iPhone XS Max vs iPhone X: Apple's latest flagship's display sets new records

The iPhone X once had the best display available, but now it's been surpassed by the iPhone XS Max, according to display testing outfit, DisplayMate.

As you'd expect when paying for Apple's most expensive phone ever, the iPhone XS Max also has the best display of any smartphone ever.

The newer model 6.5-inch OLED display iPhone XS Max outdoes Apple's first OLED display device, the iPhone X, by delivering higher brightness and higher absolute brightness color accuracy.

Better absolute brightness color accuracy would have been more difficult to achieve on the iPhone XS Max because it has a 22 percent larger display, according to DisplayMate tester Dr Raymond Soneira, who notes that Apple comes close to "textbook perfect calibration and performance" in the iPhone XS Max's display.

According to Soneira, Apple has given the iPhone XS Max the highest resolution that any phone should have.

The display has 2,688 x 1,242 pixels at 458 pixels per inch, which already offers higher image sharpness than a person with 20/20 vision can detect when holding it.

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The display has an absolute color accuracy of 0.8 JNCD (just noticeable color difference) for the sRGB/Red.709 color gamut.

It also has a screen brightness of 660 nits for the sRGB/Rec.709 and DCI-P3 color gamuts, up from the iPhone X's 634 nits on this measure.

It also scored the highest for full-screen contrast rating in ambient light, has the highest contrast ratio of any other smartphone, and the lowest screen reflectance.

On the home screen, the iPhone XS Max produces 725 nits of brightness, topping Samsung's Galaxy and Note 9 brightness of 710 nits.

Because of Apple's engineering refinements to the iPhone XS Max's display, Soneira gives the device DisplayMate's Best Smartphone Display award and a grade of A+.

He describes the iPhone XS Max as offering "considerably better display performance than other competing smartphones".

But iPhone XS Max owners will still need to be careful handling the device. iFixit found the all-glass design of the iPhone XS and XS Max made them "highly susceptible to cracking" if dropped.

A cracked front screen would cost around $399 to replace and cracked back would cost about $599 to fix.

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