The LG Optimus Black has been on our radar since the turn of the year, but now that LG has confirmed it will be released in Europe this month we thought we’d take a closer look. Chief among the slim device’s spec boasts is LG’s new NOVA screen tech. We take a closer look.
LG made some pretty bold statements about the Optimus Black’s NOVA screen when it was unveiled back in January. According to the Korean firm, the 4-inch screen will be “the brightest, clearest and most readable among mobile screens.”
In a field that includes the iPhone 4‘s pin-sharp Retina display and the Samsung Galaxy S 2‘s radiant Super AMOLED Plus screen, that’s quite a boast. What makes LG think it can trump such formidable rivals?
It’s got nits
One of the main features of the Optimus Black’s NOVA screen is that it outputs “700 nits of brightness for optimal visibility.” While it might sound like a scalp-irritating bug, a nit in this context is in fact a unit of luminous intensity.
To illustrate how the NOVA screen stacks up, the MacBook Pro I’m typing this on (which features one of the finest displays in the business) outputs an estimated 300 nits. Closer to home, the Samsung Galaxy S and S 2 also output around 300 nits, while the iPhone 4 is said to output around 500 nits.
The first and most obvious advantage of the Optimus Black’s NOVA screen, then, is that it’s considerably brighter than its rivals.
Pure vision
It’s not just the brightness that makes NOVA screen tech stand out. We often speak about black reproduction on mobile displays, but equally important is how they render whites. After all – most of the traditional websites and documents you view on your phone will likely be predominantly white.
Most handsets struggle to produce proper whites, offering up a slightly dull or even greyish shade rather than purer eye-popping blanc. LG claims that its NOVA screen tops its rivals in producing “pure white tones.”
Sure enough, third party tests have so far backed up LG’s claims. GSMArena pitched the LG Optimus Black against a number of handsets, including the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S 2, and found that “in all but the NOVA display, the (black-to-white) gradient has a tinge of color.”
The other benefits of NOVA screen technology relate to the practicalities of mobile phone usage, and so are easily as important as brightness levels and white production.
Practical matters
For one thing, the NOVA screen’s inherent brightness and the thinness of the display mean that the Optimus Black maintains “visibility whether indoors or outdoors under strong sunlight,” according to LG. Considering the nature of mobile phones, it’s surprising how hard they can be to see while mobile – especially in the middle of summer with the sun blaring.
As well as visibility in sunlight, the Optimus Black uses IPS (In-plane Switching) technology to boost viewing angles. This means that the screen remains equally vibrant even when you’re sneaking an angled glance on a crowded train or in a meeting. The iPhone 4 also uses an IPS panel, and boasts some of the best viewing angles in the business, so it’s a proven improvement for LCD screens.
Finally, LG makes some bold claims with regard to the Optimus Black’s battery life, which are specifically linked to its new screen technology. Apparently NOVA “reduces power consumption by 50 percent during general indoor use compared to a conventional LCD.” It also tops Samsung’s AMOLED technology in certain conditions: “AMOLED consumes twice as much power as NOVA to display a full white screen, the most frequently used colour scheme for web browsing,” says LG.
The Galaxy S 2′s Super AMOLED Plus display may well be more efficient when rendering blacks (thanks to the lack of a backlight), but when the picture is predominantly white (which, as we’ve discussed, is fairly often) its power consumption rockets past that of the Optimus Black’s NOVA display.
Conclusion
Of course, we’ll have to wait until the LG Optimus Black is on the market an in our hands before we can properly judge the impact of this new NOVA screen technology. Early reports suggest that it certainly excels in some areas (notably brightness and white reproduction) but doesn’t quite match its rivals in others.
All we know for sure is that there’s another bright spark on the mobile display scene, which can only be good for competition.
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