iPhone 12 Pro Max has received the highest screen rating possible from DisplayMate

iPhone 12 Pro Max review
(Image credit: TechRadar)

It should be no surprise to anyone that the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a great screen, but it looks like it might be one of the very best you can get on a smartphone.

DisplayMate (arguably the world's leading authority on smartphone displays) has put the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s screen through a barrage of tests, and it came out the other side with an A+ score, which is the highest rating given by the site.

In fact, the iPhone 12 Pro Max matched or broke 11 display performance records on the site, suggesting that it may well have the best smartphone screen. DisplayMate doesn’t definitively say that, but it’s certainly in the conversation, along with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Highs and lows

Highlights include a full white screen brightness of 825 nits, which is the highest found on any smartphone OLED screen, with HDR content able to go even higher to 1,200 nits.

It also has a color accuracy that’s visually indistinguishable from perfect, with the site noting that it’s “very likely considerably better than any mobile display, monitor, TV or UHD TV that you have.”

Contrast accuracy and intensity scale accuracy were also rated ‘very high’, screen reflectance was very low at 4.8%, plus it’s said to sport perfect blacks and the highest contrast ratio.

Also, while its resolution of 1284 x 2778 is lower than some phones (most notably the likes of the 4K Sony Xperia 1 II), DisplayMate notes that 4K does not appear visually sharper on a smartphone, so the resolution here is as much as anyone should need.

There’s plenty more to dig into but suffice to say you shouldn’t be disappointed with the screen on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Of course, as in depth as this is it’s still just one person’s analysis, but we also highly praised the phone’s screen in our review, and given what it costs you’d certainly hope it had one of the best displays.

Via GSMArena

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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