In early 2017, Samsung’s Galaxy S8 was awarded the best smartphone award by the DisplayMate. But, Samsung could only hold that position until Apple launched the iPhone X with the ‘best performing smartphone display’ as described by the DisplayMate. Now, Six months later, Samsung is back with its Galaxy S9 lineup to reclaim that crown.
In their testing, the DisplayMate has found that the 5.8-inch OLED display on the Galaxy S9 is brighter, more color accurate, better visibility, and reduced reflectance than they found on the Galaxy S8. DisplayMate calls the color accuracy of the 5.8-inch QHG+ display of the Galaxy S9 as “visually indistinguishable from perfect” and have set a new record of absolute color accuracy of 0.7 JNCD, which is “almost certainly better than your existing smartphone, living room 4K Ultra” or other devices.
The enhanced high brightness mode on the latest flagship device of Samsung also makes it 20 percent brighter than its predecessor. However, the DisplayMate does found that the Galaxy S9 display records small shifts in brightness and color with a change in viewing angle. Its peak brightness is also 10.7 percent higher at 1,130 nits compared to the Galaxy S8.
The Galaxy S9 display recorded a reflectance level of only 4.4 percent, which is also a new record. This means improved readability of the display in brighter conditions. Samsung has also introduced a new Vision Accessibility display mode to help people with vision impairments.
Despite all the new records of color accuracy, reflectance level, and higher brightness, Display Mate notes that the Galaxy S9 display has the same power efficiency as that of the Galaxy S8’s display.
Overall, DisplayMate concluded that the Galaxy S9 has the “best-performing smartphone display that we have ever tested” and awarded it their highest-ever “Excellent A+” grade.
The display battle between Samsung and Apple has started to heat up. Samsung current has the crown for being the biggest OLED manufacturer in the world. It even supplies the OLED panels used by Apple in the iPhone X. So, Apple surprised many people by extracting better performance from Samsung supplied OLED panels in the iPhone X than what the Samsung itself could not do for its devices.
With Apple rumored to introduce two new smartphones with OLED panels in 2018, it will be interesting to see how Apple manages its OLED panels supply chain and further improves on the tech it sources from its arch-rival.
Via [DisplayMate]