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Hi all!

Well, I finally found out why I could NOT have pixel-perfect scaling in my RG300 which, incidentally, got returned because of dead pixels. It's like a digital camera screen, with alternating pixel columns, and for pixel-perfect scaling we need aligned pixels...



I actually found out when taking pictures to get it refunded, so dead pixels came in handy for once!

But I liked the RG300. My only issue (dead pixels apart) was the fuzzy scaling I got with GBA games, for which 480x320 should be perfect. Cave Story looks beautiful at 480x320, even with  those stupid-non-aligned pixels. So now I'm wondering... Are there other handhelds with this resolution out there? Are there compatible screens which have aligned pixels?

I know the Sony Cybershot WX300 screen does work with the LDK firmware (check snakewa's video). But when I watch the comparison with the original screen both look like... Have they alternating columns too? Could anyone confirm this? Do you know of aligned replacement screens we can use?

I can't go and buy every console out there to check their screens. But this being a community... Could you guys please check your devices' screens and tell if they have aligned or alternating pixels?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I'm listing here the devices we know have aligned or staggered screens. Help wanted!

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Aligned:
- RG350 (thanks to renejr902)
- Powkiddy Q80 (thanks again to renejr902)

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Staggered:
- RG300 IPS (3", 480x320, RetroFW Type 5B)
- Clockwork GameShell (2.7" TFT, 320x240, Linux)
- G100 (GBA SP clone, 2.8", 240x320, no CFW yet)

Odroid Go Advance has 480 x 320 screen which allows pixel perfect scaling for GBA. The screen is an Ilitek ILI9488.

Just checked the PocketGo, PocketGo 2 (original model), and PocketGo 2 (new model), all seem to be aligned but with a few differences:


The first generation PocketGo display panel has the red, green, and blue sub-pixels stacked horizontally while both second generation consoles have sub-pixels stacked vertically. Additionally, the second generation PocketGo is supposed to have an evenly grey wallpaper but looking at the sub-pixels shows that adjacent pixels appear to be display slightly different colours and these arrangements are actually slowly alternating between the two colours (red + green vs red + blue).

Does anyone out there have a production RG280m? There's been confusion over what kind of screen it has and I would really like to see it settled.

I heard it uses staggered pixels. From various unboxing and demo videos I've seen online, the edges do look a bit jagged and suggests that this is the case.

Edit: I've been told that the RG280M uses a similar staggered display panel to the RG300.

I've seen reports  (from people who have used the device) that the display on the 280m is 3:2, 480 by 320, which makes for clean integer-scaled GBA but not much else. It would be pretty disappointing if the screen had staggered pixels on top of that. Really not at all accurate, at that point, to call it a "scaled down" RG350m, as many reviewers seem to be doing.

I already ordered mine a while back so I'll have pictures regardless, though I think I'm probably still a month from actually getting my hands on it.

From the pictures and unboxing videos, I took measurements and calculated the aspect ratio of the RG280M to be 4:3, not 3:2. I asked around and was told that the screen resolution is not 480 x320, but instead it's 320 X 480 with staggered pixels that are half-height. This would make sense as if the pixels are double their width as their height, they would have an effective aspect ratio of 320:240, which is 4:3.

Something a little different:



This is on the RG351p, with rga scaling. Aligned pixels. Horizontal subpixels.

While the close-up might not look too good, in some ways this image more closely represents what you might get on a CRT TV screen. I remember the first time I ran Chrono Trigger through an emulator, I thought that "compression" must have removed detail from the sprites... Crono's hair looked all wrong. What I was really missing was the blending and smoothing effect that the TV had on the pixels. Games with "fake" transparency that rely on dithering look better with RGA scaling than they do with integer scaling.