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This is why the Galaxy S5 has the best smartphone display ever

Published Mar 31st, 2014 11:17AM EDT
Samsung Galaxy S5 Display Quality

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Even the most hardened Samsung haters have to admit that the company does one thing incredibly well: Make gorgeous, eye-catching displays. The display experts at DisplayMate have come out with a comprehensive new report on the soon-to-be-released Galaxy S5 and they explain in great detail why Samsung’s latest flagship device has the single best smartphone display they’ve ever tested.

So what has Samsung done to get the highest marks that DisplayMate has ever handed out to a smartphone? For one thing, it’s placed less emphasis on boosting the top-line specs such as pixel density on the Galaxy S5, mostly because today’s smartphone displays already have resolutions so high that merely adding more pixels won’t make that much of a difference to the human eye. So instead, DisplayMate says that Samsung has concentrated on improving the Galaxy S5 display’s brightness, color accuracy and its performance in high ambient lighting.

As far as brightness goes, DisplayMate has found that the Galaxy S5’s display is 22% brighter than the Galaxy S4 and 13% brighter than the Galaxy Note 3, two devices whose displays weren’t exactly dull to look at in the first place. When it comes to color accuracy, DisplayMate says that the Galaxy S5 has “the most color accurate display we have ever measured for a smartphone or tablet,” which is particularly impressive because Samsung uses OLED displays that for a long time trailed behind LCD displays in terms of showing accurate colors. And finally, DisplayMate says that the Galaxy S5’s added brightness options give it the ability to perform better in outdoor lighting than any device it has yet tested.

“[The Galaxy S5] has a long list of new records for best smartphone display performance including: Highest Brightness, Lowest Reflectance, Highest Color Accuracy, Infinite Contrast Ratio, Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light, and smallest Brightness Variation with Viewing Angle,” DisplayMate concludes. “The Galaxy S5 has raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch — an impressive achievement for OLED technology!”

DisplayMate’s full report can be found by clicking on the source link below.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.