Best Smartphones for Display Quality (2024)

You might have heard about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

Samsung specifically optimized it for the Galaxy S23 lineup.

In benchmark tests, the Galaxy S23 Ultra outperforms the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Pixel 7 Pro.

First of all, I've been really impressed with the new camera.

The new 200-megapixel camera is the biggest difference from last year.

Samsung does a really great job of capturing detail and brightness here.

There is a new 12-megapixel selfie camera in all of these S23 phones.

I experienced a two-day period at 120Hz but at 1080P resolution.

Combine this excellent battery life with a pretty solid 45-watt charger that can go from zero to 100% in an hour.

I was really hoping to see faster charging from this device, but you still only get 45-watt charging.

You will receive four generations of Android OS updates with this phone.

While the G3 chipset isn't entirely bad, it falls short compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

The Pixel 8 Pro performs adequately for everyday tasks with minimal stutter or lag.

One downside is the device's tendency to run hotter than most devices due to its lack of efficient cooling.

I've consistently encountered modem and connectivity issues with the Pixel 8 Pro.

The autofocus is really fast, and it can achieve a pretty shallow depth of field with close-up subjects.

You probably already know about the Magic Eraser.

The Best Take feature allows you to select the best face for each person in a group shot from the entire burst of photos.

The Pixel video quality has improved compared to last year.

I have experienced really good battery life on the Pixels.

I've regularly gotten six to eight hours of screen-on time.

The battery performance has been consistently underwhelming.

Android 14 has already breathed new life into older Pixel devices.

The device will receive software updates for seven years.

One of the new features is that when you're on any webpage in Chrome, Google Assistant reads your screen and generates a summary.

The iPhone 15 Pro comes with this year's most advanced Apple A17 Pro chipset.

The CPU in this new A17 Pro chip is approximately 10% faster, and the graphics score has increased by 20% from last year.

You're looking at a new, bigger 48-megapixel main camera.

The improved Macro Mode is also excellent.

The 15 Pro also has the advantage when it comes to zoom.

The iPhone 15 Pros are definitely better than the 14 Pros, featuring a larger battery capacity.

I am slightly disappointed to see that the charging speed hasn't increased.

There have also been some issues attributed to iOS 17 bugs.

The phone also surprised me when it comes to performance, naturally, being the nerd that I am.

The chipset of the Huawei P60 Pro is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1.

These days, it finds itself just a tad outdated because the newest flagships are coming out with the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

Still, when it comes to performance, the P60 Pro is far from disappointing.

It achieves high benchmark scores comparable to 2022's top phones.

The main camera features a truly variable aperture, which you can adjust within a range between F 1.4 and F 4.0.

Photos from the main camera come out in 12 megapixels by default, and the auto mode uses an F 2.0 aperture for all of them.

The 90-millimeter telephoto camera has an F2.1 lens, one of the widest apertures we've seen on such a camera.

The ultra-wide camera shoots photos that are incredible for this type of camera.

The P60 Pro has a larger battery capacity than last year's, with 4815 milliamp hours versus 4360.

The battery life is much better here, as the new model has an endurance rating of 96 hours.

Charging has improved too; it's 88 Watts now.

There is also support for 50-watt wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

The interface of the P60 Pro is EMUI 13.1. It's based on Android but offers quite a different experience from your typical Android phone.

You don't have Google services or apps here; instead, EMUI 13 relies on Huawei services and apps.

There are options like G-Box, a virtual machine that acts as a workaround, allowing you to install and run Google apps.

The Pro model isn't the flagship anymore, which means the ED50 Pro doesn't get the top chipset.

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 with UFS 2.2 storage has no updates. Well, that's a lot.

Absolutely love it, like a great camera IP.

And then, there's camera lag.

In general, the screen's refresh rate will decrease to save energy when you're not interacting with it.

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 with UFS 2.2 storage has no updates. Well, that's a lot.

This is the latest chipset.

Its unique camera setup includes a main camera with a dual aperture lens and a telephoto camera with a super high-resolution sensor.

The Magic 6 Pro also features a dual selfie setup with a wider-than-most selfie camera and a 3D TF camera.

A phone with the sharpest telephoto lens on a smartphone right now, featuring a 180-megapixel camera.

It has a large battery and fast charging capabilities.

Better battery life and better charging.

The software usability animation is the best I've seen on Android, on par with iOS.

On the inside, they're all running the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip across the board.

Speaking of HDR on the S24 flagships, you can get a super HDR preview on the viewfinder, as well as in the gallery and supported third-party apps.

Additionally, the photo app receives AI capabilities.

Additionally, the phones have slightly larger batteries.

The voice recorder app now includes AI.

The Notes app now includes AI.

The phone app incorporates AI.

It offers great high-end performance.

There's the newly added ray tracing, plus a 90% larger vapor chamber to cool the phone for much longer periods.

The primary camera is still the impressive 200-megapixel sensor, with all the same pros and cons.

It has an ultra-wide lens with a bit of distortion near the edges.

And so, the one new thing in hardware this year is that they've gone from a 10-megapixel camera.

The S24 Ultra now shoots everything in HDR by default.

The next major thing I've noticed with this phone is its battery life.

I think the S24 Ultra is one of the best phones you can get, thanks to its excellent battery life.

The final highlight of my experience with the S24 Ultra is actually the setup process.

Samsung's default keyboard is another feature I haven't used very much.

I assume that seven generations of software updates basically equate to seven years.

The Xiaomi 14 isn't just a refresh of the previous model; it brings plenty of upgrades, including a better display and chipset.

The most noticeable change is the larger camera bump, which protrudes more from the back.

Completely revamped camera hardware.

Additionally, because this panel is LTPO, the 120 Hz refresh rate is extra adaptive. We observed it dialing down to as low as 10 Hz to save energy.

The software installed here isn't too surprising. You've got Android 14, of course, but then you've also got Xiaomi's fresh-out-of-the-oven new Hyper OS launcher slapped on top of that.

Xiaomi still loves to dump tons of unnecessary apps and excess bits onto its smartphones.

Xiaomi has finally taken software updates much more seriously, so you can expect several years of upgrades and security patches.

One of the major updates of the S23 series is a new custom chipset. It is not an Exynos; current flagships are coming out with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but Samsung is using a special version with higher CPU and GPU clock speeds.

The performance is excellent in both everyday tasks and heavy gaming.

While the thermal management of the S23 Plus is okay, we did experience some throttling during our prolonged stress test.

The main camera captures flagship-grade 12-megapixel photos. The level of detail is great, and so is the dynamic range, and you get vibrant colors in typical Samsung fashion.

The telephoto cam captures impressive photos; they're sharp and detailed, even though they're upscaled from 10 megapixels to 12.

The ultra-wide cam does a decent job. There's a reasonable level of detail for this sort of camera, and the colors also match the other two cameras well.

The selfie camera is actually very different. Unlike the previous 10-megapixel lens, this is now a 12-megapixel selfie lens, and you can shoot 4K at 60 frames per second with it.

The S23 Plus has a slightly larger battery than last year; it's gone from 4500 milliamp hours to 4700.

The S23 Plus achieved an impressive endurance rating of 111 hours in our proprietary tests.

The charging speed is rated the same as last year at 45 watts, and again, there's no adapter included in the box.

The interface of the S23 Plus is Samsung's One UI 5.1 on top of Android 13.

It's a highly customizable UI that is also quite fluid and snappy, thanks to version 5's behind-the-scenes optimizations.

Version 5.1 on the new Galaxy phones adds a couple of extra tweaks: there's a new battery widget and an improved weather widget.