Apple's iPhone XS Max Has the Best Smartphone Display Ever

If you want a smartphone with the very best screen on the market, turn to Apple's iPhone XS Max.

Credit: Tom's Guide

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

DisplayMate Technologies, a company that evaluates screen quality, recently took the iPhone XS Max for a spin. And after evaluating its color accuracy, brightness, and other key measures, it determined that Apple's giant, 6.5-inch handset offers the best screen of any smartphone ever released.

In its testing, DisplayMate found that the iPhone XS Max's screen had "top tier display performance" and achieved "very good to excellent ratings" in all but two of the company's measurement categories. DisplayMate found that the screen's color accuracy is 0.8 JNCD (Just Noticeable Color Difference), which suggests that the differences are nearly impossible to see with a human eye and therefore perfect.

DisplayMate went on to say that its screen brightness was excellent, its black color performance "outstanding" and readability in high ambient light, like direct sunlight, an "A+." The screen similarly scored extremely high marks for its contrast performance, and its overall picture quality was outstanding. DisplayMate noted that the screen's full-HD+ resolution of 2688 x 1242 also helped it score high marks.

MORE: iPhone XS vs. Galaxy Note 9: Why Apple's Camera Wins

In our own iPhone XS Max review, we praised the display for its brightness (over 600 nits) and color accuracy. In side-by-side comparisons with the Galaxy Note 9, some preferred the more realistic hues offered by the iPhone XS Max's panel, but others preferred the more saturated colors of the Note 9, and you can engage different screen modes. However, the iPhone XS Max has a slight edge to our eyes because you can easily get a brighter picture indoors.

Credit: Tom's Guide

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

"The display has Diamond Sub-Pixels and Sub-Pixel Rendering with 458 pixels per inch, providing significantly higher image sharpness than can be resolved with normal 20/20 Vision at the typical viewing distances of 12 inches or more for Smartphones, so the display appears perfectly sharp," DisplayMate said. "As a result, for Smartphones it is absolutely pointless to further increase the display resolution and pixels per inch up to 4K (3940x2160 pixels) for a silly marketing wild goose chase into the stratosphere, with no visual benefit for humans!"

Ultimately, DisplayMate awarded the iPhone XS Max's screen a score of A+ and said that it's the best smartphone display on the market. Better yet for Apple, its display performed "considerably better" than any other competing device, including Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 and last year's iPhone X.

TOPICS

Don Reisinger is CEO and founder of D2 Tech Agency. A communications strategist, consultant, and copywriter, Don has also written for many leading technology and business publications including CNET, Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Forbes, Computerworld, Digital Trends, TechCrunch and Slashgear. He has also written for Tom's Guide for many years, contributing hundreds of articles on everything from phones to games to streaming and smart home.

Latest in iPhones
Foldable iPhone concept image
Are you sitting down? Here’s what the foldable iPhone could cost
iOS 19 logo on an iPhone
iOS 19's big redesign is tipped to bring a whole new look and unite all of Apple's devices — and pave the way for a foldable iPhone
iPhone 16 Pro Max shown in hand
Forget iPhone 17 — the iPhone 18 could be the first phone with under-display Face ID
iPhone 17 Air render
iPhone 17 Air report just revealed a big surprise about battery life — and Apple scrapped this screen idea
iPhone Flip Concept
Foldable iPhone and foldable iPad both just tipped for production next year
A close up image of the Apple Wallet app
iOS 18.4 adds a new way to track your spending — but I think Apple can go even further
Latest in News
A person on a laptop converting a PDF to a DOC
FBI issues warning over free online file converters that infect your PC with malware
The Find my People feature
Android Find My can now track your friends and family — here's how to use it
Foldable iPhone concept image
Are you sitting down? Here’s what the foldable iPhone could cost
Samsung HW-Q990D soundbar
Samsung’s flagship 2024 soundbar just got bricked by a new firmware update — don’t update
A hacker typing quickly on a keyboard
New MassJacker malware is hijacking digital wallets to steal large sums from users
Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence
'Adolescence' is a gripping new Netflix show that's already hit No. 1 — and it’s 100% on Rotten Tomatoes
  • zenaldo
    1-) The Galaxy Note9 delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier Display Performance and receives All Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in ALL of the DisplayMate Lab Test and Measurement Categories.
    2-) The iPhone XS Max delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier display performance and receives All Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in all BUT 2 of the DisplayMate Lab Test and Measurement Categories: Yellow (Good) in Brightness Variation with Average Picture Level (15%) that applies to many OLED displays, and Yellow (Good) in the Largest Color Shift at 30 degrees Viewing Angle (6.2 JNCD).

    All the rest is fake news and BS. Brigthness peak level is NOT equal to screen quality AT ALL.
    Reply