Deep dive on Galaxy S10 screen: Dynamic AMOLED, HDR10 +, explains

Samsung Galaxy S10 has an on-screen fingerprint reader, wireless charging of other devices, three cameras and a headphone jack. But its biggest feature is something that its owners will watch every day: the screen.

Samsung engineers have not neglected the display of the new phone. The four varieties – the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 Plus, Galaxy S10E and Galaxy S10 5G – have different size versions of the "most beautiful screen the Galaxy family has ever seen," according to Samsung. And in 2019, it will broadcast more fashionable words than on the screen, all more mysterious than the others.

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New Galaxy S10 phones stacked on soft specs

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We have not yet tested the phone nor really seen its screen in person, but as a TV reviewer (and longtime Samsung phone owner), I've already seen many of these words at the fashion.

Here is a reminder of the last words of this type used by Samsung on the S10 and their meaning. I listed them in order of importance, as indicated by Samsung's extensive reading of the display.

Dynamic AMOLED: Previous Samsung phones used the term Super AMOLED marketing. So far, it's unclear why they've opted for Dynamic mode – besides being embedded in HDR and Dynamic Tone Mapping (see below), and it sounds good . AMOLED is a real thing though. It stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode and is one of two types of screens used in today's phones – the other is a liquid crystal display (just about every OLED phone display are active matrix, so just ignore the "AM"). According to most measurements of the quality of the image, the OLED is preferable to the LCD screen, in particular because it makes it possible to obtain a shade of absolute black, which improves the contrast.

Forget about "Dynamic" and "AM": the OLED nature of the screen of the S10 will, as always, be the most important factor for the quality of the image. Just like with TVs.

Peak luminosity of 1,200 nits: Nits are a measure of luminous flux, and 1,200 of them are very bright. High-end LCD TVs may exceed this amount, but not OLED TVs. I bet Samsung reaches this figure for short periods in a tiny part of the screen, but even so, I expect the S10 to be the brightest OLED phone to date – which should not only help with HDR video, but especially in the phone, visibility in full sun. Samsung's latest OLED phone screens have also been very effective at handling reflections, another important factor in bright light performance, and I expect the same from the S10.

100% moving color volume in the DCI-P3 color gamut: This means that the phone must have a wide range of colors for more realistic colors. The P3 color gamut is standard for HDR (high dynamic range) and many new TVs are about to cover it – the closest I've measured is 99% on LG's OLED models. A color volume of 100% means covering this range at each level of brightness, which I do not even measure on TVs. In my visual tests, differences in color volume were only visible in the most extreme colors. Combined with a 0.4 Not Noticeable Color Difference (JNCD) score of 0.4, in DisplayMate tests, I expect the colors of the S10 to be extremely precise and realistic in the best (s) ) mode (s) of screen.

Blue light emission of 7 percent: Excessive blue light from screens can keep you awake – signaling the brain to stop producing melatonin – and can even contribute to blindness according to a report (here is our explanatory). According to Samsung, the screen of the S10 lowers "the percentage of blue light coming out of the OLED panels of smartphones from 12% to 7% only, a threshold never reached in the market.In addition, the new OLED screen emits 61 % less blue light than most conventional LCDs in smartphones today. "

I asked the Samsung representative how to do this and maintain a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The answer? "Previous versions of OLED had a higher color gamut level than the DCI-P3 color specification, while the new OLED with reduced blue light emission meets 100% of the DCI-P3 specification." Samsung Display also plans to bring its blue light reduction technology to other small screens, including a 15.8-inch OLED laptop screen.

HDR10 +: It's the first phone in the world to support HDR10 +, the third most popular (and best) dynamic range (at best), of which Samsung is the main defender. HDR for displays – not to be confused with HDR for photography – improves image quality by increasing reflections to make them more realistic, expanding colors, and more. The standard HDR10 format and another format called Dolby Vision are more widely available, while the HDR10 + format is currently only available from the Amazon Prime video, namely its original series. In my television comparisons, it was difficult to differentiate the three in many cases. Here's how they compare.

Dynamic tone mapping: With HDR for TVs, tonal mapping means that the incoming video must be modified to best match the capabilities of the screen. Doing it dynamically, when a video processor automatically analyzes and adjusts the scene-by-scene image, theoretically helps improve quality with HDR and non-HDR hardware. Samsung's description seems similar to televisions with this feature, including LG's OLED models. If you turn it on, you'll get a more punchy image while leaving it off to keep the desired image by the content producer. Video purists generally leave out, but that might be a good thing for some content, for example by giving non-HDR mobile games a more HDRiffic look.

On paper and based on Samsung's previous phone screens, the S10 could indeed be the best at the moment. We are looking forward to seeing this screen in person soon and comparing it to other phones as part of a comprehensive CNET review.