Why Samsung’s Galaxy S7 with OLED Display Should Serve as a Wake up Call to Apple

Mobile World Congress is happening this week, with plenty of device makers revealing their latest and greatest smartphones. One of those companies is Samsung, which has taken the wraps off of its Galaxy S7 smartphone, the latest and greatest phone in its popular Galaxy S lineup.

While the new device is a great one, there’s one thing in particular that might make Apple fans jealous – the OLED display. OLED displays have been trickling into the smartphone market for a few years now, however when they first emerged on the market, it was anything but sure that they would become the dominant display technology. At the time, the LCD technology was cutting-edge. Now., however, OLED technology is well on its way to be the more popular technology.

While Samsung now offers smartphones with OLED technology, there’s one company that hasn’t taken the OLED bait – Apple. Rumors have been flying around of late suggesting that Apple will finally be making the switch to OLED-based smartphones for its next line of iPhones, or at least within the next few years.

This switch is well past due. Apple is known for being cutting edge, however in recent times it seems to have been lacking when it comes to the display. At one time, Apple offered the highest resolution smartphone displays, however other manufacturers have taken over since then. The fact that Apple has yet to switch to OLED further pushes this idea.

The display on the Galaxy S7 is said to be far better than the display on the Galaxy S6. It reportedly offers a 29 percent increase in brightness, as well as improved visibility in bright environments and more efficiency when it comes to power consumption.

If Apple were to finally adopt an OLED display, it could mean a significant performance boost for the iPhone. The colors will be brighter, the display will be better for bright environments, and it will help improve the battery life on the iPhone.

Apple reportedly is setting its sights on releasing its first OLED-based smartphone by 2018. A number of reports have suggested that Apple has been making deals with both Samsung and LG to produce OLED displays. Other reports indicate that Apple may be developing OLED displays in a facility that it owns in Taiwan, with the displays to be developed for both the iPhone and the iPad.

Interestingly enough, some might remember that a few years ago, Tim Cook was against the idea of switching to OLED displays, suggesting that the technology was inferior to LCD technology. Of course, at the time he was right. Since then, however, OLED has been developed in a way that makes it now a better option than LCD displays.

Interestingly enough, DisplayMate, which is known for its reviews of smartphone displays, says that the Samsung Galaxy S7 is the first phone to get something right – automatic brightness controls. While often times smartphones fail to correctly get automatic brightness to work in a way that is really beneficial to users, the Galaxy S7 reportedly does it incredibly well.

When it comes to display resolution, Samsung has chosen to keep the device at 2560 x 1440 pixels, something that many experts are hailing as a good decision. This is because of the fact that displays have become so sharp, that many argue that they no longer look sharper to the human eye. While adding pixels is great for marketing, it takes away from battery life and has an effect on user experience that may not even be noticeable.

Other features on the new Galaxy S7 include options to purchase either an Edge version or the standard version, with the Galaxy S7 Edge including a display that wraps around the edge of the device. The device also includes a 12MP rear-facing camera, 5MP front-facing camera, and 32GB of onboard storage, which is expandable to 200GB.

As far as software goes, the device comes with Android 6.0. The standard version of the device offers a 3000mAh battery, and the S7 Edge offers a 3600mAh battery, presumably to help power the larger and more complex display. The device is also IP68 certified, meaning that if you happen to get it wet, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Learn More: 10 Tricks to Double Your iPhone’s Battery Life