Pixelworks claims Nokia 6.2 and 7.2 displays are best-in-class

If you’ve followed the IFA2019 launch event of new Nokia smartphones, you might have noticed that a lot of emphasis Nokia Mobile put on the displays of the new Nokia 6.2 and Nokia 7.2. While a glance at the spec-sheet will disappoint a number of people hoping for a more “up-to-date” SoC, the Finnish startup prioritised the display, among other things.

The display on our smartphones is certainly one of the most important elements of the phone, considering we look at them all the time. Will a regular user notice the difference between a HD+ vs. FullHD+ display more than between the performance of Snapdragon 660 vs 710 is up to debate, but in any case, Nokia Mobile decided to offer, what seems to be, a great display even on the Nokia 6.2 that starts at €199.

The displays on both devices are 6.3-inch in diagonal and come in FullHD+ resolution. They are LCD and carry the “PureDisplay” branding. The displays are made in cooperation with Pixelworks, that provides their tech to make the viewing experience the best possible. Pixelworks also put a press release last week talking about the displays, and I’m going to quote maybe the most interesting things:

The Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 smartphones are built with a 6.3” 19.5:9 FHD+ screen and PureDisplay technology utilizing the Pixelworks processor, which enables the following features, typically only offered in premium-priced smartphones:

• Always-on HDR – Displays HDR videos in immersive detail with up to one billion shades of color and upscales all other video content to HDR quality in real time for an always-on cinematic experience.
• Enhanced Picture Quality – With superior color accuracy, sharpness and local contrast, content is displayed in vivid, accurate color, while hidden details in dark areas and around edges are exposed without over-saturating other portions of the image.
• TrueView™ Auto-adaptive Display – Dynamically adjusts brightness and tone to match the ambient light for ease of viewing in all viewing conditions – from dimly lit rooms to the sunny outdoors – while preserving superior overall picture quality.

As compared to comparably-priced Android smartphones, the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 render a 64-fold increase in color tonality through full 10-bit, certified HDR displays and produce up to 3x improvement in video contrast, based on dynamic backlight control that works in combination with a patented tone mapping technology by Pixelworks. The result is an immersive visual experience that conveys both dark details and bright highlights with optimal power efficiency.

We are increasingly seeing more OLED panels in midrange smartphones from Samsung and Xiaomi, that also feature an under display fingerprint sensor. These OLED panels are in some cases in HD+ resolution and the quality isn’t really comparable to the panels we see in higher end smartphones. Using LCD and rear finger print sensor is a safe bet, just like using processors that we already saw on several other Nokia phones.

I’m not going to turn this into a rant, because we need to test the devices first :). It will be interesting to compare the viewing experience on the 6.2 to something like the Mi A3, that has an lower-resolution OLED panel. I tested that phone for our partner site and the OLED on Mi A3 isn’t really spectacular, even though the UD fingerprint sensor is neat.

Anyways, you can find Pixelworks press release here and we will be able to tell more about the phones once review units arrive.