We put the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max through our rigorous SBMARK Display test suite to measure its performance across four criteria. In the results of this test, we will analyze how it performed in a series of tests and in several common use cases.
Score
Subscores and attributes included in the overall score calculation.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
151
display
Label and attributes for eye comfort
Probability of perceiving flickering
% of the population
0.79
Minimum brightness
in nits
0.45
Circadian action factor
98%
Color
Consistency
compared to the Display-P3 color space
Pro
- Colors are accurate and visually pleasing in both indoor and outdoor environments
- Excellent readability indoors and outdoors, aided by low reflectance
- HDR video playback is well rendered in indoor lighting conditions
Against
- Luminance and contrast drop significantly in low-light conditions, reducing readability
- The brightness of HDR and SDR videos is low in low light conditions
The iPhone 17 Pro Max display offers well-balanced performance across all technical attributes, with particularly strong results in touch responsiveness and significant improvements in readability compared to its predecessor.
In terms of readability, the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers a solid and significantly improved experience. While its reflectance control doesn’t reach the effectiveness of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, it still outperforms most competitors, maintaining excellent readability even in bright outdoor environments. Thanks to its impressive peak brightness, the display remains easy to read even in the harshest lighting conditions. However, in low-light situations, the default brightness level is relatively low, which can affect visual comfort in darker environments. Users may need to manually adjust the brightness to achieve a more comfortable viewing experience suited to their preferences.
As for color performance, the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers extremely accurate rendering when True Tone is disabled, while still providing a visually pleasing and comfortable experience with True Tone enabled. This ensures consistent and natural color reproduction under different ambient lighting conditions.
For video playback, the device offers a comfortable viewing experience in indoor lighting conditions (around 800 lux), although it becomes less comfortable in auto brightness mode when used in the dark. The minimum brightness level is a little too low for comfortable viewing, meaning users may once again have to manually adjust the settings for optimal results.
Touch performance is one of the strongest attributes of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It ranks among the best devices in our database, offering fast, precise and responsive feedback that ensures smooth navigation and excellent comfort, particularly during gaming.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max also achieves a high level of visual comfort, earning the Eye Comfort Label. The device supports a PWM frequency of 480 Hz and an optional user-activated mode (Settings –> Accessibility –> Display size and text –> Display Pulse Smoothing (PWM) uses an alternative dimming technology that reduces PWM-related discomfort at lower brightness levels, making it an excellent choice for users who prioritize such features
Test summary
About SBMARK display tests: For scoring and analysis, a device is subjected to a series of objective and perceptual tests under controlled laboratory and real-life conditions. The SBMARK Display Score takes into account the overall user experience provided by the screen, considering hardware capability and software optimization. Only factory-installed video and photo apps are used during testing. More in-depth details on how SBMARK tests displays can be found in the article “A Closer Look at SBMARK Display Testing.”
The following section focuses on the key elements of our comprehensive testing and analysis performed in SBMARK laboratories. Comprehensive reports with detailed performance evaluations are available upon request. To order a copy, contact us.
How the display readability score is composed
Readability evaluates the user’s ease and comfort in viewing stationary content, such as photos or a web page, on the display under different lighting conditions. Our measurements performed in laboratories are complemented by perceptual tests and analyses.
Skin tone rendering in an indoor environment (1000 lux).
From left to right: Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
(Photo for illustrative purposes only)
Skin tone rendering in a solar environment (>90,000 lux).
From left to right: Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
(Photo for illustrative purposes only)
SCI stands for Specular Component Included, which measures both diffuse reflection and specular reflection. The reflectance of a simple glass plate is around 4%, while it reaches around 6% for a plastic plate. Although the first surface of smartphones is glass, their total reflectance (uncoated) is usually around 5% due to multiple reflections created by the complex optical stack.
The average reflectance is calculated based on the spectral reflectance in the visible spectrum range (see graph below) and human spectral sensitivity.
Uniformity
This graph shows the luminance distribution across the entire display panel. Uniformity is measured with a 20% gray pattern, with bright green indicating ideal luminance. An evenly distributed bright green color across the screen indicates that the display brightness is uniform. Other colors indicate a loss of uniformity.
Pulse width modulation is a modulation technique that generates pulses of variable width to represent the amplitude of an analog input signal. This measurement is important for comfort because low-frequency flickering can be perceived by some individuals and, in more extreme cases, can induce seizures. Some experiments show that discomfort can occur more frequently. A high PWM frequency (>1500 Hz) tends to disturb users less.
How the display color score is composed
Color evaluations are performed under different lighting conditions to see how well the device handles color with its surroundings. The devices are tested with sRGB and Display-P3 image models. Both faithful mode and default mode are used for our evaluation. Our measurements performed in laboratories are complemented by perceptual tests and analyses.
Circadian action factor is a metric that defines the impact of light on the human sleep cycle. It is the ratio of the light energy that contributes to sleep disturbances (centered around 450 nm, which represents blue light) compared to the light energy that contributes to our perception (which covers 400 nm to 700 nm and centered around 550 nm, which is green light). A high circadian action factor means that ambient light contains strong blue light energy and is likely to affect the body’s sleep cycle, while a low circadian action factor means that the light has weak blue light energy and is less likely to affect sleep rhythms.
How the Display Video score is composed
The video attribute evaluates the handling of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) and High Dynamic Range (HDR10) video in indoor and low-light conditions. Our measurements performed in laboratories are complemented by perceptual tests and analyses.
Video rendering in a low light environment (0 lux).
Clockwise from top left: Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
(Photo for illustrative purposes only)
Video rendering in an indoor environment (1000 lux).
Clockwise from top left: Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
(Photo for illustrative purposes only)
These indicators present the percentage of frame irregularity in a 30-second video. These irregularities are not necessarily perceived by users (unless they are all with the same timestamp) but are an indicator of performance.
How the Display Touch score is composed
We evaluate touch attributes in many types of content where touch is critical and requires different behaviors such as gaming (fast touch and response time), web (smooth page scrolling), and images (accurate and smooth navigation from one image to the next).
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