yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[myTouch 4G General] DarkAgent:
A lot of reviews I have viewed on the MT4G say that even though it has a normal LCD (or SLCD -- depending on who you ask), the colors are fairly "rich". This may just be the affect SAMOLED has had on me (I am coming from a Vibrant) but I hardly find the colors on the MT4G to be "rich" -- especially the whites.

I have attached a screenshot of Google.com from my MT4G; Looking at Google.com on the MT4G, the white is more off-white than it is real white.

Anyone else seeing this? I am not expecting SAMOLED quality (obviously) and the colors are not "poor", but they are nothing special either.

EDIT: I just realized attaching a screenshot proves nothing since the problem is with how the LCD on MT4G shows it rather than the page itself. In other words, the screenshot will look just fine if viewed from a different device. So I have removed the screenshot.
[myTouch 4G General] unremarked:
I'd have to agree that it's the SAMOLED affecting your judgment.

No screen, other than another SAMOLED or the fictitious SAMOLED2, can really compete.

The SLCD(or regular LCD, depending on your source, like you said) screen in the MT4G is essentially the standard in smart phones these days. What sets the MT4G apart is the internals, which are far superior to anything on the market, imo. Second-generation 1GHZ Snapdragon processor and 768 RAM is what I'm referring to.

Personally, I found the screen on my second MT4G to be on par with the G2, which I also place above my Nexus One's AMOLED. So basically, again in my opinion, SAMOLED > G2/SLCD = MT4G/SLCD? > Nexus One/AMOLED > Everything else
[myTouch 4G General] DarkAgent:
Second generation processor and 768 MB of RAM is nice, although the GPU is a bit inferior to that of the Vibrant (just had to throw that out there).

That said, could it just be my particular phone? I compared Google.com on my MT4G and my laptop too and there is definitely a difference in the whites.
[myTouch 4G General] unremarked:
Fully admit the Vibrant has a better GPU. There's tons of benchmarks to show it.

My first MT4G had a really seemed to have a washed out screen and I replaced it because of this fact, more or less.

When you had your screenshot attached, I pulled up Google.com and held it to the screen for comparison. But, like you noted when you removed it, it's being compressed through the interwebz then re-displayed on my desktop's screen so of course I saw a difference. That being said, I do think the screen on the MT4G is good. Is it better than other things currently on the market? Eh. Maybe. I think it's pretty standard, to be quite honest. It's the other internals, the build quality of the entire device itself, and the fact that I actually like SenseUI/mySense that won me over to keep the device.
[myTouch 4G General] DarkAgent:
The funny thing is I hate mySense/Sense -- I loved TouchWiz, haha. It really is TouchWiz/SAMOLED that really is holding me back from returning my Vibrant just yet... I am having hell of a time making up my mind.

For me it all comes down to TouchWiz + SAMOLED vs HSPA+ + FFC.

Decisions, decisions.
[myTouch 4G General] waiaung1:
I whole-heartedly agree with you that the screen is nothing special. While I love my mytouch 4g, I admit that the screen is just average. There's been a lot of debate as whether the screen is slcd or not. I have to say it is a regular lcd after comparing it to the g2; while the mytouch 4g is brighter, the g2 is noticeably more saturated.
[myTouch 4G General] mgymnop:
If I have the choice between a fantastic SAMOLED screen on a crappy samsung phone like the vibrant and a great device with a nice bright LCD like on the MT4G. I go for the MT4G. I absolutely don't care about SAMOLED. The screen is not a self purpose and people who are buying a phone solely because of a screen are crazy. I had the N1 and the AMOLED screen was too dark and never looked really sharp. I don't watch avatar on a phone (rediculous) and I don't play games (I am over 30;-) so if I have a bright and sharp screen I am satisfied.
[myTouch 4G General] d2dthetide:
To me it was the opposit. Holding the Nexus One next to the MT4G I thought the nexus had better color...the 4G looked washed out. I like watching videos when traveling and my first instinct was to send the 4G back and stay with the Nexus...especially since I had the Desire Sense on it. But, the MT4G has larger internal memory, 4G, etc... I kept the 4G and my son gets the Nexus.
[myTouch 4G General] floepie:
I may be in the minority, but I hated the SAMOLED on the Vibrant. The white balance on that device was just awful. Whites were light blue/green. Having much warmer whites that are much closer to the standard is much nicer on the mt4g. Additionally, text was so fuzzy compared to the sharp, much more readable text on the mt4g. Lastly, the colors, while certainly vivid and rich are so far from realistic, it just looked silly. No way would a good calibration specialist worth his weight in salt would arrive at those curves. It's sort of like looking at a TV on the floor of a big box retailer like Best Buy. Apparently, those settings move their TVs, and based on feedback here, people love that HDR-like cartoonish appearance. Their saturation and contrast levels are maxed out, and simply don't provide a realistic picture. The only real advantage of the Vibrant was its ability to show inky dark blacks. That was fantastic.
[myTouch 4G General] stevenbriggs:
Agreed. I've been trying to figure out what I hated so much about the Vibrant screen, and you just nailed it for me. Personally, I think my MT4G screen is excellent. There is a point where it's simply "more than good enough", and who cares after that?

I can honestly say that, after having this phone for a few days, it is the first phone I've purchased that is worthy of replacing my Nexus One (and I've bought pretty much every Android device out there that can run on T-Mobile's network). To me, *that* means something big. I bought the Nexus on Jan. 5, and it has taken over eleven months for somebody to finally put something better out.

Love the MT4G!
[myTouch 4G General] kgbkny:
I loved the SAMOLED screen on my Vibrant (now sold). However, that was the only thing I loved about that phone. I have to admit, when I got the MT4G and compared both phones side by side, I was slightly disappointed in what appeared to be lacking color saturation on the MT4G's display. However, after using the phone for a couple of days, not only did I begin to like the display and its extremely sharp resolution and text appearance, I forgot all about the SAMOLED.

This was probably aided by the fact that the MT4G is a phenomenally powerful device - in terms of performance, the Vibrant is not even in the same league.
[myTouch 4G General] dinan:
I don't have a MT4G but I did play with one extensively in the store. At the time I had a Nexus 1 and Vibrant so I was a bit sad that the screen did look washed out compared to it, but when used by itself it was perfectly fine. And I do agree the colors look too oversaturated on the amoled screens as well, but the blacks are just so nice.

The thing that I do like about SLCD displays vs. amoled is the pixel layout allows for much sharper text, something I never got used to on amoled, I just dealed with it. For browsing and reading emails the MT4G screen or any SLCD for that matter is far superior than amoled. The iPhone 4's display... wow, nice sharp text. =(
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
So, I think there's one of two things going on with these phones. I just got my first mt4g on sunday. it came loaded with 2.2.1 and it came with a great quality screen. I had my buddy root it, and i got a little overzealous deleting bloatware and deleted "friendstream" which in turn caused the phone to never complete "syncing" and therefore i always had the syncing logo in the task bar. I took it back to the store and got a replacement....well this one came loaded with 2.2 and had a really washed out screen. I at first thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me....but it was so washed out, i couldn't take it any more....so I took it to another store (a busier store that would likely not be sitting on earlier builds). This one too came with 2.2.1 but also had a washed out screen...

So T-Mobile/HTC is clearly using differen't suppliers for these screens

As it is a completely noticable difference, not only in color/contrast ration, but viewing angles as well.

I will say this, I've owned a Nexus one, a Vibrant and a g2 for a few days. ,(If/When you get a "Good" Screen) I think of all the screens this one may have the best comprimise of sharpness/contrast/color. While the Nexus and Vibrant at first glance look amazing...the text is grainy (screen door effect) and the colors are unrealistic...so when viewing some picture or video it looks like cartoonish. That said, if you get a Washed out screen....it's probably the worst of all three.

I will be going back to the store in a few days to try and exchange and get a good one again.

That's my 2 pennies.

PS, I'd also like to add...that yes...I set all of them to "auto brightness" so that was not a factor.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
Follow up to my previous post. There is NOTHING in 2.2.1 that improves the screen quality. There is an obvious case of more than one manufacturer making the LCD's in these phones. Because after replacement this one came with 2.2 and has a better screen. Also, We opened 5 phones at the store and all of them had washed out colors until i finally said "let's try a plum one instead of black" and that one had a good screen with higher contrast ratio. So now I'm on a Plum MT4G...and while it's not my first choice....it's pretty cool and leaps and bounds above white or red. And the Picture Quality; Better blacks, richer colors and better viewing angles than the previous two I had.

I'd encourage anyone dissatisfied to return to the T-Mobile store you purchased and ask them to open up several, before processing the exchange so that you can get a good one. The easiest way to tell, is turn the phone slightly off angle....if it gets washed out, it's the bad one. If the colors stay rich then it's a good one. The Nexus live wall paper is also very telling on a good one as the colors pop more and the grey scale is far more defined... I will try and take a photo of mine next to a washed out one so You guys can see the difference as well, soon!
[myTouch 4G General] darkpaniel:
Wow.. interesting stuff, btbuck1. I await your photos.

Quick question.. did you have a chance to compare the "newer" screen with the screen of a G2? I had the G2 for a few weeks and when the MT4G came out, I compared both phones at a tmobile store. The difference in the contrast and color was obvious. I wonder how the newer batch of MT4G screens compare now to the G2.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
I used the G2 for about 4 days before going to the MT4G. But, I went back to the NEXUS ONE in between the two for about a week and a half so it wasn't an immediate comparison. But from what I can remember this "Good" MT4G is BETTER than the G2 in screen quality. But, the MT4G's with the poor screens couldn't stand up to the G2 at all, and certainly not to the N1.

But, I like the overall screen quality of the good MT4G's over all the phones I've had. Including the N1 & Vibrant.
[myTouch 4G General] DADDYDC650:
I noticed the same thing regarding different displays on the MT4G. My first MT4G had a display that washed out quickly at angles. My 2nd MT4G's display does not wash out as much and generally looks better.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
Yes, I noticed before when my phone was on my desk and i got a text, i could read it while it was sitting there....then when i got the replacement phone i would have to pick the phone and face it toward me....now again with this "good screen" I can see the texts while it's sitting on the table.

I'm telling you folks, it's a night and day difference in Picture quality.

I think T-Mobile needed a ton of these for the holiday demand and HTC outsourced the screens from different manufacturers....and left some looking "Awesome!" and some looking " Meh? =/ "

My buddy tried to take pics at the store of his vs. one with the washed out screen, but it was difficult to tell with a phone camera, need a real digital camera to show it.
[myTouch 4G General] floepie:
Maybe from here on in, for those of you claim there is a difference, please let us know where the "good" ones and "bad" ones were manufactured. Could be a pattern there. I believe this information can be found by the battery on the inside.
[myTouch 4G General] mingkee:
Mine does look good even contrast isn't "unlimited" because the screen is not AMOLED.
[myTouch 4G General] floepie:
What the.

Sent from my HTC Glacier
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
mine is made in taiwan

(update)

we checked a friends who's has the bunk screen....his is also made in taiwan.
[myTouch 4G General] rjhay22:
I have all three phones, and I kinda disagree with the LCD screen being better than the AMOLED screen on the nexus, the first thing I noticed about the 4g was the screen isnt too lively like the other 2 devices are, which I was aware of before buying the 4g. But as vibrant the screen is on the Vibrant, and how superior its GPU is compared to the 4g, I dislike the noticeable bluish tint on the screen, amongst other things I hate about it.

So I agree, colors are fairly average on the mytouch 4g and doesnt have the best screen out there, but on every other features and performance, I can easily say its the best overall android device up to date. :-)
[myTouch 4G General] dinan:
I don't know if it's just my unit, but kind of related to screen quality, the touchscreen on my MT4G doesn't seem as responsive as my Vibrant or Nexus. I find it quite choppy when scrolling through menus, and it always "misses" the first half a second of my swipe, so scrolling is a chore. The vibrant is just WAY smoother for scrolling, which leads me to believe my MT4G is defective =(

Anyone else with a Nexus or Vibrant able to compare side by side? (Maybe I'll post a video...)
[myTouch 4G General] mgymnop:
Your phone must have a defect. I had a N1 for 1 year and its screen responsiveness is awful in comparison to the MT4G, especially if you have stock froyo. the swiping between homescreens on the N1 is awful and often you need a second swipe. I used launcher pro to make it work on the N1. The Mytouch is much more responsive and you need less pressure to swipe. There is maybe a little bit lag from time to time but that's the Sense UI if you use launcher pro it is flying...
[myTouch 4G General] dinan:
I think I'm just more sensitive to these things than most people... the MT4G tracks my fingers fine, it's just there's always this initial 1/5th of a second of lag that the vibrant or nexus doesn't have... I'm pretty sure I remember seeing it on the MT4G's I played with in the store, but I attributed it to mySense. I flashed the Cyanogen alpha and the lag is still there, so I'm quite sure it's either a hardware issue that no one seems to notice or my unit is defective =\
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
Again, you probably have one of the boojee screens. There are two differen't screens being supplied for these phones. one that has terrible viewing angles and lackluster color/contrast. and another that is leaps and bounds better. Read the rest of the thread.
[myTouch 4G General] rjhay22:
I read the whole thread thank you very much, and ive compared not just my mytouch but several mytouch to my nexus and vibrant, and there is no way the LCD screen is better than the amoled screen.
[myTouch 4G General] dinan:
Yea anyone who says the mytouch screen has just as much or more contrast and vibrance as an amoled screen is bordering on fanboy status...

As for sharpness... the SLCD beats the pentile AMOLED hands down.
[myTouch 4G General] sovereignty68:
How does playing games conflict with ages? Me and most are my friends are over 30, we all play games. Playing games is just part of exercise to relax ourself from stress. But I have to agree to AMOLED on N1, it is indeed seemed darker compare to mt4g. MT4G LCD colors seems washed out compared to SAMOLED, but it's sharp and crisp, better then some AMOLED, not like some other cheapo LCD I've seen. Who wouldn't want SAMOLED, RETINA, or SAMOLED2 on HTC phones? it's just not going to happen. SAMOLEDs only applies on Samsung phones atm like Retina on iDevices, if you love them, just buy Samsung phones, then you'll complain about their cheap plastic quality on their phones. Nothing is perfect, just get what's best for you and accept its con.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
right, and i would agree with you if i was comparing the bad screen ones that i had, and i'm pretty sure you have if you feel that way. Believe me, i've had all the same phones as you...for extended amounts of time.

I still have a nexus one. and although the nexus does have richer color and darker blacks. the colors are off, and the text is grainy...no thanks.

The Mytouch I have now has a better screen than like 15 i've compared them to.

Only myself and my good friend have good ones. I'd be willing to compare with you if you lived locally. I need to post pics with mine side by side with another so you guys can see what I'm talking about. But that requires me going to the store with my digital camera to take pics (not sure i wanna be "that guy" in the store)

There's going to be a lot of dissapointed folks when you see the difference, because i think the washed out screens are the majority and the good screens are the minority at this time.

I'm just trying to help, and point out that there is considerable difference between some mytouch 4g's screens and others depending on the sourced screen used on the device. there is definitely two differen't screens being used by HTC. If you guys don't wanna listen, and think they are all the same...fine, but i'm telling you...there is a BIG difference. like night and day between the good ones, and the bad ones.
[myTouch 4G General] rjhay22:
Copy that, then ill have to check out a tmobile store tomorrow and check it out then. I dont think ill be able to replace it anyway, but just interested to see the difference between the two. So you say the plum ones should be better?

Edit: I just got out of a tmobile store and I can confirm some phones got brighter screens than tbe others, one thing I noticed though, after testing the camera, is when you zoom all the way in on the images, the brighter screen doesnt auto adjust on sharpness and will show more blurry pics than my phone.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
I'm not talking about a brightness difference, I'm talking about a Contrast ratio difference. So I don't know what you were seeing (maybe a setting)?

Also, a "Screen difference" would have absolutely nothing to do with it's ability to take photo's. Camera Lenses, and monitors are totally independent of one another. Then again, it wouldn't surprised me if HTC/T-mobile is sourcing that from mulitple places too.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
easier way to tell if you have the higher contrast screen vs. the washed out screen.

Under settings, there is a Grey bar at the top that says "settings" in white.

That Grey bar should be grey, not periwinkle.

Click the Images below to compare with your phone. If yours is looking more Grey congrats you have the good screen.

If yours is looking more periwinkle...too bad, so sad.

I'd like to add that the Grey is nearly identicle to my phones when i held it up. The periwinkle swatch is a tad darker than the bad screens. But you should have no hint of periwinkle what-so-ever. Also this is tested using the "auto" brightness setting.
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
My Plum mytouch 4G

Good viewing angles:
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
My Mytouch 4G

Rich color, good contrast ratio:
[myTouch 4G General] btbuck1:
My mytouch 4G "Settings" Pic (grey bar) vs. Screen capture screenshot app.
[myTouch 4G General] dinan:
Guess I have a bad screen then... =(

Kind of suspected it since my screen didn't impress me as much as all the reviews indicate... and the blacks have a weird "reflectivity" to it... kind of annoying.
[myTouch 4G General] Jon C:
So, I own one of each of these bad boys. Here's something interesting I noticed:

Both Screens Have Their Advantages

All launch devices (that came with 2.2) seem to ship with the 'washed-out' screen. The second batch of devices (shipping with 2.2.1) are made with the 'deep color' display. I've had a handful of these phones, and this was true, every time.

The washed-out screen (which just seems to be a bit blown-out in white level), has poor viewing angles when the screen is very bright. Colors are not entirely accurate, but it's nothing you'd really notice without comparing it to another device. However, it looks amazing in low-light! For example, the desk dock clock is viewable from every single angle, and looks brilliant. I was so impressed that the desk dock dimmed clock was viewable and perfectly readable from any angle.

The sharper 'This-Is-Obviously-SLCD', richer screen looks almost like AMOLED in terms of deep colors and viewing angles, when the screen is not in a low-light mode. When the screen is bright, the viewing angles are amazing, and the icons really 'pop' from the background wallpaper. However, once you dim the screen to use the desk dock app, it must be viewed dead on to be viewable. As soon as the phone is titled, the image just turns navy blue and you lose all fidelity. Once dimmed, the viewing angles are hilariously bad.

Those are the biggest issues I could notice. Both rendered text beautifully, and performed well in almost every other case. It's just personal preference, really.

Hope that helps a little for my fellow OCD phone owners. :D
[myTouch 4G General] onyonees:
i went to a tmobile store today and compared my phone with the mytouch4g's and g2’s. my screen was exactly like the other mt4g's in the store so i was feeling pretty good. so then i decided to compare my screen to their g2's and that is when i noticed a big difference. it's easiest to notice when using the nexus one live wall paper and setting the phones to full brightness. the red streaks on my phone look pink compared to the red streaks on the g2.

Having said all that, the grey bar on my settings tab matches the grey posted by btbuck1, so now I am reallllly confused. The color on my phone is washed out compared to the G2 which probably means I have the “washed out” lcd but my grey matches the grey btbuck1 posted for the “richer in color” lcd screen.

My white mt4g was made in Taiwan, shipped with 2.2, and ffc is slightly off center.
[myTouch 4G General] vw671:
Which one do I have?
[myTouch 4G General] Jon C:
You have the 'washed-out' launch unit. Though, having used it for a month, I didn't really ever notice (except for the dead pixel that drove me nuts).

Easiest way to tell? Tilt the phone to any 'bad' viewing angle, while looking at the HTC clock widget. See that white, blown-out, almost 'reflective' patch between the falling clock panels? That doesn't happen with the more vibrant screen when you tilt the phone any way.

Downside, as I mentioned before: the 'better' screen totally blacks out when tilted while dimmed.

It's a fair trade-off, either way, if you ask me. ;)
[myTouch 4G General] em2drvr03:
i rather being able to see at angles then see black
[myTouch 4G General] DADDYDC650:
I have the superior display with the brightness turned all the way down and it never "blacks" out. In fact, it has great viewing angles. Loving my MT4G.
[myTouch 4G General] floepie:
It could be that your PC monitor isn't calibrated very well, and that those greys are displaying more as periwinkle. I have the first gen screen, and mine is pretty close to that periwinkle. :(