ETA Prime Back with Another Review: A 5.5 Inch AMOLED Display for the Raspberry Pi

Hello everyone, it's ETA Prime back here again today, and we're going to be taking a look at a 5.5 inch AMOLED display for the Raspberry Pi. This display is compatible with the Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 3B Plus, and the Raspberry Pi 4.

So, for the past couple of weeks, I've been on the hunt for a 5 to 5.5 inch screen for my Raspberry Pi Force project. I needed a portable screen that would fit perfectly in my hand and provide a great viewing experience. After searching online and reading reviews, I came across this AMOLED display from Waveshare, and I thought it was the perfect fit.

The first thing I noticed about this display is its size. It's 5.5 inches, which is just the right size for a handheld device like my Raspberry Pi Force project. The display is also AMOLED, which means it uses an active matrix technology to produce images. This results in better contrast and color accuracy compared to traditional LCD displays.

In terms of build quality, this display seems sturdy enough. It's made of plastic and has a durable finish that can withstand daily wear and tear. I'm not sure what the "6h hardness" means, but it sounds like it's designed to be tough. However, it's not Gorilla Glass, which is a disappointment.

Now, let's talk about performance. The display claims to have 720p resolution, which is great for a device of this size. I'm also impressed with the viewing angles - they're very wide, which means you can watch videos or browse the web without having to adjust the display too much. The colors on this display are amazing, and it's definitely one of the sharpest displays I've seen in a mini display.

I was excited to see how the touch response would be on this display. And let me tell you, it's dead on accurate. I haven't done any calibration yet, but the touch response seems perfect out of the box. However, when it comes to using operating systems like Raspbian, I have some reservations.

Operating Systems and Touch Panels

In my opinion, operating systems aren't great on small touch panels like this display. If this was a larger screen, I could definitely see myself using it as a touch screen computer. But for now, I'll stick to using it as a portable screen for my Raspberry Pi projects.

I spent about an hour and a half messing around with this display, trying to set it up in landscape mode and testing its performance. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I couldn't find any way to resolve the major issue that's plaguing this display: screen tearing when connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 or 3B Plus.

Screen Tearing Issue

I've tried about 10 different configurations in the config.txt file, but nothing seems to work. The screen tearing is only happening when I connect the display to my Raspberry Pi, and it's not just limited to one specific configuration. It's a consistent issue that I couldn't resolve, no matter what I did.

The good news is that this issue doesn't seem to happen on other devices, like my PC, when connected via HDMI. The screen tearing test I ran showed smooth performance, with no issues whatsoever. However, it seems like the Raspberry Pi is just not compatible with this display's refresh rate, which results in screen tearing.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, despite its great build quality and excellent viewing angles, this 5.5 inch AMOLED display from Waveshare won't work for me due to the screen tearing issue when connected to a Raspberry Pi. While it would have been perfect for my handheld project if only I could resolve the screen tearing issue, it's just not worth it in its current state.

If you're considering purchasing this display for your own Raspberry Pi project, I would definitely recommend looking elsewhere. There are other options available that might be more compatible with your needs. However, if you do have any suggestions on how to fix the screen tearing issue or want to share your experiences with this display, please leave a comment below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign what's going on guys it's ETA Prime back here again today we're going to be taking a look at a 5.5 inch AMOLED display for the Raspberry Pi this works for the Raspberry Pi 2 3 3B plus and the Raspberry Pi 4. so for the past couple weeks I've been on the hunt for a 5 to 5.5 inch screen for the Raspberry Pi Force so I can build a handheld around Pi 4. recently I did a review on this 5-inch DSI screen which runs for about 42 dollars it's a great screen but I was hoping for something with a little better viewing angles in my search led me to this display right here this is the wave share 5.5 ammo LED display for the Raspberry Pi so this display connects over HDMI instead of DSi but they have included the newer adapters for the Raspberry Pi 4 since the pi 4 has micro HDMI we needed these new adapters and a lot of these companies are starting to bring these to the table the price on this AMOLED display is up there when you compare it to other screens for the Raspberry Pi this goes for around 130 dollars but I was able to pick one up on eBay with a coupon for 85. so the price is definitely high on these displays but it's not an LCD TFT or an IPS this is an AMOLED display and I really haven't seen any reviews on this display so I was really interested to pick it up and see if it's worth the price so inside the packaging you're obviously going to get the display itself this is 5.5 inches AMOLED at 1080 by 1920. it also supports touch 10 points of touch with the USB interface we're also going to get a little one foot HDMI adapter micro USB power cord our standoffs and bolts to hold the pi to the back of the unit and our HDMI and USB adapters now this one here is for the Raspberry Pi 3 or the 3B Plus and we'll use this to connect to the USB on the Raspberry Pi 3 and micro USB on the screen to allow touch capabilities but I really didn't pick this up for the Raspberry Pi 3 I picked it up for the Raspberry Pi 4 and luckily they do include the new adapter so we have full size HDMI to Micro HDMI and we also have this offset full-size USB to micro USB for the touch on the screen if you remember correctly they have swapped around where the USB ports are on the Raspberry Pi 4 versus the Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 so this needed to be changed as well overall this is an HDMI touch screen this can be used with your PC or pretty much any other device that has HDMI out but you got to keep in mind the resolution out of the box here is 1080 by 1920. so it's set up in a vertical orientation if you have let's say a DVD player that you want to connect this to it might not work unless that device has the ability to rotate the screen and software so you got to keep that in mind when buying a screen like this assembly seems straightforward I'm going to be connecting this to a Raspberry Pi 4 so I'm going to use the Raspberry Pi 4 adapters we also have some standoff screws and I've flashed raspy into an SD card just so we can get up and running pretty quickly all you're going to need to put this together is a small screwdriver first things first I want to line the Raspberry Pi 4 up there's a few different standoff locations and I want to make sure that I have the correct ones it's going to be these four middle ones so we'll just screw the standoffs in and once I have those in place I can put the Raspberry Pi 4 on top and there's four screws that'll go right into those studs we just added so now I have the Raspberry Pi mounted I just need to put in the HDMI adapter I'll go right to that micro HDMI and the power and touch for the screen itself it'll go right into one of the USB 3.0 ports on the pi 4 and the micro USB port marked touch on the screen when it's set up this way all we need to do is add power through the USB type-c connector on the Raspberry Pi 4 and turn the USB 3.0 port on the pi 4 will power the screen and activate touch so no drivers are required for this screen but you will need to set up the config.txt on the SD card I've already done that with the card that I have here flash with raspbian I want to see if this works so I'll just place my micro SD card in here and I'll Boot It Up For the First Time the screen does have a glass panel on the front and they're claiming 6h hardness personally I'm not sure what that means but it's not Gorilla Glass just give this a second to boot up and I thought it would turn out like this that's totally fine I can actually switch it over in just a second but I gotta say this looks like a premium handset overall the colors are amazing on this little screen resolution is great viewing angles are amazing here I'm not sure if it's showing up on camera but yeah this thing is super Sharp and touch response seems like it's dead on I haven't done any calibration but it's working now operating systems like raspbian in my opinion aren't great on these small touch panels if this was much bigger I could definitely use it as a touch screen computer but I really didn't buy this screen to use it as a touch screen I just needed a portable screen for the pi 4. I'm going to dive back into the config file and set this up in landscape mode and then we'll see how it performs alright so I've spent about an hour and a half messing around with this screen unfortunately I cannot recommend it if you're going to use it with a Raspberry Pi and that's really what it's marketed towards I love the colors I love the resolution touch response and accuracy is dead on but there's one major issue with this screen when it's connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 or a Raspberry Pi 4 and I cannot correct the issue I've messed around with the timings I tried about 10 different configurations here but this thing has some of the worst screen tearing that I've seen in a mini display and I do want to mention this is only happening with a Raspberry Pi but that's what this screen is really marketed towards as you can see here this is a little screen tearing test and this is some of the worst I've ever seen this had all the bases covered until I got to the screen tearing test everything was looking great for a little handheld build with this AMOLED display but it's just not going to work out if we're getting screen tearing like this and just to show you that problems only happening with the Raspberry Pi this is connected to my PC over HDMI we have the same test here it's smooth it looks great I have no screen tearing at all but when it's connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 3B Plus or four I get nothing but screen tearing here's another quick test I actually swapped over to a Raspberry Pi 3B plus just to make sure it wasn't the pi 4 doing it retropies installed and just even switching through the screens you can see the tearing I'm going to get into a game real quick this was the main reason I purchased this screen to create a little retropie handheld with the Raspberry Pi 4 and an AMOLED display but it's just not going to work out now I spent a lot of time in the config file trying to get the timings right on here if you have any suggestions let me know in the comments Below in my opinion this would have been the ultimate screen for a little handheld I love these AMOLED displays and with the form factor build quality and the way the screen looks I could have overlooked the 80 price tag here but the one thing I can't Overlook is the performance so that's pretty much it for this video guys I'm really disappointed here I thought I found the perfect screen for my build but unfortunately this one's just not going to work out so if you've been looking at these AMOLED displays from waveshare specifically for a Raspberry Pi I would definitely stay away from it yes it does work through other devices with no screen tearing but when it's connected to the pi you just get really bad performance so like I mentioned if you have any suggestions on that config.txt let me know in the comments below and by the way I did try adding separate power to the Raspberry Pi and the screen itself just to make sure it wasn't a power issue but I was still getting that screen tearing so it looks like my search is still on for the perfect 5 to 5.5 inch screen for the Raspberry Pi if you have any questions or suggestions let me know in the comments below but like always thanks for watching\n"