Samsung Galaxy S9’s Display Takes the Crown from iPhone X for the ‘Best Performing Smartphone Display’

Last year, DisplayMate awarded the iPhone X as having the ‘best performing smartphone display’ on a smartphone. Six months later, Samsung is back to reclaim that crown with the Galaxy S9.

In its testing, DisplayMate found the Galaxy S9’s 5.8-inch OLED display to be brighter, more color accurate, reduced reflectance, and improved outdoor visibility than the one found on the Galaxy S8.

DisplayMate says that the color accuracy of the 5.8-inch QHD+ of the Galaxy S9 is “visually indistinguishable from perfect” with a record-setting high 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 Galaxy S9 is also 20 percent brighter than the one found on the Galaxy S8, though it does record 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 display also sets a new record for the reflectance score with a reflectance level of only 4.4 percent, which measures the readability of a display in bright conditions.

Samsung has also added a new Vision Accessibility display mode that is aimed at helping people with vision impairments. There’s a new Color Lens mode that provides 12 different types of color filtering with selective transparency to help improve the readability of text.

Despite a higher brightness, improved color accuracy, and viewing angles, DisplayMate notes that the S9’s display panel has the same power efficiency as the one found on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8.

Overall, DisplayMate concludes that the Galaxy S9 has “the best performing smartphone display that we have ever tested” and given it their highest-ever “Excellent A+” grade.

It is interesting to see the display battle between Samsung and Apple heat up. Samsung is the major and biggest OLED supplier out there right now, and its supplied panels are used by Apple in the iPhone X as well. Apple, thus, managed to surprise many people by extracting better performance from Samsung sourced OLED panels in the iPhone X than what the Korean company itself could do for its devices.

With Apple looking to use OLED panels on at least two of the three new iPhones it plans on launching in 2018, it will be interesting to see how the Cupertino company further improves on the tech it sources from its chief rival.

[Via DisplayMate