The Nexus 6P and Xperia Z5 Premium: A Comparative Display Analysis

As we continue to push the boundaries of smartphone technology, high-end displays have become an essential aspect of these devices. In this analysis, we'll take a closer look at the display capabilities of two flagship smartphones: the Google Nexus 6P and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. Both phones boast high-resolution AMOLED displays, but how do they compare in terms of detail and overall viewing experience?

To begin with, let's examine the displays side by side, without any additional enhancements or modifications. The human eye has limitations when it comes to resolving detail at a distance, making it difficult to notice any significant differences between these two displays. Even when held side by side, you may not be able to see the difference, especially if you're not using a high-quality camera or macro lens to zoom in on the display.

One way to overcome this limitation is to use a macro lens, which can provide a closer look at the individual pixels and their arrangement on the screen. In our experiment, we used a microscope-like setup to examine the displays up close. This revealed some notable differences between the two phones, particularly when it came to pixel density and subpixel arrangement.

The Xperia Z5 Premium has a unique subpixel matrix that's not easily noticeable with the naked eye. However, with the aid of our macro lens, we could see that the red, green, and blue subpixels are very small and closely packed together. In contrast, the Nexus 6P's display features a more conventional subpixel arrangement, which is still quite impressive.

So, what does this mean for the everyday user? The answer lies in the fact that most smartphones have Retina-like displays with pixels that are too small to be seen at arm's length. Even high-end devices like these two smartphones may not offer a significant difference in display quality when viewed from a distance. However, there are other factors that can make one display stand out from another.

In terms of viewing angles and contrast ratios, the Xperia Z5 Premium offers some advantages over its competitor. The Nexus 6P's display is still excellent, but it may not quite match the Z5 Premium in these areas. Additionally, the color temperature and accuracy of both displays are close, with the Nexus 6P perhaps having a slight edge.

Finally, we need to consider the fact that this is not necessarily a 4K smartphone. While the display resolution is high, the phone itself may not be optimized for 4K usage. This will become more important in the future as 4K content becomes more prevalent on our devices. For now, however, these displays are still among the best available.

The Google Nexus 6P is a solid device with a great display that's perfect for everyday use. While it may not offer some of the features and capabilities that Sony's flagship smartphone provides, it's still an excellent choice for anyone looking for a high-end Android experience. As for the Xperia Z5 Premium, its display is undoubtedly one of the best on the market right now, even if it's not quite ready to be considered "4K" in the classical sense.

In conclusion, these two smartphones offer some impressive displays that showcase the latest advancements in mobile technology. While there are certainly differences between them, most users will unlikely notice these distinctions in everyday use. However, for enthusiasts who want the best display experience possible, both options are worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys mkbhd here and this is the sony xperia z5 premium so this is one of sony's trio of new android smartphones for this year and it's about what you'd expect from them so a much improved 23 megapixel camera on the back a snapdragon 810 chip adreno 430 gpu and three gigabytes of ram inside alongside a beefy 3400 milliamp hour battery and all in a metal body that's ip68 water resistant and flat with its clean understated design very sony so aside from the unbelievably awkward placement of the volume button what makes this phone unique what's so premium about the sony xperia z5 premium well it's rocking a 5.5 inch 4k ips display on the front that rings in at an insane pixel density of 806 pixels per inch so you got to know that 4k is another word for uhd resolution which is 3840 by 2160 which is exactly four times 1080p that's a lot of pixels and this is the world's first 4k smartphone or to be a little bit more precise the world's first smartphone with a 4k display so the thing about it and you might have actually heard about this is that it really renders pretty much everything at a four to one ratio so 1920x1080 if you take a screenshot of the home screen it'll tell you it's 1920 by 1080. and most apps that read the phone's resolution will tell you it's 1080p because it's rendering everything at that 1080p for regular use and this saves battery and graphics strain on the gpu but in certain apps it does render in full 4k specifically in apps where you're viewing high resolution content like in your gallery when you're looking at super high-res images or watching 4k video and that's where it really shines the weird thing is you can actually see it snap into 4k mode it takes a few seconds once you open the content but then once you see it it snaps on and when it does it sort of unlocks a bunch of detail and a bunch of textures and things that appear that you couldn't see before you can tell more on certain images than others but this one for example boom it just really pops when it turns on when it makes that switch so the golden question here is can you actually tell the difference in image quality between 4k mode on the xperia z5 premium and another really high-end smartphone display so to test it out first we'll go at an arm's length so this is a z5 premium snapped into 4k mode at an arm's length so go ahead and make sure you're watching in 4k and get a good look and then this is the nexus 6p so a high-end quad hd amoled display showing the exact same image here's another of the xperia z5 premium pause it if you need to and then here's the nexus 6p now you can only tell so much through youtube but it's pretty much impossible to see the difference between these two at an arm's length especially when you hold them side by side you would think you'd see the difference but you kind of don't because the human eye can only resolve so much detail at that distance so that's kind of the point of these high resolution displays you may remember my explained video way back about retina displays pretty much every smartphone has a retina display these days where the pixels are too small to see them from an arm's length so next i did an up close test here's xperia z5 right up close and then here is that same picture on nexus 6p again xperia z5 right up close and nexus 6p curiously even from a pretty close up distance the difference is just barely noticeable and that's when you're really pixel peeping at a closer than normal distance to your phone which hey some people do but i guess that's not really considered normal use then finally i broke out the macro lens which is basically a microscope and tried it again and now you'll really start to see some differences so this time i'll do nexus 6p first and keep an eye here on the detail in the shutters on the windows and on the rooftops and all those shingles now this is xperia z5 there it is you get much more detail these thinner smaller lines smaller pixels here's nexus 6p again and i'm mainly looking here at the blades of grass up front and here's xperia z5 it separates the grass much better thanks to all those pixels and then here's another one check out the mountains on nexus 6p which by the way is a great display it's one of the best out there which is why i'm using it for the comparison look at the trees on the mountain up on the left and the windows on the building then boom xperia z5 all the windows and all the trees really impressive stuff here's the closest i could get to the panel with a macro lens on the nexus 6p you can actually see the red green and blue sub pixels here and the matrix used to make the quad hd grid and then here's the xperia z5 premium which honestly has a pretty unusual subpixel matrix looking like a bit of a zigzag pattern which you would think would hurt straight lines and more a lot but the subpixels are way too small for the naked eye to notice that they're crazy small and it took a super macro shot to really appreciate this difference so at the end of the day if you go out and buy this phone will you actually be able to see the difference between it and another high-end smartphone display no you probably won't like we said it's rendering most of the ui elements and graphics and games and apps at 1080p and that's good because that means it's saving a little bit of battery life a little bit of graphics power you're not dropping any frames trying to push all those pixels with huge animations but when it actually does click into 4k mode it takes a second and there's a very small observable difference at a very close distance from your face and this kind of shines light on the fact that at this level resolution isn't everything in fact the bigger differences you'll see between this display and others will be in viewing angles and contrast ratios and color temperatures and accuracy and brightness so the fact that we have a smartphone with a 4k screen is pretty awesome it's an engineering feat and it's something we kind of predicted a little while ago you're going to see 4k phones sooner or later and probably a year or two we're going to be having 4k displays in our pockets as insane as that sounds but yeah that being said this is the first one and in the way i phrased at the beginning of the video this is a smartphone with a 4k display but it's not really a 4k smartphone i think we'll see the first real full-time true 4k smartphones next year and in the following year after that but right now this is the first one with a panel of its kind it's awesome to look at sometimes but i wouldn't buy it just for the screen so there you go bragging rights for sony we're just not quite there yet and display aside this is actually a really nice phone either way thank you for watching this video hope you enjoyed hope you learned something and if you want to share it feel free to do that too again thanks for watching and i'll talk to you guys in the next one peacehey what is up guys mkbhd here and this is the sony xperia z5 premium so this is one of sony's trio of new android smartphones for this year and it's about what you'd expect from them so a much improved 23 megapixel camera on the back a snapdragon 810 chip adreno 430 gpu and three gigabytes of ram inside alongside a beefy 3400 milliamp hour battery and all in a metal body that's ip68 water resistant and flat with its clean understated design very sony so aside from the unbelievably awkward placement of the volume button what makes this phone unique what's so premium about the sony xperia z5 premium well it's rocking a 5.5 inch 4k ips display on the front that rings in at an insane pixel density of 806 pixels per inch so you got to know that 4k is another word for uhd resolution which is 3840 by 2160 which is exactly four times 1080p that's a lot of pixels and this is the world's first 4k smartphone or to be a little bit more precise the world's first smartphone with a 4k display so the thing about it and you might have actually heard about this is that it really renders pretty much everything at a four to one ratio so 1920x1080 if you take a screenshot of the home screen it'll tell you it's 1920 by 1080. and most apps that read the phone's resolution will tell you it's 1080p because it's rendering everything at that 1080p for regular use and this saves battery and graphics strain on the gpu but in certain apps it does render in full 4k specifically in apps where you're viewing high resolution content like in your gallery when you're looking at super high-res images or watching 4k video and that's where it really shines the weird thing is you can actually see it snap into 4k mode it takes a few seconds once you open the content but then once you see it it snaps on and when it does it sort of unlocks a bunch of detail and a bunch of textures and things that appear that you couldn't see before you can tell more on certain images than others but this one for example boom it just really pops when it turns on when it makes that switch so the golden question here is can you actually tell the difference in image quality between 4k mode on the xperia z5 premium and another really high-end smartphone display so to test it out first we'll go at an arm's length so this is a z5 premium snapped into 4k mode at an arm's length so go ahead and make sure you're watching in 4k and get a good look and then this is the nexus 6p so a high-end quad hd amoled display showing the exact same image here's another of the xperia z5 premium pause it if you need to and then here's the nexus 6p now you can only tell so much through youtube but it's pretty much impossible to see the difference between these two at an arm's length especially when you hold them side by side you would think you'd see the difference but you kind of don't because the human eye can only resolve so much detail at that distance so that's kind of the point of these high resolution displays you may remember my explained video way back about retina displays pretty much every smartphone has a retina display these days where the pixels are too small to see them from an arm's length so next i did an up close test here's xperia z5 right up close and then here is that same picture on nexus 6p again xperia z5 right up close and nexus 6p curiously even from a pretty close up distance the difference is just barely noticeable and that's when you're really pixel peeping at a closer than normal distance to your phone which hey some people do but i guess that's not really considered normal use then finally i broke out the macro lens which is basically a microscope and tried it again and now you'll really start to see some differences so this time i'll do nexus 6p first and keep an eye here on the detail in the shutters on the windows and on the rooftops and all those shingles now this is xperia z5 there it is you get much more detail these thinner smaller lines smaller pixels here's nexus 6p again and i'm mainly looking here at the blades of grass up front and here's xperia z5 it separates the grass much better thanks to all those pixels and then here's another one check out the mountains on nexus 6p which by the way is a great display it's one of the best out there which is why i'm using it for the comparison look at the trees on the mountain up on the left and the windows on the building then boom xperia z5 all the windows and all the trees really impressive stuff here's the closest i could get to the panel with a macro lens on the nexus 6p you can actually see the red green and blue sub pixels here and the matrix used to make the quad hd grid and then here's the xperia z5 premium which honestly has a pretty unusual subpixel matrix looking like a bit of a zigzag pattern which you would think would hurt straight lines and more a lot but the subpixels are way too small for the naked eye to notice that they're crazy small and it took a super macro shot to really appreciate this difference so at the end of the day if you go out and buy this phone will you actually be able to see the difference between it and another high-end smartphone display no you probably won't like we said it's rendering most of the ui elements and graphics and games and apps at 1080p and that's good because that means it's saving a little bit of battery life a little bit of graphics power you're not dropping any frames trying to push all those pixels with huge animations but when it actually does click into 4k mode it takes a second and there's a very small observable difference at a very close distance from your face and this kind of shines light on the fact that at this level resolution isn't everything in fact the bigger differences you'll see between this display and others will be in viewing angles and contrast ratios and color temperatures and accuracy and brightness so the fact that we have a smartphone with a 4k screen is pretty awesome it's an engineering feat and it's something we kind of predicted a little while ago you're going to see 4k phones sooner or later and probably a year or two we're going to be having 4k displays in our pockets as insane as that sounds but yeah that being said this is the first one and in the way i phrased at the beginning of the video this is a smartphone with a 4k display but it's not really a 4k smartphone i think we'll see the first real full-time true 4k smartphones next year and in the following year after that but right now this is the first one with a panel of its kind it's awesome to look at sometimes but i wouldn't buy it just for the screen so there you go bragging rights for sony we're just not quite there yet and display aside this is actually a really nice phone either way thank you for watching this video hope you enjoyed hope you learned something and if you want to share it feel free to do that too again thanks for watching and i'll talk to you guys in the next one peace\n"