
In a head-to-head comparison of the Surface display with competing tablets, Microsoft’s tablet was found beating out similarly equipped screens but couldn’t take down the Retina display on Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate recently published his tablet display shootout. His tests found that the Surface display gets Microsoft’s product line off to a “great start.”
According to Soneira, “in particular, on-screen text is significantly sharper, it has a better factory display calibration, and also significantly lower reflectance than the iPad 2 and all full-size 1280x800 Android tablets. But it is not as sharp as the iPad 3 or iPad 4, nor does it have their full color gamut.” For those of you who didn’t know, the Surface has a screen resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels. The relatively low resolution screen, especially compared with Apple’s iPad has been the subject of considerable focus as Microsoft has entered the tablet market.
It was previously mentioned that an engineer from Microsoft argued in favor of the Surface, claiming the display outperforms Apple’s iPad Retina display due to the company’s “ClearType” display technology. Steve Bathiche said ClearType maximizes the “perceived resolution” of the surface screen by cutting down on reflections, among other improvements. Soneira’s tests found that the Surface RT does in fact have the lowest screen reflectance of any tablet tested. He found that the third-generation iPad with Retina display reflects 33% more ambient light than the Surface RT, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 reflects 41% more light. Although the Surface cuts down on reflections, it can’t compete with higher resolution tablets in terms of color gamut. It was found to have 57% smaller color gamut than Apple’s latest iPad. Even though the Surface can’t compete with iPad’s retina display, Soneira did conclude that Microsoft’s tablet has a display superior to the iPad 2.
Overall, Soneira’s test found the iPad Retina display beat out the competition in viewing tests, although its major weakness was found to be a higher reflectance than the Microsoft Surface. The iPad Retina display was given a score of an “A” while the Surface earned an “A-“ and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was graded with a “B+.” For those of you who are interested in delving more into the quality of the displays involved, you can do so by hitting the source link below.
Source: DisplayMate
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