Garmin has transflective screens for their watches that are not only better on the battery life, but become MORE visible in sunlight. Resolution is not nearly as good but I think for an exercise/health device that’s acceptable. For some reason though, probably because the amoled screens look nicer in the store, those are considered “premium”.
I think eink for any significant reading instead of OLED. Boox has an android tablet with a color screen, even though the colors are washed out looking. Eink is easier on my eyes for reading books and I’m hoping to get that tablet for reading Lemmy too since I end up looking at the screen so long.
OLED for pretty much everything else. Though the black smearing was slightly annoying in VR, the switch to LCD lost a lot with the blacks not looking black, more like gray. I hope they switch back to OLED.
This is the reason I’m still using my old Pebble Time Steel. Garmin is the only one producing quality watches with transflective displays, and I don’t like their OS :(
Yeah if you are a regular consumer the software in their watches is a bit disappointing, but you get used to it. For example, they JUST added pictures to notifications, and you still can’t type a response to texts, just a few premade responses.
If you’re a programmer, it’s even more frustrating. I struggled to write a weight lifting app on Samsung’s Tizen, but I was eventually successful. Not so much with Garmin. Garmin does not allow for SQL databases (just key value pair), and worse, they give such a small amount of space to save data it’s almost worthless. I think with mine, one of their top end watches, they give like enough space for me to save a few hundred sets. Sounds like a lot but it’s basically like ten visits to the gym and then it would have to delete stuff. They do have another method, but I was unable to figure out how to work with their fit files.
So yeah they make great watches but I wish they would put some time in to make the user and programmer experience a bit better.
I’m confused, and I suspect it’s from limited understanding here, but smartwatches are typically paired with a phone, so wouldn’t it make more sense to offload dataset handling like you’re describing to the smartphone than any onboard storage/memory in the watch?
Or is that part of the odd jank of some smartwatch systems atm that they don’t interoperate like that?
Yes it’s true I could probably do it that way, but what I want in a fitness watch is a phone replacement while working out. For example, I don’t carry my phone on a run. For weight lifting, with my old Samsung, I just left my phone in my locker and used my app to record the weight lifting I was doing. I could switch back to a workout I hadn’t done in a year and see what I was lifting then. I never even thought about my phone, accidentally leaving it at the bench, or worrying about damaging it. It’s really freeing to just get away from the phone for a while.
My point was just agreeing with the previous comment that, while Garmin makes a great watch, their software could be improved. The limitations they put in are also somewhat arbitrary. I have plenty of storage for songs and podcasts, so a couple MB of data storage should totally be fine.
Ooh, I see now. It wasn’t clear from the previous comments that you were wanting to use it apart from your phone, which is why I asked. I’ve helped someone with a Garmin watch before and I definitely agree that their software could be improved from the little I experienced of it.
I miss my Pebble Time Steel, but then I found the Amazfit Bip.
That same lovely transflective screen, and overall smaller and lighter than any of the Pebbles - and a 45 day battery life. (Yep. About 6 weeks between charges.)
And the latest versions switched to OLED for god knows what reason. Like there aren’t enough oled smartwatches.
I have been hearing this for years now and all OLEDs still burn in like crazy from normal use on phones. They are probably great for people who like to needlessly upgrade every few years, but I’m not sold on them anymore.
Been using amoled for few yrs now, on my previous and current phone. Have never experienced any burn in or heard any burn in complaints on mobile before. Don’t know what was your experience but its definitely exaggerated.
I’ve had OLED phones since the Nexus 5 and have only had burn-in once, which was on the Nexus 5. It was due to me enabling the dev option to never turn the screen off. After 2 weeks of the screen being on 24/7 there was burn-in from the top bar.
Nor did the Nexus 5x that followed it. I’m not sure about the first Pixel, but the Pixel 2 had AMOLED and mines still going strong, no burn in or screen issues of any kind, even despite me prying it off a couple of times to replace both the battery and usb port.
I still use my Pixel 3a, bought in summer 2019. Maybe there’s some burn in, but I really don’t notice it in day to day use. If I don’t go looking for it, it’s all right…
Yeah my C9 just passed 6000hours of use and still looks amazing, tbh wish plasma was more popular in the day, still use my pioneer 50" plasma from 2008 in the living room. All the lcds I bought have weird backlight or pixel issues after 3 years
OLED tech gets better every year
Built in pixel shifts and better hardware is making burn-in on OLEDs a lot more comparable to the normal amount of burn-in LCDs and plasmas experience
If you can afford it, OLED everytime for everything imo
Not quite everything.
Garmin has transflective screens for their watches that are not only better on the battery life, but become MORE visible in sunlight. Resolution is not nearly as good but I think for an exercise/health device that’s acceptable. For some reason though, probably because the amoled screens look nicer in the store, those are considered “premium”.
I think eink for any significant reading instead of OLED. Boox has an android tablet with a color screen, even though the colors are washed out looking. Eink is easier on my eyes for reading books and I’m hoping to get that tablet for reading Lemmy too since I end up looking at the screen so long.
OLED for pretty much everything else. Though the black smearing was slightly annoying in VR, the switch to LCD lost a lot with the blacks not looking black, more like gray. I hope they switch back to OLED.
This is the reason I’m still using my old Pebble Time Steel. Garmin is the only one producing quality watches with transflective displays, and I don’t like their OS :(
Yeah if you are a regular consumer the software in their watches is a bit disappointing, but you get used to it. For example, they JUST added pictures to notifications, and you still can’t type a response to texts, just a few premade responses.
If you’re a programmer, it’s even more frustrating. I struggled to write a weight lifting app on Samsung’s Tizen, but I was eventually successful. Not so much with Garmin. Garmin does not allow for SQL databases (just key value pair), and worse, they give such a small amount of space to save data it’s almost worthless. I think with mine, one of their top end watches, they give like enough space for me to save a few hundred sets. Sounds like a lot but it’s basically like ten visits to the gym and then it would have to delete stuff. They do have another method, but I was unable to figure out how to work with their fit files.
So yeah they make great watches but I wish they would put some time in to make the user and programmer experience a bit better.
I’m confused, and I suspect it’s from limited understanding here, but smartwatches are typically paired with a phone, so wouldn’t it make more sense to offload dataset handling like you’re describing to the smartphone than any onboard storage/memory in the watch?
Or is that part of the odd jank of some smartwatch systems atm that they don’t interoperate like that?
Yes it’s true I could probably do it that way, but what I want in a fitness watch is a phone replacement while working out. For example, I don’t carry my phone on a run. For weight lifting, with my old Samsung, I just left my phone in my locker and used my app to record the weight lifting I was doing. I could switch back to a workout I hadn’t done in a year and see what I was lifting then. I never even thought about my phone, accidentally leaving it at the bench, or worrying about damaging it. It’s really freeing to just get away from the phone for a while.
My point was just agreeing with the previous comment that, while Garmin makes a great watch, their software could be improved. The limitations they put in are also somewhat arbitrary. I have plenty of storage for songs and podcasts, so a couple MB of data storage should totally be fine.
Ooh, I see now. It wasn’t clear from the previous comments that you were wanting to use it apart from your phone, which is why I asked. I’ve helped someone with a Garmin watch before and I definitely agree that their software could be improved from the little I experienced of it.
I miss my Pebble Time Steel, but then I found the Amazfit Bip.
That same lovely transflective screen, and overall smaller and lighter than any of the Pebbles - and a 45 day battery life. (Yep. About 6 weeks between charges.)
And the latest versions switched to OLED for god knows what reason. Like there aren’t enough oled smartwatches.
It can’t respond to messages, though, right?
There’s a lot of things that one can do that the other can’t. They both have trade-offs for hardware and software.
For specifically that… I don’t know. Probably not?
I have been hearing this for years now and all OLEDs still burn in like crazy from normal use on phones. They are probably great for people who like to needlessly upgrade every few years, but I’m not sold on them anymore.
I’ve had the same OLED screen daily driver since the first week of 2018, no burn in or any other problems.
They’re not all bad.
Been using amoled for few yrs now, on my previous and current phone. Have never experienced any burn in or heard any burn in complaints on mobile before. Don’t know what was your experience but its definitely exaggerated.
I’ve had OLED phones since the Nexus 5 and have only had burn-in once, which was on the Nexus 5. It was due to me enabling the dev option to never turn the screen off. After 2 weeks of the screen being on 24/7 there was burn-in from the top bar.
The Nexus 5 did not have an OLED screen.
Nor did the Nexus 5x that followed it. I’m not sure about the first Pixel, but the Pixel 2 had AMOLED and mines still going strong, no burn in or screen issues of any kind, even despite me prying it off a couple of times to replace both the battery and usb port.
I still use my Pixel 3a, bought in summer 2019. Maybe there’s some burn in, but I really don’t notice it in day to day use. If I don’t go looking for it, it’s all right…
AMOLED phone from 2014 with no burn in. Had to replace some components to keep it alive, screen is still original.
I think it has to do with brightness. I only turn it up when I’m in the sun.
Yeah my C9 just passed 6000hours of use and still looks amazing, tbh wish plasma was more popular in the day, still use my pioneer 50" plasma from 2008 in the living room. All the lcds I bought have weird backlight or pixel issues after 3 years