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Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus & iPad Air 2 lose out to Samsung & Surface in detailed color accuracy analysis

DISPLAY-mate-01

Following its detailed reports on displays used in the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, today DisplayMate published a scientific analysis of color accuracy for the six best mobile displays it’s tested this year. Despite ranking high in some categories in the test, Apple’s new entries, the iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2, end up at the bottom of the list overall.

The comparison included the iPad Air 2, iPhone 6 Plus, Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, and the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Tab 2 from Samsung.

The test ranked the devices in four categories— Entire Color Gamut, Facial Skin Tone Colors, Organic Colors, and Blue Region from Cyan to Magenta Colors— in order to determine an overall color accuracy score. While Apple’s devices performed well for Skin Tone and Organic Color Accuracy categories and ranked second place (behind the Note 4), iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2 come in last behind Samsung and Microsoft devices for best overall color accuracy.

Its seems likely that Apple has concentrated on the important Red to Green part of the Color Space, which includes both the Skin Tone and Organic Colors. On the other hand, both the iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2 are in last place for the Full Gamut Color Accuracy. This is partly the result of an over saturated Blue primary that distorts almost the entire Blue Region, which accounts for about half of the half of the entire Color Space and increases the Average Color Error, and also partly due to the less accurate bluish White Point.

As for the winners, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 took the top spot in all categories, while the Galaxy Tab 10.5 and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tied for second overall:

1. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is the winner in Absolute Color Accuracy, coming in first place in all categories for its Basic Screen Mode setting.

2. The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 are tied closely for overall second place.

DisplayMate also notes that the iPhone 6 includes color accuracy performance “very similar” to iPhone 6 Plus, so it isn’t included. The Samsung devices, which offer several screen modes, were set to their basic default mode for the test.

You can view the full report and analysis from DisplayMate on its website here.

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Comments

  1. Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

    Uh, I’ve seen the SGN4 screen, and it’s an over-saturated mess, and the MS SP3 isn’t that great either. I’ve seen the iP6 an iPA2 screens, and they walk all over the others!

    I smell paid endorsement from Samsung…

    • George Pollen - 9 years ago

      My guess is the Samsung “basic default mode” is not the out-of-box mode, which has blown out color that appeals to children and that almost nobody ever changes.

    • Let me guess Edison – if the report had the iPhone on the top it would be a great report? See how it works – all reports which cast Apple in a good light are great, all reports which cast Apple in a bad light are part of a massive conspiracy. Are you 100% sure YOUR not in Apple’s pockets because frankly I’m not so sure.

      Incidentally, as you know, people like you exist on Android/Apple/Microsoft and even Blackberry forums – I’m surprised these companies make any money at all with the amount of people they pay off for getting positive endorsements eh.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Says the person calling themselves a troll in their name? Piss off.

      • nofo - 9 years ago

        It’s a no-brainer, Aunty, everybody knows Samsung would use the shittiest parts as per overall quality and user experience, and even they know nobody would call them out on it so long they offer lower prices. That’s why we think displaymate is BS. Additionally, there’s a thorough anandtech article on the iPhone 6 display, go check it out.

      • retablo5 - 9 years ago

        YOU’RE

      • Aunty Troll – get it. I’m an Apple user just like you – the difference is I don’t bend over for a particular manufacturer like you obviously do. In one breath your criticising ANYONE or ANYTHING which may be anti-Apple, claiming conspiracies left right and centre while vigorously defending Apple themselves even if they are shown in a bad light. My point above is perfectly valid and completely true – the fact I mentioned users like you on Android, Apple, Microsoft & Blackberry forums has completely passed you by – instead the best response you can come out with is “troll – p**s off”. Coming from a man who criticises anyone who has a different opinion than yours, that’s pretty rich don’t you think?

        9to5mac made a post about that report – you have acted as if Displaymate themselves have kicked your puppy Samsung strangled your kitten. If you can’t handle reading reports which you don’t agree with because it upsets your delicate sensibilities, why don’t you take your anger out on 9to5Mac – after all it is THIS website who published that post – not Samsung & not Displaymate.

        When you BLATANTLY come across as a hypocrite be prepared to have your motivations questioned – after all your doing EXACTLY the same, but in a highly arrogant, I know best attitude. That’s not trolling, that’s having a different opinion but in your mind it’s only trolling if someone else does it.

        Your a grown man – you should try acting it.

    • thejuanald - 9 years ago

      You’re such an idiot. You love anything that praises apple but call anything that doesn’t a paid advertisement for whoever.

      Just so you know, the Note 4 has multiple screen color options to choose from, like a television. If someone wants super saturation they can get. If someone wants true color accuracy, they can get it.

      You really are the worst.

      • nofo - 9 years ago

        Go play with your samdong galaxy and leave us alone

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        So in order to get the most out of my hardware, I have to drill down into that horrendous TouchWiz bloatware crap in order to find the best possible setting, when on the iPhone and iPad, it just works out of the box without the need to fiddle with anything?

        Yeah, I’ll continue to love my iOS gear, and you can go have a nerdgasm on your crap Scamsung junk.

        And like nofo said, leave us alone and get lost.

      • MrPete - 9 years ago

        @edison, no. I have a note 4 and my wife is a pro photographer. I calibrate her screens, printing etc.
        Out of the box the note 4 color is literally perfect. I can wreck it if I want but why.
        My wife uses a surface. Same thing. Plus the surface is great in the field with USB 3 for fast low cost file backups while on a shoot.
        We left Apple behind (except for one mac mini server that’s still functioning) because with Apple what THEY want is what you get. No choice.

        I still recommend Apple for basic users sometimes and have friends who work there.
        Clearly you ARE a fan boy if you can’t accept the very real weaknesses of your favorite platform.
        (Apple iOS has one strength over Android at this point: backup)

  2. Michael Superczynski - 9 years ago

    This is nit-picking to the utmost.
    What matters is how do things look. And the iPhone has ALWAYS looked great.
    They can have their Android-infest iPhone copies.
    Let me know when the copycats do something original.

    • Michael Superczynski - 9 years ago

      that’s “Android-infested” and I meant to say that what matters is how things look to the average Joe.

      • nofo - 9 years ago

        Wait, how come do you have two different profile pictures in one post? OMG

      • Michael Superczynski - 9 years ago

        nofo said: “Wait, how come do you have two different profile pictures in one post? OMG”
        I dunno why that is. Must be a Disqus bug.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      Right, what matters is how “things look”. And this DisplayMate analysis objectively quantifies exactly how “things look”.

      Face the truth, fanboy: Samsung make the best mobile displays. Deal with it and stop trolling like a paid Apple operative.

      • nofo - 9 years ago

        “Samsung make the best mobile displays.”
        That’s why nokias fanboys been laughing at your samdongs offerings before the master of originality and innovation, the iPhone, came out?

      • Michael Superczynski - 9 years ago

        Says the fandroid. Stop trolling like a paid Samsung operative.

    • wiltjk - 9 years ago

      “Let me know when the copycats do something original.”

      Pen.

    • MrPete - 9 years ago

      @michael apple stopped being the innovator a while ago. They now play catch up.
      Late with hi res.
      Late with phablet.
      Still no real pen surface.
      Still no accurate color.
      Still no memory expansion.
      Getting worse on maintainability (back to gluing wires on internal drives to make them unreplaceable?! Gimme a break…)

  3. Nycko Heimberg - 9 years ago

    That hurts some !….
    Pay a high price, buy “American” , and Not The best….. ;-)

    • frankman91 - 9 years ago

      Meh; it’s just the modern way. Toyota trucks made in US, Cadillac’s made in Mexico. All the aluminum parts made in Canada, all the electronics made across Asia. Just buy what you like.

      Appreciate you trying to buy American though…

  4. Jay Wade  (@JayWWade) - 9 years ago

    According to Anandtech.com, both the iPhone 6 and 6+ scored very high in overall color gamut reproduction.
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8572/the-iphone-6-plus-review-apples-first-phablet/3

    • thejuanald - 9 years ago

      Yeah, and the Note 4 and Surface Pro 3 beat them out.

    • MrPete - 9 years ago

      I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but the AnandTech reviewer is not a color scientist, IMproperly uses a canned screen calibration system, and his review is not a valid comparison.

      The color scientist behind the tests reported on this post is the guy who actually designs the color calibration systems used by display manufacturers — he knows exactly WHY the AnandTech and many other tests are invalid!

      And here is a link to his article explaining at a high level (without too much tech detail) WHY the AnandTech comparison, which is almost completely based on the invalid “dE” screen calibration measurement, is invalid: http://www.displaymate.com/news.html#Color_Accuracy

    • MrPete - 9 years ago

      By the way, AnandTech’s reviewer used a SpectraCal calibration system for his tests. Here’s what SpectraCal has to say about Dr Ray Soneira, author of the review here:

      “One of the most valued contributors to the industry’s understanding of display technology issues is Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies. Among his other great values to the industry such as an unmatchable resume and impeccable methodological rigor ­is a fearless impartiality. Ray always reports exactly what he finds, no matter whom it might offend.”
      see: http://spectracal.blogspot.com/2012/03/3d-tv-display-technology-shoot-out.html

  5. Tony Bowens - 9 years ago

    iOS 8 has generally looked pretty crappy to me since upgrading.
    Skin tones in Netflix are all over saturated.
    I think apple just caved to try and make everything “pop” which is what people view as “Better” so it’s not that surprising.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      No, it isn’t that Apple’s displays suddenly started to suck. Apple’s displays are still great, but Samsung’s displays are even better.

  6. The screen on my 6+ is beautiful.

  7. herb02135go - 9 years ago

    Color accuracy isn’t that important unless you plan to take or view photographs, or view webpages.

    Spin, sheep, spin!

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      And there’s the dump truck troll, right on schedule…

      • thejuanald - 9 years ago

        You’re worse than anyone who posts these days. Tallest Skil number 2.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        You compared me to TS? I take that as a complement, thanks!

    • repentantgamer - 9 years ago

      Ha. Herb is calling out someone for “spin.” This coming from the guy who’s too blind to see past the pockmarks on the back of a Galaxy S5.

    • nofo - 9 years ago

      keep fapping to this one, herb, we know you’re a lonely samdong turdroid lover.

      • thejuanald - 9 years ago

        You mean like most of the world?

  8. Greg Brown (@gk_brown) - 9 years ago

    “Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus & iPad Air 2 lose out to Samsung & Surface in detailed color accuracy analysis”

    Maybe so – but I’m still buying an iPhone 6. The screen looks great. More than good enough for me.

  9. Well, I really like that there’s a competitor for Apple iPhone’s. They’re forcing each other to higher the standarts so we get better device options every year.

    When it comes to these tests, objectivity is a issue for trust of course. We all agree that Samsung has over saturated childish colours, some say that you can adjust it to more natural etc. but I don’t think these ‘specs’ are the real deal on mobile phone wars.

    A better camera, a better screen, better speed and so and so. They are all very important of course but for me, and I believe for most of the iPhone choosers agree with this, the thing that derives us to Apple is the user experience, this is also what Apple always emphasizes.

    I never wanted to throw an Apple product into thrash. Even when they get old and die out completely, I collect them because I just love them. I can’t really tell what it is, it may have less color accuracy (which I really doubt) but I can see much better on them. Why? It’s the iOS design.

    For example those amateurish funny-style fonts on Android are driving me crazy, which you can change of course but I just find it amateurish to even put that silly option into the operating system. Those app icons on Android, oh… Terrible experience. Even the default icons of the system don’t have a harmony between, some of them are flat, some of them have gradient shadows. Also they can have transparent fields. This makes it really really hard to distinguish even you use just a one coloured background. In iOS, they all have a square icon with rounded edges. It’s not soring your eye out like Android.

    That menu and dashboard… You open the lock on Android and you have one or more pages you can fill with your favourite apps and widgets etc. Then you have another menu with all pages. Why? iOS have just one screen for those and it’s more than enough. Irritating.

    I can count many many things like this. Default apps, now I’m looking to my old Samsung S II Plus which was a terrible experience, I want to listen music. There’s ‘music’, ‘music hub’, ‘play music’. Which one does what? If they have different purpose, why you don’t make one app with all options inside? On iPhone, just enter to music and listen what you have on your storage. Or use spotify etc. whatever you want. For navigation, ‘google maps’, ‘local’, ‘navigation’. Three different apps, almost have the same purpose. ‘contacts’ and ‘phone’ apps. You can enter the ‘phone’ and choose the ‘contacts’ inside it, also same thing in the reverse but you have two icons for each of them. If you open contacts then choose phone inside ‘contacts’ app, you have two different apps running background. Am I the only one that getting a hard laugh at this?

    Smart functions like Smart Eye Tracking or whatever. I was blown out when I hear this, yes it’s very attractive. Tried to use it for dozens of times, however I couldn’t get used to it, many of my friends agree. It doesn’t work perfectly and I believe if Apple does this, it’ll work like a charm. They don’t just run into stuff, they try to make it perfect. Like fingerprint. Does anybody even had a problem with touchID on Apple? I don’t hear any complaints. 4k video on N4, awesome feature but even on 1080p, it shoots worse video than Apple, fuzzy. Note that Samsung has 16mp, iPhone 6 plus has 8mp. So mp doesn’t mean much. Shortly if you are not able to do it perfect, just don’t.

    Apple pay… Even my trash SII Plus have NFC. But really, how many users heard of NFC until Apple Pay, how many used it easily. I knew this phone had NFC but I still don’t even know how I can use it to pay. These are awesome technologies but if we are not able to use them in daily routine, they just create unnecessary mess in the settings panel.

    Sorry but as long as Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC or any other competitor of Apple, get united and give Android a hand and redesign a way much better operating system, Apple will always take over. I love Google with their all free services and I do believe that they can do much better than this. I’m just waiting for that day. Until Android keeps being a pain in the head, I’ll don’t even bother to read the specs of any phone besides Apple.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      “When it comes to these tests, objectivity is a issue for trust of course. We all agree that Samsung has over saturated childish colours, some say that you can adjust it to more natural etc. but I don’t think these ‘specs’ are the real deal on mobile phone wars.”

      Samsung added display color gamut options a few revisions ago. It is indeed possible to select for a 100% sRGB color space. Soniera’s DisplayMate technical reviews are among the best available, so insinuating they are untrustworthy says a lot more about you than the reviews.

      Competition benefits all consumers regardless of which brand of phone/computer we prefer. Sometimes our favorite brand will be behind, and sometimes it will be ahead, but no matter what that favorite brand is better than it would be without any competition. Thus it would be nice if the fanboys would cease their whining and bitching and just accept reality and deal with it. Go to a store and check out one of these amazing displays by Samsung. Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t technology amazing? We live in a time of such technological wonders that they would have been considered magic only a century ago. How sad that fanboys are so full of hate and fear that they cannot even admire a technological achievement if it’s made by the wrong team.

  10. Terry Gherman (@tygher) - 9 years ago

    Well, that’s going to hurt sales. Especially from all the design professionals who earn their living using their phones and tablets for colour accurate work. I’m sure there going to run out at switch platforms right now.

    IMHO, colour accuracy has never been the strongest selling point when purchasing a PC. Anyone remember how bad colour used to be on the average PC? The average person does not care since they would need a trained eye to notice the difference.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      This article is about mobile displays, not PCs. And yes, color accuracy is always important if the goal is to have a “premium” device. Compare an iPad Mini or even an iPad Air to the very best Samsung has to offer and I guarantee you the average person can tell the difference. Without training they’ll be unable to explain how and why a particular display looks better, but they still can see which is better.

      What’s funny is how so many Apple users are so full of the idea that their Apple devices are the “very best” and a testament to their superior appreciation of premium quality. Anything that challenges the supremacy of Apple must then be explained away lest it reflect poorly on the Apple users. What a sad little world some of these fanboys inhabit.

      btw I own a 6+. I can deal with it having an inferior display no problem. Guess it’s because I don’t need it to compensate for anything.

    • MrPete - 9 years ago

      If you work with photos for a living, color accuracy is a huge deal… particularly on a phone or tablet where typically you cannot adjust the display.

      This review resonates for me.

      When my wife (a pro photographer) saw the Surface screen, it was love at first sight. Almost nothing else mattered for her tablet choice (except that the surface also has USB 3 which happens to be crucial for fast/affordable backups in the field.)

      And for me — who has the job of calibrating all of her screens, print workflows, etc… having a Note 4 with already-calibrated color was icing on the cake.

  11. TBolt - 9 years ago

    I was previewing some of my work as PDF files on the iPad Air 2 and was annoyed that the some colors were clearly wrong. I thought the problem was with Adobe Reader, but it looks like Apple deserves some of the blame.

  12. dysonlu - 9 years ago

    I don’t know about the iPhone 6/6+ but previous models use screens from different manufacturers. For instance, two 4S or 5S may have screens with noticeably different color characteristics. I’ve put two 4S side-by-side and one of them show much much warmer color — the difference is pretty stricking when put side-by-side. Same with the two 5S I’ve compared.

  13. monty72 - 9 years ago

    LOL I knew this would make good reading when I saw the email title. Not the article didn’t bother reading that, went straight to the comments. Seriously it’s just a fecking phone, it’s not like it slept with your mum or something!

  14. 紅-豆 (@dpgj) - 9 years ago

    Where is iPhone 6?

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.