DisplayMate: The iPhone X is the most innovative and high performance Smartphone display that we have ever tested.

[D13H4RD]

Apple has had a reputation with enthusiasts for shipping products that have very good to excellent color accuracy out of the box, which makes Macs a favorite with professional photographers and video editors for editing their work. Their iPhones, however, while lauded for being excellent LCDs (even crowned the best ones last year), they've usually falled second fiddle to Samsung's OLED panels. This year, that changes, as DisplayMate has published their results and simply put, if you love Good displays, the X impresses.

 

Quote

By 2015 the switch to OLED iPhones became the single hottest topic in large numbers of technology publications, and then came the business and Wall Street analysts that piled on as well. By 2017 it was a deafening roar as it became obvious that Apple would launch an OLED iPhone this year... and it’s the iPhone X...

 

Switching from LCDs to OLEDs is a major engineering and manufacturing challenge, so I was eager to test and evaluate the new OLED iPhone X.

 

The result: Apple has produced an impressive Smartphone display with excellent performance and accuracy, which we cover in extensive detail below. What makes the iPhone X the Best Smartphone Display is the impressive Precision Display Calibration Apple developed, which transforms the OLED hardware into a superbly accurate, high performance, and gorgeous display, with close to Text Book Perfect Calibration and Performance!!

Source: http://www.displaymate.com/iPhoneX_ShootOut_1a.htm#Conclusion

 

Some points include;

• A new record high brightness of 634 nits (beating out the Note8's 560)
• The highest absolute color accuracy with 1.0JNCD for sRGB and 0.9 for P3
• A diamond PenTile submatrix on a plastic substrate, similar to the Note8 and Pixel 2 XL.
• Automatic color-management (Oreo finally introduced this to Android)
• 19:5.9 aspect ratio on a 5.85" panel

After all the bad news with the Pixel 2 XL's LG-made OLED panel and Apple issuing a statement warning users that due to the nature of OLED, it may wear prematurely compared to LCD, this is a welcome change of pace. Samsung has made a great panel and Apple has done a superb job tuning and calibrating it. Well done.

 

Imagine if the Pixel 2 XL has this sort of display performance...

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

"Innovative" 

[D13H4RD]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

"Innovative" 

It sorta is.

 

Samsung uses an older build of Android that only has manual color-management and Google has so far done a very lackluster job in encouraging developers to take advantage of it, because they didn't make a big deal out of it even though it's very important when you have a display capable of wide color gamut output.

[NumLock21]

Sony Walkman MP3 players already used OLED way before Apple.

[vanished]

Good to see some market leading specs (brightness, colour accuracy, etc.) but does iterative improvements really count as innovation?

I mean, if it was a totally new display tech (like something other than IPS, OLED, etc.) or a new subpixel arrangement at the very least I might be able to agree with that but as it stands, seems like they just took existing things and improved it a bit.

[captain_to_fire]

But then, Samsung is the one who made the iPhone X’s OLED display so... 

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Good to see some market leading specs (brightness, colour accuracy, etc.) but does iterative improvements really count as innovation?

It's not hugely innovative, but there's some nice stuff in it.

 

I'm still frustrated that Google doesn't seem to care about color management.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

It sorta is.

 

Samsung uses an older build of Android that only has manual color-management and Google has so far done a very lackluster job in encouraging developers to take advantage of it, because they didn't make a big deal out of it even though it's very important when you have a display capable of wide color gamut output.

It's stretching the definition of innovation. You can't call iterative improvements as "innovative". Is it an achievement worth mentioning? Yes. 

[D13H4RD]

5 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

But then, Samsung is the one who made the iPhone X’s OLED display so... 

Yep, but they had to make it according to Apple's standards and Apple themselves would also have to calibrate them and make sure the software is made to take advantage of the panel's wider color gamut when the content calls for it.

 

Samsung has made a superb panel, without a doubt, and Apple squeezed a lot of potential out of it.

 

Is it the most innovative? Almost as much as how the Note8's panel is more innovative than the S8's (which is to say, not very) but is it very good, excellent even? Yes.

[DrMacintosh]

Typical forum mentality. Give Apple credit for nothing. 

[79wjd]

14 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

"Innovative" 

So innovative that even the company building the panels can't match it. 

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

So innovative that even the company building the panels can't match it. 

Well, they did charge them a lot for those fancy panels.

 

And Apple does calibrate them and implement color management that developers actually care about.

 

I feel like I'm ranting at this point, but I really feel like Google would have actually made a very good overall phone with a superb display if they actually checked it. It's not even properly calibrated for sRGB.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Well, they did charge them a lot for those fancy panels.

 

And Apple does calibrate them and implement color management that developers actually care about.

 

I feel like I'm ranting at this point, but I really feel like Google would have actually made a very good overall phone with a superb display if they actually checked it. It's not even properly calibrated for sRGB.

There are a lot of things Google really needs to be doing....like mandating timely updates and actual OS support for any company that wants to use Android on any flagship level phone.

[D13H4RD]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

There are a lot of things Google really needs to be doing....like mandating timely updates and actual OS support for any company that wants to use Android on any flagship level phone.

They should also be thinking about how to actually sell their own phones too.

 

Last year was a mess

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

24 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Typical forum mentality. Give Apple credit for nothing. 

I think it's more over how the word "innovative" was abused. No one is saying that what Apple was able to do with the panel isn't an achievement. But calling iterative improvements "innovative", is giving too much credit. You might as well start calling an auto manufacturer's 2% fuel economy improvement for the next model year as "innovative". 

[79wjd]

14 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

They should also be thinking about how to actually sell their own phones too.

 

Last year was a mess

This year, last year, the year before that, the one before that, and the one before that. 

[D13H4RD]

7 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

This year, last year, the year before that, the one before that, and the one before that. 

It's a vicious cycle.

 

Makes you wonder how Google's supply chain works

[DrMacintosh]

Also I saw this mentioned generalizing how Apple fans aren't the most bright. 

 

You do realize that when you say that you are doing the exact thing you accuse Apple fans of doing right? 

[Shadestones]

That aspect ratio is rather odd, to be honest.
I'm wondering if any websites/apps will have a difficult time compensating for it.

[Froody129]

I’m hyped for this to drip down to lower tier phones. iPhone X is cool, but not $1000 of cool...

 

 

[JoostinOnline]

It's also the most fragile phone they've ever made.

http://bgr.com/2017/11/06/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-drop-test-videos/

 

It was stupid when Samsung when all glass, and just as stupid when Apple did it.  Aluminum is lighter, stronger, and dissipates heat better.  Looks over functionality.

 

9 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

That aspect ratio is rather odd, to be honest.
I'm wondering if any websites/apps will have a difficult time compensating for it.

No properly coded website is tied to a specific aspect ratio.

[Shadestones]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

It's also the most fragile phone they've ever made.

http://bgr.com/2017/11/06/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-drop-test-videos/

 

It was stupid when Samsung when all glass, and just as stupid when Apple did it.  Aluminum is lighter, stronger, and dissipates heat better.  Looks over functionality.

 

No properly coded website is tied to a specific aspect ratio.

But how will I use my wireless charging feature with a metal phone??

:)

[JoostinOnline]

2 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

But how will I use my wireless charging feature with a metal phone??

I don't think that would affect it.  I seriously doubt they put the aluminum connected to the logic board, or any other conductive components.

[Sfekke]

1 hour ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Apple issuing a statement warning users that due to the nature of OLED, it may wear prematurely compared to LCD

They made the iPhone X way more expensive.

Compared to other iPhones using normal LCD panels it'll break/die out quicker?

Look on the rare occasions that I buy Apple, longevity/stability and usability come to my mind.

From what I've seen/read about the iPhone X the only thing remaining is the stability.

Apple used to make expensive products that last.
Apple now makes expensive products that are hyped and are the hot new topic.

Well for now I'll stick with my Chinese phones, they work 1,5-2 years each and cost me about € 100 a pop.

 

Sorry Apple you lost a valuable costumer, not only on the handset side but also on the Mac side.

[79wjd]

37 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

That aspect ratio is rather odd, to be honest.
I'm wondering if any websites/apps will have a difficult time compensating for it.

Tis the nature of edgeless screens unless you go wide and stubby.

27 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

It's also the most fragile phone they've ever made.

http://bgr.com/2017/11/06/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-drop-test-videos/

 

It was stupid when Samsung when all glass, and just as stupid when Apple did it.  Aluminum is lighter, stronger, and dissipates heat better.  Looks over functionality.

Wireless chargers can't go through Aluminum. I agree, I wish they would have kept it as an aluminum design (I really wanted the 5s design, but whatever).

17 minutes ago, Sfekke said:

They made the iPhone X way more expensive.

Compared to other iPhones using normal LCD panels it'll break/die out quicker?

Look on the rare occasions that I buy Apple, longevity/stability and usability come to my mind.

From what I've seen/read about the iPhone X the only thing remaining is the stability.

Apple used to make expensive products that last.
Apple now makes expensive products that are hyped and are the hot new topic.

Well for now I'll stick with my Chinese phones, they work 1,5-2 years each and cost me about € 100 a pop.

 

Sorry Apple you lost a valuable costumer, not only on the handset side but also on the Mac side.

OLED panels do last, they're just more susceptible to burn in, it's just the nature of the technology. I would've preferred they stuck with LCD and dropped the price $100~, but I don't expect the X to have any longevity issues.