The Nokia N86 : All about the OLED Screen

The Nokia N86 8MP has a 2.6″ AM-OLED screen.

And yes, it’s an absolute dream to look at. The screen really shows off the power of OLED Technology. Images and videos just simply look great on the device.

Here’s a little more about it, and how it stands up to Traditional LCD screens on Mobile phones today.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. It is a new screen technology to rival LCD and plasma. AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. There’s no real difference between the two, but Active Matrix is a method for controlling individual pixels.

OLED screens also have individual self illuminating pixels, unlike your traditional LCD screen which requires back lighting. This means less power consumption and longer battery life.

This is not the only benefit of having OLED screens. They also offer superior brightness, better viewing angles, response time and contrast ratios.

AMOLED also has an exceptionally high contrast compared to TFT-LCD because it can express true black, expressing crystal clear image. Each ‘Black’ colored pixel is actually switched off, which means it’s showing true black.

You can read more on the Wikipedia Article on OLED but this is basically the jist of it.

To show you the real difference, here are a couple images of the Nokia N86 screen compared to the screens on the Nokia N97 Mini, and the Nokia E72.

All phones were set to maximum backlight brightness for this comparison. All phones are displaying exactly the same image.

Image 1 :-

N86 (left) vs E72 (right):

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Notice the colors of the petals and corolla of the flower in this image. You’ll see that on the N86’s screen produces a more true to life image, with way better colors and way better saturation.

Image 2 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 3 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 4 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 5 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 6 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 7 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

The N86’s image looks like a completely different colored flower in this one, producing a more true-to-life pink color while the E72 and N97’s screen displays a purple tinge to it.

Image 8 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 9 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 10 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Notice the colors of the sails in first ship in this image.

Image 11 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

Image 12 :-

N86 (bottom) vs E72 (top) :

N86 (bottom) vs N97 Mini (top) :

I actually really love this image on the N86. The cat looks so much more lifelike. You’ll notice the colors are way better, the reds are a deeper shade and vibrant on the N86.

Here’s a Video to show you more about how good the OLED screen on the N86 really is :

Conclusion :

At the end of it all, the N86′s AMOLED screen has pretty decent color depth to it. Unfortunately the drawback of OLED is that it’s not particularly legible in direct sunlight (which is something you should consider when deciding upon the N86).

LCDs nowadays are also getting pretty good. You can see in some of the images above, that they’re almost close to OLED levels in a picture or two.

Nokia’s default theme on the N86 though, gives away a lot of the benefits which makes the initial experience with the N86 suboptimal. We’ll have more on this in a separate post though. You can view more pictures of the N86 OLED screen on our Flickr Album.

You’ve seen the Images, what do you think about the OLED screen on the N86 ? Should Nokia be pumping more devices out with this screen ? Or is traditional LCD good enough ? Let us know in the comments y’all !

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Author Description

Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, ClintonJeff.com, on Google Plus or on Facebook or Twitter below: Follow @clintonjeff

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