If you have ever wondered why the Lumia 900’s screen always got positive feedback from reviews even if the specifications attributed to it were nothing to scream about like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus with its HD AMOLED display, our friends over at CNet have managed to talk to a person who might be able to shed some light on the matter.
Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies who spoke to CNet explained that the reason why the screen was so good with its brightness, extremely black blacks and range of color was because of reflectance. According to the screen expert, if you can use your mobile device as a mirror to fix your hair or sneak a peek at someone sitting behind you at a coffee shop, your device has a high rate of light reflectance and that is what degrades sharpness and color quality that you can see on your screen.
Soneira discovered that the Lumia 900’s screen managed to sidestep the problem with the ClearBlack display and “circularly polarized” glare-suppressing optics. He adds that the screen reflectance that was measured on the device was just 4.4% which is reportedly lower than the iPhone 4 by 40%. Only one other phone reached that same low level of reflectance as the Lumia 900 and that was the Samsung Galaxy S.
The message here is that the phone and tablet screens with lower reflectance appear brighter and clearer to read indoors. Although it might a shock to some of us that specs aren’t everything, it would be good to reflect (pardon the pun) on this piece of information when we purchase either a tablet or smartphone in the future.