A Super Retina Displays using a screen technology which is called OLED. Using an OLED display allows for deeper black and more dynamic colours. The Liquid Retina displays use an LCD screen such as ones found on every iPhone except for the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max. The interesting thing with the Liquid Retina is that it is able to bend a bit so Apple can make it an edge to edge screen but with more bezel than the phones with an OLED display. The only downside is that OLED displays tend to burn-in but Apple seems to have got it so that chance if burn-in will be less and the blue shift screen issue can be annoying. The downside of the Liquid Retina screen is that Apple did not make the screen higher resolution, so it is only slightly over 720p.

The Liquid Retina is an Apple-designed LC display. It’s likely that it’ll have better viewing angles, a brighter display, and present less screen burn-in problems than any OLED. It’s about an 800-resolution display.

The Super Retina is an OLED display engineered by Apple. It presents an infinite contrast ratio and a slightly higher colour gamut. It’s also sharper than the Liquid Retina.

The 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max has the equivalent sharpness of a 930 (rough estimate) resolution LC display. And the 6.1-inch iPhone XR has an 828 true pixel resolution display. The pixel density isn’t something you’ll notice at a normal viewing angle. But it’s slightly sharper on the premium iPhones. You’ll only notice when viewing them side by side at 5 inches or closer.

Super Retina vs Liquid Retina-Comparison

Super Retina

The “Super” is just a marketing phrase. In reality, the display of the iPhone Xs is basically a high-quality OLED, exactly like the iPhone X.

The OLED is an improvement over the LCD in terms of health (less harm to the eye), crisper colours, and overall superior quality.

The reason the iPhone X and its immediate successor Xs/Max cost $1000/$1100 is because of the OLED screen, which is much more expensive than LCD, stacked with other functionalities that cost more.

Liquid Retina

“Liquid Retina” is, in reality, also just a fancy marketing term for the LCD display on the iPhone Xr.

The “Liquid Retina” makes the display sound “cool” and “fancy,” but in reality, the screen’s pixel density is literally the same as the 8-year-old iPhone 4. It actually off by 4 pixels. It means that if you cropped the iPhone Xr to an area of 3.5 inches, exactly in the iPhone 4’s design, you’d be simulating the iPhone 4’s display.

Final Words

Super Retina is just a fancy marketing term for high-quality OLED while liquid Retina can be regarded as a complete waste.