OLED screens in Google Books devices do not guarantee better image quality

Although the new Googlebook devices feature high-resolution OLED displays and premium metal chassis, testing has revealed issues with image quality and color accuracy—shortcomings that do not align with the advertised specifications or the high price points of these devices.

Reviews about the Asus Googlebook 14 and the HP Googlebook 14c, kind of point out that both are stuck to the sRGB color gamut, and there’s no real toggle to jump into the wider P3 color space. Even then, apps such as Adobe Photoshop for image editing, support P3, so you expect more.  

Because of this, it can be hard for people to fully use these panels for design tasks and image processing, not to mention the whole workflow. Windows laptops with OLED screens usually give several color profiles to improve display accuracy, which makes this restriction feel more annoying than it should, I mean.

The tests also revealed additional issues that differ between the two devices. The HP Chromebook 14c does not currently support HDR content playback, which limits the benefit of the high brightness offered by its OLED display.

As for the Asus Chromebook 14, it does support HDR, but it suffers from elevated black levels—reaching 0.42—which reduces the contrast ratio to approximately 1200:1. This is an unusual result for an OLED display, bringing its performance closer to that of some IPS screens.

These issues necessitate intervention from the manufacturers—led by Google—to improve color processing, HDR support, and contrast levels. This is particularly important given that these Chromebooks are sold at high price points, which should be matched by display quality befitting OLED technology.