How to Evaluate a Motorola LCD Display
LCDs are one of the most common display technologies used in smartphones and mobile devices. However, there are very few serious objective performance evaluations and comparisons of the various smartphone LCD displays available on the market.
This article objectively evaluates the display performance of the IPS LCD display in the Motorola Droid based on extensive scientific lab measurements together with extensive side-by-side visual tests.
Brightness
Brightness is a crucial aspect of the image and picture quality and accuracy of mobile displays. Lowering screen brightness can extend battery life by reducing power usage by the backlight. However, it can also be distracting for users who aren’t accustomed to viewing in dark environments, such as those who haven’t used a smartphone before.
The Peak White Luminance (PWL) of the Droid is 449 cd/m2 which is about as bright as you can expect to find on any current mobile display. This value is fine for most tasks, but direct sunlight may make it difficult to read the display if you wear sunglasses.
If you want to change the brightness, head to the Home screen and press Menu – Settings – My Device – Display – Brightness. Slide the slider to the left to make the backlight dim or to the right to make it brighter.
You can also turn on Motorola lcd the Droid’s Automatic Brightness feature, which uses a light sensor to adjust the Peak Brightness of the display. This feature can save you a lot of time and hassle by automatically adjusting the backlight to suit your environment.
Adaptive brightness is an excellent feature, but it can also be annoying when it starts to randomly act up and gets messed up when you’re trying to do something important like unlock your phone. If you’re having trouble with it, it can be helpful to reset adaptive brightness.
This is one of the features that comes pre-installed on Android devices, and it’s a great way to save you from having to manually adjust your display when you’re outdoors in a dark room or when you need to use the flashlight. It’s a good idea to check it periodically to ensure that it’s still working as intended.
Red, Green and Blue sub-pixels generally shift with viewing angle because they vary in intensity level as the image is viewed from various angles. The Droid’s Red shifted the most, by D(u’v’) = 0.0020; Green by D(u’v’) = 0.0135 and Blue by D(u’v’) = 1.0503. With these values the color performance of the Droid remains very good even at an off-normal viewing angle.
Contrast
Despite being a relatively old technology, LCDs have come a long way in terms of color quality and overall image performance. They’re now capable of producing very bright displays that are well suited to outdoor use, with peak brightness and contrast ratios that can compete with their bigger brother LEDs.
The Motorola lcd is no exception to this rule. It has a peak brightness of over 600 nits and a very good black level. The Droid also has one of the better contrast ratios we’ve seen on a smartphone.
It’s also worth mentioning that the display is capable of showing very accurate color and an impressive dynamic range. As we’ve said before, the color scale on the Droid is a close match for the industry standard, and the available Vibrant mode saturates colors just enough to make them ‘pop’ without making them look muddy or dull.
The Motorola lcd also features a clever Dynamic Contrast algorithm that uses the same pixels as the pixel-for-pixel color comparison to deliver more subtle contrast enhancements. The Dynamic Contrast effect is most evident when you’re viewing a dark image with the screen brightness turned all the way down, but it also improves color and picture quality on lighter images in standby mode. The best part is that it can all be done at a low power level, which should reduce battery consumption.
Color
Motorola’s latest smartphone, the Moto G (3rd gen), has a 1280×720 HD resolution display with a 294 PPI pixel density. Its 5-inch IPS LCD screen is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, which protects the screen from scratches and helps it to maintain sharpness.
The display has an average gamma of 2.18, which is very close to the ideal value. The gamma curve is a crucial factor Motorola lcd in preserving shadow detail and accurate color reproduction.
Grayscale accuracy is surprisingly good on the Motorola Droid, with most tested colors showing error levels below three. Warmer colors (reds, oranges, yellows) show larger errors. This is likely because the display’s RGB balance is slightly off, causing these mixed colors to shift towards green instead of red when displayed at high brightness.
Intensity scale accuracy is also good on the Droid, with a measured value of 0.165 cd/m2 for a typical ambient lighting environment. This is well within the range that most displays can achieve and a significant improvement over the previous generation Moto G’s value of 0.165.
The Black Level is another critical color dimension and can be a major issue for LCDs. Most LCDs produce a noticeable dark gray on-screen instead of true black, which reduces image contrast and makes screens difficult to read in dark environments.
This can be a problem especially when viewing text or other low-contrast objects. The Motorola Droid’s Black Level is so low that it almost never shows any visible glow on the screen, even under bright ambient lighting conditions.
White is a non-standardized color but it is used as the reference point for most professional photo and video content. The Droid’s White Point is very close to the industry standard, which is the color of natural daylight at 6500 degrees Kelvin.
The Motorola Droid’s sRGB color space is a very good match for most media and the images it displays are well-balanced and free of artifacts. The only exception is in blue where the Droid’s color extends beyond sRGB by a few degrees.
Viewing Angle
Viewing angle is a big deal in the LCD world. Generally, a monitor is designed to display the best possible image when it’s placed directly in front of the viewer’s eyes. As a result, some displays are better than others. IPS (in-plane switching) and VA (vertical alignment) panels are typically a step up in the viewing department. On the flip side, TN (twisted nematic) panels are often a generation behind their more modern cousins in both performance and cost.
When it comes to screen technology, Motorola has a slew of products in varying flavors and sizes to choose from. Among the offerings are an eye-popping 4K lcd, a Full HD hdmi vga, and an ultra-high definition display that looks like a small tablet. The question remains, do you care much for this stuff? The answer can only be found by doing a little research. You might want to check out our lcd monitor comparison page for some helpful hints and tips.
