Samsung Galaxy Note 4 display wins ‘best of the best’ for color accuracy

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 18 Nov 2014

If you’re looking for a superior smartphone or tablet, you couldn’t go wrong looking at the Apple ione 6 us, a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, or a Microsoft Surface o 3. But if you want the mobile device with the most accurate colors, there’s only one to buy.

Displaymate display analyst Ray Soneira reported Tuesday that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 represented the best flagship phone or tablet in terms of the overall or “full gamut” display color accuracy. In fact, it wasn’t even that close, with the Note 4 (using the Basic screen mode) coming out head shoulders over the the 2013 Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch tablet, the id Air 2, the  ione 6 us, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, the Surface o 3.

Through a series of tests, Soneira evaluated each display for st Noticeable Color Differences: Color differences less than 1 CD are visually indistinguishable, Soneira said, while values greater than 1 CD are visually noticeable when the two colors are touching on-screen. A smaller CD is better.

flagship display shootout overall DisplayMate

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 topped DisplayMate’s tests, which measured perceptible color accuracy.

Soneira also broke down the displays by various sub-categories: looking at the range of skin tones, for example, as well as the “organic” reds oranges used by fruits like apples carrots. Of less importance were the display’s blue accuracy, since the eye is less troubled by discrepancies in that range. Finally, there’s the white point, which affects all the lower-saturation range colors. 

In the end, however, it didn’t matter: the Note 4 beat the others hily across the board, in every category. And as the table shows, the Microsoft Surface o 3 came in second, about tied with the Galaxy Tab S.  And in last place? Both of Apple’s devices.

Soneira did note, however, that both of Apple’s devices actually finished second in how they rendered skin tone color accuracy, falling in to last place in terms of the gap in both how the id Air 2 ione 6 us rendered blues whites. 

Of course, color accuracy is just one metric to evaluate smartphones tablets. ’ve linked to our reviews of each product above to provide additional context. ich do you prefer?