Skip to content

Pixel 6, S21 & iPhone 12: Whichone has the Best Screen

July 20, 2021

With the rumors of Pixel 6 being released by Google later this year, there are many leaks circling about the upcoming phone. Some rumors have been confirmed to be true while others are still debatable. Be that as it may, we already have an approximate notion of how the phone will look like and it's great news for all Pixel lovers ā€“ it's going to be amazing! The Pixel 6 will be a true contender for the best smartphone on the market.

Now, as the leaks have recently been confirmed about Pixel 6's screen quality, let's take a better look at what to expect and how that screen would compare to the current flagships ā€“ Samsung S21 and Apple iPhone 12.

What you need to know about smartphone screens first

Resolution

Resolution is the number of pixels that a given screen supports. In other words, a resolution is the number of horizontal and vertical rows of independent pixels that can display a different color at any time and thus together form an image on the screen.

A resolution of 800 Ɨ 600 means that there are 800 columns and 600 rows of pixels, or 480,000 pixels that the screen can display. The better the screen, the more pixels it can have.

Most of the latest smartphone devices have Full HD and Ultra HD resolutions. What do they mean?

What is the Full HD resolution?

The terms Full HD, FHD, and 2K refer to the same resolution - 1920 x 1080.

What is the Ultra HD resolution?

The terms Ultra HD, UHD, and 4K refer to the same resolution - 3840 x 2160.

Refresh rate

The still standard and most common refresh rate of various screens that we encounter these days is 60Hz (hertz). What does this mean? That the screen will display an image 60 times per second!

There are screens whose maximum refresh rate is higher than the standard 60Hz, therefore we have displayes whose refresh rate is 120 or even 144Hz! Are screens like this better than standard 60Hz ones?

The short answer is yes. Lower refresh rates, like 60 Hz, will lead to flickers, while 120 or 144 Hz displays will have a much smoother image transition.

With 120Hz and 144Hz, you will notice this jump in the refresh rate the most in games, although the difference is noticeable even when scrolling a web page or moving a window on the screen. There will simply be less image blur and less flicker in games, while normal desktop use will look much smoother.

Pixel 6, S21 & iPhone 12: Which one has the Best Screen

Okay, we went through the basics as shortly as we could, now letā€™s take a look at which phone has the best screen.

Samsung Galaxy S21 screen

Galaxy S21 is a phone that can be said to be a very desirable purchase for anyone who needs more compact devices in the best category, with a 6.2-inch AMOLED display. The smaller the screen, the less energy it consumes, even though it is of the best AMOLED quality.

A flat-screen instead of a curved one was a novelty that many have welcomed, and another useful thing is the variable refresh rate, which goes from 48 Hz to 120 Hz and changes dynamically depending on the content, again, saving battery and giving the best of both worlds.

However, the resolution has been reduced to Full HD 1080p but the image quality on a ā€œsmallerā€ screen is barely noticeable.

Verdict: Samsung really went for energy saving with the S21 model, but the screen remains of very high quality with Full HD and 120 Hz in AMOLED.

Apple iPhone 12

One of the reasons why Apple managed to reduce the dimensions of the iPhone 12 model is that they switched to the OLED screen.

This helped shrink the casing around the screen as well as being perfectly flat on all sides while retaining the 6.1-inch viewing screen area of the iPhone 11. The screen on the new model runs at the same 60 Hz as Always.

Overall, the OLED screen represents a significant improvement, mainly due to the improved contrast and HDR resolution of 2532 x 1170 (FHD+).

Be that as it may, several reports suggest that the screen might be faulty as people complain about the ā€œgreen screenā€. Apparently, sometimes when the brightness is below 90%, the screen will get a lot of greenish tone on some models.

Verdict: Although has a better resolution, the refresh rate remains 60 Hz, OLED is not better than AMOLED, and as problems might happen, we find it not to be better than what S21 has.

Google Pixel 6

We now know what the Pixel 6ā€™s display will look like and we like what we see!

First of all, it will be an AMOLED screen (just like S21). AMOLED represents an improvement of the OLED screen by adding an active matrix, which gives a better image and lower power consumption.

The size will be 6.4 inches which will be a bit larger than the S21 (+0.2 inch), and even larger than iPhone 12 (+0.3 inch). The big screen will not be as energy-efficient but the image quality will be amazing.

This will be followed with a 120 Hz refresh rate but only with Full HD resolution (same as S21).

Verdict: When comparing these three models, the iPhone 12 comes last while the S21 and Pixel 6 are quite tied. We like that S21 can lower the max refresh rate based on your needs, but we also like that Pixel 6 is larger and much more enjoyable.

You decide what you prefer better.

Final words

Based on everything we have so far on Pixel 6, it will be an amazing phone and the competition will have to do much more to beat it this time.

The hype around it has already made it very popular, months before its release. Some companies have already started making additional firepower for this phone, which will make it even better. For example, the i-Blades company has made a smart case that will improve both battery life, storage capacity, and protection with its i-Blades smart case.