Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

My friend has an Eris , I have a Droid - it seems as while the display on the Droid is much sharper (the much higher resolution on the Droid explains the sharpness) but the colors on the Eris are much better.

The Droid looks washed out compared to the Eris (blacks are much "darker" on the Eris) - to compare we demoed a few of the same apps (one with a color test pattern , the <colorful> BIC concert lighter) and the Eris had much better color each time - very noticeable (I thought the Droid had a great display until seeing the Eris - now while the text isn't as sharp on the Eris , it makes for a better image <YouTube videos on HQ for instance> than the Droid overall).

The Droid's display is always praised (as one of the best until now that the Nexus One has been released) - but usually this is always stating how clear / sharp the display seems - not the color quality. I finally did come across one review that preferred the Eris over the Droid & one reason they stated "the Eris has better contrast settings stock".

So I've been trying to find a way to adjust the contrast of the Droid (not just brightness) but I can't find any contrast / color settings - is there a way to adjust the contrast of the Droid's display?

Thanks

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

That's funny you stated that. I'm coming from the HTC Imagio and I feel the same way. The Imagio had a much more vibrant screen, the colors just popped. The Droid may have better resolution but that doesn't make it the best display. Even my pictures that I imported to the Droid from my Imagio look washed out.

Would like to see a contrast adjustment also, thanks for bringing this up.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Is this with the auto brightness turned off? because I thought the same way till I turned the auto brightness off and it looks fantastic

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I too have noticed that the auto seems to wash things out. Even with auto turned off, it does still need some contrast adjustments so hopefully someone knows of some way to do this. I am finding more reasons to get digging more into programming.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

When comparing my Droid with my old Omnia I notice that the Droid has a distinct yellow coloring. Whites on the Omnia were really white, but whites on the Droid are a little yellower. It's kind of "gentler" on my eyes though, so I don't know what to think of it. I guess it's a trade-off I'm willing to make to enjoy the high resolution of the Droid.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I find that turning off the Auto Backlight does make the screen look nicer but I agree with you. The screen is very clear but colors and as vivid as even my old Touch Pro. Maybe it's something with capacitive screens? When I went to the Verizon store, the saturation and contrast of the resistive screens of the Imagio and Omnia 2 blew away the capacitive ones of the Droid, Eris, and Storm. Strange though since the Imagio, Omnia 2, Eris, and Storm have 65,000 color screens while the Droid's is 16 million.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

You should compare the white of the Droid to that of the iPhone 3GS. I put my Droid up next to one and the droid looked snow white compared to the iPhone. I would definately rather have the resolution of the Droid. My Omnia1 screen looks horrible compared to my Droid. It even make my new iPod look bad.

I just wish that it had the perfectly smooth scrolling that Apple has. Don't get me wrong, the Droid's scrolling is good, but seems choppy when compared to Apple products. Bout the only thing good I can say about them.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

That (the choppiness) can be resolved with software optimization. Give it time.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I agree that the scrolling isn't very optimized. Honestly, I wish they would stop changing things for a while and just make some updates to basic functionality, like making the scrolling work perfectly, adding basic support for things like downloading any file type from both the browser and through Gmail, etc. I'm all for UI updates, but I'd prefer perfecting what's already there first before adding totally new things.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

As I understand, the attachment stuff in Gmail is to be included in an update. Whether thats a maintence release, or 2.1, or both rolled into one, I don't know.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I'm ok with scrolling - actually perf overall is just fine with the Droid - but what really bothers me (related to this post is the #1 issue) :

1) colors are washed out (compared to my wife's Eris, we bought both phones less than 30 days ago , hence I'm ready to maybe switch over to the Nexus One , Verizon is very expensive & I really like the Eris <if only it had a larger screen , was a bit faster , took better video - hey - that's the Nexus One! )

2) no music controls w/o unlocking (my wife's Eris has this) - I'm sure there's an mp3 player application out there or will be one that will have this feature

3) the display isn't much wider at all over the 3.2" diag Eris (other words the aspect ratio of the Droid is a bit too tall and skinny for me)

4) I rarely use the h/w key and when I do use it - without the same spelling - predicted word deal as the virtual keyboard, the h/w keyboard is really that much worse for me (maybe if I could type lengthy words that pop up with the predictive deal, i'd actually use the h/w more but i can get way more done quicker with the virt keyboard even in portrait mode thanks to the awesome <better than the Eris> spelling - prediction capabilities of the Droid's virt keyboard

The Droid's display is very nice , in fact if my wife didn't have an Eris & I didn't put them side by side , I prob wouldn't have noticed how washed out the Droid's display is (it's sharper than the Eris but images <photo's , video's> look so much better on the Eris).

The Droid's colors are washed out no matter what the brightness setting (I tried everything - auto disabled , from 0 - 100 and all in between to make it compare to the Eris, no go - washed out no matter what - looking at the same JPG and / or video)...

Here's the only other person (until this thread) that I have noticed to say the same (everyone is so caught up in the sharp <hi-rez> display perhaps they aren't concentrating on the color quality , plus like i said earlier if you don't' have something better to compare to it looks ok: (can't post links due to new acct, sorry ).

In the above linked review the author states that the Eris has better "stock" contrast than the Droid - so I wonder if there's a way to adjust the Droid's contrast ? (this is what lead me to create this thread after not finding anything through searching around for access to the Droid's contrast setting).

Here's a decent looking video (in HQ mode) that I've used to compare the color quality on the Eris to the Droid (if you have access to the Droid plus another smart phone, try to watch this on each one: sorry can't post link - search YouTube for "fender stratocaster custom shop" & the 1st video is of a 2008 model, watch that in HQ mode , if you have an Eris you should see the clear diff in image quality on the Eris over the Droid ).

The BIC lighter app shows a HUGE diff - the metal part of the lighter on the Eris looks like "real metal" , where on the Droid , it just looks like shades of gray . Some of that may be due to the fact that the BIC app is stretched to meet the Droid's funky aspect ratio (anyone else notice that the Droid compared to the Eris and the Nexus One <plus apple phones"> has a really "wide screen" - severely wide aspect ratio?) , so the BIC app is stretched on the Droid - which makes the image stretch , making the color banding not as smooth - it's in the expected mode with the Eris, therefore the colors are more bunched up and not spread out . But that's not the only reason that the lighters look much better on the Eris , you can see that the black background on the Droid is a dark gray versus a truer black on the Eris.

I like the Droid , but because I don't use the h/w keyboard - I find myself liking the Eris (using my wife's at home) over the Droid in most ways (except that it's slower , the smaller overall screen) ... , I just wish that Verizon had the Nexus at the moment, no question I'd go with it (the screen is wider than the Droid's even though they are both 3.7" diag, at least in videos it seems wider when they are next to each other - no review ever states the exact actual screen size of the Droid (or any phone for that matter) - they just state the diag size and resolution - but that doesn't tell all -:

For instance , the Eris has a 3.2" diag screen BUT its screen is ALMOST as wide as the Droid's even though the Droid is much taller than the Eris, in other words, if the Droid had the SAME aspect ratio as the Eris, then the Droid would have a much larger screen that it has - because at 3.7" with the same aspect ratio as the Eris , that means the Droid's screen would be much wider .

Hopefully we can get access to contrast settings on the Droid soon so I can get it looking like my wife's Eris (seeing videos look so much better on the Eris is really getting to me - enough to where I may send back the two phones to Verizon , we have one week left , and move to the Nexus One , why couldn't I have known the Nexus One was coming to Verizon BEFORE we bought our phones 3 weeks ago , if I keep the Droid, it will drive me crazy to know for the same price <likely> I could have the Nexus with a wider display, prob better display if it's like the Eris , lighter <i never use the Droid's h/w keyboard> ...

uuuuhg! if we return to Verizon now we won't be able to get the Nexus at a "new customer" price I bet when it comes out in April , if we keep the two phones of course we can't get a Nexus One in April at a discount, if we go back to our carrier b4 Verizon we'll just be in a bigger mess and still not able to come back to Verizon as a new customer..... , the Droid is great for some folks but i think i'd be better suited with the Nexus, especially at the SAME price...

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Sweet, I hadn't heard that yet. Where did you see this? (not that I'm doubting, just curious what else is coming)

@pushdrops Wow, it seems as though you really have some gripes about the Droid :) The Nexus One sounds like it would definitely be better for you (although sadly, still no Sense UI). If you're free of a contract by returning the Droid then I'd say you might want to think about it, but if you used a yearly upgrade to get the Droid then you'll still be locked in and from what I read about how the N1 is going to work you'll have to get a new line with a new contract to get a subsidized price on it.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Be careful, there's no subsidies on the Nexus One for family plans on TMobile. I doubt it will be any different with Verizon. This means no add a line for $10.

I also doubt it will be compatible with early upgrades or New Two discounts.

What I find frustrating is it appears they are forcing users to have unlimited texting plans but Google Voice makes that into a waste of money.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Wow, that's a bummer. If Google doesn't work with the carriers to figure out something better then I think their new phone sales model isn't going to do so well...

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Yeah, I didn't notice it until my wife got me a new iPod for Christmas. If they will fix/update the scrolling to match Apple that would be awesome. That's one of my only complaints.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

If google doesnt fix it in an OTA, someone will optimize it in a ROM for sure.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

nerherd - banden - yes i'd def rather the N1 , i like my wife's new Eris in many ways over the Droid (except for the slower CPU , smaller screen , love it's more colorful display, lightness , Sense UI <music controls while locked>) ...

we just moved to Verizon 3 weeks ago , so if we cancel - return the phones , i'll be stuck with no phone until Spring if were to wait for VZW to get the N1 - then we wouldn't have phones in the meantime.

going to T-Mob is an issue because we have TWO phones and there doesn't seem to be a Fam Plan option (plus on T-Mob we'd lose all free calls to Verizon friends - nobody i know has T-Mob, plus lose Top 10 caller deal) ...

If only i would have know the N1 would be out, i would have stayed with Sprint, waited until April - went to Verizon and gotten the Eris and N1 (instead of Eris and Droid - my wife loves the Eris, wouldn't' take an N1 if it were free).

But if like banden said , even with VZW there's no Fam Plan N1 option - that would be an issue too.

I think i'll just wait, keep the Droid - next year (VZW says only a $30 upgrade fee after 1yr eligible for upgrade pricing) get the latest HTC N1 spec like phone (with newer Snapdragon chipset - cooler / less battery use - maybe will also have Sense UI?) - and in the meantime maybe there will be a way to correct the washed out color on the Droid & auto suggestions for the h/w keyboard will appear.

As much as i'd like the N1, it's too diff to switch now since we need TWO phones.

Thanks for all info.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Thanks for the details

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

http://phandroid.com/2009/11/09/moto...december-11th/

My apologies. Looking a little closer, it says Exchange ActiveSync Google Mail. However, maybe it would still apply to use using regular Gmail.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I really don't see how the Droid's screen could even be considered an issue. Camera... Yes, but the screen itself, I have no complaints whatsoever. Like I said before, it kills the iPod Gen 2 screen and the iPhone screen hands down. I have the same movies on my Droid that are on my brand new 32gig Gen 2 iPod and there's no comparison. They look 10X better on the Droid.

pls if you can view the BIC app or HQ vid on both the Droid & the Eris side by side
 

I no longer have an iPhone 3Gs (was provided by work) to compare to but my I picked up an Eris for free for my wife when getting the Droid & after comparing lots of the same JPG's and videos (including HQ YouTube vids) the Eris has much richer colors than the Droid.

The Droid is sharper (text for sure) but the colors are washed out compared (directly - side by side) to the Eris. Now if I wouldn't have viewed the same videos at the same time (testing YouTube via WiFI a couple of days of getting the phones) I wouldn't have prob noticed the diff (because I would hardly ever use the Eris and the Droid does look good - until side by side to the Eris) but once I've noticed the diff , it's pretty apparent.

If you can please view a HQ YouTube video or the BIC Lighter App on a Droid and an Eris - that's the only def comparison I can speak to that I know will show the difference (not sure about the iPhone or apple products, it's been since Oct that I've had the iPhone and I never used it for video viewing).

I even went to the store to view another Droid against my wife's Eris to be sure that my Droid didn't have a "washed out display" (played the same YouTube vid on the store Droid and on the Eris - side by side just as with my Droid).

I'm not bashing the Droid's display, just wish / hope there's a way to adjust the contrast settings to provide much darker blacks (that's where you can really tell , load up the BIC Lighter - notice on the Droid that the background is more of a Dark Gray than a true black, it's supposed to be black (the b/g) , this makes the colors show up much better on the Eris.

I'm stuck with the Droid it seems because while I have time to return the Droid / cancel VZW as a new customer - but because T-Mob doesn't have a Family Plan , I can't see going with them. So even if the N1 has a nice colorful display like the Eris I'm gonna miss out I guess.

I was told that in 1 yr I can upgrade my phone at the discounted price (with a $30 fee) , instead of waiting 2 years (as with my prev provider) , so by next year there should be an improved N1 (I'd rather a phone with the Sense UI anyway as I really like the Eris) - in the mean time I'm looking for someone to find out how to access the Droid's contrast settings (sure if it can be adjusted the darks will be truer, bringing out the colors - ridding the washed out look, I'm guessing it's a setting deal , that the display is capable of truer colors).

A review pointed out the diff in the Eris and Droid's display (color / contrast issue), I can't link it because I'm a new member here (I saw the review after i noticed the difference in my wife's Eris and the Droid). When i have enough posts and can link here I'll provide that link. In the review the guy says the Droid's "initial contrast" settings aren't as good as the Eris - so that makes it seem maybe as if there's a way to tweak the Droid's contrast setting which is why I joined this forum. I just contacted that reviewer to see if he knows of a way to edit the contrast setting on the Droid.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Because of this thread and because I hadn't seen a buddy in a while I went to the Verizon store to take a good look at the Eris screen.

I think that you may be right in the sense that the contrast ratio on the Eris is noticably better. But at least on the one I looked at, the colours were not better.

(I do like the haptic feedback a whole lot better on the Eris though)

I compared the screens and they are definately not the same width (in portrait mode.) The droid is about a 1/4 inch wider and 3/4 inch longer. When I went to view a webpage and had it resized to fit the screen.. it was illegible on the Eris. For me that's a deal breaker.. having a larger screen with over 2x the resolution far outweighs the contrast ratio.

Perhaps some models are a bit out of hue... but my phone's colours are great and comparing this phone side by side I have no complaints, especially once I cranked the brightness up.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I totally agree with you on the washed out colors on the Droid. When compared to the AMOLED on the Omnia II, the Omnia blows it away in terms of contrast and brightness, and they both have 3.7" displays. The colors are richer in the Samsung, and boy, the blacks are really black!! Beautiful when you have a solid black background with some colorful wallpaper.Even though the resolution on the Omnia II is a little smaller, its only noticeable when you look at the specs on paper. AMOLED is the way to go with new phones!
Cant wait to see what the display on the Nexus will look like with AMOLED.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Def right I'd rather my Droid over my wife's Eris , but the reason I wanted to possbily return the Droid (we are new VZW customers , 3 weeks) was to move to the Nexux One - for a phone with the speed of the Droid , larger screen (higher resolution) etc. - so sort of like the Eris by HTC which has some things I really like with the power / speed / display size of the Droid.

The Droid's screen def is wider than the Eris , but what I was getting at is that it isn't that much wider as it is taller (the Droid's aspect ratio makes the screen more of a "wide screen" display - like the Eris is more like a std 4:3 monitor , the Droid 16:9).

Think I'm stuck with the Droid which isn't a bad thing (no family plan for 2 phones for N1) , next year there should be a better HTC phone than the Nexus One anyway - especially if it has their Sense UI which makes the Eris pretty cool (better contacts , faves , music player controls etc.) .

If Motorola releases a contrast fix & text suggestions for the h/w keyboard I'll be much more saitisfied with the Droid over the next year.

if we could access the contrast settings...
 

I wonder if we could access contrast settings on the Droid , if a better picture (not so washed out) could be had?

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Ok, so i was reading through this thread the other day and decided to take my Droid into verizon to see this side by side comparison. I don't know if its just me but i do not see the difference that everybody is talking about. The colors on my droid are just as bright and vibrant, if not more, as the eris. and my screen is only set at about half brightness. I do agree that maybe there was a bad batch of droids that may have gone out. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened. Also i do make my own wallpapers and tweak the colors, mainly due to image resizing. Maybe that has something to do with it.

The camera on the droid is not the best i have seen. If your using pics taken from that and using them as wallpapers, well maybe thats your issue.

Personally i see no problems, and the pros of the droid far out weigh any cons that it may have. Its still a new phone and programing can probably fix 99% of any issues you encounter. Give it time

And just remember, i dont think most people are walking around with a Droid and an Eris, unless you want to "talk on the phone and use the internet at the same time!" lol, and as far as the color, there will probably be "an app for that". This marketing feud cracks me up! :laughing6: Oh yeah, the beauty if it is that you dont have to look at 2 screens and compare them everyday. You just have to look at the one in front of you.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I love it when an iPhone user brings up the Talk and browse at the same time argument because 1: It only works with a 3g signal, 2: Actually requires you to be able to make a call without dropping it. To get both of those to happen at the same time on ATT is like winning the lottery :D.

As far as the screen comparisons go, I have played with an Eris, but I havent used them side by side and really scrutinized any difference between the screens. Regardless, it's not something I'm even going to bother myself with. The Droid screen looks amazing and I have no complaints.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

I agree 100% :occasion5:

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Thats a silly comparison. Of course AMOLED is going to look better. We knew that before you even checked vs the Omnia II ;)

Pity that the screen is wasted on only 65k colors :p

On the flip side, take it outside in direct sunlight. Prepare for the gnashing of teeth, and tears begin to flow as you cannot see the screen to dial out :p

Re: pls if you can view the BIC app or HQ vid on both the Droid & the Eris side by si
 

So why don't you just trade it for an Eris under the 30 day policy? I know you said that you'd rather have the Droid except for the screen and you really want the Nexus 1 but T-Mo won't work for you. Just get the Eris and wait for the updates to come out (or roms to be made).
Really, if you think about it, if you were to return your devices and terminate with Verizon, 2 separate T-MO plans with Nexus 1's probably wouln't cost much more than a Verizon family plane with 2 smart phones at $160-70/mo. Maybe even less.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Both phones support 16 million color display.

And I don't have any problems with both phones in direct sunlight, I can see very well.:occasion5:

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Nope. Windows Mobile has a limit of 65k colors, which as far as I am concerned, wastes the AMOLED goodness. The hardware supports 16M colors, sure, but it can only show as much as the OS allows.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Well then, that is a waist of 3.7 inches of AMOLED real estate.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

Unfortunately :(

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

my wife has the Eris , it's ok but really slow and the smaller screen i wouldn't like (an N1 type <improved in a year when our prim line, my Droid can be upgraded> down the line with VZW I'll wait for, use the Droid in the mean time). We have a large discount with VZW , so 2 T-Mob plans would be quite a bit more than what we are paying now (plus the Eris was FREE).

No way was i bashing the Droid, just hoping the contrast settings could be updated. It's not that it's not bright, it's plenty bright and sharp, just that actually it may be too bright for me (for what i'd like optimally, not that it sucks or anything) - download the BIC Lighter app - that's the best way to show what i'm talking about - i'm getting that the pics taken by the Droid aren't colorful.

With the BIC Lighter app , on the Eris the background around the lighter is very dark / black as it should be , on the Droid you can see that it's a little gray, this is i think (i'm no expert with screens obviously) makes for the washed out look (on the Eris the lighters <which are very colorful and a good example to compare> are more colorful, the background very dark black with many shades of color in between. Also the top of a lighter in the app, the Silver part looks like real metal on the Eris but just shades of gray on the Droid.

It's possible that the best buy that i compared to my Droid (with their display Droid) has an issue (meaning mine would too) , I'm going out of town later this week and will try to find a Droid at a VZW store while away, load up the FREE bic lighter app and see how the screen looks.

This isn't a HUGE deal, i'm just a bit picky and again if not for the fact that my wife has the Eris which I setup , both of us couldn't help but notice the color difference (now on the Eris text seems fuzzy compared to the Droid, just the lower rez i'm sure) , especially when I loaded the silly BIC Lighter app (useless app once you try it out, i only have it still to compare the colors, also playing ANY hi quality You tube video on each there;s a stark diff in color quality - again the Droid still looks fine , just that when you see the colors looking more rich on the Eris it makes me think that I wish that the Droid's contrast ratio was better to match the Eris).

Luckily I don't watch videos often or view pictures that much either so it's not killing me - what does bother me is that I'm sure if the contrast settings could be accessed, the Droid prob could rid the washed out look - making for an even better phone and worth the $$$$ that we paid to move to VZW and go with smart phones, I'm confident there will be either an update or that there's an issue with my Droid (plus the other one I tried last week) if nobody else can see a diff with the BIC Lighter app with an Eris and the Droid (I'm picking that because it's something to compare - if you just look at the Eris and the Droid without at least viewing the same app , color pattern <photo or video> , yea you may not think the Droid has a washed out look).

The return date is later this week , because can't go back to our old phones / carrier and there's no fam plan with T-Mob , will stick with the Eris and Droid (plus our VZW discount) and my wife will be happy with her Eris for 2+ years, I'll get the HTC N1 type phone next year (prob with a thinner / cooler CPU , better speaker , dual flash etc. anyway over the N1).

Hope this didn't come across as bashing the Droid , just that I also don't wanna hide the fact that I see a weakness with the display either. The contrast deal and being able to use the virtual keyboard's auto suggestions with the h/w keyboard and I'll be more than happy to use the Droid for some time to come.

Whenever someone learns how to adjust the Droid's contrast setting please let me know.

Re: Droid - contrast / color quality compared to Eris (possible to adjust?)
 

No worries man, I dont think anyone thought you were trying to bash anything. I wouldnt even disagree with your statement, because I didnt do a side by side screen comparison between the two phones. All I was saying was that the screen looks good enough to me to keep me from even worrying about it, that doesnt mean it has to be good enough for you though :).

because i don't view media often
 

it will do (because the Droid is great for so many other features), i don't view photos or video too often on the Droid & I uninstalled the BIC LIghter app :-)