How Clear/Good is OP-1 Display Supposed to Be?

OP-1
#1

When I got my OP-1, the one thing I felt didn’t reflect the overal high quality of the unit… was the display.

At least for me, the text is a bit grainy in places… like a printer running low on ink.

Is that how it’s supposed to be?

Maybe I’m spoiled by the latest displays I look at these days (iPad etc)…

#2

Looks pretty bright and clear to me, especially in the new update. Why don’t you take a pic of it and post it for comparison?

#3

I mean, it’s not as high-res as a modern phone (it’s 320x160), but you do have to remember it came out in 2011 when “retina” displays were not very common.

#4

Looks good and clear to me - like the rest of the interface, it’s never gotten in the way. Yours might have an issue. Post a pic?

#5

New or used OP-1? Maybe the display already shows some wear, but hard to say without pictures.

#6

This OP-1 is a few months old. But I noticed the minor display quibbles on first power on.

Back then, I put it down to the display technology being “old” (by today’s standards) more than anything else…

But it keeps budding me :slight_smile:

Annoyingly, it’s really difficult to capture the issue with my camera. It just doesn’t show up on my camera picture like it does to my eye…

Which tells you it isn’t a big deal.

It is more noticeable with text (like when scrolling through sounds.) For example, on the word “CATERPILLAR” (under “CLUSTER” engine) the last part "ILLAR’ appears less defined than the first half.

All said, I am talking about a small, minor difference. And more than ever I suspect this is more due to the type of display these units use than a fault.

#7

it’s not a “retina” display and it’s not a shameless dot-matrix display either. If your expectations have been shaped by these two flavours, the OP1 satisfies none. I remember comments that text looks crisper with the latest OS update, which could be the glyph library inside it changing. In any case the 320x160px display is pretty darn good for what it is.

TE, like many other design studios, seem to like thin text, “…ILLAR” won’t win any awards for subpixel antialiasing, in fact for any antialiasing, seeing that those lines either seem to be positioned “between the pixels” (very common with SVG), or they’re drawing them with some opacity (the brighter pixel at top of T). Then there’s keming (“FACE”, “DISSOLVER”)…
Text is hard. Compare “FF 4, 5, 6, 7” in Nitro to the version number when you boot up the OP1. “a e s t h e t i c” :smiley:

#8

Thanks for that, @eesn — clearly there is much more to what makes a display good than meets the eye… and probably what I’m noticing is something to do with the subpixel thing, or where text is drawn “between the pixels” (if I even understand that right, but no matter!)

Cheers!

#9

I’ve not noticed any variation in the text or print. No fading at all.
Some people have posted a faulty screen. I can see it bugging you and you may have a fault . I’d consider sending it back .

#10

@whollyjordan have you made the function test yet?


If you are in the latest firmware, 218, hold COM while powering on, then SHIFT + 3 to run the complete tests which include the screen test
#11

Good idea. It tests for dead pixels.

#12

@bichuelo

I wished I saw your reply sooner…

How helpful.

Doing the screen tests, I can confirm that I have a problem :-/

At least… the screen/colours are not uniform. It is patchy. I will now get in touch with TE support…

Thanks again for the tip!