7 ms·

Just curious in case somebody knows. Are OLED displays in laptops bad at low light? He cites that as a reason he doesn’t want OLED, but I’ve never noticed such

Just curious in case somebody knows. Are OLED displays in laptops bad at low light? He cites that as a reason he doesn’t want OLED, but I’ve never noticed such a problem on OLED phones.

ndiddy 9mo ago
A lot of computers with OLED displays use PWM for the low brightness levels, and he seems like the type of person who would be sensitive to that sort of thing.
- jeffbee 9mo ago
  PWM is the only useful way to drive an LED and the people who deny this are, to me, hilarious. In fact for the author's stated use case of low light conditions PWM really is the only way to do it without wrecking accuracy (and efficiency).
  - winrid 9mo ago
    My no PWM laptops look fine to me for watching movies. Sure, less efficient. But if I can't look at it for more than 30 seconds without my eyes burning then what's the point?
piskov 9mo ago
OLED phones are bad because of flicker
- antonkochubey 9mo ago
  On iPhones at least you can disable PWM dimming at lower brightness level at the expense of color accuracy. It's in Accessibility/Display settings.
  - piskov 9mo ago
    Now tell me a model which has this given that OLEDs are here since iPhone X Hint: the only one was released in a year that ends with 25
- brokencode 9mo ago
  Only if you’re sensitive to that flicker, which most aren’t. Otherwise they’re pretty great.
Normal_gaussian 9mo ago
I'm using an OLED X1 Carbon right now in the UK. I use it all the time in low light. I just turned all the lights off (even the Christmas tree) and ran through a handful of usage situations and couldn't see any issues. I turned some lights on and did the same, I couldn't see any issues. I asked Claude, and got told to do the finger test, and that is barely perceptible. I then used my phone to record the screen and yes - I can confirm that there is an effect that my pixel 9a's camera picks up, barely noticeable at 240Hz, and definitely noticeable at 480Hz. Maybe the guy is particularly sensitive, but from the framing of the rest of the article I think he's blowing a few things out of proportion.
- YorickPeterse 9mo ago
  I probably should've done a better job at clarifying this, but my issue with OLEDs isn't just that (at least historically) they tend to be too bright even at lower brightness, but also the other issues they come with such as burn-in and text potentially looking less pleasant compared to IPSs displays. Burn-in is probably my biggest concern here, especially since it really seems to be a case of winning the lottery or not (i.e. for some it's fine for years, others get burn-in after just a few months). Basically I just trust IPS more than any other technology :)
  - Frotag 9mo ago
    I've only recently bought OLED laptops so I can't speak to burn-in but out of the three I've tested, they have a lower minimum brightness than my other IPS laptops. In terms of text clarity, "2k" OLEDs (1920x1200) are a bit blurry. IPSs and 3k OLEDs are noticeably sharper, with not much difference between each other.
  - sillystuff 9mo ago
    For the brightness issue, if you are running X: allow dimming display beyond normal max dimming: xrandr --output eDP --brightness 0.5 restore to normal brightness range: xrandr --output eDP --brightness 1 (substitute the actual output name for your display instead of eDP; run xrandr without args to list)
easygenes 9mo ago
I'd say the inverse is true: OLEDs are the best in low light, as they generally dim well and black means zero illumination of the pixel. Author is ill-informed. Also, OLED burn-in is a non-issue with current displays in any normal situation (e.g. not a kiosk or arcade or other sort of always-on static dashboard).
- p_ing 9mo ago
  > always-on static dashboard) Like the taskbar, dock, menu bar, etc.?
  - easygenes 9mo ago
    No, those are generally not always-on in normal use. People let screens shut off, open up fullscreen apps, etc. Most OLED firmwares also have subtle pixel shifting and pixel refresh on shutdown routines, as well as very conservative brightness settings. OLEDs in normal use are actually less susceptible to color shift deterioration than LCDs in normal use.

Just curious in case somebody knows. Are OLED displays in laptops bad at low light? He cites that as a reason he doesn’t want OLED, but I’ve never noticed such a problem on OLED phones.

ndiddy 9mo ago

A lot of computers with OLED displays use PWM for the low brightness levels, and he seems like the type of person who would be sensitive to that sort of thing.

jeffbee 9mo ago
PWM is the only useful way to drive an LED and the people who deny this are, to me, hilarious. In fact for the author's stated use case of low light conditions PWM really is the only way to do it without wrecking accuracy (and efficiency).
- winrid 9mo ago
  My no PWM laptops look fine to me for watching movies. Sure, less efficient. But if I can't look at it for more than 30 seconds without my eyes burning then what's the point?

piskov 9mo ago

OLED phones are bad because of flicker

antonkochubey 9mo ago
On iPhones at least you can disable PWM dimming at lower brightness level at the expense of color accuracy. It's in Accessibility/Display settings.
- piskov 9mo ago
  Now tell me a model which has this given that OLEDs are here since iPhone X Hint: the only one was released in a year that ends with 25
brokencode 9mo ago
Only if you’re sensitive to that flicker, which most aren’t. Otherwise they’re pretty great.

Normal_gaussian 9mo ago

I'm using an OLED X1 Carbon right now in the UK. I use it all the time in low light. I just turned all the lights off (even the Christmas tree) and ran through a handful of usage situations and couldn't see any issues. I turned some lights on and did the same, I couldn't see any issues. I asked Claude, and got told to do the finger test, and that is barely perceptible. I then used my phone to record the screen and yes - I can confirm that there is an effect that my pixel 9a's camera picks up, barely noticeable at 240Hz, and definitely noticeable at 480Hz. Maybe the guy is particularly sensitive, but from the framing of the rest of the article I think he's blowing a few things out of proportion.

YorickPeterse 9mo ago
I probably should've done a better job at clarifying this, but my issue with OLEDs isn't just that (at least historically) they tend to be too bright even at lower brightness, but also the other issues they come with such as burn-in and text potentially looking less pleasant compared to IPSs displays. Burn-in is probably my biggest concern here, especially since it really seems to be a case of winning the lottery or not (i.e. for some it's fine for years, others get burn-in after just a few months). Basically I just trust IPS more than any other technology :)
- Frotag 9mo ago
  I've only recently bought OLED laptops so I can't speak to burn-in but out of the three I've tested, they have a lower minimum brightness than my other IPS laptops. In terms of text clarity, "2k" OLEDs (1920x1200) are a bit blurry. IPSs and 3k OLEDs are noticeably sharper, with not much difference between each other.
- sillystuff 9mo ago
  For the brightness issue, if you are running X: allow dimming display beyond normal max dimming: xrandr --output eDP --brightness 0.5 restore to normal brightness range: xrandr --output eDP --brightness 1 (substitute the actual output name for your display instead of eDP; run xrandr without args to list)

easygenes 9mo ago

I'd say the inverse is true: OLEDs are the best in low light, as they generally dim well and black means zero illumination of the pixel. Author is ill-informed. Also, OLED burn-in is a non-issue with current displays in any normal situation (e.g. not a kiosk or arcade or other sort of always-on static dashboard).

p_ing 9mo ago
> always-on static dashboard) Like the taskbar, dock, menu bar, etc.?
- easygenes 9mo ago
  No, those are generally not always-on in normal use. People let screens shut off, open up fullscreen apps, etc. Most OLED firmwares also have subtle pixel shifting and pixel refresh on shutdown routines, as well as very conservative brightness settings. OLEDs in normal use are actually less susceptible to color shift deterioration than LCDs in normal use.