The Google Nexus One is better in sunlight than the Motorola Droid?

And by that title I don’t mean which tans better of course – rather, which device has a better screen when you’re in the sunlight! Is the Google Nexus One AMOLED, or the Motorola Droid (Milestone) TFT LCD? I think you may be able to guess the answer, but let’s read on ….

The Google Nexus is rocking a 3.7″ AMOLED bad-boy of a screen, whilst as we said, the Motorola Droid is packing the TFT – interestingly, they are both the same size. Check out this video of the comparison, brought to our attention by my buddy Ron over at oled-info.com:

Short summary, for those with ADD:

The AMOLED is brighter than the Droid, and behaves better at Sunlight
In normal conditions, the Nexus One has much more vivid colors.
When viewing photos or videos, the AMOLED has much better colors.
The reviewer complains that he ‘sees individual pixels’ on the AMOLED – and this does not happen on the LCD (I’m not sure what he means). He says that sometimes the LCD’s image is more ‘crisp’
Overall the AMOLED is much better than the LCD

Not unlike what we’d be expecting, but, I will say that the performance of screens, irrespective of technology, does seem to vary wildly between devices. This of course can be down to a mixture of hardware and software. Whilst I’ve always liked the iPhone screen for example, I remember being a bit stunned when I turned on the HTC Hero some time back, and saw just how sharp and alive the images on-screen looked!

That sparks an interesting question – which device (that you’ve either owned, or played with) do YOU think has the best quality?

[Via: oled-info.com]

About The Author

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

Jonathan Morris

AM-OLED screens need to be very bright to be visible in bright sunlight, so I wonder what the impact is on the battery?

The Droid/Milestone certainly looks crisp and is fine outdoors – but if you put it beside, say, an Acer Liquid – there’s a noticeable difference. However, it’s a subjective thing – as the Milestone looks ‘warmer’ and the Liquid looks ‘cooler’. You can only really tell when they’re next to each other.

I don’t have the Nexus One to compare, but Samsung OLED screens are very vivid but usually over saturate oranges and greens, looking colourful but not entirely natural.
Daniel Cardenas

Your kidding right? What is meant by “in sunlight” is being outside in the full sun. Not indoors with a ray of sun hitting it. Big difference.
Jeff Dade

Nexus boost current to make AM-OLED brighter in bright sunlight for sure but it will suck the power. Not sure why Droid in this case does not boost brightness (they can). I believe both phones have light sensors for sunlight case especially on Nexus One AM-OLED.
John Blossom

I have been enjoying the Nexus One, it’s screen is very readable in a very wide variety of conditions. If you have it on full-strength for reading it will last only five to six hours, but that’s about what you can expect from a well-equipped laptop, so for intense content viewing that’s not too bad.