very old pixelly display screens pricelist

A monitor is key. You’ll use it hour after hour, day after day, year after year. Monitors even have the audacity to resist obsolescence, so the monitor you buy today might be the one you’re still using in a decade. (My editor and I both have decade-old Dell U2412 monitors that are still going strong.)

I’ve reviewed monitors and laptop displays for over a decade. While different monitors suit different owners, I believe the idealhome office monitor has a 27-inch screen and 4K resolution. It uses an IPS panel, reaches a brightness of at least 250 nits, and can display 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut. Around back you’ll find a USB-C port that can deliver enough power to charge a laptop, along with HDMI and DisplayPort, plus an ergonomic stand that can adjust for height and attaches to a VESA mount.

Most standard-width monitors come in one of three sizes: 24-inch, 27-inch, and 32-inch. Bigger is not necessarily better. A large display may look more impressive, but I find it uncomfortable when placed close to my eyes. There are also practical considerations like perceived pixel density. A big monitor will look fuzzier than a smaller monitor of the same resolution unless you move it further away — which isn’t always an option.

That’s why a 27-inch monitor is my go-to recommendation. It’s large enough to look impressive on a typical home office desk but isn’t excessive. In my experience, 32-inch monitors should be reserved for unusually large and deep desks, or corner setups where it’s possible to position the display around four feet away from your face. This is especially true for 32-inch monitors with a resolution below 4K, which look grainy to me at a distance of three feet.

You can be creative with size if you mount a VESA-compatible monitor to an arm, as this will let you move it to your preference (including the proper ergonomic height). If you’re just doing it to move a large monitor farther away, though, give it a second thought. Why spend more for a larger monitor, and a monitor arm to position it farther away, instead of buying a smaller display to start?

Smaller models lack vertical space. A 29-inch ultrawide has less vertical display space than a 24-inch widescreen. Larger models generally have the opposite problem. Many are too big for a typical home office desk, not only because of their screen size, but because of the large stands used to stabilize them (some are several feet wide). You might need to rearrange your desk around a 38-inch or 43-inch monitor or add a top-tier monitor arm to make it work.

4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160) looks fantastic and is widely available on 27-inch and 32-inch displays. It’s not that expensive, either. Budget 4K 27-inch monitors like the Dell S2721QS can get you 4K for $350 or less.

With that said, settling for 1440p (2,560 x 1,440) can save money. It’s a bit disappointing on a 32-inch display, unless you move it far away, but it’s workable. A 27-inch 1440p display can look reasonably sharp and is a good choice if you personally don’t care about having the sharpest picture possible.

Super-ultrawides also don’t offer much choice. All 49-inch super-ultrawides I’m aware of use the same 5,120 x 1,440 resolution which, again, roughly equals the pixel density of a 1440p 27-inch display.

Most monitors have HDMI and DisplayPort. There’s no great reason to prefer one over the other for remote work. The huge majority of monitors sold today offer both, so the port you use will likely come down to what’s available on your PC.

If you’ve got extra cash to spend, the galaxy-brain move is to ignore HDMI and DisplayPort entirely and leap to USB-C and/or Thunderbolt. USB-C and Thunderbolt are great because they allow a single-cable solution for modern laptops that support the standard. You can plug in the laptop and charge it from the monitor while sending video to the monitor simultaneously. The best USB-C monitors even act as a hub with multiple extra ports like USB-A, USB-C, and ethernet.

Just make sure you check the fine print. Look for USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and Power Delivery, or Thunderbolt with Power Delivery (the standard has DisplayPort baked in). Those sorts of USB-C ports aren’t exactly uncommon on laptops: even the modest ThinkPad E545 I bought a few years back includes them.

But you’ll also need to make sure the monitor you buy provides enough electricity. Power Delivery currently maxes out at 100 watts, so even the most powerful monitors can’t fully power laptops like a top-spec Razer Blade or high-end MacBook Pro 16, but a monitor that delivers 60 watts or even 45 watts might be enough if you have a thin-and-light laptop like a Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Air. The higher the better, but if the USB-C monitor doesn’t deliver as much power as your laptop’s power brick, your battery might only charge when it’s idle or even powered off.

Many monitors also adjust for tilt and swivel, and some pivot 90 degrees into portrait orientation. That can be particularly handy when a monitor is used as a second display. For example, you could swivel a monitor to directly face you while doing detailed work, like editing a photo, and swing it away when it’s just displaying Slack or Discord. Tilt is similar but on the vertical axis, and especially handy if you have a standing desk, as you may need to tilt the monitor up while the desk is standing.

But if your monitor doesn’t have enough range of motion, or you want to free up space on your desk, you could instead add a VESA-compatible monitor arm to get it off the ground. Look for monitors with a 100mm x 100mm VESA spacing pattern. This is an extremely common feature found in all but the most affordable monitors, and you only need to worry about the 100mm spacing pattern. Others exist, but are relevant to other types of displays (like televisions).

A monitor arm is rarely a necessity, but it’s great for multi-monitor setups that place secondary displays around and above your main monitor, or for positioning an especially large and bulky monitor. Unfortunately, monitor arms can also be a bit expensive. A basic monitor arm off Amazon can run $30 to $50, but I’ve been burnt on their quality in the past. A good arm like those from Jarvis or Ergotron will start around $130.

Larger, heavier monitors will need a beefier, more expensive arm: the model Ergotron recommends for the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is currently $379 (and, at the time I wrote this, sold out!)

Color accuracy is critical to image quality. An inaccurate monitor will look unnatural, flat, and dull, with strange swings in quality depending on what you’re viewing and the precise colors that are inaccurate (it’s common for monitors to be less accurate in blue or cyan than other colors, for example). A monitor with terrible color will disappoint you every time you sit down to use it.

The good news? Accuracy is low-key the greatest advancement in monitors over the last decade. Noticeably inaccurate displays were common when I began testing monitors well over a decade ago. Today, most midrange monitors have reasonable accuracy straight out of the box.

Color gamut, which describes the spectrum of colors a monitor can display, is also good enough on most monitors. The majority of content on a computer targets a color gamut called sRGB. Modern monitors display at least 95 percent of this gamut, and many display it all. Other gamuts also exist. DCI-P3 is the most advertised, though you may see Rec.709 or Adobe RGB as well. These gamuts are important if your work requires them, though if that’s the case, I’m guessing you know that. As with color accuracy, buyers concerned about gamut should read reviews to verify a monitor lives up to its claims.

Why would you want a brighter monitor? Well, if you’re viewing SDR content, there’s no particular reason (aside from using a monitor in a very, very bright room which, though rare, does happen). Viewing SDR content at a high brightness (say, 300 nits or more) might look nice at a glance, but can cause image quality issues like disappointing dark levels and reduced overall contrast.

High Dynamic Range, aka HDR, is a different story. This standard supports a way higher range of luminosity than SDR. HDR10, the most common standard, technically allows for a peak brightness up to 10,000 nits. Brightness does matter for HDR because the content includes additional luminance data that only HDR-compatible displays can show.

If you are looking for an HDR monitor, DisplayHDR certification labels could help, but know that “peak luminance” means “a tiny region on screen can get that bright,” and DisplayHDR 400 is barely HDR at all. Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Nearly all monitors sold today use an LCD panel based on one of three technologies: twisted nematic (TN), in-plane switching (IPS), and vertical alignment (VA).

The least expensive monitors often use a TN panel. Avoid them. TN panel monitors will display an image, but that’s about it. They look achingly dull next to IPS and have astoundingly bad viewing angles.

A majority of monitors use IPS. Monitors based on IPS have very accurate color and can support a wide color gamut at a reasonable price. IPS struggles with dark scenes, however, because it can’t achieve a convincing shade of black. This is the dreaded “IPS glow” you may have heard of, which can look unappealing when watching movies or playing games. However, gamers still enjoy IPS monitors because some IPS panels have low response times and very high refresh rates.

High-refresh gaming displays aren’t especially expensive, with 24-inch, 144Hz models sold for as little as $200. But you’ll typically trade something away for refresh rate: that $200 monitor might use an iffy TN panel (rather than IPS or VA) or feature a low resolution. It’s possible to snag a 4K display for a reasonable sum, or one with a high refresh rate, but going for 4K at 144Hz means looking at monitors that cost as much as big televisions.

Also, USB-C with Power Delivery is rarely found in gaming monitors, and I haven’t seen a USB-C gaming monitor that doubles as a USB-C hub. That could be an issue if your work setup involves a lot of wired peripherals.

OLED? It flips the table, using an array of organic elements that create their own light. This provides pixel-level lighting control for truly unparalleled contrast you have to see to believe. OLED is also susceptible to burn-in, though there are ways to mitigate it from affecting a display prematurely.

If you demand the very best from a monitor, however, I recommend Mini LED. OLED’s burn-in worries are legitimate on the PC which, compared to a television, will display static images more frequently. Mini LED can’t match OLED’s contrast, but it’s still a major upgrade over a backlit LCD screen. There’s also the emerging category of quantum dot OLED (QD-OLED) screens, but manufacturers haven’t announced prices for those yet.

This chart shows the most common display resolutions, with the color of each resolution type indicating the display ratio (e.g. red indicates a 4:3 ratio).

Wide QXGA:Apple Cinema HD 30, Apple 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display, Dell Ultrasharp U3011, Dell 3007WFP, Dell 3008WFP, Gateway XHD3000, Samsung 305T, HP LP3065, HP ZR30W, Nexus 10

For television, the display aspect ratio (DAR) is shown, not the storage aspect ratio (SAR); analog television does not have well-defined pixels, while several digital television standards have non-square pixels.

The below distinguish SAR (aspect ratio of pixel dimensions), DAR (aspect ratio of displayed image dimensions), and the corresponding PAR (aspect ratio of individual pixels), though it currently contains some errors (inconsistencies), as flagged.

The Pixel 5 isn"t quite worth its high price, especially since its software support window ends soon (October 2023). Amazon currently sells the Pixel 4A 5G for the same price as the Pixel 6A, and while it"s a good phone, it should be cheaper. You"re better off sticking with the Pixel 6A. As for older Pixels, they"re not worth picking up. They"re just too old (and the Pixel 4 suffers from poor battery performance). Many of those devices will stop getting software updates soon if they haven"t already. Buy one of the newer models.

You get only one screen protector here and it"s very expensive. That"s because Zagg claims that the protector is five times as strong as traditional screen protectors. I haven"t seen too many scuffs on my Pixel 6A yet, but take this with a grain of salt. It"s easy to apply with the included application tool, but Zagg doesn"t include a squeegee at this price so you"ll have to use your fingers to push the air bubbles out. It comes with a dust sticker, a wet wipe, and a microfiber cloth.Google Pixel Stand (Gen 2)Photograph: Google

Of the Pixels we recommend in this guide, wireless charging is available only on the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro. Google"s very own Pixel Stand is one of the best wireless chargers around because it"s simple. The base doesn"t slide around, the phone stays put, and it enables some fun features, like turning the screen into a digital photo frame and quick access to Google Assistant. It"s made of 39 percent recycled materials, with mostly eco-friendly packaging too. Our Best Wireless Chargers guide has more options. It"s also available at Best Buy.

This charging adapter is all you need to recharge your Pixel, whichever model you have. The newest high-end Pixel phones don"t come with chargers in the box, so if you don"t have any spare USB-C chargers, it"s worth picking one up. This one"s prongs don"t fold up, but it"s still really compact.

The screen resolution of your monitor can have a huge impact on how your work is displayed, and on how comfortably you can work without straining your eyes, so it"s important to know what screen resolution your monitor has, and what screen resolution to choose when you"re upgrading your kit.

What do we mean when we talk about screen resolution? The monitor that"s connected to your PC – or built into your laptop – displays images using pixels, which are essentially small squares of light that change colour. Computer screens are made up of thousands of pixels. By changing the colours of those pixels in certain patterns, screens can show images, photos, text and all kinds of graphics.

The numbers that we use when we talk about screen resolution are the number of pixels a screen can show horizontally and vertically. A screen that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (a popular resolution often known as 1080p or Full HD), can display 1,080 pixels vertically, and 1,920 pixels horizontally.

It"s worth bearing in mind that the screen resolution that your monitor advertises isn"t the only resolution it can display. The published resolution is known as the native resolution of the screen and is the resolution that looks best on the display. You can change the resolution of the screen, although you can only change it to a lower resolution than the native resolution, not higher.

For example, if you buy a 4K (also known as an Ultra High Definition) screen, with a resolution of 3840 x 2160, and you find the resolution is too high, you can set your PC, Mac or laptop to display at a lower resolution, for example 1920 x 1080.

If you use Windows on your PC or laptop, you can check the screen resolution (and change it) by right-clicking on an empty space on the desktop and clicking "Display settings".

In the window that opens, you"ll see "Display resolution" with the current resolution listed underneath. If it says "(Recommended)" next to the resolution, that means it"s the native resolution for your display and the one that will probably look the best.

If you want to change the screen resolution, click the down arrow next to the resolution. This will show a list of all the other display resolutions your screen can handle. Click one, and the resolution will be applied – temporarily at least.

Because changing the resolution to something that your screen doesn"t support can cause problems, Windows will show you what the resolution looks like and ask you if you want to keep it. If you do, click "Keep changes". Otherwise, click "Revert" to change the resolution back to what it was before. You can also choose to do nothing, and after 15 seconds your device will revert to the previous resolution. This is useful if you accidentally choose a resolution that your display can"t handle, leading to it displaying a blank screen. Simply wait 15 seconds, and the old resolution will come back.

The easiest way to find the display resolution on your Mac or MacBook is to click the Apple icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen. On the menu that appears, select "About This Mac". A window will pop up, and at the top you"ll see "Displays." Click there, and you"ll see the size and resolution of your screen.

To change the display resolution on your Mac"s screen, click on "Displays Preferences" in the bottom right-hand corner of the open window. In the new window that pops up, select "Scaled" next to where it says "Resolution". Choose the resolution based on whether you want larger text or more space.

For people working with complex 3D models, such as architects, animators or game developers, going above 1920 x 1080 can begin to put a real strain on your machine"s GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). If you want to go for a higher resolution, make sure your hardware can handle it, otherwise you may find your PC performs very slowly when trying to render at those high resolutions.

For video editors, we recommend 1920 x 1080 as a minimum. This is because 1080p is the standard high-definition resolution for videos, so if you"re working with 1080p video, you"ll want a screen that can display that natively. If you work with 4K video, then go for a screen resolution of 3840 x 2160 since this will allow you to play back 4K footage natively.

For photographers, we"d recommend going for the highest resolution you can afford. Still images don"t require as much graphical grunt to display on high-resolution screens, and most photographs are taken at well above 1080p resolutions. For example, a camera that takes 21-megapixel photos is actually capturing images at 5,104 x 4,092 resolution. Even a 4K monitor won"t display that natively, but the higher the resolution of the screen, the better (and more accurately) your photos will appear.

The resolutions we mention above apply to standard widescreen monitors with a 16:9 aspect ratio. However, some devices have different aspect ratios – and therefore different display resolutions.

For example, the 15-inch MacBook Pro has a 2,880 x 1,800 resolution screen. That makes it a lot sharper than a standard 1080p display. Meanwhile, the Surface Laptop 3(opens in new tab) has a 15-inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and 2,496 x 1,664 resolution. Again, that makes it a better display than a standard 1080p screen, though not quite as sharp as the screen on the MacBook Pro.

Other excellent laptops with high screen resolutions recommended for digital creatives include the Surface Book 2 (with a 3,240 x 2,160 resolution), the Dell XPS 15(opens in new tab), which comes with either a 2,560 x 1,080 screen, or a 3,840 x 2,160 display.

Check out our pick of the best laptops for graphic design(opens in new tab) for more great laptops with high-resolution screens.The best deals on 4k monitors

Google"s horizontal camera bar here is polarizing. I don"t mind it, but I know many people think it"s hideous. In its defense, it not only houses larger sensors, but it also makes for a more symmetrical design than the corner camera bumps on every other flagship. And as a bonus, it doesn’t wobble when resting on a tabletop.

Both the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro have lovely OLED screens. The standard model has a 6.4-inch 1080p panel that runs at 90Hz, while the Pro uses a 6.7-inch display that goes between 10Hz and 120Hz depending on what you"re doing.

Most flagship phones have adopted OLED by now, and in general offer excellent image quality. The new frontier for displays is refresh rate, and the Pixel 6 Pro’s 120Hz screen is as buttery as the iPhone 13 Pro and Galaxy S21 Ultra’s. Scrolling through Twitter, Instagram and articles on the internet is satisfyingly fast.

The Pixel 6’s 90Hz refresh rate does make it feel a little slower, but you won’t notice if you haven’t been spoiled by 120Hz screens. If you’re upgrading from an older phone, the 90Hz panel will be an obvious improvement. Plus, this thing costs just $600, so no gripes here, especially since the iPhone 13 is $200 more and runs at 60Hz.

Under the Pixel 6’s display is a fingerprint sensor, and unfortunately it’s slow and finicky, especially compared to in-screen readers on recent Galaxy and OnePlus devices. You also can’t log in with your thumb when the screen is off, meaning unlocking your phone is a two-step process: Wake the screen, then scan your print. Google could stand to take notes from Samsung here. Place your finger on the screen of an S21 and you almost immediately see your home page.

As someone who detests typing on a phone, I love the new voice keyboard. It’s better at understanding my rambling monologues and inserting punctuation. Now transcribed text looks more natural, rather than being a long block of words. The system will even retroactively add punctuation to previous sentences while you’re speaking. That said, Assistant still isn’t perfect, and often adds periods where they don’t belong. And maybe this is more of an indictment of the way I speak, but Google seems to think everything I say is a question.

“As someone who detest typing on a phone, I love the new voice keyboard. It"s better at understanding my rambling monologues and inserting punctuation. Now transcribe text looks more natural rather than being a long block of words. The system will even retroactively add punctuation to previous sentences while you"re speaking. That said, assistant still isn"t perfect and often adds periods where they don"t belong. And maybe this is more of an indictment of the way I speak, but Google seems to think everything I say is a question”

The new keyboard also makes it easier to fix mistakes. You can’t do this hands-free unless you want to clear everything and start over, but at least you don’t have to exit voice typing mode to select a typo and then tap the speech button to start dictating again. The mic will remain on so you can repeat something with more careful enunciation, and you can use commands like “Delete” to get rid of stray words.

Google also expanded its Quick Phrases feature, which allowed you to say things like “Stop” or “Answer” in response to alarms or calls. This feature rolled out first on Google’s speakers and displays, and now on the Pixel 6 you can also say “Stop,” “Snooze,” “Answer” and “Decline.” I know it seems like a minor update, but I appreciate every little addition that makes hands-free interaction with my phone easier.

When I opened a conversation with our video producer Brian, the phone detected that he had written in German and asked if I wanted it to translate. Once I agreed, Brian’s message of “ich liebe dich” was replaced with “I love you.” As I typed out my reply, a separate text field appeared above the keyboard with my words in English being translated into Deutsch. This also worked with the new voice typing, although sometimes it reverted to the old speech keyboard (the microphone icon looks different in the latest version).

Another area where translation is baked in is Live Captions, which provides subtitles for anything playing through your phone’s speakers. In general Google’s interpretations still aren’t very accurate and sentences come off stilted. In Interpreter Mode, Brian and I had a conversation where I spoke Chinese and he spoke Korean and simply couldn’t make sense of what the other was saying unless we told it to translate both languages to English instead. But it’s not like any other translation software is better.

The phone’s Tensor chip handles all these things quickly, and since it’s all done on-device you can use the features without an internet connection. Lens in particular was very fast at identifying Korean characters on a book and correctly capitalizing the author’s names. And, though it struggled with my handwritten Chinese characters, it was still fairly speedy at showing its English interpretation.

Google has new Pixel 7 colors this time around. Both the vanilla and Pro models come in Obsidian (black) and Snow (white), but there is a third, signature color for each version. For the Pixel 7 Pro that third colorway is Hazel (a dark, nutty gray with gold accents) and for the Pixel 7 it is Lemongrass.

Google sells a few official cases for the Pixel 7 family, and good news is that those cases seem to be improved compared to the previous generation where cases would yellow and age very quickly.

Both Pixel 7 models are offered at lower prices than the competition, which in itself is a great deal, but you can save even more with trade-ins and other very tempting deals that we have summarized in our dedicated Pixel 7 deals article. We are constantly updating that too, so you know you are getting the most up-to-date and best deals possible.

I’ve accumulated a couple of cracked phones in recent months, thanks to my resistance to cases and having a 5-year old around. Because both phones happen to be phones (Galaxy S10e and Pixel 3a) I like a lot and do not want to pay to replace, I decided I’d go the uBreakiFix route to get them freshened up and back in working condition. And since some of you may be curious how this process works, I figured I’d at least document it for those who have questions.

This seems like a common sense step, but the most important thing is to decide if your phone should be replaced or fixed. If your phone is a couple of years old, there are all sorts of ways to get new phones for cheap these days, so spending $100 on a repair may not be worth doing. However, if your phone is newish or not paid off or you just really love it, a quick 2-hour fix could be the play. Fixing a $700 phone for $100 isn’t awful, but fixing a $400 phone for $100 might be a tougher decision.

Also, keep in mind that uBreakiFix is an official repair partner for Samsung and Google products, so you’ll get genuine parts. In fact, when uBreakiFix needs parts for Samsung phones, they order them directly from Samsung, at least that’s what they told me.

As your scheduled repair time arrives, dropping off your phone takes only a few minutes. A person will do a couple of quick tests to make sure there aren’t additional problems outside of the service you scheduled. For example, they make check to make sure the display still has touch responsiveness, that your WiFi works, that microphones and cell connections aren’t affected, etc.

Upon inspection of my phones, I noticed that the Pixel 3a screen replacement had popped up slightly in the bottom right corner, so they immediately took it to the back and put it into a “press” to try and fix it. Since it had already popped up once in 24 hours, they let me know that all repairs are covered for 90 days and that should it pop-up again, I could bring it back in at no cost and they’d potentially consider other ways to get the display to stay down. Should it pop-up after this post goes live, I’ll try to provide an update on how follow-ups go.

Extended warranties. In addition to the 90-day warranty, they offer extended warranties if you install their app and log the repairs you had done through some sort of loyalty program. I installed it to see how that works and tried to sign-in with my Google account, but Google basically told me it wasn’t secure enough to do that. So yeah, that’s not good and you may want to avoid it or not use your Google account to login.

Flip over the Pixel 6a, and it"s a slightly smaller version of the regular Pixel 6, right down to the thin bezel surrounding its display and the punch-hole cutout for the selfie cam in the center top of the screen. At 6 x 2.8 x 0.35 inches, the Pixel 6a is a little more compact than its 6.2 x 2.9 x 0.4-inch bigger sibling, though not nearly as small as the 5.5 x 2.7 x 0.29-inch iPhone SE (2022).

I"ve still got the Pixel 6 I reviewed last fall, and holding both it and the Pixel 6a, you can really see how Google saved costs on its budget phone. Whereas the Pixel 6 boasts a glass back and alloy frame, the Pixel 6a features what Google calls a "thermoformed composite back" — that"s fancy talk for plastic.

I appreciate that Google continues to use OLED panels for its lower-cost Pixel A phones when makers of comparably priced handsets often turn to LCD. (Someone draft a memo to Apple about the iPhone SE screen.) OLEDs offer deeper blacks and better contrast, and that comes through when you"re watching video or playing games on the Pixel 6a"s 6.1-inch display.

In its color-boosting adaptive mode, the Pixel 6a captures 131% of the sRGB color spectrum, compared to 115% for the iPhone SE. (Change the display setting on the Pixel 6a to the more muted natural, and the sRGB rating drops to a more iPhone-like 111%.) That said, Samsung"s Galaxy A53 offers a more colorful display, with a 204% rating in Vivid mode and 123% in Natural.

Colors are far more accurate on the Pixel 6a"s display, where the Delta-E rating varies between 0.25 (adaptive) and 0.2 (natural), which is better than Galaxy A53"s 0.3-plus rating. (The closer to zero, the more accurate the colors.) The iPhone SE clocks in at 0.21%.

What I most appreciate about the Pixel 6a"s display is how bright it can get, especially after the Pixel 5a"s relatively dim screen. Using a light meter, we measured peak brightness at 778 nits for the Pixel 6a with adaptive brightness turned on. That outshone both the Galaxy A53 (693 nits) and the iPhone SE (550 nits). That said, in bright sunlight, you may need to adjust the Pixel 6a"s brightness upward to make out every detail on the screen.

However, the Pixel A series story has always been more about photo processing software and computational photography, and it"s these areas that continue to drive the Pixel 6a"s camera capabilities. As a result, even with the modest camera specs, the Pixel 6a not only holds its own against rival camera phones, but produces images that could challenge those from much more expensive devices.

Both phones did a very capable job capturing the sunflowers growing in my backyard, with the flower standing in sharp contrast to the Japanese maple tree behind it. I"m particularly impressed that both phones kept the sunflower in focus, as a stiff wind was blowing during my camera testing, and I wondered whether that would create blurs in either shot. As it turns out, I needn"t have worried.

The iPhone SE (2022) lacks an ultrawide lens so to test that part of the Pixel 6a"s camera array, I grabbed an iPhone 11 Pro Max. Yes, it"s an older phone, but it was still a flagship not too long ago, and I figured it would give us a good idea of how the Pixel 6a can contend with phones that are more powerful on paper.

I didn"t notice many differences in performance between the Pixel 6a and the Pixel 6, when it came to switching between apps or even playing demanding games like PUBG Mobile. If I have one complaint about Pixel 6a performance, it"s that on-screen buttons near the corners of the phone didn"t feel as responsive as other areas of the screen, often requiring very precise touches. It"s not a huge issue, but it is a noticeable one.

Erasing people so easily and effectively from a photo was one of my favorite Pixel 6 features, and I"m glad to see it in the Pixel 6a. I"m less sold on Camouflage, which is heavily dependent on finding just the right scene and the right object to obscure. I tried it with a parked car that had poked its nose into the frame of the above photo of a movie theater"s marquee, but I don"t think that"s the most effective use of Camouflage. Perhaps I"ll eventually come across a photo that benefits from this particular set of skills, but I think my Magic Eraser use is going to primarily remove around quick-and-easy removals.

The Pixel 6a even addresses a big sticking point from the Pixel 6 — the under-display fingerprint sensor. On Google"s flagship phone, the fingerprint reader was very laggy, but the 6a"s sensor has proven much more reliable in my brief testing. That said, as with the Pixel 6, I find that you have to keep your finger pressed to the screen longer than you might be used to for the phone to consistently unlock.

In other circumstances, the difference is more negligible. Maybe you can spot the differences in this photo of a plate of sushi, but to my eyes, the Pixel 6a"s effort is every bit as good as what the Pixel 7 produces.

Puzzling battery performance aside, the Pixel 6a is hard to beat if you"re looking for a great phone for under $500. The phone has a compelling look, a bright display and better performance than its closest Android archrival, the Galaxy A53. It"s once again one of the best camera phones among midrange devices, capable of competing with phones that are much more expensive. And that Tensor chipset means your budget phone is capable of doing much more than the low-cost competition.

So if you"ve been waiting for a great camera phone at a great price, there"s no need to wait any longer. The Pixel 6a delivers on just about every front.

The Google Pixel 7 makes a strong case for belonging in your pocket. Starting at just $599, this flagship costs hundreds less than the iPhone 14 and Galaxy S23 and yet it delivers pretty much everything you could want.

The Google Pixel 7 is now on sale, with the 128GB version of the phone starting at $599 / £599/ AU$999. That"s the same debut price as Pixel 6 in 2021, with Google looking to maintain a pricing advantage over rival smartphones. Both the iPhone 14 and Samsung Galaxy S23 start at $799 in the US, so you"re able to pick up a comparable flagship for $200 less should you opt for Google. The older Galaxy S22, still available from Samsung, now costs $699, but that"s still $100 more than Google"s phone.

Google has stuck with rounded edges on the Pixel 7, which will please some people, even if I"m Team Flat Edge. I find phones with flat sides easier to keep hold of, and indeed, there have been times during my Pixel 7 testing where I"ve nearly lost my grip. Those edges also make it easy to brush the Pixel"s screen accidentally, launching things you had no intention of summoning. At least twice when taking photos, I inadvertently changed photo modes without noticing, ruining both shots.

The big change with the Pixel 7 is that Google promises a brighter display that"s capable of a peak brightness of 1,400 nits. We measured 926 nits with a light meter and adaptive brightness turned on. That"s brighter than what we saw with the iPhone 14 (757 nits), but not as much as the 1,152 nits that the Galaxy S22 hit with HDR turned on.

All the same, the Pixel 7"s screen is bright enough to see outdoors, even in direct sunlight on a cloudless day. I did have to scale display brightness up to clearly see the phone"s controls in the sun, but for the most part, the Pixel 7 display remains visible even under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Certainly, just in watching videos, you wouldn"t fault the Pixel 7 display for a lack of color. Watching Elvis stream on HBO Max, the King"s sparkling white jumpsuit shone out in a dimly lit Vegas showroom, while Encanto on Disney Plus recreated all the vibrant colors of the Casa Madrigal.

If I have a complaint about the Pixel 7"s display, it"s the bezel at the bottom of the screen, which is noticeably thicker than what you see on other flagship phones these days. The Pixel 6 had a thick bezel, too, but maybe in the ensuing year, I"ve gotten more used to edge-to-edge displays. Whatever the reason, the bezel bugged me in a way it didn"t previously.

The Pixel 7"s aptitude for getting color right is also on display with this trio of apples that I positioned on a rack in a not particularly well-light portion of my kitchen. That doesn"t stop the Pixel 7 from showcasing the apples in three distinct — and natural-looking — colors.

Google says the new chipset powering its phone speeds up the Night Sight mode so that pictures are captured in the dark twice as fast. That means less time you have to hold your phone perfectly still, and less of a chance that an inadvertently shake will introduce noise or blur into your low-light shot.

We can"t let a discussion of the Pixel 7 cameras go without mentioning the video improvements Google is introducing. The key additions will sound very familiar to iPhone owners, as Active Stabilization looks to keep your videos steady, even as you move around and Cinematic Blur adds a shallow field of view to videos, resulting in a portrait-style blur around the subject of your shot. Any similarities to the iPhone"s Action Mode and Cinematic Mode are surely coincidental.

A little more fuzziness creeps in when we move to a 5x zoom, though the Pixel 7"s shot is still perfectly passable. The words on the Tribune Tower are just as legible in the Pixel"s shot as they are in the Galaxy S22"s photo. Both zoom photos are clearly better on the Galaxy S22, but the Pixel 7 is at least able to hold its own thanks to the revamped Super Res Zoom feature.

The Pixel 7 turned in respectable scores of 1,054 single-core and 3,021 multicore when we ran Geekbench 5 to measure overall performance. That compares to 1,024 and 3,348, respectively for the Galaxy S22, while the Galaxy Z Fold 4, running a newer Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, finished with 1,328 single core and 3,831 multicore results. The iPhone 14, with its A15 Bionic chipset, bested all three of those Android phones, though the Galaxy S23 with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is putting up a decent fight.

One of the disappointments with the Pixel 6 last year involved the phone"s fingerprint sensor. The under-display sensor was slow to respond when it even could recognize your fingerprint at all. Google has improved things with the Pixel 7"s sensor, which at least speeds up the unlocking process. I still find the reader to be pretty persnickety, though, refusing to read your fingerprint when you touch the screen with just a tip of your finger — you"ve got to lay the whole finger flat on the screen to have any chance of regular success.

Happily, you"re no longer dependent on the fingerprint sensor to unlock your phone. The Pixel 7 adds face unlock, letting you unlock the device with a facial scan. The feature"s so speedy, I often end up unlocking my Pixel with my face long before I can lay my finger in the proper place to unlock the handset the semi-old-fashioned way.

Add to that the Tensor-powered features and a bright, colorful display, and the case for the Pixel 7 becomes even more compelling. It doesn"t hurt that the Pixel 7 is the least expensive phone in its class.

Screen burn, also called screen burn-in, ghost image, or display burns are images or icons that are displayed on a screen when they should not be there. Screen burn comes on gradually and gets worse over time and is most common on OLED screens. The navigation bar, the top status bar, or home screen apps are frequent images that get  “burned” into the display.

1. You aren’t looking at your phone screen with a white display. Screen burn is easiest to notice on an all-white or blank screen with no icons on it. And it is rare that your phone will display an all-white screen. This is why SmartphonesPLUS uses industry-leading phone diagnosis software and other tools that allow us to see phone screens on an all-white screen, along with other tests, to examine each phone we receive thoroughly.

2. You do not change your home screen layout or background image. You look at the same phone, with the same background every day, and can’t notice the screen burn because the icons and apps on the phone are always in the same position. It is much easier to notice screen burn when you shift the layout of icons and apps on your home screen.

Here’s an example we think relates to screen burn to help explain why it’s not as noticeable: when you see a person every day that is losing weight you don’t notice how much weight they lost, but if you saw a person you haven’t seen in over a year that lost 50 pounds you would notice right away. In the same way, your eyes and mind adjust to the screen burn as it gradually burns into the display over months or years.

Screen burn is caused by pixels displaying the same image or icon for an extended period of time. Static images such as apps, navigation bars, and keyboards can deteriorate pixels in the display from overuse. This causes these over-used pixels to look darker in color than others around them. Certain areas of the screen like status bars are more susceptible to screen burn as they are constantly displaying the same image.

As you can tell from the photos, screen burn can make the display look discolored with darker pink or gray hues. Because of its gradual onset, many users don’t even realize their display has screen burn. If you would like to check for screen burn on your phone, put your phone on a white screen. A white screen will provide contrast making the discolored pixels more noticeable.

You can avoid the deterioration of pixels by changing the image that your device displays. Try to change the positions of apps and backgrounds periodically.

Lowering the brightness will lengthen the life of the pixels in your display. Keeping the brightness as low as possible will ensure that screen burn won’t happen as quickly.

Avoid screen savers when your screen times out as they are generally static images that are displayed for a long period of time. Screen savers will cause the pixels of your display to be overworked when you are not even using your device. If you have a phone that uses always on display, make sure to turn this off to prolong the life of your screen’s pixels.

There are some apps and videos out there that claim they can fix screen burn, however, the results tend to be insignificant as it is a hardware issue of the display. The only way to truly fix screen burn is to replace the entire display of the phone. If you’d like to speak with a technician to see the cost of replacing a screen you can make an appointment or contact us.

The OnePlus Nord N20 5G has good performance and a sharp 1080p OLED screen with an in-display fingerprint reader, a feature that’s usually reserved for more expensive phones.

The OnePlus Nord N20 5G is more powerful than Samsung’s budget phones, and its 1080p OLED screen is sharper than those of other phones in this price range, which typically have lower-resolution LCDs with worse contrast. The N20 5G even offers an in-display fingerprint sensor, a rare feature on budget phones. Though it runs Android 11 out of the box, it’s slated to get Android 12, along with three years’ worth of security updates (through spring 2025). However, it doesn’t function on Verizon’s network.

Like Google’s past budget-phone options, the Google Pixel 6a has great software—but it adds more powerful hardware. The Pixel 6a beats the budget competition in almost every way, and that makes it a terrific choice, provided you can spend a little more money. For $450, the Pixel 6a offers one of the best cameras on any smartphone, including phones that cost more than twice as much. In addition, the software experience is smoother and more pleasant than what you can find on OnePlus or Samsung phones, and the Pixel 6a has the same powerful Tensor processor as the more expensive Pixel phones do. Google guarantees security updates until summer 2027, as well. However, the Pixel 6a falls short of our other picks in battery life, and it has no headphone jack.

At a mere $160, the Samsung Galaxy A03s is the cheapest phone in Samsung’s current lineup, but it doesn’t perform like a bargain-basement phone. The A03s is fast enough to browse the web, send messages, and play simple games. And despite the phone’s low price, Samsung isn’t skimping on updates: The A03s will receive updates through early 2026, a full four years’ worth of support from launch, unheard of for a phone this cheap. The build quality takes a step down in comparison with the Galaxy A13 5G, the camera isn’t very good, and this model has no 5G support, but the battery life is excellent.