Despite containing numerous features that have been present in Android handsets for years, and its restrictive price, the iPhone X has received some rave reviews. Apple's new OLED screen, in particular, has been singled out for praise. But it's not just critics who love it. According to DisplayMate, it's "the most innovative and high-performance smartphone display ever tested."
Dr. Raymond M. Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation, explains that the Apple flagship's display comes out on top in several categories.
The iPhone X has a record full screen brightness for an OLED smartphone of 634 nits. While the Galaxy Note 8---DisplayMate's former favorite---can reach 1240 nits, that's only for small portions of the screen. The overall brightness of Samsung's handset is at most 560 nits.
The iPhone X uses a diamond-shaped layout for its sub-pixels, which plays a big part in reaching those peak luminance levels.
The phone's color accuracy (0.9 JNCD) is the best DisplayMate has ever tested. Soneria writes that it is visually indistinguishable from perfect, "and is very likely considerably better than any mobile display, monitor, TV or UHD TV that you have."
Other display records broken by the iPhone X include highest full screen contrast rating in ambient light (141), highest contrast ratio (Infinite), lowest screen reflectance (4.5 percent), and smallest brightness variation with viewing angle (22 percent).
DisplayMate highlighted some of the iPhone X's display features, such as its 2.5K resolution (2436 x 1125 at 458 PPI), the 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and its two industry standard color gamuts (sRGB / Rec.709 and the new wide DCI-P3). The way it automatically switches between color gamuts based on displayed content is also noted---a system that makes sure the colors are neither over-saturated nor under-saturated.
Despite Samsung's recent ad that mocks the last ten years of Apple handsets, it's the Korean company that makes the iPhone X's display, though Apple customizes and calibrates them---something DisplayMate acknowledges.
"First we need to congratulate Samsung Display for developing and manufacturing the outstanding OLED display hardware in the iPhone X. But what makes the iPhone X the Best Smartphone Display is the impressive Precision Display Calibration that Apple developed that transforms the OLED hardware into a superbly accurate, high performance, and gorgeous display!!"