So today I am using the A70 which is an Android 9 (Pie) device, 1080x2400. I have to say, for the promo price ($550 CAD+ tax retail), this is a very good mid-ranger. Unlike the Pixel 3a XL I sent back a couple months ago because it had a slight bit of a greenish cast in the top 2/3rds and a pink cast on the bottom 1/3rd, this one has no tint differences at all. It's a uniform panel which is good. The rumours about Samsung sending their lower grades to other OEMs (with the exception of Apple) might be true. However, it's such a large screen (6.7") it is a bit hard to get used to, but I dialed in the zoom/font size and got it pretty much the same as my M8. The PPI is lower on this so really, you need to hold it farther away from you, otherwise you will notice a bit of screen door effect due to pentile layout which is tricky because my glasses prescription changed. I basically need bifocals. What is hard for me to get used to at this time is the blue shift that occurs when the screen is tilted. If you're looking at it straight on, it's OK, but once you start getting an angle happening it goes blue. This is partly because it is so large. On a smaller device like the S10e (which I was not willing to pay the price premium on) the tilt shift won't be as pronounced. On the M8 when tilting it doesn't colour shift but it does go dimmer at large angles but normally you aren't tilting it much at all because it's already a smaller screen (with a higher PPI). I am forced to use the current version of Netflix on this device, I tested with older versions and it wouldn't let me get high resolution. Too bad. I think the encodes for iPhone are better, but this isn't bad, certainly much much better than the 480p and 540p stuff Netflix shoves out for widevine L3 stuff. This A70 has L1. In terms of colour profiles, it lets you choose between Natural and Vivid. Natural doesn't have any settings that can be adjusted. Vivid is a pumped up saturation, but it lets you adjust the RGB channels independently as well as an overall cool-warm slider. So last night I actually adjusted the vivid profile for being indoors under incandescent yellowish light in this room which makes whites white and decent saturated colour balance. During the daytime I just used natural. There is a blue light filter switch, it's not very useful. The device does not have an Apple-like truetone feature. The device is light enough, but it is super slippery because the back is polished plastic, the sides are polished plastic, etc. If you are not careful you are going to drop this for sure due to the slipperiness. A popsocket or a case is a must, neither of which I have. The fingerprint sensor works, however it's nowhere near as good as Apple's so you basically need to register the same finger 3 times so it unlocks ok. 3 fingers is also the limit for registration so don't participate in any Yakuza loyalty ceremonies using the finger you registered. The PWM is not too bad on this, probably some getting used to is required. My eyes did feel a little sleepy using it but I am tired today (not enough sleep last night) and the effect wasn't as pronounced as when I had the 8+ here. I am going to see how it goes. I have 15 days. I will also compare it to the store demo units to see if the panels are pretty much the same or if they are different.
According to digital wellbeing, it has been used 4 hours 25 minutes today, and the battery % is at 46%. Not bad at all!
Samsung owners should install the Samsung app "One Hand Operation +" it'll give you gesture functionality that you can program to make it a bit more iPhone like to swipe with. I think Android 10 is supposed to come with gestures baked in.
Apple's calibration of oled panels is the best in the market, even the Note 10+ is not as good. Don't compare Android oled to Apple's, there is a large difference with the gamma levels, and the white balance.
Contemplating trying out a LCD iPhone 11 also, but we'll see as the XR was problematic for some people and the 11 is basically the XR with some tweaks here and there. I've actually never been a big fan of OLED for a lot of reasons.
The Sharp SuperLCD 3 panel in the old M8 I have is very good one and it's nice there is no screen door effect or colour shifts on tilt.. I think I will attempt a battery replacement in it, but the device is so slow now to the point I want to throw it across the room sometimes, it'll probably need a factory reset as well.