Google Pixel 3 XL Display Ranked Alongside Galaxy Note 9, iPhone XS Max by DisplayMate

Google launched the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones earlier this month, and priced it in India starting at Rs. 71,000, and going up to Rs. 92,000 for the most premium variant. While the Pixel 2 XL was news in the wrong reasons at launch due to issues with its display panel, its successor seems to be facing no such issues. Our review praised the display, and now DisplayMate has shared its findings and has given the Pixel 3 XL an A+ rating, the  highest possible.

The Pixel 3 XL's 6.3-inch display is also the recipient of DisplayMate's "Best Smartphone Display Award." To recall, the iPhone XS Max was accredited with the same award after it launched last month. The Pixel 3 XL's display manages to offer "record" low screen reflectance and offers "offers absolute colour accuracy that is visually indistinguishable from perfect," DisplayMate noted in its findings.

The Google Pixel 3 XL smartphone sports a 6.3-inch QHD+ (1440x2960 pixels) flexible OLED display with 18.5:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 523ppi (pixels per inch). It comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and features Always-on Display technology. Additionally, features of the display include HDR support, 100,000:1 super contrast ratio, true black level, and it outputs full 24-bits depth or 16.77 million colours.

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Review

DisplayMate touts industry standard colour gamuts, automatic colour management, three user selectable colour modes, diamond sub-pixels and sub-pixel rendering, very high absolute colour accuracy, up to 424 nits of screen brightness, and record low screen reflectance at 4.3 percent as frontrunners in making the Google Pixel 3 XL a winner in the display segment.

"The Pixel 3 XL has a very impressive Top Tier display with close to Text Book Perfect Calibration Accuracy and Performance that is Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect. Based on our extensive Lab Tests and Measurements the Pixel 3 XL receives a DisplayMate Best Smartphone Display Award earning DisplayMate's highest ever Overall Display Assessment Grade of A+ by providing considerably better display performance than other competing Smartphones. This demonstrates that Google recognizes the importance of Display Excellence and has made a major commitment to improving Smartphone Display Performance," DisplayMate notes.

The report also lauds the Pixel 3 XL's Super Dim settings that lets the display go down all the way to just 3 nits. It adds that the Pixel 3 XL's display shows a small 28 percent decrease in brightness at 30 degrees. Furthermore, the report states that the "Pixel 3 XL excels due to its High Absolute Colour Accuracy (1.1 JNCD), which is visually indistinguishable from perfect, and is very likely considerably better than any mobile display, monitor, TV or UHD TV that you have."

"The Pixel 3 XL joins four top-tier smartphone displays: the Galaxy S9,  Galaxy Note 9,  iPhone X, and iPhone XS Max, that all provide close to text-book perfect calibration accuracy and performance that is visually indistinguishable from perfect," DisplayMate notes.

To recall, the iPhone XS Max was also tested by DisplayMate recently and was reported to have a screen reflectance of 4.7 percent, peak screen brightness of 660 nits, and the largest colour shift of 6.2 JNCD, which is claimed to be noticeable but not objectionable.

Can Google Pixel 3 succeed in India without massive discounts? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.