Galaxy S20 Ultra OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira

President, DisplayMate Technologies Corporation

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Galaxy S20 Ultra

Introduction and Overview

The key element for a great Smartphone has always been a truly innovative and top performing display, and the best leading edge Smartphones have always flaunted their super high tech displays. It is the display performance that determines how good and how beautiful everything on the Smartphone looks, including the camera photos and all of your Apps, and also how readable and how usable the screen is in high ambient lighting. The Display is the crown jewel of the Smartphone!

In this Display Technology Shoot-Out article series we only cover the Very Best State-of-the-Art Top Performing and Top Tier Smartphone Displays. The articles are designed to promote Display Performance so that consumers, reviewers, and journalists all recognize and appreciate Display Excellence, and also to reward and encourage manufacturers to produce top performing displays for their products.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is Samsung’s newest Flagship Smartphone with the latest most advanced state-of-the-art OLED Display with a Full Screen design. With mobile OLED display technology advancing faster than ever, there are many important new display performance enhancements and improvements. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the latest dual-edge curved screen Flexible OLEDs, which are developed and manufactured by Samsung Display. Every new OLED generation has provided significant enhancements and improvements that make their first appearance on Samsung Galaxy Smartphones. and the Galaxy S20 Ultra has again Raised the Bar significantly higher.

In this article we Lab test, measure, analyze, and evaluate in-depth the Display on the Galaxy S20 Ultra. This is an independent scientific objective Lab test and analysis of OLED displays written for consumers and journalists. It is the latest edition in our ten year article series that has Lab tested, tracked and analyzed the development of mobile OLED displays and display technology, from its early beginnings in 2010, when OLED displays started out in last place, into a rapidly improving and evolving display technology that now has a commanding first place lead and continues pushing ahead aggressively.

Conclusion Summary

Based on our extensive Lab Tests and Measurements the Galaxy S20 Ultra has a Very Impressive Excellent Top Tier World Class Smartphone Display with close to Text Book Perfect Calibration Accuracy and Performance that is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect. Based on our objective Lab Tests and Measurements the Galaxy S20 Ultra receives a DisplayMate Best Smartphone Display Award earning DisplayMate’s highest ever Display Performance Grade of A+ and setting or matching 12 Smartphone Display Performance Records.

OLED Display Performance

OLED has evolved into a highly refined and mature display technology that now produces the best and highest performance displays for Smartphones.

OLED Display Performance continues to provide major Record Setting improvements with every new generation. For the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung has concentrated on significantly raising the on-screen Absolute Picture Quality and Absolute Color Accuracy of the OLED display by implementing Precision Factory Display Calibration, moving the overall Galaxy S20 Ultra display performance up to impressive Record Setting Outstanding levels with 12 Display Performance Records, including Absolute Color Accuracy at a very impressive 0.5 JNCD that is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

This shift in emphasis from primarily improving the Display Hardware Performance to enhancing the overall display Picture Quality and Color Accuracy is an important step that DisplayMate Technologies has been pushing for many years in our Display Technology Shoot-Out article series, so it is great to see manufacturers improving and competing on these metrics.

The Move to OLED Displays

LCDs are a great cutting edge high performance display technology for Tablets to TVs, but for small handheld Smartphones, OLED displays provide a number of significant advantages over LCDs including: being much thinner, much lighter, without needing a bezel providing a rimless edge-to-edge design. They can be made flexible and into curved screens, plus they have very fast Response Times, better Viewing Angles, and an Always On display mode.

The very fast Response Times of OLED displays makes the new Higher 90 Hz and 120 Hz Screen Refresh Rates possible, which improves image Scrolling and Videos, plus Motion and Gaming Performance in Apps.

Many of the OLED performance advantages result from the fact that every single sub-pixel in an OLED display is independently directly electrically powered to emit light, so only the active image sub-pixels draw power based on their individual brightness levels. OLEDs can also provide better color accuracy, image contrast accuracy, and screen uniformity because the irregularities and variations in LCD Backlights introduce color and brightness irregularities and variations over the screen.

As the result of their very versatile power management capabilities, OLEDs are not only more power efficient than LCDs for most image content, but they now deliver much higher Peak Brightness than LCDs because the maximum power can be delivered to just the sub-pixels that are needed for producing the current image. However, for mostly all white screen content LCDs are likely to remain brighter and more power efficient for a while.

OLED displays now have tremendous performance advantages over LCDs, so high-end and flagship Smartphones need OLED displays in order to compete at state-of-the-art performance levels, securing OLED as the definitive premier display technology for Top Tier Smartphones in the foreseeable future over the next 3-5 years. With the continuing improvements in OLED hardware performance, picture quality, and precision accuracy, it will be much harder for new display technologies to challenge OLED.

New and Improved Galaxy S20 Ultra Display Performance Highlights

These are a few of the New and Improved Galaxy S20 Ultra Display Performance Highlights that we will be covering in detail throughout the article:

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra display is 23% Larger in Screen Area than the Galaxy S10 – it’s even larger than the Galaxy Note10+. In fact, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has the largest display in the entire Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra has both the now common 60 Hz Display Refresh Rate plus a New Higher120 Hz Refresh Rate that improves image Scrolling and Videos, plus Motion and Gaming Performance in Apps, and may also reduce Screen Flicker that some people experience.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra High Brightness Mode reaches its Peak Display Brightness at a new Lower Ambient Light Level of 20,000 lux, which corresponds to Full Outdoor Daylight that is not in Direct Sunlight. This further improves Outdoor screen readability in Medium as well as High Ambient Light.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra Display Brightness is up to 14 percent higher than the Galaxy S10.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra sets or matches 12 Smartphone Display Performance Records including 5 that are Rated Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra Highlights and Performance Results section will cover all the above and more in detail.

Article Overview

This Galaxy S20 Ultra article has the following major sections:

· Highlights: The Highlights and Performance Results section below has detailed information and analysis on the Galaxy S20 Ultra display.

· Features: The Display Performance Functions and Features section lists all of the major functions and features.

· Records: The Display Performance Records section lists the Lab Measurement performance records.

· Conclusions: The Galaxy S20 Ultra Conclusions section summarizes all of the Results, Features, Functions and Records.

· Measurements: The Display Shoot-Out Lab Measurements Comparison Table has all of the detailed measurements and test details.

· Future of OLED: The Future of OLED Smartphones examines the evolution of OLED displays.

· Performance in Ambient Light: Improving Display Performance for Real World Ambient Light

We’ll cover all of the these display performance topics and much more, with in-depth expert comprehensive display tests, measurements and analysis that you will find nowhere else.

The Display Shoot-Out

To examine the performance of the new Galaxy S20 Ultra OLED Display we ran our in-depth series of Mobile Display Technology Shoot-Out Lab Tests and Measurements in order to determine how the latest OLED displays have improved. We take display quality very seriously and provide in-depth objective analysis based on detailed laboratory tests and measurements and extensive viewing tests with both test patterns, test images and test photos. To see how far OLED and LCD mobile displays have progressed see our 2010 Smartphone Display Shoot-Out, and for a real history lesson see our original 2006 Smartphone Display Shoot-Out.

Samsung provided DisplayMate Technologies with pre-release production units of the Galaxy S20 Ultra so that we could perform our well known objective and comprehensive DisplayMate Lab tests, measurements, and analysis, explaining in-depth the new display performance results for consumers, reviewers, and journalists as early as possible.

Galaxy S20 Ultra Highlights and Performance Results

In this section we review and explain the principal results from the extensive DisplayMate Lab Tests and Measurements

in the following categories: Display Specifications, Overall Assessments, Screen Reflections, Brightness and Contrast,

Colors and Intensities, Absolute Color Accuracy, Viewing Angles, OLED Spectra, Display Power.

Display Lab Tests and Measurement Data Table

See the Display Shoot-Out Lab Measurements Comparison Table below for the complete set of DisplayMate Lab Tests and Measurements.

Main Topics Covered

This Display Highlights and Performance Results section has detailed information and analysis on the Galaxy S20 Ultra Display for the main topics listed below.

You can skip this section and go directly to the Galaxy S20 Ultra Conclusions for a Summary of the Display Test Results.

· Large 6.9 inch Full Screen Display

· Front Camera O-hole

· 3K High Resolution Display

· New Higher 120 Hz Display Refresh Rate

· Record Very High Absolute Color Accuracy

· Record Very High Contrast Accuracy and Intensity Scale Accuracy

· Record Peak Luminance that is Independent of the on-screen Image Content

· Record Color Accuracy and Intensity Scales that are Independent of the Image Content

· Industry Standard Color Gamuts

· Automatic Color Management

· Selectable Screen Modes

· Record Setting Natural DCI-P3 Screen Mode

· Record Setting Natural sRGB Screen Mode

· Vivid Screen Mode with User Adjustable White Point

· Vivid Screen Mode in Ambient Light

· High Screen Brightness and Performance in High Ambient Light

· Record High Brightness Mode

· High Dynamic Range Mobile HDR10+ Display

· Viewing Angle Performance

· Blue Light Spectrum

· Night Mode Blue Light Filter for Better Night Viewing

· Front and Back Dual Ambient Light Sensors

· Interactive Personalized Automatic Brightness

· Vision Accessibility Display Modes

· Super Dimming Mode

· Always On Display Mode

· Diamond Pixels

· Viewing Tests Performance

· Display Power Efficiency

· Display Related Enhancements

· Large 6.9 inch Full Screen Display with a Wide Aspect Ratio of 20 : 9

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a large 6.9 inch State-of-the-Art Curved Full Screen Flexible OLED display that fills almost the entire front face of the phone from edge-to-edge. While the OLED display itself is flexible, the screen remains rigid under an outer hard cover glass. The Galaxy S20 Ultra display is 23% Larger in Screen Area than the Galaxy S10. In fact, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has the largest display for the entire Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series.

The display also has a new form factor with a taller height to width Aspect Ratio of 20 : 9 = 2.22, which is 25% larger than the 16 : 9 = 1.78 on most Smartphones (and widescreen TVs) because the display now has the same overall shape as the entire phone. It is taller in Portrait mode and wider in Landscape mode. This provides extra space for Notifications and for displaying multiple Apps and content simultaneously on-screen side-by-side.

The main screen has rounded corners and is curved along both the left and right edges, which provides two additional user configurable Edge Screen areas that can be viewed from both the front or the sides, and even when the phone is placed face down. This is particularly helpful for status messages, notifications, memos, an Edge Clock, and a Night Clock in the Always On Display mode, which we cover below.

· Front Camera O-hole

Minimizing the thickness of any bezels and borders that appear around the display is now a major priority for both consumers and manufacturers.

The major challenge has been minimizing the space required for the various sensors, camera and speaker on the front of the phone. In the past the approach was to reserve a black border area along the entire top edge of the phone. This resulted in an increased overall size of the phone, so a new approach was to let the display fill the front face of the phone, but then cut out a middle slot at its very top for the camera, sensors and speaker. However, this then significantly cuts into the standard rectangular shape of the display, and eliminates some the image content that is supposed to appear there, including photos, videos, and Apps.

Instead, the Galaxy S20 Ultra display has a newly developed very small circular O-hole at the very top center of the screen for the front facing selfie camera and sensors. The Front Camera O-hole is just 3.9mm in diameter, and it takes up only a tiny 0.1% of the total display area, a key factor in the high 90% Front View Screen-to-Body Ratio for the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

The O-hole is implemented as a clear window opening within the OLED display, something that cannot be done with LCD technology because of its embedded Liquid Crystal. The O-hole appears as a very sharp very well defined circle because of the fine Diamond Sub-Pixel structure of the OLED display.

· 3K High Resolution Quad HD+ 3200x1440 Display with 510 pixels per inch

As a result of its larger display size and larger Aspect Ratio, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has a 3K Higher Resolution Quad HD+ display with 3200x1440 pixels and 510 pixels per inch, with 4.6 Mega Pixels, more than double the number on your HDTV. It can display more than four complete HD 1280x720 images at once. The display has Diamond Pixels (see below) and Sub-Pixel Rendering with 510 pixels per inch (ppi), providing significantly higher image sharpness than can be resolved with normal 20/20 Vision at the typical viewing distances of 10 inches or more for Smartphones, so the display appears perfectly sharp.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra uses Sub-Pixel Rendering, which further improves image sharpness because the individual Red, Green and Blue Sub-Pixels are treated as independent addressable image elements and are not bound together into fixed Pixels, so the closest sub-pixel is used when rendering the image. In some cases Sub-Pixel Rendering can make the screen appear to have up to 3 times the resolution of traditional Pixel Rendering. As a result, for Smartphones it is absolutely pointless to further increase the display resolution and pixels per inch (ppi) up to 4K (3940x2160 pixels) for a silly marketing wild goose chase into the stratosphere, with no visual benefit for humans!

· New Higher 120 Hz Display Refresh Rate

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has both the now common 60 Hz Display Refresh Rate plus a New Higher120 Hz Refresh Rate that improves image Scrolling and Videos, plus Motion and Gaming Performance in Apps, and may also reduce Screen Flicker that some people experience. The very fast Response Times of OLED displays makes the Higher 120 Hz Refresh Rate possible.

· Record Very High Absolute Color Accuracy for Calibrated Screen Modes

All of the recent model Galaxy OLED Smartphones have supported multiple Color Gamut Standards for different image and picture content, including both DCI-P3 and sRGB / Rec.709. For each of the Calibrated Screen Modes we carefully measure the Absolute Color Accuracy using an advanced series of spectroradiometer measurements with 41 Reference Colors that provide a detailed map of the Color Accuracy throughout the entire Color Gamut for each Screen Mode. Absolute Color Accuracy is measured in terms of J ust N oticeable C olor D ifferences, JNCD. See this Figure for an explanation and visual definition of JNCD and the detailed Color Accuracy Plots showing the measured Color Errors for the 41 Reference Colors for each of the Color Gamuts.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the Most Color Accurate Display that we have ever measured, with a Record Setting Absolute Color Accuracy of 0.5 JNCD, which is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect, and almost certainly considerably better than your existing Smartphone, living room HDTV, Tablet, Laptop, and computer monitor.

See the detailed Absolute Color Accuracy Plots with 41 Reference Colors for the Calibrated Screen Modes, which are covered and measured individually below.

· Record Very High Contrast Accuracy and Intensity Scale Accuracy

The Intensity Scale (sometimes called the Gray Scale) not only controls the Image and Picture Contrast within all displayed images but it also controls how the Red, Green and Blue primary colors mix to produce all of the on-screen colors. So if the Intensity Scale doesn't accurately follow the Standard that is used to produce virtually all consumer content then the Image Colors, Image Contrast, and their Brightness Intensities will be wrong everywhere in all images. Unfortunately, many manufacturers are quite sloppy with the Intensity Scale on their displays (because it is logarithmic and not linear). Fortunately, the Intensity Scale on Galaxy S20 Ultra is a close to perfect match of the Intensity Scale Standard, which is essential for High Absolute Color Accuracy. See Figure 3 for a plot of the measured Intensity Scale and the Contrast and Intensity Scale section for measurements and details.

· Record Peak Luminance that is Independent of the on-screen Image Content

On most all existing OLED displays the Peak Brightness (Luminance) changes with the Average Picture Level APL of the on-screen image, increasing by as much as 50 percent or more between High APL and Low APL. This increasing High Brightness effect can be very useful in improving screen readability in High Ambient Light, and also to highlight certain on-screen image content. But the changing display Brightness can distort the brightness relationships when viewing photos, in videos, and other images.

As a result, Samsung has been reducing this variation in Peak Brightness for all the Screen Modes except the Vivid mode, which takes advantage of this High Brightness effect. For example, on the Galaxy Note8, the Luminance variation was 38 percent. Beginning with the Galaxy S9 the Luminance Variation went down to only 6% or less, with the Galaxy S10 at 2%, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra at a Record Low 1% Luminance Variation with APL. But as we discuss next, the real reason for doing this is actually to improve the Absolute Color Accuracy and Absolute Contrast Accuracy of the display. See the Screen Brightness section for the measurements and details.

· Record Color Accuracy and Intensity Scales that are Independent of the on-screen Image Content

The Absolute Color Accuracy and Intensity Scale of the display should not change as the on-screen image content changes.

As we discussed above, the first step is to make sure that the Peak Brightness (Luminance) of the display does not change with the Average Picture Level APL of the on-screen image because High Color Accuracy is impossible when that occurs.

With the continuing improvements in display performance we have added a new set of advanced tests that measure the variations in the Absolute Color Accuracy and the Intensity Scales with changing Average Picture Level APL, comparing the Shifts between Low APL and 50% High APL. Previous generation displays with large Peak Luminance changes with APL typically show Large Shifts in the Intensity Scale and Large Shifts in Absolute Color Accuracy with APL. Since the Galaxy S20 Ultra has a very small Record Low 1% change in Luminance with APL, we expect Small Shifts in Accuracy with APL, which we analyze next...

The Variation in the Intensity Scales between Low APL and 50% APL is shown Figure 3. Any change in the Intensity Scale will affect the Absolute Color Accuracy. There is only a very small Shift in the Intensity Scales, with the Gamma varying from 2.17 for Low APL to 2.20 for 50% APL. As a result, we expect the Absolute Color Accuracy to only show small variations with APL.

The Variation in the Absolute Color Accuracy between Low APL and 50% APL for the Natural sRGB and DCI-P3 Modes is shown in Figure 4. The Color Shifts with APL are very small, with an Average Color Shift of just 0.6 JNCD and the Largest Color Shifts only 1.3 JNCD for the Natural Modes. In addition, the White Point Shifts with APL are just 0.3 JNCD.

All the Shifts with APL are very small and Excellent. See this Figure for an explanation and visual definition of JNCD and the Color APL Shifts section for measurements and details.

· Industry Standard Color Gamuts

The Galaxy S20 Ultra supports the two most important Industry Standard Color Gamuts: the sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut that is used for most current consumer content, and the new Wide DCI-P3 Color Gamut that is used in 4K Ultra HD TVs. The DCI-P3 Gamut is 26 percent larger than the sRGB / Rec.709 Gamut. However, Automatic Color Management provides support for a large number of other Standard and Non-Standard Color Gamuts...

· Automatic Color Management

Most Smartphones and Tablets generally provide only one to up to several fixed Color Gamuts. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has Automatic Color Management that automatically switches to the proper Color Gamut for any displayed image content that has an ICC Profile that falls within the OLED Wide Color Space, so images automatically appear with the correct colors, neither over-saturated or under-saturated. Automatic Color Management with multiple and varying Color Gamuts is a very useful and important state-of-the-art capability that all manufacturers will need to provide in the future.

· Selectable Screen Modes

The Galaxy S20 Ultra provides 2 user selectable Screen Modes that provide control of the vividness of displayed images for each Color Gamut. They are the Natural Mode, which provides the most Accurate Colors, and the Vivid Mode, which provides a Vibrant and Dynamically adjustable Wide Color Gamut up to the Full Native Color Gamut of the OLED display.

Use Display Settings to switch between the Selectable Screen Modes.

See this Figure for the Color Gamuts and Color Modes and the Colors and Intensities section for the measurements and details. Note that the Vivid mode is the standard and factory default Screen Mode. Use Display Settings to switch between the Screen Modes. We discuss each of the tested Screen Modes next…

· Record Setting DCI-P3 Natural Mode with a Very Accurate Standard DCI-P3 Color Gamut

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the newest Standard Wide Color Gamut called DCI-P3 for D igital C inema I nitiative, which is being used for 4K Ultra HD TVs and in Digital Cinema for the movie industry. So the Galaxy S20 Ultra can display the latest high-end 4K video content. The DCI-P3 Gamut is 26 percent larger than the Rec.709 Gamut used in 2K Full HD TVs, both are compared in this accurately colorized Reference Figure. The larger DCI-P3 Color Gamut and its wider range of more saturated colors are also useful in many advanced imaging applications, including HDR High Dynamic Range, which is discussed below.

The measured Color Gamut of the DCI-P3 Natural mode is a Very Accurate 101 percent of the Standard DCI-P3 Color Gamut, and the measured Absolute Color Accuracy is a Record Setting Very Accurate 0.5 JNCD, which is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect, and almost certainly considerably better than your existing Smartphone, living room HDTV, Tablet, Laptop, and computer monitor.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is one of the first displays to reach full 100% of the DCI-P3 as the result of using a new high saturation “Deep Red” OLED. See the Color Accuracy section and the detailed Color Accuracy Plots for the measurements and details. Select the Natural mode using Display Settings – it is not the default screen mode for the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

· Record Setting sRGB Natural Mode with a Very Accurate Standard sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut

The sRGB Natural mode provides a very accurate Color and White Point calibration for the Standard sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut that is used to produce most current consumer content for digital cameras, TVs, the internet, and computers, including photos, videos, and movies.

The measured Color Gamut of the sRGB Natural mode is a Very Accurate 103 percent of the Standard sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut, and the measured Absolute Color Accuracy is a Record Setting Very Accurate 0.5 JNCD, which is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect, and almost certainly considerably better than your existing Smartphone, living room HDTV, Tablet, Laptop, and computer monitor.

Use the Natural mode for the best color and image accuracy for most current consumer content, which is especially important when viewing photos from family and friends (because you often know exactly what they actually should look like), for some TV shows, movies, and sporting events with image content and colors that you are familiar with, and also for viewing online merchandise, so you have a very good idea of exactly what colors you are buying and are less likely to return them. See the Color Accuracy section and the detailed Color Accuracy Plots for the measurements and details. Select the Natural mode using Display Settings – it is not the default screen mode for the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

· Vivid Screen Mode with the Largest Color Gamut

The Vivid mode has the Wide Native OLED Color Gamut. It provides significantly higher Color Saturation, with a large 139 percent of the Standard sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut and 110 percent of the Standard DCI-P3 Color Gamut, very close to the highest that we have ever measured for Smartphones and Tablets (142% and 113%). The Vivid mode also provides real-time Adaptive processing that can dynamically adjust images and videos. For some applications it will vary the White Point, Color Gamut, and Color Saturation based on the image content and the color of the surrounding ambient lighting measured by the Ambient Light Sensor (which measures color in addition to brightness).

Some people like the more Saturated and Vibrant Colors, plus it is useful for special applications, and especially when using the Galaxy S20 Ultra in medium to high levels of Ambient Light, because it offsets some of the reflected light glare that washes out the on-screen image colors. We examine the change in the Color Gamut with Ambient Light below. See the Color Accuracy section for the measurements and details. Select the Vivid mode using Display Settings – it is the factory default screen mode for the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

· Vivid Screen Mode with a User Adjustable White Point

The default White Point for the Vivid mode has a somewhat Bluish 7,020 K Color Temperature. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a user adjustable White Point with Color Balance slider controls that allows users to change color of White for the Vivid mode. The slider controls allow the White Point Color Temperature to range from 5,900 K, which is close to the Standard D65 White, up to 8,300 K, which has a moderate Bluish Tint that some people like. So with the Galaxy S20 Ultra you can set the Color of White that you prefer.

· Vivid Mode Offsets the Loss of Color Saturation and Color Gamut in Ambient Light

The Vivid mode is particularly useful in moderate to high levels of Ambient Light because its larger Native Color Gamut offsets some of the loss of Color Saturation and Color Gamut that occurs when using the other Accurately Calibrated Standard Screen Modes. This Figure shows the measured decrease in the Vivid and Natural Modes with increasing Ambient Light, from 0 lux, which is perfectly dark, up through 2,000 lux, which corresponds to typical outdoor daylight in shade.

At 500 lux, which corresponds to typical office lighting, the measured on-screen Color Gamut for the Natural modes decreases to 89%. At 1,000 lux, which corresponds to very bright indoor lighting or outdoor daylight with an overcast sky, the measured on-screen Color Gamut decreases to 80%, and at 2,000 lux the measured on-screen Color Gamut decreases to 64%. This loss of color saturation and wash out in Ambient Light is well known to all display users.

The way to improve the display color accuracy and performance in Ambient Light is to start with a larger Color Gamut, like the Vivid mode, which is shown in this Figure compared to the Natural modes for 0 lux up through 2,000 lux. At 1,000 lux the Vivid mode provides a much better match to the sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut than the sRGB Natural mode. The Vivid mode also provides a good match to the DCI-P3 Color Gamut at 500 lux. So the Vivid mode provides more accurate on-screen colors in moderate to high Ambient Lighting than the Calibrated Natural Modes, which are designed and calibrated for Low Ambient Light. Applying Dynamic Color Management based on the current Ambient Light lux level in the future will able to further improve color accuracy over a wide range of Ambient Light levels, which we discuss further in the Improving Display Performance for Real World Ambient Light section in the Conclusion.

· High Screen Brightness and Performance in High Ambient Lighting

Mobile displays are often used under relatively bright ambient lighting, which washes out the image color saturation and contrast, reducing picture quality and making it harder to view or read the screen. To be usable in high ambient light a display needs a dual combination of high Screen Brightness and low Screen Reflectance – the Galaxy S20 Ultra has both. This is extremely important for screen readability, picture quality, and color accuracy in ambient light.

With Automatic Brightness turned Off and the Brightness slider set Manually to Maximum, the Galaxy S20 Ultra produces between 410 cd/m2 and 569 cd/m2 (nits), based on the current Screen Mode and the Average Picture Level APL of the image content, among the very brightest that we have ever measured for a Smartphone with Automatic Brightness turned Off. See the Screen Brightness section for the measurements and details.

The measured Galaxy S20 Ultra Screen Reflectance is 4.4 percent, very close to the lowest that we have ever measured for a Smartphone of 4.3%. Our Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light quantitatively measures screen visibility and image contrast under bright Ambient Lighting – the higher the better. As a result of its high Brightness and low Reflectance, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has a Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light that ranges from 93 to 129, among the very highest that we have ever measured for a Smartphone. See the Screen Reflectance section for the measurements and details.

· Record High Brightness Mode with Automatic Brightness On

On the Galaxy S20 Ultra the Maximum Screen Brightness can go much higher when Automatic Brightness is turned On, so that users can’t permanently park the Manual Brightness slider to very high values, which would run down the battery quickly. High Screen Brightness is only needed for High Ambient Light, so turning Automatic Brightness On will provide better high ambient light screen visibility and also longer battery running time.

When Automatic Brightness is turned On, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has a High Brightness Mode that produces between 823 cd/m2 and 1,342 cd/m2 (nits) in High Ambient Light, which is where High Brightness is really needed, and is considerably Brighter than with Manual Brightness when Automatic Brightness is turned Off.

For the Galaxy S20 the High Brightness Mode reaches its Peak Brightness at a new Lower Ambient Light Level of 20,000 lux, which corresponds to Full Outdoor Daylight that is not in Direct Sunlight. This further improves Outdoor screen readability in Medium as well as High Ambient Light.

The 823 nits is for the Natural Mode with an All White Full Screen 100% Average Picture Level APL image, which is the most challenging image for an OLED display because all the pixels are at full power. For the Vivid Mode with an All White Full Screen it is 828 nits. These are Record Setting Brightness for OLED displays with 100% Average Picture Level APL images.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a Record Peak Brightness of 1,342 nits, which is 10% higher than on the Galaxy S10. See the Brightness and Contrast, the High Ambient Light and the Screen Reflections sections for the measurements and details.

· High Dynamic Range Mobile HDR10+ Display

The Galaxy S20 Ultra can play 4K High Dynamic Range content made for 4K UHD TVs. H igh D ynamic R ange (HDR) is the newest performance enhancement feature developed for the latest 4K Ultra HD TVs. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the new enhanced Mobile HDR10+ that supports Dynamic Metadata and Dynamic Tone Mapping.

HDR provides expanded Color, Contrast, and Brightness of video content. In order to provide HDR, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has the required Digital Cinema DCI-P3 Wide Color Gamut, plus perfect Blacks and an Infinite Contrast Ratio from its OLED display, and a peak Brightness of over 1,000 nits that is needed for High Dynamic Range. The Galaxy S20 Ultra can play the latest streamed mobile HDR videos, and its built-in video processor also allows it to provide an Expanded Dynamic Range for standard video content that produces an HDR-like effect.

· Viewing Angle Performance

While Smartphones are primarily single viewer devices, the variation in display performance with viewing angle is still very important because single viewers frequently hold the display at a variety of viewing angles. The angle is often up to 30 degrees, more if the phone is resting on a table or desk.

While LCDs typically experience a 55 percent or greater decrease in Brightness at a 30 degree Viewing Angle, the OLED Galaxy S20 Ultra display shows a much smaller 24 percent decrease in Brightness at 30 degrees. This also applies to multiple side-by-side viewers as well, and is a significant advantage of OLED displays.

All displays have Color Shifts with Viewing Angle:

The Color Shift of White, which is the most common background color is particularly noticeable on many OLED and LCD displays.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a relatively small White Shift of 2.2 JNCD at 30 degrees, which is unlikely to be noticeable for typical Viewing Angles.

The Color Shifts throughout the entire Color Gamut vary as combinations of the Primary Color Shifts:

The Color Shifts for the Green and Blue Primaries are relatively small, with 2.3 JNCD for Green and 3.4 JNCD for Blue at 30 degrees. The Color Shift for the Red Primary is larger at 5.0 JNCD at 30 degrees, which may be noticeable for some color content, but should not appear objectionable. Almost all current model Smartphone OLED displays have either 1 or 2 Primary Color Shifts greater than 3.5 JNCD at 30 degrees Viewing Angle. See the Viewing Angles section for the measurements and details.

· Blue Light Spectrum

For the Galaxy S20 Ultra the amount of potentially harmful very short wavelength Blue Light has been reduced by 35% compared to the Galaxy S10, while still maintaining the same Wide Color Gamut. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has been TUV Certified for Eye Comfort with Reduced Blue Light. This has been accomplished with a new Blue OLED with an improved light spectrum that has a reduced short wavelength component. The Improved Blue Light Spectrum also works in conjunction with the Night Mode Blue Light Filter...

· Night Mode Blue Light Filter for Better Night Viewing

The Night Mode Blue Light Filter on the Galaxy S20 Ultra is designed to change the color balance of the display in order to reduce the amount of Blue light produced by the display, which some recent research indicates can affect how well users sleep afterwards. In a separate article we explain and analyze the Blue Light issue for displays. The Galaxy S20 Ultra includes a user adjustable slider (called Filter Opacity) to vary the amount of Blue light produced by the display and a timer that allows the Blue Light Filter to be turned on and off automatically every day. The measured variation in the display light spectrum with the adjustable Blue Light Filter is shown in this Figure and below.

As the Blue Light Filter Opacity setting is increased, the amount of Blue light emitted by the display decreases. When that happens, White and all screen colors take on an increasing yellowish tint and color cast. At the Middle setting the measured White Color Temperature decreases to 5,400 K, and at the Maximum setting it decreases to 2,600 K, the Color Temperature of traditional incandescent lighting, which is yellowish. With the Blue Light Filter turned On and the Opacity at its Maximum setting, the measured Blue Light component from the Galaxy S20 Ultra is reduced by 80 percent. Turning down the screen Brightness will further decrease the amount of Blue Light. The measured display spectra for several of the Blue Light Filter settings are included in this Figure and below.

Display Spectra Click to Enlarge

· Front and Back Dual Ambient Light Sensors for Improved Automatic Brightness Settings

Other Smartphones and Tablets have just a single Ambient Light Sensor on the front of the screen that measures the amount of light falling on the front of the screen. When Automatic Brightness is turned On, the display Brightness is adjusted based on this single measured value. But that is only part of the story because the phone is often in the shadow of your head, so the front ambient light level is often reduced there. However, your eyes are generally more adapted to the surrounding ambient light level that is behind and around the phone, which needs to be taken into account in setting the proper screen Brightness, particularly with the most common back lighting situations that exist when holding the phone.

I proposed dual Ambient Light Sensors back in 2010, with an article that described “How Automatic Brightness Should Work.” The Galaxy S20 Ultra together with the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note phones starting with the Galaxy S8 are the only Smartphones to have a second Ambient Light Sensor on the back that also measures the surrounding ambient light behind the phone and then uses both measured values to adjust the display Brightness based on the front and back lighting. The Galaxy S20 Automatic Brightness Control has also been enhanced to provide improved response and transition times with changing ambient light levels to give your eyes the proper amount of time to adjust to the new levels.

· Interactive Personalized Automatic Brightness Control that Works Well

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has an Interactive Personalized Automatic Brightness Control that learns and stores the display brightness settings that you make for varying ambient light levels, so from then on you get your own customized personal visual brightness preferences instead of some pre-programmed manufacturer settings found in other Smartphones, Tablets, and TVs. I proposed this back in 2010, with an article that described “How Automatic Brightness Should Work.” The Galaxy S9 was the first Smartphone to do Automatic Brightness correctly.

When Automatic Brightness is turned On (under Display Settings), if you adjust the Brightness Slider, the Galaxy S20 Ultra will remember your setting along with the current Ambient Light level that is measured by its Ambient Light Sensors (ALS). From then on the Galaxy S20 Ultra will automatically adjust the screen Brightness by measuring the current ambient light level and then adjusting the display Brightness based on the settings that you have previously made, so you’ll get a customized screen Brightness setting that you’ve previously trained it to produce for the current level of ambient light – and you can continue to tweak and adjust it as needed. Other smartphones operate using the antiquated opposite approach based on factory set defaults, which work backwards and poorly, and often results in users disabling Automatic Brightness.

· Vision Accessibility Display Modes

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a number of Vision Accessibility display modes to help people with vision impairments.

A Color Lens mode provides 12 types of color filtering with selective transparency to improve the readability of text. A Color Adjustment mode allows display colors to be adjusted interactively based on their visual similarity and appearance using a simple finger drag and place method.

Other Vision Accessibility display modes include: Color Adjustment modes, Color Inversion, High Contrast Themes, High Contrast Fonts, Font Size, Font Style, Custom Downloadable Fonts, Area Magnification, and Screen Magnification.

· Super Dimming Mode

The Galaxy S20 Ultra also has a Super Dimming Mode that allows the Maximum Screen Brightness to be set all the way down to just 2 cd/m2 (nits) using the Brightness Slider. This is perfect for night use on a beside table, and useful for working comfortably without eye strain or bothering others in very dark environments, or affecting the eye’s dark adaptation, such as when using a telescope. The display still provides full 24-bit color and the picture quality remains excellent.

· Always On Display Mode

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has an Always On Display AOD mode that takes advantage of the very low power capability of an OLED display when most of the image pixels are black, because every sub-pixel is independently powered, and therefore doesn’t use any power when black. The AOD mode is super power efficient and typically requires only 3 to 5 percent of the maximum display power. So when the phone is off (in standby) it is possible to always display some text and graphics on a black background all day and all night without a significant power drain that would reduce the battery running time. The Always On Display mode uses only 50 to 100 mW (milli-Watts) in normal daytime ambient light, and much less in the dark mode at night. For moving AOD content, such as in an Analog Clock with a second hand, the display is updated via Integrated Circuit hardware rather than App software, resulting in lower power consumption. A feature on the Galaxy S20 Ultra also allows you to a add personal photo to the Always On Display.

The Always On Display can produce an illuminated main screen image 24 hours a day so you can always discreetly check it with just a glance. It shows various personalized clock and calendar screens, plus status messages, memos, notifications, and images on the main screen when the phone is off (in standby). It measures the ambient light and provides 4 Brightness levels from night and day. It will stay off when the phone display is face down, or if it senses a dark confined space like a pocket or handbag. The day mode has a measured Luminance of 35 cd/m2 (nits) on a black background, which is very readable but not distracting for normal indoor ambient lighting, and is visible outdoors if you shade the screen with your hand. The night mode is entered for very low Ambient Light lux levels and runs like the Super Dimming Mode down to as low as 1 nit, so it makes a great Night Clock that won’t disturb you if it is on your bedside table.

· Diamond Pixels

A high resolution screen shot (provided by Samsung) shows an interesting design and sub-pixel arrangement for the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which Samsung calls Diamond Pixels. First of all, the Red, Green, and Blue sub-pixels have very different sizes – Blue is by far the largest because it has the lowest light emission efficiency, and Green is by far the smallest because it has the highest efficiency. The alternating Red and Blue sub-pixel arrangement leads to a 45 degree diagonal symmetry in the sub-pixel layout. This allows vertical, horizontal, and particularly diagonal line segments and vectors to be drawn with reduced aliasing and artifacts. In order to maximize the sub-pixel packing and achieve the highest possible pixels per inch (ppi), that leads to diamond rather than square or stripe shaped Red and Blue sub-pixels. But not for the Green sub-pixels, which are oval shaped because they are squeezed between two much larger and different sized Red and Blue sub-pixels. It’s a form of high-tech display art…

· Viewing Tests Performance

The calibrated Natural Modes on the Galaxy S20 Ultra provide very nice, pleasing and Very Accurate Colors and Picture Quality. The very challenging set of DisplayMate Test and Calibration Photos that we use to evaluate picture quality looked absolutely stunning and Beautiful, even to my experienced hyper-critical eyes.

The Absolute Color Accuracy of the Galaxy S20 Ultra display is 0.5 JNCD, which is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect, and almost certainly considerably better than your existing Smartphone, living room HDTV, Tablet, Laptop, and computer monitor, as demonstrated in our extensive Absolute Color Accuracy Lab Measurements.

In order to see the High Color Accuracy, the Display Setting needs to be set to the Natural Mode, which Automatically Switches to the proper Gamut for the current on-screen content.

For indoor and low ambient light viewing use the Natural mode for most standard consumer content including digital camera, TV, internet, and computer content, including photos, videos, and movies, and also for your online purchases in order to see accurate product colors, and also for viewing the newest DCI 4K Ultra HD TV and Digital Cinema content and videos, including HDR content.

The Vivid mode provides significantly more Vibrant and Saturated Colors, which some people prefer. The Vivid mode is also recommended for viewing in medium to high levels of ambient light because it offsets some of the reflected light glare that washes out the image colors, which is demonstrated in this Figure for ambient light levels up through 2,000 lux.

· Display Power Efficiency

Since 2013 the Display Power Efficiency of the Galaxy series of Smartphones has improved by a very impressive 65%.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra maintains the same Display Power Efficiency as the Galaxy S10.

While LCDs remain more power efficient for images with mostly full screen white content (like all text screens on a white background, for example), OLEDs are more power efficient for typical mixed image content because they are emissive displays so their power varies with the Average Picture Level (average Brightness) of the image content over the entire screen.

For LCDs the display power is fixed and independent of the image content. But for OLEDs, the display power decreases with the type of image content. Black pixels and sub-pixels don’t use any power so screens with Black or dark backgrounds are very power efficient for OLEDs. Photos and videos also have relatively low Average Picture Levels and so require much less power on OLEDs than LCDs. Currently, OLED displays are more power efficient than LCDs for Average Pictures Levels of 70 percent or less, and LCDs are more power efficient for Average Picture Levels above 70 percent. Since both technologies are continuing to improve their power efficiencies, the crossover will continue to change with time.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra also has 4 user selectable Performance and Power Saving modes that reduce the Display Power by lowering the screen Brightness and Resolution, and also setting the background to Black, which can significantly reduce display power and more than double the running time on battery. All of our tests and measurements were performed in the Optimized Mode. See the Display Power section for the measurements and details.

· Display Related Enhancements

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the new Gorilla Glass 6, which provides much higher resistance to breakage.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra is IP68 water resistant in up to 5 feet of water for up to half an hour, which means you can comfortably view the display in typical wet indoor and outdoor conditions – even carefully use it in a tub or shower, and it should be fine if you accidentally drop it in a sink or toilet.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra can be used with Polarized Sunglasses in both the Portrait and Landscape orientations unlike LCDs, which generally work in only one of the two orientations.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra accepts a microSD card, which makes it easier to add large photo and video files.

Galaxy S20 Ultra Conclusions: A Record Setting Impressive Smartphone Display…

The primary goal of this Display Technology Shoot-Out article series has always been to publicize and promote display excellence so that consumers, journalists and even manufacturers are aware of and appreciate the very best in displays and display technology. We point out which manufacturers and display technologies are leading and advancing the state-of-the-art for displays by performing comprehensive and objective scientific Lab Tests and Measurements together with in-depth analysis. We point out who is leading, who is behind, who is improving, and sometimes (unfortunately) who is back pedaling… all based solely on the extensive objective careful Lab measurements that we also publish, so that everyone can judge the data for themselves as well…

OLED Display Evolution:

What is particularly significant and impressive is that Samsung has been systematically improving OLED display performance with every Galaxy generation since 2010, when we started tracking OLED displays. The first notable OLED Smartphone, the Google Nexus One, came in decidedly last place in our 2010 Smartphone Display Shoot-Out. As a result of the improvements with each new generation, mobile OLED display technology now has a commanding first place lead and continues pushing ahead aggressively. The Galaxy S20 Ultra continues the impressive improvements in mobile OLED displays and technology. As a result, OLEDs have developed into excellent Smartphone displays that now significantly outperform the best LCD Smartphones. With the continuing improvements in OLED hardware performance, picture quality, and precision accuracy, it will be much harder for new display technologies to challenge OLED.

Summary of the Galaxy S20 Ultra Display Functions, Features, and Performance Records:

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has many major and important state-of-the-art Display Performance Functions and Features, and many new Display Performance Records that are listed below.

See the Display Shoot-Out Lab Measurements Comparison Table section for the complete set of detailed DisplayMate Lab measurements and tests.

See the Highlights and Performance Results section for a detailed overview with expanded discussions and explanations.

See the Display Assessments section for the Evaluation details.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the following State-of-the-Art Display Performance Functions and Features:

· A State-of-the-Art Curved Screen Flexible OLED display that is manufactured on a flexible plastic substrate so that it can bend around corners on both sides of the phone to provide two curved Edge Display areas that can be viewed and controlled from both the front or the sides. While the OLED display itself is flexible, the screen remains rigid under an outer hard cover glass.

· A Full Screen design with a large 6.9 inch OLED display that fills almost the entire front face of the Galaxy S20 Ultra from edge-to-edge, providing a significantly larger display for the same phone size. The Galaxy S20 Ultra display is 23% larger in screen area than the Galaxy S10, and has a high 90% Screen-to-Body Ratio. The Home button and Navigations buttons are now incorporated within the touchscreen display.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra display has a newly developed very small circular O-hole at the very top center of the screen for the front facing selfie camera and sensors. The Camera O-hole is just 3.9mm in diameter, taking up only a tiny 0.1% of the total display area, a key factor in the high 90% Screen-to-Body Ratio for the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

· A new display form factor with a taller height to width Aspect Ratio of 20 : 9 = 2.22, which is 25% larger than the 16 : 9 = 1.78 on most Smartphones (and widescreen TVs) because the display now has the same overall shape as the entire phone. It is taller in Portrait mode and wider in Landscape mode. This provides extra space for Notifications and for displaying multiple Apps and content simultaneously on-screen side-by-side.

· New Higher 120 Hz Display Refresh Rate that improves image Scrolling and Videos, plus Motion and Gaming Performance in Apps, and may also reduce Screen Flicker that some people experience.

· 3K High Resolution 3200 x 1440 Full HD+ Display with 510 pixels per inch, and Diamond Pixels with Sub-Pixel Rendering for enhanced sharpness and higher Peak Brightness.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra display appears Perfectly Sharp for normal 20/20 Vision at Typical Smartphone Viewing Distances of 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 cm).

· Very Low Screen Reflectance of 4.4 percent.

· Image Luminance that is Independent of the on-screen Image Content with only a 1 percent Luminance Shift with Average Picture Level APL.

· High Brightness Mode with 100% APL Full Screen Peak Display Brightness of 823 nits, which significantly improves screen visibility in very high Ambient Light, and also provides the high screen Brightness needed for HDR.

· The High Brightness Mode reaches its Peak Brightness at a new Lower Ambient Light Level of 20,000 lux, which corresponds to Full Outdoor Daylight that is not in Direct Sunlight. This further improves Outdoor screen readability in Medium as well as High Ambient Light.

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· Very High Absolute Color Accuracy (0.5 JNCD) that is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Very High Image and Picture Contrast Accuracy and Intensity Scale Accuracy (2.17 Gamma) that is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Color Accuracy and Intensity Scales that are Independent of the Image Content.

· Automatic Color Management that automatically switches to the proper Color Gamut for any displayed image content that has an ICC Profile within the OLED Wide Color Space, so images automatically appear with the correct colors, neither over-saturated or under-saturated.

· 2 Industry Standard Calibrated Color Gamuts: the sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut that is used for most current consumer content, and the new Wide DCI-P3 Color Gamut that is used in 4K Ultra HD TVs. The DCI-P3 Gamut is 26 percent larger than the sRGB / Rec.709 Gamut.

· 2 Selectable Screen Modes that provide user control of the color from the Accurate Natural Mode to the Vivid Mode.

· A full 100% DCI-P3 Color Gamut with the Natural mode that is also used for 4K Ultra HD TVs, so the Galaxy S20 Ultra can display the latest high-end 4K video content. The DCI-P3 Gamut is 26 percent larger than the Rec.709 Gamut that is used in 2K Full HD TVs.

· A larger Native Color Gamut with a new high saturation “Deep Red” OLED, resulting in a very impressive 110% of DCI-P3 and 139% of sRGB / Rec.709 Gamuts that also provides much better on-screen Colors in High Ambient Light.

· A new Blue OLED with an improved light spectrum that reduces the amount of potentially harmful very short wavelength Blue Light while still maintaining the same full wide Color Gamut.

· A Night Mode with a Blue Light Filter that allows the user to adjust and reduce the amount of blue light from the display for better night viewing and improved sleep.

· A Video Enhancer that provides HDR-like Expanded Dynamic Range for all videos that don’t have HDR coding.

· High Dynamic Range Mobile HDR10+ Display which allows the Galaxy S20 Ultra to play 4K High Dynamic Range content produced for 4K UHD TVs. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the new enhanced Mobile HDR10+ that supports Dynamic Metadata and Tone Mapping.

· Front and back Dual Ambient Light Sensors for significantly improved Automatic Brightness settings.

· User Adjustable White Point with Color Balance slider controls that can change the color of White for the Vivid mode.

· Always On Display mode and Personalized Auto Brightness Control.

· Small Brightness Shifts and Color Shifts with Viewing Angle, particularly White, which is the most used background color.

· Vision Accessibility Display Modes to help people with vision impairments.

· The Galaxy S20 Ultra can be used with Polarized Sunglasses in both the Portrait and Landscape orientations unlike LCDs, which generally work in only one of the two orientations.

· A strong curved Gorilla Glass 6 protecting the display.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra sets or matches 12 Smartphone Display Performance Records for:

Numerical Performance Differences that are Visually Indistinguishable are considered Matched and Tied Performance Records.

· Highest Absolute Color Accuracy (0.5 JNCD) – Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Highest Image Contrast Accuracy and Intensity Scale Accuracy (2.17 Gamma) – Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Smallest Shift in Color Accuracy and Intensity Scale with the Image Content APL (0.6 JNCD) – Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Smallest Shift in Image Contrast and Intensity Scale with the Image Content APL (0.03 Gamma) – Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Smallest Change in Peak Luminance with the Image Content Average Picture Level APL (1 percent) – Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect.

· Highest Full Screen Brightness for OLED Smartphones (828 nits at 100% APL).

· Highest Peak Display Brightness (1,342 nits for Low APL).

· Largest Native Color Gamut (110% DCI-P3 and 139% sRGB / Rec.709).

· Highest Contrast Ratio (Infinite).

· Lowest Screen Reflectance (4.4 percent).

· Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light (188 for 100% APL and 305 for Peak Brightness).

· Highest Visible Screen Resolution 3K (3200x1440) – 4K Does Not Appear Visually Sharper on a Smartphone.

DisplayMate Best Smartphone Display Award for the Galaxy S20 Ultra

OLED has evolved into a highly refined and mature display technology that now produces the best and highest performance displays for Smartphones.

OLED Display Performance continues to provide major Record Setting improvements with every new generation.

For the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung has concentrated on significantly raising the on-screen Absolute Picture Quality and Absolute Color Accuracy of the OLED display by implementing Precision Factory Display Calibration, moving the overall Galaxy S20 Ultra display performance up to Record Setting Outstanding Levels.

With consumers now spending rapidly increasing amounts of time watching content on their Smartphones, the shift in emphasis from primarily improving Display Hardware Performance to enhancing the overall display Picture Quality and Color Accuracy is an important step that DisplayMate Technologies has been pushing for many years in our Display Technology Shoot-Out article series, so it is great to see manufacturers improving and then competing on these metrics.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a Very Impressive Top Tier Smartphone Display with close to Text Book Perfect Calibration Accuracy and Performance that is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect. Based on our extensive Lab Tests and Measurements the Galaxy S20 Ultra receives a DisplayMate Best Smartphone Display Award earning DisplayMate’s highest ever Display Performance Grade of A+ and setting or matching 12 Smartphone Display Performance Records that are listed above.

See the links below for all of the Galaxy S20 Ultra Measurements, Analysis and Assessments

Data Tables: See the Display Shoot-Out Lab Measurements Comparison Table section below for all of the measurements and details.

Highlights: See the Highlights and Performance Results section above for expanded discussions and explanations.

Features: See the Display Performance Functions and Features section above.

Records: See the Display Performance Records section above.

Assessments: See the Display Assessments section below for the evaluation details.

OLED displays now have tremendous performance advantages over LCDs, so high-end and flagship Smartphones need OLED displays in order to compete at state-of-the-art performance levels, securing OLED as the definitive premier display technology for Top Tier Smartphones in the foreseeable future over the next 3-5 years. With the continuing improvements in OLED hardware performance, picture quality, and precision accuracy, it will be much harder for new display technologies to challenge OLED.

Follow DisplayMate on Twitter to learn about our upcoming Smartphone display technology coverage.

The Future of OLED Smartphones

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is the latest in a new generation of OLED Smartphones. OLEDs have now evolved and emerged as the premium mobile Smartphone display technology. More than two dozen manufacturers already make OLED Smartphones, and the new Full Screen Display design using a flexible OLED will be the new Flagship for all the upcoming future Top Tier Smartphones.

LCDs are a great cutting edge high performance display technology for Tablets to TVs, but for small handheld Smartphones, OLED displays provide a number of major advantages over LCDs including: being much thinner, much lighter, without needing a bezel providing a rimless edge-to-edge design. They can be made flexible and into curved screens, plus they have very fast Response Times, better Viewing Angles, and an Always On display mode. The very fast Response Times of OLED displays makes the new Higher 90 Hz and 120 Hz Screen Refresh Rates possible.

Many of the OLED performance advantages result from the fact that every single sub-pixel in an OLED display is independently directly electrically powered to emit light, so only the active image sub-pixels draw power based on their individual brightness levels. OLEDs can also provide better color accuracy, image contrast accuracy, and screen uniformity because the irregularities and variations in LCD Backlights introduce color and brightness irregularities and variations over the screen.

As the result of their very versatile power management capabilities, OLEDs are not only more power efficient than LCDs for most image content, but they now deliver much higher peak Brightness than LCDs because the maximum power can be delivered to just the sub-pixels that are needed for producing the current displayed image. However, for mostly all white screen content LCDs are likely to remain brighter and more power efficient for a while.

OLED displays are also manufactured on flexible substrates that can bend, which allows the screens to be curved and rounded and provides a number of innovative new screen geometries. The most popular one is expanding the front main screen so that it extends around to both the right and left sides of the phone by bending around the corners like on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, and earlier models starting with the original Galaxy Edge and Galaxy Round.

As a result, OLED displays now have tremendous performance advantages over LCDs, so high-end and flagship Smartphones need OLED displays in order to compete at state-of-the-art performance levels, securing OLED as the definitive premier display technology for Top Tier Smartphones in the foreseeable future over the next 3-5 years. With the continuing improvements in OLED hardware performance, picture quality, and precision accuracy, it will be much harder for new display technologies to challenge OLED.

The main production and availability issue for the next several years will be that the demand for high performance OLED displays will significantly exceed the manufacturing capacity as we discuss in Flagship 2017 OLED Smartphones.

Follow DisplayMate on Twitter to learn about these developments and our upcoming display technology coverage.

Improving the Next Generation of Mobile Displays

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a very high resolution 3K 3200x1440 pixel display with 510 pixels per inch (ppi) producing images that look perfectly sharp with normal 20/20 Vision under all normal viewing conditions, which always includes some ambient light that always lowers the visible image contrast and perceived image sharpness (Modulation Transfer MTF). Note that displays are almost never viewed in absolute darkness under perfect viewing conditions with ideal image content. Some clueless reviewers have been pining for 4K 3840x2160 Smartphones, which would require almost double the pixels, memory, and processing power of the 3200x1440 display on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but there would be no visual benefit for humans! As a result, it is absolutely pointless to further increase the display resolution and pixels per inch (ppi) for a marketing wild goose chase into the stratosphere, with no visual benefit for humans!

Improving Display Performance for Real World Ambient Light Viewing Conditions

With screen size and resolution already functionally maxed out, manufacturers should instead dedicate their efforts and resources into improving real world display performance in ambient light by using advanced technology to restore and compensate for the loss of color gamut, color saturation, and image contrast due to ambient light, something that every consumer will benefit from, and will also immediately notice and appreciate – providing a true sales and marketing advantage…

Currently all existing displays are Accurate only when viewed in Absolute Darkness 0 lux. The most important improvements for OLED and LCD mobile displays will come from improving their image and picture quality and screen readability in Real World Ambient Light, which washes out the screen images, resulting in Reduced Image Contrast, Reduced Color Saturation, and Reduce Color Accuracy. The key will be in lowering the Screen Reflectance and implementing Dynamic Color Management with automatic real-time modification of the display’s native Color Gamut and Dynamic Intensity Scales based on the measured Ambient Light level in order to have them compensate for the reflected light glare and image wash out that causes a loss of color saturation and image contrast from ambient light as discussed in our Innovative Displays and Display Technology and SID Display Technology Shoot-Out articles.

The displays, technologies, and manufacturers that succeed in implementing this new real world high ambient light performance strategy will take the lead in the next generations of mobile displays… Follow DisplayMate on Twitter to learn about these developments and our upcoming display technology coverage.

DisplayMate Display Optimization Technology

All Smartphone, Tablet, Monitor and TV displays can be significantly improved using DisplayMate’s proprietary very advanced scientific analysis and mathematical display modeling and optimization of the display hardware, factory calibration, and driver parameters. We help manufacturers with expert display procurement, prototype development, display performance improvement and optimization, testing displays to meet contract specifications, and production quality control so that they don’t make mistakes similar to those that are exposed in our public Display Technology Shoot-Out series for consumers. This article is a lite version of our advanced scientific analysis – before the benefits of our DisplayMate Display Optimization Technology, which can correct or improve all of these issues. If you are a display or product manufacturer and want to significantly improve display performance for a competitive advantage then Contact DisplayMate Technologies.

Galaxy S20 Ultra

Display Shoot-Out Lab Measurements Comparison Table

Below we examine in-depth the OLED display performance of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra based on objective Lab measurement data

and criteria in the following sections: Display Specifications, Overall Assessments, Screen Reflections, Brightness and Contrast,

Colors and Intensities, Absolute Color Accuracy, Viewing Angles, OLED Spectra, Display Power.

For additional background and comparison information see this earlier article covering the Galaxy S10 Display Technology Shoot-Out.

For comparisons with the other leading Smartphone displays see our Mobile Display Technology Shoot-Out series.

Detailed Test and Measurement Comparisons between the Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy S10

You can directly compare the data and measurement results for the Galaxy S20 Ultra with the Galaxy S10 display in detail

by using a Tabbed web browser with our comprehensive Lab measurements and analysis for each of the displays.

For each Tab click on a Link below. The entries are mostly identical with only minor formatting differences,

so it is easy to make detailed side-by-side comparisons by simply clicking through the Tabs.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Lab Measurements Comparison Table

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lab Measurements Comparison Table

About the Author

Dr. Raymond Soneira is President of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation of Amherst, New Hampshire, which produces display calibration, evaluation, and diagnostic products for consumers, technicians, and manufacturers. See www.displaymate.com. He is a research scientist with a career that spans physics, computer science, and television system design. Dr. Soneira obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Princeton University, spent 5 years as a Long-Term Member of the world famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, another 5 years as a Principal Investigator in the Computer Systems Research Laboratory at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and has also designed, tested, and installed color television broadcast equipment for the CBS Television Network Engineering and Development Department. He has authored over 35 research articles in scientific journals in physics and computer science, including Scientific American. If you have any comments or questions about the article, you can contact him at dtso.info@displaymate.com.

DisplayMate Display Optimization Technology

All Smartphone, Tablet, Monitor and TV displays can be significantly improved using DisplayMate’s proprietary very advanced scientific analysis and mathematical display modeling and optimization of the display hardware, factory calibration, and driver parameters. We help manufacturers with expert display procurement, prototype development, display performance improvement and optimization, testing displays to meet contract specifications, and production quality control so that they don’t make mistakes similar to those that are exposed in our public Display Technology Shoot-Out series for consumers. This article is a lite version of our advanced scientific analysis – before the benefits of our DisplayMate Display Optimization Technology, which can correct or improve all of these issues. If you are a display or product manufacturer and want to significantly improve display performance for a competitive advantage then Contact DisplayMate Technologies.

About DisplayMate Technologies

DisplayMate Technologies specializes in proprietary advanced scientific display calibration and mathematical display optimization to deliver unsurpassed objective performance, picture quality and accuracy for all types of displays including video and computer monitors, projectors, TVs, mobile displays such as Smartphones and Tablets, and all display technologies including LCD, OLED, 3D, LED, LCoS, Plasma, DLP and CRT. This article is a lite version of our intensive scientific analysis of Smartphone and Smartphone mobile displays – before the benefits of our advanced mathematical DisplayMate Display Optimization Technology, which can correct or improve many of the display deficiencies. We offer DisplayMate display calibration software for consumers and advanced DisplayMate display diagnostic and calibration software for technicians and test labs.

For manufacturers we offer Consulting Services that include advanced Lab testing and evaluations, confidential Shoot-Outs with competing products, calibration and optimization for displays, cameras and their User Interface, plus on-site and factory visits. We help manufacturers with expert display procurement, prototype development, and production quality control so they don’t make mistakes similar to those that are exposed in our Display Technology Shoot-Out series. See our world renown Display Technology Shoot-Out public article series for an introduction and preview. DisplayMate’s advanced scientific optimizations can make lower cost panels look as good or better than more expensive higher performance displays. If you are a display or product manufacturer and want to turn your display into a spectacular one to surpass your competition then Contact DisplayMate Technologies to learn more.

Article Links: Galaxy S10 OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out

Article Links: Galaxy Note10+ OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out

Article Links: Display Color Gamuts Shoot-Out NTSC to Rec.2020

Article Links: Absolute Color Accuracy Display Technology Shoot-Out

Article Links: Watching Displays at Night

Article Links: Display Technology Shoot-Out Article Series Overview and Home Page

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