I tested brightness vs anti-reflection: Here’s what actually makes a phone screen visible

What’s APL, and why does it matter?

Besides the Oppo Find X9 Pro — keep in mind Oppo is the parent company of OnePlus — the OnePlus 15 has the brightest display we have ever tested at 20% APL in our lab.

Brightness measurements are always tied to APL (Average Picture Level), because phones hit their highest brightness with mixed content, not full-screen white (which is what 100% APL is).

We use the 20% APL measurement as we think that it is the closest to what a screen looks like in most scenarios during regular use.

So, if we take a look at the 20% APL test results, the OnePlus 15’s panel gets nearly 30% brighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max and almost 50% brighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Practical comparison

But let’s take a look at something more applicable, because these numbers start to lose their meaning when the screen is hit with direct light:

Right: iPhone 17 Pro Max | Middle: OnePlus 15 | Left: Galaxy s25 Ultra


There are a few things to take note of based on these images. Let’s get the obvious out of the way first — brightness does matter. The brighter the display, the easier it is to see through the reflections. That said, it’s also clear that brightness can only take you so far.

Even when the displays are dim, it’s clear that the anti-reflection of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max offers a massive advantage when it comes to visibility. While we can still see a big reflection on the OnePlus 15 at the highest brightness — and even some faded ones on the iPhone 17 Pro Max — the reflections on the S25 Ultra have completely disappeared.

Now let’s take another look, but from an angle:



The only phone you’ll be able to see anything on from such a wide angle is the S25 Ultra. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also does an admirable job at reducing the reflections, but the OnePlus 15’s lack of any is even more striking here. Of course, one doesn’t use their phone from such an angle, but it is an extreme example that aims to show the difference anti-reflection makes even more clearly.

This doesn’t mean anti-reflection is the be–all and end–all

Coatings naturally deteriorate over time. There have even been some reports of Galaxy S24 Ultra units that have lost their anti-reflective properties after a year of use (although not too common of an issue).

There’s also the fact that a reflection can easily be avoided by simply changing the angle of the phone. If the light doesn’t hit it in a way to reflect towards your eyes, then there is no problem to begin with.

One thing is clear, though — anti-reflection offers a more favorable solution to the visibility issue, and the same result cannot be brute forced with extremely high brightness. So, while the OnePlus 15 display is impressive, it is not as practical as that on the Galaxy S25 Ultra or iPhone 17 Pro Max.

What would truly be revolutionary is if phone manufacturers found a way to add anti-reflective properties to a display by integrating them in the glass itself. One example is Apple’s nano-texture glass, but it too suffers from loss of clarity and contrast, both of which usually come along with such screens.

Could this be the direction OnePlus takes next? The company has a reputation for pushing hardware to the extreme, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see it try to outperform Samsung in this area next year.