A serious breakdown of the iPad 2’s screen has been done by Displaymate, and the conclusions are… not too surprising. It’s an excellent IPS-LCD screen, not a cut-rate one picked to save money, and its performance is, resolution aside, about the same as an iPhone 4’s.
The screen is mostly identical to the iPad, it looks like. Some of the main points:
- Oversaturation and limited gamut: The iPad 2 and iPhone 4 both have a restricted color gamut, meaning that they have to exaggerate color with artificial oversaturation and overcontrast.
- Good white balance: Standard WB is 6500K, iPad 2 is about 6990K, which is a little warm but close enough.
- Reflections: Because the glass and the display are not directly bonded, as they are on the iPhone 4 and other mobiles, there is an air gap, allowing extra light to be reflected out. It\’s not a really big deal, though.
- Viewing angle: Very good, as I\’ve noted myself with the old iPad. Color barely changes within normal viewing angles, although the iPad 2 does show extreme brightness dropoff.
All in all, it’s fair to call it a very nice little screen. Personally I like the sound of the Galaxy Tab 8.9’s 1280×800 screen, but whether it’s of the same quality, nobody can say right now.