4 ms·

Also, non-genuine display modules can utterly suck. The most obvious failure is linearly polarized light output. Bonus points for horizontally or vertically po

by amluto 3y ago

Also, non-genuine display modules can utterly suck. The most obvious failure is linearly polarized light output. Bonus points for horizontally or vertically polarized light — diagonal is at least somewhat tolerable.

rf15 3y ago
I don't buy apple products so I don't quite understand the implication here; how is a physical property you cannot really perceive relevant to you?
- omegabravo 3y ago
  I expect that if you're wearing polarising lenses such as sunglasses, you can't see your phone if it's held in portrait or landscape.
  - josefx 3y ago
    Must resist the urge to make a joke about Apple users "holding it wrong".
    - hulitu 3y ago
      Apple learned something from SUN. Don't sell the mouse (iPhone) without the mousepad (glasses). /s
  - nomel 3y ago
    Their point is that genuine Apple devices used circularly polarized filters so this isn’t an issue.
- dagmx 3y ago
  It’s not really anything to do with Apple, and applies to all displays. If you wear polarized lenses, like good sunglasses out in the sun, polarization angle changes visibility of your screen. It can make your screen completely illegible if not created with forethought.
  - projektfu 3y ago
    My (OLED) pixel 7 has a polarized glass that is brightest at -45° and opaque at 45° from vertical with my polarized sunglasses, so that works out well. The IPS iPhone SE 2000 has a fancy polarizer that is never fully opaque in any orientation. I've seen this on other phones too. I believe it's pixel-level polarization. Some of the screens might be different on each subpixel, making the screen not-blue for example when you're wearing polarized sunglasses.
  - amluto 3y ago
    As far as I know, all LCDs operate on polarized light. I’ve generally assumed that Apple puts a quarter-wave plate in front of their screen to circularly polarize the light. Without having done any math, I would expect a noticeable amount of color shifting when viewed through a linear polarizer because most waveplates are wavelength-dependent (they shift the optical path by a certain distance, which is a different amount of phase at different wavelengths). I’ve never found credible information online, but I haven’t looked that hard.
    - nomel 3y ago
      > I would expect a noticeable amount of color shifting when viewed through a linear polarizer This is infinitely better than a black screen, which is what you get with linearly polarized screens.
- mogrim 3y ago
  The display on my Samsung S21 (with original, unchanged screen) turns pinkish when I'm wearing polarized sunglasses - presumably it's filtering out part of the blue wavelengths. Mildly irritating when I'm driving and using it to navigate.
metaphor 3y ago
> The most obvious failure is linearly polarized light output. That's not a failure of the display module per se, but a dealer handwaving "suitable substitute" without authority while failing to satisfy a performance requirement that's observable but not abundantly obvious. In other words, third parties without privileged design knowledge tend to operate on a naive "it's a suitable substitute because it fits" paradigm, which is good enough in many cases, but the risk of a repair based on this model being met with dissatisfaction tends to increase with the character/complexity of a replaceable component and/or sub-assembly, which may not be independently discoverable or even documented. As a trivial example, you may independently observe a simple 470-ohm 0805 SMT resistor in my design, and you could certainly purchase a quality replacement on the market that "fits"...but the unacknowledged risk in doing so is not knowing with certainty whether my design intent surrounding that component depends on other salient characteristics, e.g. composition, power rating, tempco, operating range, endurance, etc.
tim333 3y ago
For me the most obvious failure was the glass cracking. Genuine Apple ones use 'gorilla glass' - a strong glass, and my cheap replacement did not and broke before long. Then again it was like 1/3 the price - you get what you pay for sometimes.

by amluto 3y ago

rf15 3y ago

I don't buy apple products so I don't quite understand the implication here; how is a physical property you cannot really perceive relevant to you?

omegabravo 3y ago
I expect that if you're wearing polarising lenses such as sunglasses, you can't see your phone if it's held in portrait or landscape.
- josefx 3y ago
  Must resist the urge to make a joke about Apple users "holding it wrong".
  - hulitu 3y ago
    Apple learned something from SUN. Don't sell the mouse (iPhone) without the mousepad (glasses). /s
- nomel 3y ago
  Their point is that genuine Apple devices used circularly polarized filters so this isn’t an issue.
dagmx 3y ago
It’s not really anything to do with Apple, and applies to all displays. If you wear polarized lenses, like good sunglasses out in the sun, polarization angle changes visibility of your screen. It can make your screen completely illegible if not created with forethought.
- projektfu 3y ago
  My (OLED) pixel 7 has a polarized glass that is brightest at -45° and opaque at 45° from vertical with my polarized sunglasses, so that works out well. The IPS iPhone SE 2000 has a fancy polarizer that is never fully opaque in any orientation. I've seen this on other phones too. I believe it's pixel-level polarization. Some of the screens might be different on each subpixel, making the screen not-blue for example when you're wearing polarized sunglasses.
- amluto 3y ago
  As far as I know, all LCDs operate on polarized light. I’ve generally assumed that Apple puts a quarter-wave plate in front of their screen to circularly polarize the light. Without having done any math, I would expect a noticeable amount of color shifting when viewed through a linear polarizer because most waveplates are wavelength-dependent (they shift the optical path by a certain distance, which is a different amount of phase at different wavelengths). I’ve never found credible information online, but I haven’t looked that hard.
  - nomel 3y ago
    > I would expect a noticeable amount of color shifting when viewed through a linear polarizer This is infinitely better than a black screen, which is what you get with linearly polarized screens.
mogrim 3y ago
The display on my Samsung S21 (with original, unchanged screen) turns pinkish when I'm wearing polarized sunglasses - presumably it's filtering out part of the blue wavelengths. Mildly irritating when I'm driving and using it to navigate.

metaphor 3y ago

> The most obvious failure is linearly polarized light output. That's not a failure of the display module per se, but a dealer handwaving "suitable substitute" without authority while failing to satisfy a performance requirement that's observable but not abundantly obvious. In other words, third parties without privileged design knowledge tend to operate on a naive "it's a suitable substitute because it fits" paradigm, which is good enough in many cases, but the risk of a repair based on this model being met with dissatisfaction tends to increase with the character/complexity of a replaceable component and/or sub-assembly, which may not be independently discoverable or even documented. As a trivial example, you may independently observe a simple 470-ohm 0805 SMT resistor in my design, and you could certainly purchase a quality replacement on the market that "fits"...but the unacknowledged risk in doing so is not knowing with certainty whether my design intent surrounding that component depends on other salient characteristics, e.g. composition, power rating, tempco, operating range, endurance, etc.

tim333 3y ago

For me the most obvious failure was the glass cracking. Genuine Apple ones use 'gorilla glass' - a strong glass, and my cheap replacement did not and broke before long. Then again it was like 1/3 the price - you get what you pay for sometimes.