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Gallery: Droid vs. iPhone - battle of the screens

By | November 9, 2009, 5:00am PST

Summary: A gallery that compares the screen of the new Droid from Motorola and VZW to that of the iPhone. I’ll warn fans of the iPhone that it’s not flattering.

Much has been made of the screen on the new Droid smartphone from Motorola and Verizon Wireless. The 854 x 480 pixel, 3.7-inch panel is 273% larger than the iPhone’s 320 x 480, 3.5-incher and is setting itself apart as one of Droid’s flagship features.

Droid’s screen features a whopping 410,000 pixels compared to the iPhone’s 150,000 - and more pixels means more screen real estate and more detail. The Droid’s larger, higher-resolution screen is better suited for viewing Web pages and separates itself from the iPhone in screen intensive tasks like photo, video and gaming.

I’ve posted a brief gallery comparing the two screens. Some highlights are after the jump…

NYTimes.com:

Apple.com:

YouTube.com on the Droid (top) and the same video running in the native YouTube app on the iPhone (below).

More pictures are in this gallery.

Chart: Skatter Tech

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Screen, Pixel, Droid, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Jason D. O'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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Not Reversed
ManoaHI 11th Nov 2009
The iPhone is on the bottom, and the Droid is on the top. The difference
is that the iPhone has a YouTube App (defaulted in the iPhone OS, you
can't even delete it), the Droid is showing YouTube via a browser. Not
sure that this is a fair comparison. But the pictures are tagged in text
above and/or below the photos.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Oooooooohhh!!!
Userama 9th Nov 2009
I really dig that grayish, yellowish hi-res screen!
0 Votes
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My first thought, too...
BillDem 9th Nov 2009
I looked and thought, "Yuck! Yellow instead of white and crappy contrast levels." I guess that's just one more example of something looking VASTLY better on paper and sucking in reality.
0 Votes
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What's the dif?
marcomar Updated - 11th Nov 2009
I agree. For a moment I thought the bottom pictures were the Droid
screens. I had to look twice to figure out it was my iPhone!! I can't see
the improvement!
0 Votes
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when people do photos like that it's kind of useless...
doctorSpoc 9th Nov 2009
..aren't they? you don't see it at a one to one
size and you don't get a good sense of if the
more pixels actually makes sense at that small
size or if the iPhone resolution is enough or if
the droid is overkill.

in your photos the droid screen, whites look very
yellow.. is that actually the case or is that
your photography?
0 Votes
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Some inaccuracies here
keel 9th Nov 2009
First of all, the Droid screen may have 273% more pixels but is NOT
"273% larger". DUH. Why don't you measure and compare the actual
physical size, in square inches of the screens? The iPhone screen is wider
and shows more "below the fold" when held horizontally.

Second, the YouTube video sample looks a lot better on the iPod: bigger,
clearer, better color space. You can't make out the DIE.com on the Droid.
Those extra pixels are not doing much good.

Third, the color is much crisper and whites are whites instead of yellow
on the iPhone. Not an iPod killer yet.
0 Votes
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iphone much better
bannedfromzdnetagain Updated - 10th Nov 2009
is it only me or does the iphone always look much better,
clearer, brighter and shows more information in
the webbrowser at a glance? is it possible that once again
talking points from a feature list, screen sizes and resolution
numbers don't mean anything in the real world?
0 Votes
+ -
More pixels != screen quality... nor is a larger physical size.
HypnoToad72 9th Nov 2009
Though some believe otherwise.

And doubled resolution means smaller text. There's nothing wrong with iPhone's resolution -- I never liked the AT&T Fuze's 640x480 either... (liked the Tilt, however)

But the key issue is color clarity. iPhone's screens are white. Droid's screens are a disgusting yellow.

In short; wholly agreed. Raw numbers mean nothing when combined to the complete whole. That's why a March 2009 iMac with 2.93GHz dual core processor feels infinitely faster to Vista on a 3.6GHz quad core (faster clock multiplier AND bus, 266 vs Quad's 400MHz)...

OS X on the o/c Q9650 and velociraptor would scream. It screams on the Nehalem processor too... grin
0 Votes
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For having more pixels ... the Droid has a horrible display
wackoae 9th Nov 2009
If the pictures are accurate, those extra pixels must be in paper only .... because the difference is a million times clear.

- Yellowish white.
- Blurry display.
- Bad imaging.

For a phone that claims to have a much better display, it definitely appears to be inferior to the iPhone.

On top of everything, today came out the fact that Verizon's "unlimited" offer has a monthly cap on usage (w/ some unconfirmed rumors that it includes wifi usage), yet it cost the same as the iPhone on everything.

In the end, it appears that the iPhone with ATT is still a much better offer and the Droid may not be a competition after all.

Sad, very sad. I was hopping that competitions would lower the cost of services and devices for all of us. But it appears that all the hype about the Droid faded away as soon as facts took over fiction.
0 Votes
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RE: Gallery: Droid vs. iPhone - battle of the screens
dfl274 9th Nov 2009
Ya if those pictures are accurate Motorola get shafted on its displays 'cause I barely see a difference. In fact on the Youtube shots the iphone looks better even with an 'inferior' display.
0 Votes
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Get somebody who knows photography!
paul2011 9th Nov 2009
Get tripod, use decent camera, position the screen so that it would not be distorted, use the same white balance setting, jeez
0 Votes
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Regardless of the terrible photos
jorjitop 9th Nov 2009
There should be progress over time. This phone is coming out 4 months after the iPhone. One would expect a better screen. However, if your photos are a true indication, that is not the case.
0 Votes
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Are the images reversed?
TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827 9th Nov 2009
I would liken the upper image to old 4:3 tube TV vs the latest HD television. I looked at the gallery, and yep, if this is simply not a bad phone or weird display settings, iPhone wins hands down.

TripleII
0 Votes
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I think your correct for the last image.
phatkat 10th Nov 2009
The first two images have the Droid on top but it appears that bottom image in this story that the Droid is on the bottom since the Droid screen is wider than the iPhone so my guess the Droid is on the bottom. I wished that Jason would mark them so people would know since there no good indicator which screen is which.
0 Votes
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Not Reversed
ManoaHI 11th Nov 2009
The iPhone is on the bottom, and the Droid is on the top. The difference
is that the iPhone has a YouTube App (defaulted in the iPhone OS, you
can't even delete it), the Droid is showing YouTube via a browser. Not
sure that this is a fair comparison. But the pictures are tagged in text
above and/or below the photos.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Gallery: Droid vs. iPhone - battle of the screens
dheady@... 9th Nov 2009
The gamma on the Android is just plain horrible. I think
Apple fit the pixels to the device quite well and then
concentrated on quality in the screen which apparently
Motorola didn't. NZ (if I may invoke his name) often rants
about the resolution on his HTC phone yet in my
experience with hand held devices resolution Apple's 175
ppi is pretty good. Any more than that and even if you say
there's more 'real estate' seen it becomes problematic
viewing it, at least for these old eyes.
Here's hoping that your photography caused the gamma
shift and that the phone is much better
0 Votes
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One has to wonder
Michael Kelly 9th Nov 2009
if he used the iPhone to take the picture of the Droid, and the Droid to take the picture of the iPhone.
0 Votes
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They are both in the same frame
dheady@... 9th Nov 2009
So I doubt it, but that would put the proper spin on his opinion wouldn't
it? I've no delusions about the quality of camera in my 3G iPhone. It's not
a top notch camera, but then it's a freakin' phone! When I want to take
quality cameras i get out my 10mp Cannon and shoot. If I'm out and
about and want to capture something on the fly, I use the iPhone but
don't expect it to be a great shot.
0 Votes
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How can you tell they're in the same frame?
Michael Kelly 9th Nov 2009
It looks like the screens were cut and pasted into a black background to me. Not being able to see the phone outlines, it's tough to tell how they were assembled.

But yes it would be nice if a professional camera were used in this comparison, but we don't know.
0 Votes
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Indeed we don't know
oncall 9th Nov 2009
The real test would be to head on down to your local mall and put the two side by side and see with your own eyes. I would assume he is not trying to be deliberately deceiving and the pictures indeed reflect some obvious quality differences. As anyone who has used a DSLR camera and compared that to a sub $200 pocket camera with the same pixel count knows, pixel count does not equal image quality. It looked good on paper anyways.
0 Votes
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RE: Gallery: Droid vs. iPhone - battle of the screens
alpster1 Updated - 10th Nov 2009
Obviously he had the brightness turned down or had autolevel brightness on, creating that yucky yellowed out view.

The size of the standard uTube image was about right, but the clarity way off. A more telling challenge would have been to run HD utube (the apple won't) and fill the whole screen with hi-def 16:9 playback.

As for screen size, remember way back when you got your first 800x600 monitor - how VGA paled beside it... same thing here except the apple doesn't even have 640x480.

Speedwise, both phones feel similar, but the Droid multi-tasks beautifully and lets you switch back and forth between your last 6 tasks with ease.

The camera is nice (given the tiny little lens that phones use) and the flash is very handy. Photos and video look great on the screen and the phone even ships with a "power" widget that lets you turn your brightness up without going to setup, so there's not really much excuse for seeing images like the ones above.

The power widget also lets you turn your wifi, bluetooth, GPS, and sync on and off at will. The push email is not affected by turning off sync, so you can still get your corp. email.

iPhone doesn't have to worry about the Droid yet, it will still sell everyone it makes, but for a lot of things, the Droid is a much better choice. It reminds me more of the coolest laptop I ever had, but with good call quality - and fewer dropped calls.

0 Votes
+ -
RE: Gallery: Droid vs. iPhone - battle of the screens
mikebellman 10th Nov 2009
It's pretty silly to compare phones when most are locked by carrier.I only compare the choices within my own network's plan.
0 Votes
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Those photos are a horrible example!
ScottAllyn 11th Nov 2009
Those photos don't give an accurate representation of what the two screens look like when they're viewed side by side.

I have both the iPhone 3G and the Motorola Droid and, when viewed on axis, they both look excellent. The Droid's whites do have an ever so slight yellowish tint to them, but you only notice it when holding the two phones right next to each other - it's nothing like what you see in those photos.

The iPhone's colors definitely do hold up better when the screen is viewed at an angle. That's when the Droid's whites start to fade into yellow and the other colors get washed out. The same effect happens on the iPhone, too but you have to go to quite an extreme angle before that happens.

All this talk about the Droid's screen being so much bigger than the iPhone's screen is just plain silly and ignorant. Yes, 3.7 is a larger number than 3.5, but if I gave you a phone with a screen that was 1" wide by 4" tall, would you think that was a bigger screen? The diagonal on that is over 4", you know...

The Droid's display area is ~1.83" x 3.24" while the iPhone's display area is ~2.02" x 3.00". Do the math. For all practical purposes, they both have the same screen realestate, tho technically the iPhone has the larger screen.

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