Atari Flashback Portable Screen Quality

[polyex]

It may be just something to do with my vision (I wear glasses normally), but I noticed that the blacks on my Flashback are not really black. The blacks appear to be "silvery" and very shiny. Its quite uncomfortable to play. If I close one eye it improves, but the overall experience of using this portable is that the screen sucks. Perhaps a hardware expert could chime in if this is a known issue with cheap displays or users with bad vision or what.

[polyex]

I would also like to add that I have a cheap Chinese NES clone portable, and I get similar "shiny" blacks. I have another SNES portable and it is much better, so I am not sure what to make of it. My phone (Blu Vivo Android) looks great as well as a iPhone 6.

[Flojomojo]

It's a cheap screen. You pulled the protective film off, right?

[spacecadet]

Sounds like a TN screen. Mine's supposedly coming tomorrow (I'm a little late to this party) and I'll see if mine is the same but I wouldn't doubt it. The portable Genesis screens they made didn't have this problem, but those might be different, higher-res screens.

[Hyperboy]

+1 for Flojo on the screen cover.

It doesn't look like there is one and it's a bitch to get started but removing the screen protector will make a difference.

 

Sent from my non beer holding hand.

[fiddlepaddle]

It's interesting to note that if you hold the screen sideways (90 degrees right or left), it no longer does this (well, both eyeballs see the same shade of black).

[groundtrooper]

It's a cheap screen. You pulled the protective film off, right?

 

 

+1 for Flojo on the screen cover.

It doesn't look like there is one and it's a bitch to get started but removing the screen protector will make a difference.

 

Sent from my non beer holding hand.

 

 

Yep it took a week or 2 to figure out that is had a screen protector on it. It doesn't have the "usual" pull here tab (marked or unmarked) and it is really hard to get it to start peeling. At least mine was.

[Flojomojo]

Yeah, it's a little sticky and almost feels like you'll scratch it as you get it started. Once that cataract has been removed, the screen seems much brighter and clearer.

 

It's still a cheap screen and blacks are just dark grey, but it's plenty good for old Atari games.

[polyex]

It's interesting to note that if you hold the screen sideways (90 degrees right or left), it no longer does this (well, both eyeballs see the same shade of black).

 

I noticed that as well.

[spacecadet]

Got mine. It's hard to tell if it's the same as the portable Genesis screen, but I do notice a little more weirdness with the Flashback portable screen. Almost like the viewing angle is so small that only one eye can ever have proper blacks - the other eye sees a washed out screen. It seems more distracting than the portable Genesis screen, although they both have pretty poor viewing angles.

 

I thought the portable Genesis screen was good when I got it, though. But the Atari Flashback portable screen does seem a little more annoying. It might just be the type of graphics typical for the system, though, which often had black backgrounds.

[Flojomojo]

Back when the first frontlit GBA SP came out, you would have thought the AFBP had an amazing screen! We have gotten used to very bright, crisp, high quality screens on other, more expensive devices.

 

$40 product is still pretty good IMHO.

[spacecadet]

Let me amend my last post because it's *obviously* a different screen than the Genesis portable - it's noticeably smaller! It's really easy to see when both units are side by side. So, not necessarily a worse screen, but definitely a different one, which opens up the possibility that it's also different in such a way that affects viewing angles.

[DesertJets]

I need to give that a try and see if there is a film on mine. I really like the FBP, but the odd shininess of the screen really put me off and I haven't played it at all since first getting it back in January.