Poll results: Which quality are you looking for most in a mobile display?

There are undoubtedly many aspects of what constitutes a decent mobile display, and even more of what actually makes a great one. Starting with the obvious, like outdoor visibility and color reproduction, we can also list more obscure qualities like power draw efficiency and good vertical viewing angles amongst the sought-after characteristics of a mobile screen.

When it comes to personal preferences, however, we arrive at murkier waters. While manufacturers keep racing the pixel density clock with the power-thirsty Quad HD monsters of late, the average user might be well-off with a 720p panel even. When it comes to color presentation, some find the gaudy hues of most Samsung AMOLED panels "vivid", others sniff at the slightest aberration from the standard RGB gamut, while most don't really lose any sleep over it. On the other hand, we can seemingly all rally around the demands that our phone panels sport decent outdoor visibility, and are frugal with power consumption, as screens are the chief culprit for battery drain, too.

That is we asked you last week which of the mobile screen qualities listed below is the one you are looking for most in a phone or tablet, if you have to pick them based mainly on the display characteristics. Somewhat surprisingly, outdoor visibility went almost as high up there as accurate color reproduction (~26% vs 30% of the respondents). Power efficiency was rated third by our 2600 respondents, while high pixel density turned out to be most important for only about a fifth of our voters, followed by viewing angles. If we extrapolate from these poll results, those manufacturers that are smart enough to skip the insane resolution race, but focus on outdoor visibility and color reproduction instead, should see their efforts most appreciated by the end user.