Apple's iPhone 6 Plus & iPad Air 2 lose out to Samsung & Surface in detailed color accuracy analysis
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.
Context & Ripple Effects
Display quality had been a visible tablet battleground since 2011, when Samsung was described as the only tablet maker giving the iPad 2’s display serious competition. Apple’s own lineup also showed uneven results in the earlier iPad mini display assessment, which placed it below the fourth-generation iPad.
DisplayMate’s six-device comparison makes color accuracy a sharper basis for judging flagship screens, rather than treating resolution or product position as a proxy for display quality.
First-order effects
- Samsung and the Surface line gain an independent color-accuracy advantage in a comparison that includes Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2.
- Apple faces a documented weakness in two flagship displays, narrowing its ability to present screen quality as an uncontested iPhone-and-iPad strength.
Second-order effects
- Samsung can extend the display competition identified in the earlier iPad 2 comparison from tablet-panel quality broadly to a specific, measurable attribute: color accuracy.
- DisplayMate’s methodology gives reviewers and buyers a repeatable comparison point, increasing pressure on Apple, Samsung, and Surface makers to compete on calibrated output rather than headline specifications alone.
Third-order effects
- If independent color testing remains influential, mobile-display competition will increasingly reward panel tuning and calibration alongside resolution and size.
- The pattern points to third-party measurement becoming a product-positioning gatekeeper: device makers will need benchmarkable display performance to defend premium hardware claims.
The trend: Mobile displays are becoming a competition in independently measured visual fidelity, not simply pixel counts and screen dimensions.