When Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones at Mobile World Congress earlier this week, the company tried to make clear that its devices are better than Apple’s iPhone X. And at least in one way, they are.
Samsung’s Galaxy S9 screen has been awarded DisplayMate’s Best Performing Smartphone Display Award and its “highest ever A+ grade.” DisplayMate—which analyzes screen quality across smartphones, televisions, and other products—announced the award on Thursday after putting the handset through its paces.
In its study, DisplayMate found that the Galaxy S9’s color accuracy is “visually indistinguishable from perfect.” The researcher added that the Galaxy S9’s screen is brighter than any other smartphone it tested and has the highest possible contrast ratio. It can even maintain its brightness and color accuracy when users aren’t looking at the screen head-on. That all translates to the best-looking screen you can get on a smartphone.
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The results are bad news for Apple’s iPhone X, which previously held the top spot for the best smartphone display in DisplayMate’s analysis. That device’s screen, which DisplayMate tested last year, also earned an A+ grade from the company and performed exceedingly well in nearly all metrics, and it could keep pace with the Galaxy S9 in a variety of areas, including color accuracy and brightness.
Either way, Samsung is a winner here. In addition to producing the screens in the Galaxy S9, Samsung is a screen vendor for Apple’s iPhone X. The company’s displays are widely considered among screen experts the best in the smartphone industry, and the Galaxy S9’s performance only bolsters that argument.
The handsets come with designs nearly identical to last year’s Galaxy S8, but run on new, higher-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processors. Several camera enhancements were also baked into the smartphones to help them snap better images.
The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will be available on March 16.