Hardware The SUPER5 OLED screen mod for the Switch Lite uses a 1080p screen and stretches the Switch Lite's 720p signal to fit.

[RatchetRussian]

I got my SUPER5 OLED mod installed recently and it really is an excellent mod. It's well put together and the vivid colors and increased brightness are very welcome

However, I did some pixel counting under a microscope to try and prove the actual resolution of the screen. I'm sad to say that it appears to be a 1080p screen so the switch's video signal is being stretched to fit. Has anyone else noticed this? Did I count the pixels wrong? Does anyone care? Surely it would look sharper if a 720p screen was used.

I really think this should have been made more clear on the product pages.

See my microscope shots here with the original LCD on top and the SUPER5 on the bottom. Each individual pixel is outlined in green. The SUPER5 appears to have 50% more pixels per row.

 

[crudfish]

Oh, wow. Good catch. Is it noticably less sharp while playing? I mean, the original screen had bigger issues, so it will still be better, but I am curious about the sharpness.

 

[RatchetRussian]

Oh, wow. Good catch. Is it noticably less sharp while playing? I mean, the original screen had bigger issues, so it will still be better, but I am curious about the sharpness.

It's very minimal, but I do think text in particular looks less sharp. It is still a great display compared to the god awful LCDs Nintendo uses.

 

[Kirbyhammer7]

Long post with good news at the end:

It is pretty visible to my eyes, and is one of the first things I noticed after installing. It has been annoying me more each day. That and the strange colors even in sRGB on the Super5. I have two Switch Lites, one I put the standalone Super5 screen on and one that's a little beat up that I plan to put the Mega Kit with HDMI on.

It may be hard to notice or make you think you're just misremembering, but playing the stock screen for a couple hours and then going to the Super5 is shocking. It is blurry and it takes away from the image especially in native 720p stuff like first party games that normally look razor sharp.

I've attached a few pictures to give you a rough idea. Zoom in to see.

It looks like the Super5 pictures are out of focus, but I assure you they are in focus if you zoom in!! Check out the hud comparison above and the weird artifacting on the "A" below.

Text Comparison:

The colors look.. nice, the contrast is of course fantastic, the extra bightness is welcome, but it still looks off. I use sRGB mode on the Super5 and Standard mode (not Vivid) on my Switch OLED, and the Super5 doesn't hold up against the stock OLED at all except for being brighter. Much blurrier and less accurate colors. At a normal viewing distance it looks okay, but small details get garbled.

This being a 1080p panel wasn't noted anywhere on the site, in videos, or anywhere else. I asked on Twitter about this before seeing this thread, and was ignored likely because they don't want people to find out. Yet another thing that has really annoyed me about this whole project. The lack of communication and specifics is frustrating when this is by design a niche product for enthusiasts who will notice this sort of thing. I honestly prefer the sharper stock screen in some ways.

Price is a factor too, this thing is a good deal, but the wait, poor communication, and advertising more new stuff when still waiting for these has rubbed me the wrong way, as has needing to ask questions on Twitter to get solid details that should have been communicated professionally. We only just now got confirmation that the Mega Kit with HDMI will work with modchips. The Mega Kit won't be here until April at the earliest. It's been a wild ride, and I don't think I'll be buying from Retro Remake again.

To end on a more positive note:
The silver lining here though... the screen appears to accept signals above 720p! This sounds obvious, but I wasn't sure if it would be locked down on Nintendo's software side, so this is very cool. This means on a modded system we should be able to run in docked mode and take full advantage of docked resolutions on a real Switch Lite handheld!

How do I know this? Hyrule Warriors DE actually runs at 1080p in handheld mode (on a stock Switch, no mods required)! Why? Who knows! But I booted that up and it looked suitably sharp and amazing on the Super5! Suddenly the screen comes alive and looks how it should, and I'm excited to test this when I get the Mega Kit installed on my modded Lite.

(Debunked by other posters, see comments. Point is, some games do look sharper on this screen but all have a noticeable fuzziness due to the resolution mismatch between 720p Switch output and 1080p screen.)

 

[masagrator]

@Kirbyhammer7 you don't understand how HOS works. Hyrule Warriors is running at 1080p - sure. But then that image is downscaled to 720p before pushed to display in handheld. Switch ALWAYS runs internal display at 720p, no exceptions without CFW.

About potential of running true native 1080p on SUPER5 OLED - whatever is responsible for signal conversion in SUPER5 doesn't handle correctly pixel clock too much moved from default 78 MHz. And it is a must for getting 1080p.
Here is what happens if you change pixel clock on that display (main point was to adjust refresh rate of display since that can be achieved by changing pixel clock too). Linux adjusts blanking pixels instead, but that's useless for getting 1080p when pixel clock cannot be changed.

 

[notsu]

Goddamn it. I was actually excited for this but it looks significantly worse. I don't own a modded Lite but I'm not sure how useful it would be as 1080p would stress the battery [even a big one] much more than 720p in most games, especially if said game needs OC.

Hyrule Warriors DE actually runs at 1080p in handheld mode

Many games "run at 1080p" in handheld mode but you'll never see the difference. HOS ALWAYS, without exception, cuts down to 720p on the internal display. I think this can be confirmed with bitmap printer on any game Reverse-NX'd to docked.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Long post with good news at the end:

It is pretty visible to my eyes, and is one of the first things I noticed after installing. It has been annoying me more each day. That and the strange colors even in sRGB on the Super5. I have two Switch Lites, one I put the standalone Super5 screen on and one that's a little beat up that I plan to put the Mega Kit with HDMI on.

It may be hard to notice or make you think you're just misremembering, but playing the stock screen for a couple hours and then going to the Super5 is shocking. It is blurry and it takes away from the image especially in native 720p stuff like first party games that normally look razor sharp.

I've attached a few pictures to give you a rough idea. Zoom in to see.

View attachment 488214

It looks like the Super5 pictures are out of focus, but I assure you they are in focus if you zoom in!! Check out the hud comparison above and the weird artifacting on the "A" below.

View attachment 488218
View attachment 488219

Text Comparison:
View attachment 488215
View attachment 488216

The colors look.. nice, the contrast is of course fantastic, the extra bightness is welcome, but it still looks off. I use sRGB mode on the Super5 and Standard mode (not Vivid) on my Switch OLED, and the Super5 doesn't hold up against the stock OLED at all except for being brighter. Much blurrier and less accurate colors. At a normal viewing distance it looks okay, but small details get garbled.

This being a 1080p panel wasn't noted anywhere on the site, in videos, or anywhere else. I asked on Twitter about this before seeing this thread, and was ignored likely because they don't want people to find out. Yet another thing that has really annoyed me about this whole project. The lack of communication and specifics is frustrating when this is by design a niche product for enthusiasts who will notice this sort of thing. I honestly prefer the sharper stock screen in some ways.

Price is a factor too, this thing is a good deal, but the wait, poor communication, and advertising more new stuff when still waiting for these has rubbed me the wrong way, as has needing to ask questions on Twitter to get solid details that should have been communicated professionally. We only just now got confirmation that the Mega Kit with HDMI will work with modchips. The Mega Kit won't be here until April at the earliest. It's been a wild ride, and I don't think I'll be buying from Retro Remake again.

To end on a more positive note:
The silver lining here though... the screen appears to accept signals above 720p! This sounds obvious, but I wasn't sure if it would be locked down on Nintendo's software side, so this is very cool. This means on a modded system we should be able to run in docked mode and take full advantage of docked resolutions on a real Switch Lite handheld!

How do I know this? Hyrule Warriors DE actually runs at 1080p in handheld mode (on a stock Switch, no mods required)! Why? Who knows! But I booted that up and it looked suitably sharp and amazing on the Super5! Suddenly the screen comes alive and looks how it should, and I'm excited to test this when I get the Mega Kit installed on my modded Lite.

The difference wasn't obvious from the OP, but boy, that really looks awful. Also, it looks darker sometimes for some reason? (Notice how dark the green star looks on the OLED screen, or the stamp symbol)
I don't think the tradeoff is worth it personally just for better colors. But for HDMI out, maybe.

 

[notsu]

But for HDMI out, maybe.

Is it 720p30 out using HOS' capture function or normal docked output [1080p60]?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Is it 720p30 out using HOS' capture function or normal docked output [1080p60]?

I believe it's 720p, it just taps into the OLED screen output.

 

[notsu]

I believe it's 720p, it just taps into the built in screen output.

Are they doing anything to bypass restrictions in some games that disable screen recording?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Are they doing anything to bypass restrictions in some games that disable screen recording?

It doesn't use screen recording, like I said it just taps into the display output.

 

[notsu]

It doesn't use screen recording, like I said it just taps into the display output.

Oh, so it's not limited to 30fps? Sounds kinda useful then.

 

[masagrator]

The difference wasn't obvious from the OP, but boy, that really looks awful. Also, it looks darker sometimes for some reason? (Notice how dark the green star looks on the OLED screen, or the stamp symbol)
I don't think the tradeoff is worth it personally just for better colors. But for HDMI out, maybe.

This can be just a camera auto thing, I wouldn't judge the colors based of them.

 

[0x3000027E]

@Kirbyhammer7 you don't understand how HOS works. Hyrule Warriors is running at 1080p - sure. But then that image is downscaled to 720p before pushed to display in handheld. Switch ALWAYS runs internal display at 720p, no exceptions without CFW.

About potential of running true native 1080p on SUPER5 OLED - whatever is responsible for signal conversion in SUPER5 doesn't handle correctly pixel clock too much moved from default 78 MHz. And it is a must for getting 1080p.
Here is what happens if you change pixel clock on that display (main point was to adjust refresh rate of display since that can be achieved by changing pixel clock too). Linux adjusts blanking pixels instead, but that's useless for getting 1080p when pixel clock cannot be changed.

Forgive me, because I am still confused.
If I use ReverseNX to force Docked Mode on my Lite, doesn't this still force 1080p on Super OLED, regardless of the pixel clock? Are you saying the display is simply not outputting 1080p because of this or is there a performance hit with docked mode (or both?).
I've tried forcing docked mode with your software using the recommended OC settings, and while I don't notice much of a quality difference in graphics, I do not notice any performance hits.

 

[masagrator]

If I use ReverseNX to force Docked Mode on my Lite, doesn't this still force 1080p on Super OLED, regardless of the pixel clock?

It doesn't. ReverseNX tricks just game into thinking it's docked/handheld, not whole system. So game may render 1080p, but then that's passed to OS that downscales it to 720p

 

[Kirbyhammer7]

Woah, lots of replies:

@masagrator / @notsu Thanks for your input! I could be totally wrong on the 1080p render > 1080p output on the display since I am not super knowledgeable on the internal hardware side of things, so I appreciate this insight.

My initial thought was that everything must be capped at 720p despite rendering res, as you both explain. As far as my knowledge goes, that's the only thing that makes sense. I can only speak for what I see though, and Hyrule Warriors definitely appears to be utilizing the Super5 OLED's additional pixels properly. The game is very sharp and while I can't confirm, it looks like it's not scaled at all (i.e. Not scaled down to 720p and back up to 1080p, and looks higher res than that game does on my Switch OLED or stock Lite). Regardless of if it actually is or not, pixel edges in game and on text/HUD are a heck of a lot sharper than anything else I've tried on this screen and indicates I'll be happy with running docked games on my modded Switch Lite once I get the Super5 OLED screen in it regardless.

Only thing I can think then is if it is just as a result of supersampling (i.e. taking 1080p game render > down to 720p via hardware restrictions > rescaled back to Super5 OLED display @ 1080p, which is essentially just demanding antialising)? Or that the Super5 somehow pulls the signal differently than the stock screen and gets a 1080p image out of it. HW looks much better than 720p games such as Mario Kart or 3D World and is worth noting regardless of the specifics (because of the implications for ReverseNX users), but I'd love to understand the specifics better.

Edit: As you all say, the only logical thing is that due to the game's internal rendering res being higher, the game appears sharper on the smaller screen. As you all said, it doesn't seem possible to get a 1080p image onto the Super5 due to Switch's hardware/software. The Switch's output is capped at 720p to the screen, but some games look sharper due to higher internal resolution.

@notsu / @The Real Jdbye Please don't use my images to judge colors too much- It's a good rough idea but these are just phone photos and don't do a very good job representing color! The Super5's colors look nice, but inaccurate. They are definitely more vivid/less accurate than a Switch OLED in Standard mode; 'darker' as you stated (note the green grass). There is more color crush. I have heard this is because the Super5 is 150% sRGB which the system wasn't designed for, but that I really don't know anything about and can't confirm and don't want to spread misinfo lol
I moreso wanted to point out the difference in color definition between the Switch OLED and Super5 I guess. It fairly accurately shows that the colors are more saturated on the Super5 in sRGB, but doesn't do a great job comparing the two, since that's hard to do in photos.


Again, take these with a grain of salt since they are just photos, but the garbled-ness of the UI is true to how it looks in person, and I think the text comparison especially shows the issue in an honest way.


Taki saw this and said these were 'meme photos' and told me most Switch games don't run at 720p in handheld, so I appreciate the civil, intellectual discussion here... lol

I bought two of these kits, I'm not out to slander the product. It's just a specific that I wanted to bring to light since nobody really had yet (aside from OP's legit photos). I hope these don't take away enjoyment from anyone who otherwise would have been happy, but I did want to make people aware that there's a trade-off here.

 

[sean222]

I have a Super5 OLED on my Switch Lite...and I've been thinking the picture is extremely sharp compared to the original Lite and my Switch OLED...so I'm shocked to see this.

Now the question is...do I want to not check and say 'ignorance is bliss' and enjoy my Super5 OLED...or do I pull out my original Lite and Switch OLED to compare

 

[shay4567]

I have a Super5 OLED on my Switch Lite...and I've been thinking the picture is extremely sharp compared to the original Lite and my Switch OLED...so I'm shocked to see this.

Now the question is...do I want to not check and say 'ignorance is bliss' and enjoy my Super5 OLED...or do I pull out my original Lite and Switch OLED to compare

Please do compare and report back, so that others like me can make an informed purchase with super7

 

[Kirbyhammer7]

I have a Super5 OLED on my Switch Lite...and I've been thinking the picture is extremely sharp compared to the original Lite and my Switch OLED...so I'm shocked to see this.

Now the question is...do I want to not check and say 'ignorance is bliss' and enjoy my Super5 OLED...or do I pull out my original Lite and Switch OLED to compare

Who knows, maybe mine is particularly bad and the other Super5 I get in a few months will look sharper! I don't think this will be the case, based on OP's image and looking at the pixel structure/image in person, but we'll see.

 

[ServiceServices]

Taki saw this and said these were 'meme photos' and told me no Switch games run at 720p in handheld, so I appreciate the civil, intellectual discussion here... lol

I find that to be sort of disingenuous of him. There are plenty of games that run at 720p in handheld, or you can force it with cheats/mods in homebrew. I feel that the people who will perform this hardware mod are enthusiasts, who happen to be the people most likely to notice this. I feel like this is just brushing it under the rug, especially by not acknowledging it. It's blurry, so it's not a direct upgrade like he claims. I cannot support this product for this reason.