCD debate and owning a Nexus One, had been treated to the 'contrastific' wonder that is AMOLED.

I'll be honest and say I felt panicked when confronted with the fact this maybe a regular TFT and not an S-LCD screen. Not an AMOLED or a SAMOLED in this day and age :eek: how dare they??! Considering Samsungs reluctance to part with the SAMOLED and the much reported worldwide shortage of AMOLED screens this was of no surprise and highly understandable.

Now I actually have the phone in my hand, I curse my stupidity in regards to getting caught up in 'the forum debate' and losing track on reality. As technophiles we all feel a twinge of excitement when quoting the relevant technology our handsets contain to our friends and fellow forum dwellers. I'm not discounting the real world benefits of such technology, but sometimes we tend to trust more in the branding terms than the actual real world performance.

After owning an AMOLED Nexus I cannot deny that the contrast levels are unbeatable (Samsung Galaxy S aside). Watching movies on the screen was a joy, especially in dark scenes when the black levels came through in all their glory. Personally, I liked the colour saturation (or over-saturation) which gave the display an eye grabbing brilliance which even next to the iPhone 4's lauded Retina Display (nice branding for what is simply a high res IPS LCD) it managed to hold it's head high.

When switching on the Desire HD after coming from a Nexus, the feeling compares to taking off your shades after a long day in the sun. The colours are not quite the same, the brightness has shifted and you find yourself blinking rapidly as your eyes slowly adjust to what is a different experience. Now to say this is a sub par experience is completely unfounded. Yes some people will instantly wonder whether their phone is functioning correctly, or take a swift trip down to the Opticians questioning their vision. They will finally end up cursing the lack of AMOLED on Xda-Developers, stating washed out colours and poor viewing angles (those who look at there phone sideways all day).

All I can say in response is that while coming from an AMOLED to the Desire HD is like taking off your shades, there are always those who keep their shades on all day long, even in the dark :cool:.

As my eyes adjusted to the screen I started to understand what the term 'over-saturated' actually meant! I wanted to apologise to my Iris, Cornea and Retina all at one time. The colours aren't washed out, it's just my eyes were over washed with a false spectrum for so long. The main benefits for this are seen when browsing the web and looking at images, they look REAL. I actually feel as if i'm seeing something in front of me and not looking at a phone screen. The only sadness I feel is when watching videos, it just doesn't look as VIVID, not to say it doesn't look good, but I guess those juicy blacks will definitely be missed.

Another thing is slowly dawning on me, PenTile displays are horrendous. I was duly concerned that having the same resolution on a 35% larger screen would mean the subsequent pixellation would have me screaming for Cupertino's Retina Display to come and save me (sickening thought). Strangely enough it actually feels as though the resoultion is higher. I remembered reading about the Nexus One screen here and feeling it was unfair attack (BTW anyone on here that doesn't read ArsTechnica, bookmark it now). The premise was that the subpixel arrangement on AMOLED screens (Even the SGS has this) meant the effective resolution was less than the 480x800 claimed and more like 392x653, something I now accept to be correct. Comparing the screens side by side it becomes all the more apparent that the resolution cannot be the same, as some images appear sharper on the larger screen which doesn't make logical sense. It is safe to say that for once I agree with Apple and their decision to keep away from AMOLED when many fanboys were demanding it after the 3GS.

Finally, the superior colour depth of the screen has slowly come to the fore. I've read conflicting reports of Nexus creen having 16m vs 65k colours and of being 16bit (Link). I can refer back to one of my earlier statements about technical branding vs reality. Whatever the specs of the Nexus One/Desire screen it falls flat on colour depth compared to the Desire HD. Backgrounds which previously suffered from banding are now brilliant and even the XDA app startup splash, which had serious banding issues on the Nexus now displays colours which weren't even visible before.

Overall, once over the adjustment period, the DHD screen trumps that of the Nexus or Desire and is simply stunning. The size alone renders many of the arguments pointless. I hold my Nexus now and have the same feeling as when I first held the X10 Mini, I feel as though my phone could eat it for breakfast the cute little thing it is. Don't fear the negative comments on here, see it for yourself and if you don't like it, you don't like it.

I certainly do.

Regards.

Some final thoughts....

Did somebody say fully multitouch?? :D

TFT LCD vs S-LCD?? Just in case this is a TFT

HD2 (TFT LCD) Review Endgadget - In terms of colour and contrast, the HD2's screen is a champion. Images and video looked saturated but not drenched, and blacks seemed superbly deep to us.

HD2 (TFT LCD) Review Gizmodo - The 4.3-inch glass display is pure bliss

Comparison Image, Sorry for the poor quality!