iPhone 13 Pro Max Earns DisplayMate's Best Smartphone Display Award

DisplayMate today awarded the iPhone 13 Pro Max with its "Best Smartphone Display Award." The device earned the company's highest-ever display performance grade of A+ and set or matched 12 of its smartphone display performance records.

iphone 13 pro max display
iPhone 13 Pro models feature a new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion, which is Apple's branding for a variable refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz. This technology allows the display to refresh from a power-preserving 10 times per second to an ultra smooth 120 times per second depending on the type of content that is on the screen.

One of the records that the iPhone 13 Pro Max set was highest full-screen brightness for smartphones with OLED displays, according to DisplayMate's in-depth analysis. Apple says the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a max brightness of 1,000 nits for typical content and 1,200 nits for HDR content. By comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a max brightness of 800 nits for typical content and 1,200 nits for HDR content.

Other records set or matched by the iPhone 13 Pro Max include highest absolute color accuracy, highest contrast ratio, lowest screen reflectance, and more.

Samsung is the exclusive supplier of the LTPO OLED panels used for the iPhone 13 Pro Max, according to Display Supply Chain Consultants, but LG is reportedly aiming to begin supplying Apple with LTPO OLED panels as early as next year.

DisplayMate extensively tested the iPhone 13 Pro Max's display, so make sure to read the full analysis for more details.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

spiderman0616 Avatar
49 months ago
That's weird, I read just a couple of days ago on these here very forums that the OLED displays Apple uses for iPhone are "garbage" and "unusable".
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
XXPP Avatar
49 months ago

Produced by Samsung, calibrated for color accuracy by Apple.
You are completely wrong. These are 100% screens made according to technology developed by Apple. They have nothing to do with Samsung, except that Apple is hiring them as the final contractor. The same screens are produced for Apple by several other companies, including LG.
Apple is brighter, has a different coating, has a different color scheme.
Not many people know about it, but Apple has powerful laboratories dealing with screen technologies.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
the future Avatar
49 months ago

You are completely wrong. These are 100% screens made according to technology developed by Apple. They have nothing to do with Samsung, except that Apple is hiring them as the final contractor. The same screens are produced for Apple by several other companies, including LG.
Apple is brighter, has a different coating, has a different color scheme.
Not many people know about it, but Apple has powerful laboratories dealing with screen technologies.
Exactly. The displays are „from Samsung“ in the same way the A15/M1 chips are „from TSMC“.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
49 months ago

iPhones with OLED displays use PWM, therefore they automatically are garbage and should not be winning any awards.

Shame on Apple for using PWM in their displays.

Shame on MacRumors for never reporting about this as being a major issue.
That would be because, for the vast majority of people, it isn’t an issue. And blue light doesn’t prevent sleep. And you are almost certainly not allergic to gluten.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
827538 Avatar
49 months ago
My 13 Pro has the best display I've ever seen, it really blew me away. Coupled with the 120Hz VRR it's incredible, worth every penny.

Also I compared it side by side with my wife's 13 Mini and I do notice the difference the 120Hz makes, the 13 Mini felt a bit choppy. I think if you don't let yourself get used to it then it's fine.

I just wish the new MacBook Pro's had a 120Hz VRR OLED display.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ahmed7 Avatar
49 months ago
Actually both iPhone 11 Pro and 12 Pro had 1,200 nits max brightness for HDR. Only the typical brightness increased from 800 nits to 1000 nits.

Attachment Image
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)