Fairphone 4 Display review: Decent video viewing

The Fairphone 4 hit the market in October 2021, and as always, the manufacturer’s goal is to produce a more environmentally friendly, user-serviceable device that provides the kind of high-end functionality consumers have come to expect. Let’s take a look at how well it performed in our visualization protocol tests.

Main display specifications:

6.3 inch IPS LCD display
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 (410 ppi)
Aspect Ratio: 19.5: 9
Maximum refresh rate: 60Hz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 5G (8 nm)

Learn about SBMARK visualization tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone and other display reviews, SBMARK engineers perform a series of objective and perceptual tests in controlled laboratory and under real-life conditions. This article highlights the most important results of our tests. Please note that we evaluate display attributes using only the device’s built-in display hardware and related still image (gallery) and video apps with default settings. (For in-depth information on how we rate smartphones and other displays, see our articles, “How SBMARK Tests Display Quality” and “A Closer Look at SBMARK Display Tests.”)

Test summary

Pros

Brightness suitable for indoor conditions
Pleasant HDR10 video rendering
No visible flicker

Cons

Too bright in low light and unreadable in sunlight
Strong loss of brightness and contrast when viewed from an angle
A noticeable orange cast in all conditions tested

The Fairphone 4 has good brightness indoors, but otherwise has below-average readability and color reproduction. Lacking fluency, it’s not suitable for gaming, but it’s good for watching HDR10 videos.

Although the Fairphone 4 is too bright in low-light environments, even when the blue light filter (BLF) is on, the device has good readability indoors and can be read in the shade outdoors.

Readability inside, left to right: Fairphone 4, OnePlus 9, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, Nokia 8.3 5G

(Photo credit: SBMARK; illustrative purposes only)

When viewed in sunlight, the Fairphone 4’s content is difficult to read.

Sunlight readability, left to right: Fairphone 4, OnePlus 9, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, Nokia 8.3 5G

(Photo credit: SBMARK; illustrative purposes only)

Both inside and out, the Fairphone 4’s display colors have an orange cast that becomes more pronounced on the corner.

Color rendering outdoors in shade, clockwise from top left: Fairphone 4, OnePlus 9, Nokia 8.3 5G, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G

(Photo credit: SBMARK; illustrative purposes only)

The graph on the left below shows the color fidelity of the Fairphone 4 in the P3 color space. The center of each circle is the target color; The further the arrowhead is outside the circle, the more users will notice the difference between the color on the display and the original color of the source material. In the scatter plot on the right, each point represents a measurement taken at a discrete angle and distance from the device that shows a solid white pattern. The Fairphone 4 changes to orange on the corner.

Fairphone 4, 1000 lux color fidelity in the P3 color space

Fairphone 4, scatter plot of the white dot on the corner

The photo matrices below illustrate the color change to orange measured in the scatter plot above.

Internal color rendering in axis (top) and corner (bottom), left to right: Fairphone 4, OnePlus 9, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, Nokia 8.3 5G

(Photo credit: SBMARK; illustrative purposes only)

The Fairphone 4 is good for watching HDR10 videos, with excellent brightness in low light and well-rendered dark details. A pink to orange cast is visible on the content, including skin tones, but the rendering is acceptable.

Video color, clockwise from top left: left to right: Fairphone 4, OnePlus 9, Nokia 8.3 5G, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G

(Photo credit: SBMARK; illustrative purposes only)

The Fairphone 4 exhibits some frame drops at 30fps and when playing FHD video at 60fps, but no frame drops are visible when playing video games. The device does not handle motion blur well, and sometimes the device stops before resuming video playback after moving through the timeline.

The Fairphone 4 is quite accurate when zooming in on the gallery app, but the device lacks fluency regardless of use case.

Given the LCD technology of its screen, the Fairphone device has no flickering issues:

While it handles vibration very well, the Fairphone 4 is not suited for a comfortable gaming experience, with the touch lacking precision in the corners and the device being too responsive to ghost touches. Also, aliasing is evident.