iPhone 5 LCD and Samsung Galaxy S4 OLED displays compared, awarded a tie by DisplayMate

We all have our own opinions on what we like in a phone. Each of us places a value on particular features over another. Whether it be sound quality, camera performance, battery life or size, our taste in phones is as unique as ourselves. One particular feature that’s become increasingly more important in recent years is the display.
We now have phones with as many pixels on a 4.5″ plus display panel as we have on our 32″ plus TVs. It’s insane.

One argument that always prevails is the difference between OLED and LCD displays. Samsung’s AMOLED displays are often criticized for having PenTile based screen technology which often means that the sharpness isn’t as good as you would expect. It’s exactly why – even though it had a 720p panel – DisplayMate decided that the Samsung Galaxy S3′s display was no match for the iPhone 5.

This year, the company pitted the iPhone 5 against the Galaxy S4:

The iPhone 5 is now more than half way through its product cycle, which is important to keep in mind for our comparison. However, high-end LCDs like the iPhone 5 are a very mature and refined display technology, so other than screen size, resolution, and the Pixels Per Inch not much is likely to change in the next generation, no matter what Apple decides to do. The iPhone 5 is significantly brighter than the Galaxy S4, particularly for screens with mostly peak white backgrounds. Its color calibration is a bit better, although the Galaxy S4 has a more accurate White. The Galaxy S4 has a much bigger screen, higher resolution, higher PPI, much darker blacks, and better screen uniformity than the iPhone 5. They each have their own particular strengths and weaknesses, but if you scan our color coordinated Comparison Table, both displays are quite good and comparable overall – so it’s currently a tie.

While Apple will undoubtedly declare that its Retina display equipped iPhones are the best, it’s easy to see that competition is now very hot in this area.
What do you think? Does the iPhone need a 1080p display, or is it a waste of pixels?
Source: DisplayMate via: 9to5Mac