Which is the Smartphone with the best 3D screen?

I made this article to clear up my ideas.
Let's forget for a moment about Android versions, apps, cameras, specs and so on...
I want to answer these questions:
Which is the smartphone with the best 3D screen?
Which is the smartphone with the best 3D quality?

Let's discover it together now. (The smartphones are not exactly placed in order worst-best or vice-versa since the perceived 3D effect can be subjective).

Sources and Info:
The information contained in this article mainly comes from my friends Rui and Kano that have spent hours finding information about rare Chinese 3D devices, their technologies, and their reviews.
You can't find all this info so easily, especially about 3D technologies and specs.
You should literally spend hours searching, browsing, and translating Chinese websites.

Things to know:

• SBS = side by side. It's a format for 3D images and videos, each image or frame has 2 "versions", one for the left eye and one for the right eye.

The term "passive" usually refers to battery-free solutions, while the term "active" refers to solutions that require a power source.
Now we're talking about glasses-free 3D screens, so a form of passive 3D.
Anyway, we can make a further (and a bit improper) categorization:

• "Passive" glasses-free 3D screen = PRO you don't need special apps to activate 3D. (In other words, SBS interlaced images will always look 3D, independently from the software) CON it lowers screen brightness
• "Active" glasses-free 3D screen = PRO it doesn't lower screen brightness CON you need specific apps to activate 3D

Now, let's see the phones!

Let's start with "Passive" glasses-free 3D screens: KDX 3D

The latest smartphones with passive 3D screens use a lenticular film made by KDX 3D.
Rui suspects that their 3D quality is equal to the active screen of the SuperD D1. Kano on the other hand owns all these phones and he said that the KDX phones provide better 3D quality than the active screen of the SuperD D1.
Among the KDX phones, we have the Changhong X1 and some newer models, which should be hopefully better in terms of 3D.
So let's see the KDX 3D phones:

Changhong X1, or X1-K

(full HD) is a phone from 2015. There isn't a single review on the web for it, but Kano said that he "never resulted to watch good 3D images", maybe because he got a faulty model with "misplaced lenticular film".

ZTE V5 K3DX-V5G

(full HD). With eye-tracking. Rui said that " flickering is not a problem, but artifacts like rainbow column banding and crosstalk are the real problem. It makes me dizzy.", then he showed us a photo of the "parallax bending" problem of his unit, and he continued: "This passive 3D screen is awful for people with very sensitive eyes".
But on the other hand, the Russian user Sidorovvitalik, who made a custom firmware that seems to have improved the 3D effect said (translated): "3D cool, is better than PPTV King 7S. The screen (IT DOESN'T Flicker AS TALKED, 3d features, but it flickers just in v5 pro) but I’m used to it and don’t notice already".

ZTE Axon 7 Max

(full hd, 6 inches)
According to Kano, it's one of the smartphones with the best 3D quality.

Doogee Y6 Max 3D

(2K screen, 6.5 inches)
Kano says that the 3D quality is amazing and on par with the ZTE Axon 7 Max.
The Doogee Y6 Max 3D wins in terms of screen size (6.5 inches), while the ZTE Axon 7 Max wins in terms of sharpness, having the same resolution on a smaller screen.

PPTV King 7S

(2K screen, 6.0 inches)
Kano owns one. He's not very happy about it since it has problems that come from the battery, wifi, firmware, etc. so he doesn't recommend buying this device to use it as a smartphone.
But... what about 3D quality??

According to Kano, it's the smartphone with the "sharpest 3D around"!
But is this greater 3D quality given by a better KDX film, or just by the 2K resolution? I can't tell you.

Other Untested 3D smartphones:

ARK BENEFIT M551

(info coming soon)

Blackview P2 Lite 3D

(full hd, 5.5 inches) (info coming soon)

Protruly Darling D7

(info coming soon)

Shizhuan D1

(info coming soon)

Elephone P11 3D

(info coming soon)

Now let's move to "Active" glasses-free 3D screens:
SuperD D1

(HD and full HD models)
is a 3D smartphone with an active 3D screen technology called "switchable lenticular grating" and eye-tracking.
The manufacturer claims that this technology avoids moirè, gosting and reverse vision.
(moirè is a pattern of black and white stripes that appear relative position of the user and the device changes beyond the viewing angle).
The eye-tracking increases the viewing angle up to 70°, it can track up to 3 persons, and it works better in light condition, so it's done through the front camera.

The SuperD D1 was intensively tested by Kano and Rui and it's an amazing 3D device, just one step below the Takee 1, according to Rui.

Coolpad Ivvi K5

(full HD) is the successor of the SuperD D1.
Thanks to the eye-tracking viewing angle is 70° like SuperD D1, the viewing distance is 35 cm.

It's unclear to us if the uses the SuperD1 screen or an improved version, so we don't know If upgrading from SuperD D1 would be worth the buy, or if a choice between an Ivvi K5 and SuperD D1 would be meaningful for a new user.

Red Hydrogen One

Multiview system. It doesn't need eye tracking.
Gizmodo has tested the reaction of six couples and two or three single persons at the H4V display of Red Hydrogen One. The reaction has not been enthusiastic at all... more like lukewarm. Nearly all of them complain about little depth of field and dizziness.
Rui said: "On a personal comparison, judging by the reaction of people to my Takee 1 regarding 3D photos/videos which has been amazing... I am not switching to Red Hydrogen One anytime soon".

Kano said "a lot of people can see the depth simultaneously, is perfect to share with friends the holographic photo you took with them" but that "one of the problems of my 3D phones is when I want to show to a friend a 3D photo, they are not good at trying to find the right spot to see the image, they simply don't care and look for only one second to avoid the switching eyes effect when you move from the center"

EStar Takee 1

Is a smartphone from 2015. It has a holographic 3D screen, it supports eye tracking and it's the first and only Holographic smartphone in the world.
According to Rui, the smartphone with the best 3D screen ever.
The viewing angle is 70°, the viewing distance is 50-55 cm.
I've personally made an updated custom ROM for this astounding 3D smartphone and I worked on its 3D video player too. Check my page here on cam.tv to know more.

End of the article

What do you think? Would you buy a 3D smartphone? Do you already own one of these phones? If yes, can you give us your opinion?

I could also make another detailed article with more detailed info about the 3D technologies discussed in this article. Let me know if you'll like it.

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