Move over, Pixel and Galaxy, this is the phone with the brightest display we've tested
Every period of smartphone development can be characterized with a single "encompassing" term that defines the era.
First, we had the metal design era, where the shift was from plastic and other "non-premium" materials to metal and glass, when design was paramount and often the biggest selling point of a device.
Next, there was the camera-centric era, when we moved away from the ubiquitous single camera. Manufacturers were in an arms race to deliver many camera upgrades and features with every generation. We also stepped into computational photography, where software was just as important as camera hardware. Of course, these eras weren't clear-cut, and we have been living through multiple eras concurrently.
Presently, we're living in the era of artificial intelligence and… high display brightness!
Phones have been getting brighter and brighter displays with each new generation over the past few years. The rapid evolution of OLED display technology has given us screens that achieve some pretty high peak brightness.
Phones that achieve between 2,000 and 3,000 nits of brightness are currently available on the shelves at pretty affordable prices. That's not just some fancy marketing way for phone makers to sell their wares, high display brightness has objective and actual real-world benefits like vastly improved legibility.
The brightest screen we've tested… so far
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which was essentially a compact camera with phone functionalities and not the other way around.
Surely, the versatile camera setup was the highlight of this exotic phone that directly clashes with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but there's one aspect of the device that, to my surprise, aced our in-house tests and positioned itself in the top spot––display brightness.
Yes, that's right, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra hit the staggering 3,287 nits of display brightness in our display benchmarking test, which is actually a little higher than the manufacturer-suggested peak brightness of 3,200 nits.
It's also worth mentioning that this result was achieved in automatic brightness mode and not the available HBM (high-brightness mode), which could probably boost the brightness slightly higher.
How does the Xiaomi 15 Ultra compare against other phones with super-bright displays?
Surely, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra isn't the only phone with such a high peak screen brightness.
In fact, most flagship phones from the past few years are present in the list of brightest screens we've tested. Some other super-bright devices are the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24 series, the Pixel 9 lineup, and OnePlus' latest OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R phones.
Here's our hall of fame at the moment. All results below were measured in our 20% APL brightness test:
PhoneArena Display benchmarks
Does this matter in real life?
In real life, you can definitely see the that this phone has a very bright screen that is a joy to use under strong lighting. Anecdotal evidence––this is one of the few phones which I've been able to use with sunglasses on under the bright noon sun with no issues whatsoever.
What's even better is that aside from getting brighter, screens are also getting more efficient, so we are reaping the benefits of those significantly brighter screens without sacrificing the potential battery life that much.
However, such high screen brightness isn't the only way to boost legibility. Screen reflections play a large part in that, and some devices like the Galaxy S25 Ultra passively boost display legibility with features like anti-reflective screen coating, which is a very user-friendly option.
Overall, higher display brightness is not just some gimmick, but a beneficial feature that has real usability benefits. Judging from the current trends, the future is bright for phone screens, both literally and figuratively.
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