The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus have the best smartphone display ever, according to a study conducted by DisplayMate Technologies, a New Hampshire-based display calibration firm. The company’s study was based on weeks of extensive lab testing of an early production unit of Samsung’s latest flagship, as revealed by DisplayMate’s President, Dr. Raymond M. Soneira. While the majority of the company’s tests were conducted on the Galaxy S8, most of the conclusions also apply to its larger sibling, as the largest difference between the two is their display size, and consequently the amount of pixels per inch they feature.
The study concluded that Samsung’s switch to an 18.5:9 aspect ratio was a positive one as it allowed the Seoul-based tech giant to create a handset with a screen shape that’s similar to the shape of the entire device. Samsung also upgraded the resolution of its new flagship duo compared to last year’s models as the screens of the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus boast a QHD+ resolution of 2960 by 1440 pixels, more than the QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution offered by the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge. The new devices support three standard color gamuts, four screen modes, and are capable of displaying colors in an extremely accurate manner, DisplayMate’s tests have revealed. Samsung’s new flagships are also the first smartphones that were ever certified by the UHD Alliance for Mobile HDR Premium, meaning they’re able to play 4K HDR content just as well as Samsung’s UHD TVs can. This was partially made possible thanks to their newly implemented support for the DCI-P3 Color Gamut that’s 26-percent larger than the Rec.709 Gamut used by standard FullHD TVs.
The Galaxy S8 is also better at handling non-HDR content than its alternatives due to its new Video Enhancer that can expand a dynamic range of multimedia files without HDR coding, the study found. Furthermore, the smartphone excelled in terms of display brightness, achieving over 1,000 nits during tests, Soneira revealed, adding how high screen brightness is an extremely important characteristic of display panels designed for HDR content. DisplayMate’s President also praised the adjustable white point and RGB color balance offered by Samsung’s latest smartphone, in addition to noting how its dual ambient light sensors were crucial for improving the Automatic Brightness setting that’s now more effective compared to Samsung’s 2016 flagships. Refer to the gallery below to see some visualizations of DisplayMate’s findings.
DisplayMate’s conclusions aren’t only significant in the sense that they indicate the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus feature displays of the highest quality, but also serve as an indication of things to come seeing how virtually all flagship smartphones scheduled to be released later this year will be equipped with Samsung-made OLED display panels. There are numerous reasons backing that prediction, all of which are detailed in DisplayMate’s previous study published in early February. The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus are officially launching worldwide on April 21.
