Here are some observations about the screen in my new SP4 in comparison to my SP3.
- The backlight remains even, the viewing angles are excellent, the contrast is superb and the color gamut appears to be at least as wide.
- The colors are a bit cooler and therefore I expect they're more accurate. My SP3 had a bit of a yellowish tone to it.
- There is absolutely no yellow stripe at the edge of the screen on any background color. This was an issue with my SP3. It showed up from new on the SP3 and got worse over time. I'm very pleased about this.
- There is backlight bleed at two points, one near the center of the top edge, the other near the center of the bottom edge. This is common in IPS screens. The bleed is only noticeable at full brightness in a dark room so it's minor enough that I don't see it in normal use. The bleed is brighter but over a smaller area than what some people saw with the SP3, including me. I guess it's an improvement. I have to accept there are limitations to this technology. I've never seen a bleed-free IPS screen on a tablet.
- I have zero defective pixels. My SP3 was the same.
- The screen has no noticeable grain. There is a very minor, intermittent, diagonal line effect when you look up close at an angle. Most people would never notice it and I would never notice it in normal use. I'm also probably more sensitive to this than a lot of people due to my imperfect binocular vision. I wasn't even going to mention it but I know there are devices out there with a much more annoying version of this same problem so I figure some people might wonder about it.
- The increase in pixel count is enough that you can no longer see the pixels like you might have been able to with the SP3.
- The backlight remains even, the viewing angles are excellent, the contrast is superb and the color gamut appears to be at least as wide.
- The colors are a bit cooler and therefore I expect they're more accurate. My SP3 had a bit of a yellowish tone to it.
- There is absolutely no yellow stripe at the edge of the screen on any background color. This was an issue with my SP3. It showed up from new on the SP3 and got worse over time. I'm very pleased about this.
- There is backlight bleed at two points, one near the center of the top edge, the other near the center of the bottom edge. This is common in IPS screens. The bleed is only noticeable at full brightness in a dark room so it's minor enough that I don't see it in normal use. The bleed is brighter but over a smaller area than what some people saw with the SP3, including me. I guess it's an improvement. I have to accept there are limitations to this technology. I've never seen a bleed-free IPS screen on a tablet.
- I have zero defective pixels. My SP3 was the same.
- The screen has no noticeable grain. There is a very minor, intermittent, diagonal line effect when you look up close at an angle. Most people would never notice it and I would never notice it in normal use. I'm also probably more sensitive to this than a lot of people due to my imperfect binocular vision. I wasn't even going to mention it but I know there are devices out there with a much more annoying version of this same problem so I figure some people might wonder about it.
- The increase in pixel count is enough that you can no longer see the pixels like you might have been able to with the SP3.
