Is there still demand for a modern MIP endurance watch?
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MicroLED would be the best alternative in the long term, but not now when MicroLED displays are still very expensive and prioritized for their extreme brightness rather than economy.
MicoroLED displays have a very broad range of brightness and don’t suffer from burn-in, so they could be used in always on mode without a risk of damage while being more energy efficient than AMOLED. But the technology isn’t fully there yet.
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@sky-runner apple started using tamdem oled in some devices , it is two panel stack on each other. It provides higher brightness and each panel is not so bright by itself so it prevent burn in. But it must be expensive as you need two panels. And not sure about power consumption. But best part of MIP is low power consumption.
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@Tomas5 best part of MIP is its transreflective part. Meaning - it looks better when the light is shined on it, like in full sunlight. It doesn’t have to emit light to counter the brightness of the sunny day as the amoled has to.
Amoled is cool for smartwatches with rich interfaces, but to me - a sports watch should be a low key augmentation of a workout or outdoors experience.
I’m doing sports for the sake of sports or being outside. I don’t need 16 million colors histograms or graphs glaring in my eyes.
But yeah. I get it that the mighty market requires amoled.
S9PP 2.50.28
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@Łukasz-Szmigiel said in Is there still demand for a modern MIP endurance watch?:
best part of MIP is its transreflective part. Meaning - it looks better when the light is shined on it, like in full sunlight. It doesn’t have to emit light to counter the brightness of the sunny day as the amoled has to.
MIP is basically LCD - the same technology that was in old fashioned digital watches or in Ambit series. The only difference between MIP is LCD is that in MIP each pixel also have a memory storage (hence MIP = Memory In Pixel).
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@Łukasz-Szmigiel I agree but… Amoled is just easier to read - especially for older people. I liked the V1, it was a fantastic watch but the V2 I can read without glasses. And in activities the battery is similar.
The reflective screen on the V1 is much better on a bike than the V2.
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@Audaxjoe maybe… We should ditch the “I have it all” sports watch and take indoor and outdoor series apart
S9PP 2.50.28
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@Łukasz-Szmigiel said in Is there still demand for a modern MIP endurance watch?:
@Audaxjoe maybe… We should ditch the “I have it all” sports watch and take indoor and outdoor series apart
It is not about indoor vs outdoor. I hardly ever train indoors but I strongly prefer AMOLED. I run a lot on densely forested trails, and especially when the weather is cloudy, it is just not enough contrast to see a MIP screen well, especially when it is behind a sapphire crystal. I used MIP watches for multiple years, and I am not going back because AMOLED is much more readable in this environment, especially when looking at smaller details on a map. With a MIP watch (Garmin Fenix 7X), map screen often looked like a blur to me - I couldn’t see anything except the main route.
Keep in mind that with age ability to see low contrast details really declines. It is called presbyopia. Presbyopia often results in reduced contrast sensitivity, especially at dim light.
Having said that, to accommodate older users Suunto also needs to work on improving contrast of the map screen trough a better choice of colors. If there is a navigation route it is very easy to see, but try using the watch without a navigation route, and green on green trails are quite difficult to see, and other map themes are not much better.
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@Łukasz-Szmigiel haha. I have never had an issue reading the V2 outside. In the past this was an issue with backlighting but I certainly haven’t had a problem with the latest Amoled. I purchased the V2 on release.
Only issue I have is on the bike, the map screen dulls out if the watch is on the handlebars. I have a bike computer from Wahoo so not really an issue for me. However the V1 I had used that on long distance rides, and it was fine and the battery lasted days. I’d struggle to do this with the V2. Wahoo is better on the bike as the screen is so much bigger but the V1 did a fine job.
Now if they could make a reflective screen as easy to read as the Amoled…
Out of interest my first Wahoo had a reflective screen that was easier to read in bright sunlight. The latest version is backlight and I have had the odd occasion when it is harder to read in bright sunlight.
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Sebastian Sawe ran a marathon in 1:59:31 wearing a watch with a mip display.
End of discussion, I guess
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I turn 50 next year and have noticed a decline in my eyesight over the last couple of years. Nothing too bad, mainly just with focusing and needing to read things at a further distance away so it’s not blurred. I’m still on my V1 which I’ve had for 3 years, still no issues at all with legibility and I don’t struggle to read anything whilst I’m running on road or trails. I do a lot of running in the dark and I find the display with the backlight fantastic; I don’t have a V2 to use as a reference point, but one of my training partners has an AMOLED (Garmin). It is simply way too bright for me, so maybe there’s a degree of personal preference with AMOLED versus MIP
