I find that, or that same sort of pervasive negative attitude, to be common amongst most of the Gawker Media sites.

Well, maybe I should say "many" instead of "most".

Lifehacker definitely doesn't have that attitude. IO9 definitely does.

you're taking one aspect of the screen that's worse and declaring the entire screen AND phone worse because of it.

Matt, don't be offended because you own an N1.

I asked if this reported "fact" was another nail in the coffin.

You're assuming that there even is a coffin. This is far from confirmed.

Did you read the part about the screen being 16bit?

Did you read the part about it being useless in sunlight?

I don't have to look any of the images because the text explained what was happening well enough that I knew what the images would look like. If those "facts" were misreported, then clearly they are not another nail.

Thankfully, this is starting to seem more like a software bug rather than a hardware limitation though.

I find that, or that same sort of pervasive negative attitude, to be common amongst most of the Gawker Media sites.

We have added an update about the brouhaha regarding the Nexus One browser not showing the banding: Here is the excerpt:

Color Depth and Granularity Update: People using the browser on the Nexus One report that they don't see the banding shown in Figure 1 for the NASA Photo “Sunset on Mars” from within the browser, but Gizmodo shows screen shots of Intensity Scale Ramps using the Nexus One Browser that duplicates and confirms the 16-bit color depth and banding shown in Figure 1. This definitively establishes that the Nexus One has a 16-bit display interface. It sounds like the Nexus One browser is using its own internal scaling together with a dithering algorithm that seems to be able to smooth over false contouring in some cases. But it’s clear that the Nexus One display system is using only 16-bit color and that is absolutely shocking!

It remains to be seen whether the 16-bit color is a hardware limitation or a software configuration that can be upgraded and fixed. My guess is that it looks like a hardware limitation because it is possible to see image flicker in dark test patterns, which means that the display is using low frequency Pulse Width Modulation. High frequency PWM is needed to produce the 256 levels needed for 24-bit color.

Gizmodo shows screen shots of Intensity Scale Ramps using the Nexus One Browser that duplicates and confirms the 16-bit color depth and banding shown in Figure 1. This definitively establishes that the Nexus One has a 16-bit display interface.

Most computer, HDTV and mobile displays, including the iPhone, have at least 18-bit color and then often emulate full 24-bit color with dithering, providing 256 intensity levels for Red, Green and Blue, which produces a nice color and intensity scale without the ugly artifacts.

Yeah, it seems to kill the battery.

The CPU is likely to consume a given amount of power based on usage, and it's easy enough to find out which applications used which amount of CPU time.

Thanks for your Email. Please post this wherever it will be helpful. Be sure to point out item 7 below.

1. We tested the display on the Nexus One, with whatever hardware, firmware, OS and software are provided by Google and HTC. It's clear that it is an unfinished and buggy product.

2. The Nexus One is definitely using 16-bit color for some of its major functions. It shouldn't even have a 16-bit display interface if it can in fact actually do 18-bits or better.

3. The fact that it may be possible to get higher image quality from some applications is a fanboy issue that is not relevant except to fanboys. We are not... and most Nexus One owners aren't either!

4. By pointing out all of these issues we are doing you guys a really big favor because these issues are only going to get fixed when they are publicized. So stop making excuses for the test results.

5. How do you know that the Nexus One isn't just dithering images to reduce banding and delivering simulated 24-bit color? The display has a rather high pixel density, so how have you established that it has true 24-bits?

6. We will be updating Part I when Part III is introduced on Monday or Tuesday. We will add additional information explaining the scope of our results and the above issues.

7. We are willing to publish a screen shot that demonstrates 24-bit color on the Nexus One and add it to Figure 1, together with a brief explanation of how it was obtained, and a full attribution of who provided it. We will incorporate it into Parts I and III.

Here are the ground rules:
1. The source must be an 800x480 native resolution intensity ramp bmp bitmap test pattern with 256 intensity levels in R,G,B, and preferably also W.
2. We need a high quality screen shot of the test pattern, as shown in Figure 1.
3. We need an explanation of exactly how it was obtained, together with attribution and contact information.
4. Email us a copy of the original bmp test pattern and a jpg screen shot as described above, no higher than 1 mega-pixel. Email it to <snip>
5. We will publish the best result we receive.