“At first glance the iPhone 7 looks almost indistinguishable from the 2014 iPhone 6 and 2015 iPhone 6s. Actually, the displays are the same size and have the same pixel resolution. But that is as far as it goes,” Dr. Raymond M. Soneira reports for DisplayMate. “The iPhone 7 display is a Truly Impressive major enhancement and advancement on the iPhone 6 display… and even every other mobile LCD display that we have ever tested… note that I hand out compliments on displays very carefully.”
“The iPhone 7 has Two Standard Color Gamuts, the new DCI-P3 Wide Color Gamut that is used in 4K UHD TVs and Digital Cinema, and also the traditional smaller sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut that is used for producing most existing consumer content for digital cameras, TVs, the internet, and computers, including photos, videos, and movies,” Dr. Soneira reports. “What’s more, on the iPhone 7 both Color Gamuts have been implemented with Absolute Color Accuracy that is Visually Indistinguishable from Perfect. That’s impressive.”
“The iPhone 7 has a record high contrast ratio for IPS LCD displays. The iPhone 7 has a record low screen reflectance for smartphones,” Dr. Soneira reports. “It is the most color accurate display that we have ever measured. It is visually indistinguishable from perfect, and is very likely considerably better than any mobile display, monitor, TV or UHD TV that you have… It is by far the best performing mobile LCD display that we have ever tested, and it breaks many display performance records.”
Tons more, including detailed test results, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, now, there’s a pretty good review.
It’s reviews like this that lead me to believe Apple will NOT be using OLED screens in the next iPhone.
I need to go and digest the technical aspects of the article more, but is his how Apple, or one way, how Apple would justify a lower/lesser resolution than its competitors? Honest question….
Why need a resolution which is barely appreciable by the human eye?
The human eye with 20/20 vision cannot discern any better than 292 pixels per inch at 30.5cm (12 inches) from the eye (that’s about 0.8 arc minute and a pixel size of ~16—17 microns). The Apple iPhone 7 uses 326 pixels per inch (about 20 micron pixels) which should be sufficient to cover that small minority of people who have 20/15 visual acuity. It will not cover that REALLY small number of people who have 20/10 and can still focus at 5cm like a 2 year old child, which comprise less than 0.15% of the population. Apple does use 401 pixels per inch on the iPhone 7 Plus, but that is to maintain the 9:16 aspect ratio of the screen in the specified size of the screen without having to do a great deal of calculations to adjust the images.
The point of the above, is that any greater density of pixels above 329 without a good reason, is a total waste, because the human eye can literally not discern anything beyond 292 pixels per inch at the normal screen viewing distance. If and when Apple adopts a reason to view a mobile device screen at three or four inches, then Apple may increase the pixel density of the screen, but until then, moving such large numbers of pixels around the screen is a total waste of resources that slows down the entire device and wastes power to the detriment of the user experience for no appreciable user advantage, and only gains marketing hype to attract ignorant buyers.
Thank-you, especially for your first paragraph. I don’t have the physics and biology knowledge to have figured that out on my own.
Well then, who the heck needs AMOLED?
I worry that by listening to the OLED lobby, Apple might make a mistake, if that’s the direction they choose next year.
Well they havn’t been listening to them have they, despite ill informed parroting about this new technology being intrinsically better by lazy members of the mediarati. That said it does have potential advantages in some respects that with ongoing development will almost inevitably make it a better bet in the future. Apple understands that and is thus planning ahead to move to that technology once it equals or improves upon the very advanced screen technology they currently use. I’m sure that similar utilisation of the sort of technology that makes their current screens excel will find its way into its AMOLED screens wherever possible to maintain that best of breed.
Yeah, but, does it start on fire?