Why play with a mobile phone without a good screen?

Some people who are familiar with the TV industry must know that buying a TV is buying a screen. After all, watching TV is essentially watching it on the screen. Then let's look back at our phones. Nowadays, we like to use mobile phones to kill time. Playing games and watching TV shows on the way to work are very common operations. Therefore, if your phone does not have a good screen, the visual experience will definitely be reduced!

In the past, we didn’t have high requirements for mobile phone screens, as long as they could be seen and used. However, with the emergence of high-resolution, high-color gamut, and high-refresh rate screens in recent years, our friends may have felt a little touched. Today we will take a look at what a good mobile phone screen should be like.

Choose a good screen and recognize these five standards

Resolution

Some of you may ask, "Isn't this the most basic?" You are right. The resolution of a mobile phone screen is the most basic parameter because it is easy to understand, the data is easy to recognize, and there is no possibility of fraud. Therefore, it has become the first screen parameter we introduce.

Don’t underestimate the small screen of mobile phones. The popularity of 1080P resolution is higher than that of PCs we use daily. For the mobile phones we use daily, they have already fully transitioned from the previous 720P HD era to the 1080P FHD era, and even the 2K QHD era is already in sight.

Therefore, when buying a mobile phone now, the starting point must be at least 1080P or above, especially since OLED screens are currently popular. Due to process limitations, a special Pentile sub-pixel arrangement is required (the area of ​​red and blue is twice that of green). Even if the resolution reaches 1080P, the display accuracy is not as good as that of LCD with classic RGB sub-pixel arrangement (red, blue and green have the same area), and problems such as font color fringing are prone to occur.

So in our opinion, if you buy a mobile phone now, you must start with 1080P. If you have requirements for text accuracy, you can even consider buying some 2K resolution mobile phones, which can greatly alleviate the color edge problem caused by the OLED Pentile sub-pixel arrangement and improve the fineness of the picture.

Color gamut

The color gamut is described in Baidu Encyclopedia as follows: "Color gamut is a method of encoding a color, and also refers to the sum of colors that a technical system can produce." It sounds quite profound, so it doesn't matter if you don't understand it. Translated into human language, the color gamut is the area of ​​colors that your device can display. In theory, the larger this area is, the more colors your device can display, and it will naturally look better.

Image from Wikipedia

Currently, the most commonly used standard in daily life is the sRGB standard, which is also our basic color gamut. That is to say, if your mobile phone supports sRGB, this is only the most basic and common condition. With the emergence of more and more high-definition content, the existing sRGB can no longer meet the needs of users. The new Display P3, DCI-P3 color gamuts are gradually coming to users.

Image from Wikipedia

From the information we have found in Wikipedia, we can see that the color gamut range of Display P3 and DCI-P3 is much higher than that of sRGB, which means that when you watch 4K movies, you can enjoy more colors, and naturally, the visual experience will be improved.

At present, there are many mobile phones on the market that have achieved more than 100% Display P3 and DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. You should also pay attention to this data when buying a mobile phone. Finally, please note that it is not recommended to look at mobile phones marked with NTSC color gamut. After all, this standard is completely behind the times and does not represent better color performance.

Color Accuracy

Recently, there is a very popular word on mobile phone screens, which is JNCD. Simply put, it is a standard for measuring the color accuracy of the screen. The smaller the value, the more accurate the color display. In the past, mobile phones did not pay much attention to color accuracy. Most of them only mentioned data such as color gamut and contrast. However, as users have higher and higher requirements for the professionalism of mobile phone screens, the concept of color accuracy will inevitably become a new focus of mobile phone screens.

Generally speaking, JNCD < 2 means that the screen is very good. This is the standard in the mobile phone industry. However, since last year, many manufacturers have paid much attention to color accuracy and have launched new products with JNCD < 1. If this trend continues and more and more manufacturers pay attention to this parameter, the color accuracy of mobile phone screens will be greatly improved. Although it is not a very important parameter, for better color accuracy, we also recommend that you pay more attention to the JNCD value when buying a mobile phone.

Refresh rate

Speaking of screen refresh rate, the market for PC gaming screens is more popular. However, due to the increasing popularity of mobile gaming in recent years and the smooth screen performance (120Hz) on Apple iPad Pro, more users and manufacturers have realized the importance of high refresh rate screens.

Last year, thanks to the vigorous promotion of OnePlus mobile phones in China, we finally saw the emergence of mobile phones with a 90Hz refresh rate, which has been implemented on many mobile phones. Although it is only 30Hz more than the usual 60Hz screen mobile phones, friends who have used it have said that they have felt a smoother experience.

Looking ahead to this year's mobile phone market, we believe that high refresh rate screens will become a new wave in the mobile phone industry. More mainstream mobile phones will be equipped with 90Hz or even 120Hz screens. The smooth experience brought by high refresh rate screens is unquestionable. We strongly recommend that you consider this point when purchasing a mobile phone.

brightness

Nowadays, HDR video content has become popular. In the future, many mobile phones will need higher brightness to display the changes in light and dark details of HDR content and to show the ultimate viewing experience of HDR content.

Generally speaking, screen brightness is quantified in nits. The higher the local peak brightness, the more details can be displayed when playing HDR videos. Currently, the better performing mobile phone screens can reach 1200nit, and the global peak brightness can reach 800nit. At the same time, they support HDR standards such as HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Such screens are guaranteed in terms of visual effects.

These phones have pretty good screens.

In fact, there are many key points to consider when choosing a mobile phone screen, but we believe that if the above points can be well met, the screen experience will satisfy the user's daily use. Next, we will briefly introduce several good screen mobile phones.

OnePlus 7T Pro

2K high resolution + 90Hz high refresh rate make the OnePlus 7T Pro launched last year the best screen in the market. The screen was customized at a huge cost, and it started the trend of 90Hz refresh rate screens in domestic mobile phones.

In addition to the above top parameters, the OnePlus 7T Pro phone has a color accuracy of JNCD <0.8, which is currently the top level in the industry, comparable to major manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung; it also supports Display P3 color gamut and HDR+ certification, with a maximum brightness of 800nit, and the screen experience is absolutely first-class.

Samsung S20 series

The Samsung S20 series, which was released not long ago, is a showcase of Samsung's own technology. The 2K+ level resolution plus the maximum refresh rate of 120Hz (120Hz can currently only be turned on at 1080P resolution) makes it definitely one of the best mobile phone screens on the market.

It also supports HDR10+ certification, can display 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, has a contrast ratio of up to 2 million:1, and the local peak brightness can reach 1200nit, easily "blinding"!

OPPO Reno 3 Pro

As the last product released by OPPO last year, Reno 3 Pro also put a lot of effort into the screen. Although the resolution is only 1080P+, it can't resist the temptation of 90Hz smoothness. Smoothness is the "first productivity"!

At the same time, Reno 3 Pro uses a new E3 luminous material, the peak brightness of the screen is 1100nit, and it also supports DCI-P3 wide color gamut and HDR10+. It is a good screen with a resolution of 1080P+.

iPhone 11 Pro series

Last year's iPhone 11 Pro series also put a lot of effort into the screen. Although the screen resolution remains at 2436 x 1125 (iPhone 11 Pro) and 2688 x 1242 (iPhone 11 Pro Max), and has not reached 2K+ resolution, the internal changes are still quite big.

The global maximum brightness can reach 800nit, and even 1200nit when watching HDR content. It supports the Dolby Vision HDR standard, the contrast ratio is up to 2 million:1, and the color accuracy JNCD is absolutely <0.9. Coupled with iOS's excellent global color management, it has professional display capabilities.

Final Thoughts

These key parameters are indispensable for a good mobile phone screen. Especially now that mobile phones have become devices that we use every day in our lives, and if the screen display effect is not good, it will naturally affect the experience. I also hope that after reading this article, you can gain some screen knowledge and choose a good screen mobile phone!