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Expert says Galaxy S8 has best phone display ever, and that’s great news for the iPhone 8

Published Apr 4th, 2017 10:08AM EDT
Galaxy S8 vs. iPhone 8: OLED Display Review
Image: Samsung

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How good is that gorgeous new Infinity display that takes up almost the entire face on the Galaxy S8? Is it better than the Galaxy S7’s screen, or the iPhone 7’s display? If screen quality is a major factor when buying a new device and you only want the best, then the Galaxy S8 should move right to the top of your short list.

Year after year, Samsung manages to come up with better OLED displays for its high-end Galaxy S and Galaxy Note screens. And the experts at DisplayMate analyze each new smartphone release to give us the good, the bad, and the ugly about the new displays.

DisplayMate thoroughly tested the Galaxy S8’s new screen, just as it has with the phone’s predecessors, and concluded the S8 has the best display available. Of note, that’s great news for iPhone fans who’re waiting for the iPhone 8 to arrive. Apple’s first OLED display will be manufactured by Samsung, the only company that can meet Apple’s quality and volume demands. And it’s likely that Apple’s iPhone 8 will have a screen that matches the Galaxy S8 when it comes to quality.

“The Galaxy S8 is the first in a new generation of OLED smartphones that have a full-screen display design,” DisplayMate’s president Dr. Raymond M. Soneira explains. “It has many major and important state-of-the-art display performance enhancements, features and functions, with mobile OLED display technology now advancing faster than ever.”

“The Galaxy S8 is the most innovative and high-performance Smartphone display that we have ever lab tested. So the Galaxy S8 becomes the Best Performing Smartphone Display, earning DisplayMate’s highest ever A+ grade,” the report notes.

The Galaxy S8 has the largest native color gamut (113% DCI-P3 and 142% sRGB / Rec.709), the highest peak brightness (1,020 nits), the highest contrast rating in ambient light (227), the highest screen resolution (2960 x 1440), the highest contrast ratio, the lowest reflectance (4.5%), and the smallest brightness variation with viewing angle (29%). In every way, the Galaxy S8 is better than the Galaxy S7, whose display was highly praised when it launched last year.

If you’re really passionate about smartphone screens, you should check out DisplayMate’s highly detailed Galaxy S8 display shoot out, which is available at this link.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.