Microsoft Surface edges out Samsung in display tests

The Microsoft Surface's display performed well in tests, topping the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and even beating the iPad 3 in some categories.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

Nov. 12, 2012 11:25 p.m. PT

The Microsoft Surface RT sports a 1,366 by 768 resolution display. Brooke Crothers

Microsoft's Surface RT tablet topped Samsung's Galaxy tablet in a "shoot-out" done by display testing firm DisplayMate Technologies.

The Surface RT's display outperformed all of the standard resolution full size 10-inch tablets that DisplayMate has tested to date in its Shoot-Out series, Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, said in a research note today.

"On-screen text is significantly sharper, it has a better factory display calibration, and also significantly lower screen reflectance than the iPad 2 and all full size 1,280x800 Android tablets," Soneira said in a statement.

For example, it bested the 1,280x800 Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 on small-text readability -- due to Surface's sub-pixel rendering -- and on calibration. And got a rating of A- versus B+ for the Samsung display.

It was not as sharp overall, however, as the high-pixel-density iPad 3 or 4, he said. Though Soneira did add that the Surface RT "is comparable or better than the iPad 3 in all test categories except two: Screen Resolution and Color Gamut."

"This is a great start for Windows Tablets and brings much needed competition to the tablet marketplace," he said.

The next version of Microsoft Surface due early next year will boast a much higher pixel density of 1,920x1,080. That will sport an Intel Core i5 processor and run Windows 8 Pro.