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New 3DS/XL top screen displays: IPS or non-IPS?

m0t0k1

Member
So i was browsing the internet deciding if I should buy an New 3ds or not and found out that the New3dsXl carries an IPS screen. But only on the big screen is. The touch screen is still a TN panel and both are a TN panel on the regular N3DS. I noticed this is only mentioned on the Japanese wikipedia and not on the English one. Although I can't read Japanese it obviously say IPS on the big screen:

ipswgym3.png


This is a major difference, why did Nintendo not mentioned this anywhere? I tried to find a thread on gaf about this but saw none being mentioned. Maybe in the N3DS release thread? This makes me want to go for the XL more then the regular one with face plates. The viewing angles should be way better and the colours should pop more on the XL the only thing different should be the response time maybe? Input lag should not be effected since the screens are small. So anybody with both new 3dses can confirm any differences? And want to share any experiences with the IPS panel.

Here are some pics from reddit user Pereb27 for comparison:
edit: comparison of an old 3dsXL and New 3dsXL to clarify

edit2: It isnt sure the XL will contain an IPS panel from gaf user big_z:
this is false, the new 3ds uses at least two variants of panels and once again nothing is calibrated properly to save money. here's an example of two panels.

Hp1nLm4.jpg


the easiest way to check which you have is to watch and see if the wifi indicator washes out or remains readable.

panel A seems to be more common, but it also suffers from a scanline or pwm effect as mentioned in this thread.

panel B is clearly a tn screen. it does not suffer from the scanline issue however the super stable 3D is reported to be much worse with this screen than type A. this might explain why a small number claim the 3D is still crap or worse.

To check out how your screen look do this:
It is a unit by unit thing. In short QC at the factory is shit. At first they were allowing fairly clearly tinted screens (in particular yellow) through but now it is like they don't bother to check if the colour calibration between top and bottom is consistent.

For people who want to test theirs get a DS game, on the 3DS screen of it booting up (or was it the black screen after) pull the cartridge out. Now you have two "black" screens to compare. It is best to do this in as dark a place as you can.


Whats the difference between an IPS and TN panel?
There are different techniques to create a screen TN stands for Twisted nematic and advantages/disadvantages are:

+ Inexpensive to produce
+ Fast Response times
- viewing angles as you can see on the photo
- colour accuracy: the colours look a bit more washed out compared to IPS

IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and advantages/disadvantages are:

+ Good viewing angles
+ Good colour accuracy: the colours look better more lively
- more expensive to produce
- response times are slower then TN

We are still not to sure if the XL and normal new one carry the same screen but reading the thread. But at least we can confirm there are 2 types of XL screens with one being better then the other.

edit3: Looks like the regular new 3ds could also contain an ips screen according to user LamerDeluxe:

The display on my regular new 3DS looks more like an IPS display than a TN display. Vertical viewing angles show a slight loss of contrast, but not the extreme image degradation TN is known for with vertical viewing angles (colors shifting, almost inverting).

More than that, diagonal viewing angles are horrible and completely wash the image out, a typical trait of IPS displays, my IPS monitors do the exact same thing.

It does seem to have a bit of IPS glow as well (testing with Donkey Kong, white letters on a black background).

Blacks are not very deep, which is also typical for IPS displays.

Response time is pretty good, but I'm pretty sure this is an IPS display, not the best kind though.

EDIT: My N3DS display looks the same as in richisawesome's shots, check your diagonal viewing angles as well.
EDIT2: My N3DS viewing angles look exactly the same as on my IPS monitors, which are slightly worse actually.

edit4: Looks like the screen resembles a Sharp IGZO:

More info on the new 3DS screen here:
http://www.lesnumeriques.com/consol...-nintendo-new-3ds-a-sonde-a-loupe-n39641.html

It seems to be a Sharp IGZO.

Luminosity comparison:
new 3DS : 158 cd/m²
Oled Vita: 117 cd/m²
Old 3DS: 84 cd/m²

translated by google:

"The study of subpixels reveals a slab that closely resembles a Sharp IGZO , probably type IPS given the contrast ratio and viewing angles. One may also note the difference of maximum brightness of the sub pixels on these two pictures."



edit: 5 There are now dual IPS screens spotted in both the fire emblem n3ds XL and pokemon n3ds. It still comes down to luck if you are going to get IPS some people reported getting a double TN screen

picture by T0wRen
picture by bigkurz

It is also possible to get some backlight bleeding on your ips screen though.
credits to canon

It is also possible to install an IPS screen on your n3ds if you arent happy with it.

credits to gbatemp user the3dsguy
 

Airan

Member
I don't think viewing angles should be a major concern for a device which you constantly adjust to look at directly when playing. Even when you're showing off a game you can tilt it aside.

I've read that colours do pop out more on the XL than the new small one, didn't realize it would be due to an IPS screen.
 

ss_lemonade

Member
That probably explains why me and wife noticed the colors to be better. Is this also why you don't get a slight tint anymore when enabling 3d?
 

m0t0k1

Member
What's an IPS screen?

There are different techniques to create a screen TN stands for Twisted nematic and advantages are:

+ Inexpensive to produce
+ Fast Response times
- viewing angles as you can see on the photo
- colour accuracy: the colours look a bit more washed out compared to IPS

IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and advantages are:

+ Good viewing angles
+ Good colour accuracy: the colours look better more lively
- more expensive to produce
- response times are slower then TN

But response times get bigger the bigger the screen gets. So it shouldn't be that big of an issue so you get a better screen in the end. Hope this helps a bit explaining what the difference between screen types are.
 
The comparison pic OP posted tells pretty much spells out the difference.
Uhh thats an old XL vs a NewXL...I'm looking at my standard New3ds and it looks nowhere near as bad as that pic suggests. I don't have pokemon so I can't do a direct comparison, but from what I can see on my screen it would look exactly like the NewXL, maybe slight color and contrast difference but that is about it.

edit: ok looking at pic below maybe it is more noticable than I thought lol
 

LordGouda

Member
There are different techniques to create a screen TN stands for Twisted nematic and advantages are:

+ Inexpensive to produce
+ Fast Response times
- viewing angles as you can see on the photo
- colour accuracy: the colours look a bit more washed out compared to IPS

IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and advantages are:

+ Good viewing angles
+ Good colour accuracy: the colours look better more lively
- more expensive to produce
- response times are slower then TN

But response times get bigger the bigger the screen gets. So it shouldn't be that big of an issue so you get a better screen in the end. Hope this helps a bit explaining what the difference between screen types are.

That's probably the most streamlined and best explanation ever, thanks for the explanation!
 
Given the original 3DS XL had viewing angle problems with the 3D I can see why they went for a screen with better viewing angles on the New XL.

But given how the New systems obsolete the old ones it makes me wonder if New 3DS is more profitable due to this or if the XL is now less profitable (as in it doesn't cost $40 more to produce ship etc, assuming the added specs pay for themselves due to cost depreciation of tech).
 

Danneee

Member
Considering it's a screen on a portable console I think viewing angle isn't something that should be problematic on modern hand helds. Especially on the 3DS if you use the 3D function.
 

m0t0k1

Member
Uhh thats an old XL vs a NewXL...I'm looking at my standard New3ds and it looks nowhere near as bad as that pic suggests. I don't have pokemon so I can't do a direct comparison, but from what I can see on my screen it would look exactly like the NewXL, maybe slight color and contrast difference but that is about it.

Yeah the pic is more an example of the viewing angles then of the colour accuracy. The only way you can truly experience that is by seeing it with your own eyes. Since everyone is looking at this with a different monitor/screen. So the colour representation is different for everyone and its not accurate for colour because every camera also processes an image differently. My old Samsung phone liked to oversaturate the colours on pictures taken for example. So i was hoping when i created this thread that somebody could share some info about it up close and personal.
 
I don't know if this was an issue with other 3dses but the difference in color between the top and bottom screens definitely is an immersion breaker. it's especially noticeable on games where the screen is split down the middle for most of the game, like DQV on the DS which is what i'm currently playing now.
 

L~A

Member
Interesting... didn't really notice the difference in screen type since I didn't compare 3DS XL and N3DSXL. Well, I did notice the screen was much better, but I never would've guessed they changed the screen type.
 

Scrawnton

Member
I don't know if this was an issue with other 3dses but the difference in color between the top and bottom screens definitely is an immersion breaker. it's especially noticeable on games where the screen is split down the middle for most of the game, like DQV on the DS which is what i'm currently playing now.
I'm playing that on my New 3DS XL and I noticed no issues between the screen quality.
 

m0t0k1

Member
Yeah I noticed this few days ago while comparing. here's some comparison shots I took: http://imgur.com/a/8zSHU

I'm now questioning why n3ds doesn't have them. RRP's aren't that different you know. :(

Thanks for this comparison pic the N3DSXL looks like to have good colours. Compared to the others think i will save longer to get an XL instead of a N3DS

Where did this myth come from that input lag is in any way related to screen size.

I guess it has to do with smaller screens having less resolution and that is a factor in having more input lag. Since the screens on the 3ds are small and low res it shouldn't be an issue on the 3ds screens but guess I worded it wrong sorry for that.
 

MrFortyFive

Member
Interesting. I noticed as soon as I got mine that the colors looked great, but I had no idea that Nintendo isn't really making that known as a feature.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
I haven't seen the regular n3DS, but I can confirm that the colors on the n3DSXL are a lot more vibrant than the 3DSXL. That being said, I'm not sure if it's because of an IPS screen or contrast settings that are slightly too high.
 
Probably because the didn't want to repeat what Sony had over the new Vita - hysteria on message boards over a different screen type that is almost insagnificantly visibly different.
 

Koobion

Member
Really interesting. I wonder how this came to be - if it was a decision made in the design, or if it's a product of deals with the parts manufacturers for any number of reasons.
 

MrKeinov

Member
Pretty sure that's the demo.

It indeed is. I just have one copy. :p I blame region lock for owning 8 3ds, though!

Thanks for this comparison pic the N3DSXL looks like to have good colours. Compared to the others think i will save longer to get an XL instead of a N3DS

Well to be honost the difference seems big in those photos but I haven't noticed it before side by side comparison. N3ds didnt suddenly become unplayable for me after the discovery. Its still my fave and I hold my main NNID on it. If I didnt care about coverplates, this wouldnt be the situation, though. N3DSXL is my choice to play immersive games like monhun4, and xenoblade in the future.
 

m0t0k1

Member
Probably because the didn't want to repeat what Sony had over the new Vita - hysteria on message boards over a different screen type that is almost insagnificantly visibly different.

The difference is this time if it is true in theory we get better screens instead of worse. IPS should be the better technology when it comes to colour. But from what i seen in the store and that is an opinion is that the best TN is comparable to the worse IPS but those are the 6 bit ones. But this is probably not the case when Nintendo is buying screens :p

Really interesting. I wonder how this came to be - if it was a decision made in the design, or if it's a product of deals with the parts manufacturers for any number of reasons.

I think IPS or better viewing angles at least how you like to interpret it is really important design addition for the N3DS. Thanks to the new 3d head tracking you can see 3d better when you change the viewing angle so if you want to be a bit more lazy and have the 3ds next lying next to you while you are laying down the screen does look a lot better then and you can still see 3d. I still have to adjust my position on the og 3ds some times because the colours and screen wash out like crazy even with 3d off. and you have to hold the 3ds right in front of you if you want to see 3d. So better viewing angles give a whole lot more freedom in what kind of position you want to play the portable.
 
I feel the colors on my regular New3DS pop out way more then they did on my old XL. Can't really compare my N3ds to a N3ds XL though.
 
I'm playing that on my New 3DS XL and I noticed no issues between the screen quality.
+
I don't know if this was an issue with other 3dses but the difference in color between the top and bottom screens definitely is an immersion breaker. it's especially noticeable on games where the screen is split down the middle for most of the game, like DQV on the DS which is what i'm currently playing now.
It is a unit by unit thing. In short QC at the factory is shit. At first they were allowing fairly clearly tinted screens (in particular yellow) through but now it is like they don't bother to check if the colour calibration between top and bottom is consistent.

For people who want to test theirs get a DS game, on the 3DS screen of it booting up (or was it the black screen after) pull the cartridge out. Now you have two "black" screens to compare. It is best to do this in as dark a place as you can.
 

m0t0k1

Member
Well to be honost the difference seems big in those photos but I haven't noticed it before side by side comparison. N3ds didnt suddenly become unplayable for me after the discovery. Its still my fave and I hold my main NNID on it. If I didnt care about coverplates, this wouldnt be the situation, though. N3DSXL is my choice to play immersive games like monhun4, and xenoblade in the future.

Thanks for sharing really appreciate it. Yeah of course i am not that big of a tech head to really say something is bad just because it isn't the best. I would have no problem with getting a N3ds instead of an XL but if the screen is better for a small price i would like to go for that. I would use my old 3ds for when i am outside the house and the XL inside so portability should not be an issue

But that's not the case at all ;) Or else 4K PC monitors would be fucked!

I agree with you in the sense that its true technology evolves issues of today become a non issue in the future. I remember when IPS was horrible for gaming when it just released but still had the amazing colours. But it keeps evolving and they are now viable as gaming screens and the future is aiming for the 4k. Same goes for the VA panels most of them had horrible ghosting but most screens have solved that now.
 
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