Color Screens: Overated?
Jun 30, 2005 at 9:21 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 44

mmmpopfanatic

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I know that having an MP3 player with a color screen is the hot new thing right now, and the upcoming 5G IPods with only color screens is going along with that. But does anyone else besides me think that they're overated? I own a Zen Micro. I'm not the type of person that takes many pictures and needs to have them with me on some tiny screen. I merely need a screen to search for songs and tell me what's playing. With the popularity of the Shuffle, I would think there are at least a few people like me. What do you guys think?
 
Jun 30, 2005 at 9:37 PM Post #2 of 44
I sort of resent color screens. They look very nice while the backlight is on, but they are much harder to read with the backlight off than mono screens are. And if you're wearing polarized sunglasses, they are much, much, harder to read with the backlight off (and sometimes with the backlight on).
 
Jun 30, 2005 at 9:48 PM Post #4 of 44
agree with them above. unless you must look at pictures (*****) on the go, its a waste of battery and money

EDIT: whoa...the word "p orn" is sensored....
 
Jun 30, 2005 at 9:53 PM Post #5 of 44
I dont mind them, most color screen players have the same rated battery life as mono screen players. Also its the year 2005, come on alredy, i shouldent even know what mono screens are. Im all about moving on to bigger, flashier and sexier electronics.
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They have there advantages and disadvantages. I have an X5 and dont use the picture viewing or the video. I just like to know i have the option, as well as the color screen just makes it seem very modern, and i feel like i have a nice (expensive) peice of hardware in my hands. For as much as i pay to listen to music on the go, i better get all the perks.
 
Jun 30, 2005 at 9:54 PM Post #6 of 44
I have an X5. I plan to use it almost exclusively for music playback, with some recording of the sweet thoughts and voices of my two boys 4 and 7.

Although I think it would be cool to have a few pictures or album covers on it--that feature isn't important to me. I also dont plan to watch any movies or videos on the unit.

One of my primary music goals for the unit is to be able to use it as a music server on vacation, in the office, at friends' houses, etc. In that regard, I recently spent some time at the beach with friends who have an Ipod for their beach house. The Ipod plugs into a little (admittedly lo-fi) speaker set up and we were able to view the artist and song names as they shuffled during our visit. It was a cool way for us to enjoy the music and for them to share their tunes with us.

I'd like to be able to do that with the X5. Assuming I can find a way to have the X5 function as a music server and it's plugged in, can I can cause the display to remain on and visible?

Thanks, Mike
 
Jun 30, 2005 at 11:18 PM Post #7 of 44
I think head-fi might be a weird place to be posing this question. We're all primarily music/audio lovers, so it might be argued that the visual aspect of these players take a backseat to their audio capabilities. I'm afraid you're going to get a bunch of answers that say "yes, color screens on DAPs are unnecessary", purely because we're such audio nuts.

with that said, I think the iPod photos are cool looking, but lack any real function for me. But i'm glad that apple is making them standard because they are just so pretty
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Jun 30, 2005 at 11:19 PM Post #8 of 44
Quote:

Originally Posted by episiarch
I sort of resent color screens. They look very nice while the backlight is on, but they are much harder to read with the backlight off than mono screens are. And if you're wearing polarized sunglasses, they are much, much, harder to read with the backlight off (and sometimes with the backlight on).


When wearing polarized sunglasses my Samsung Phone LCD looks black. My older LG 4600 cell has a more inferior quality lcd in terms of color, brightness, and resolution, but it has some sort of reflective screen that looks perfectly clear with direct sunlight and with sunglasses on.

(65000 colors TFT lcd)

Maybe it's just older technology, but perhaps it can be applied to mp3 players as well?
 
Jul 1, 2005 at 1:27 AM Post #9 of 44
Very overrated. I do feel that if battery life is the same, then why not, make em color. But if I am paying $50 more for a color...thats just pointless.
 
Jul 1, 2005 at 1:56 AM Post #11 of 44
I thought that having a color screen on my new iPod would be really cool, but honestly now that I'm giving up my iPod Photo and going back to an iHP-140, I'm not missing the idea of having color at all. So yeah, I'll add a vote for "utterly pointless".

Plus I do a lot of traveling in developing countries, and I can't help but feel like having an audio gadget with a color screen makes me even more of a target for mugging than I am already with my iRiver.

And I agree, they look good with the backlight on, but with it off, the mono screens are really easier to read. Weird huh?
 
Jul 1, 2005 at 2:24 AM Post #12 of 44
Do you have pictures in your wallet of your kid/wife/dog/stereo setup? What about having all those wallet pictures in your iPod? If you tell your wife about your girlfriend, you can pull out the iPod and prove that GF is hotter looking. You could have maps to places you want to go... photos of the boat in your driveway that you're trying to sell... a cellphone photo of the posted price of a particular product in a store to show to a competitor to get them to match the price... etc.

I can think of a lot of reasons to want to have pictures on an iPod.

See ya
Steve
 
Jul 1, 2005 at 2:40 AM Post #14 of 44
As an ipod photo owner, i think color screens are stupid and overrated. I feel the same way about cameras on phones, too.

I bought my mp3 player to listen to music. I bought my phone to make calls. Other cost-adding features are wasteful, and I even would even pay more to have the stupid camera removed, to make my phone lighter. I hate this confluence of technology. I actually like photography. Why pay $100 extra to get a ****** .0005megapixel camera?

Anyway, back to the color thing....I don't care, and I don't put 1/17" photos on there to impress my friends. Blah
 
Jul 1, 2005 at 2:40 AM Post #15 of 44
I keep a pic of my GF on my phone, she is my wallpaper
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Heck, I never kept pictures of anyone in my wallet...took up to much room.
 

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