Upscaling on the Samsung Galaxy S9: Why and How Lower Resolutions Display Without Shrinking

When you own a Samsung Galaxy S9, you might wonder how it manages to display 1080p or 720p content on a device with a 1440p or QHD (2960 x 1440 pixels) screen without noticeably shrinking the displayed content. This process is known as upscaling, and here we will explore how it works and its implications.

Understanding Upscaling on the Samsung Galaxy S9

The 1440p display on the Samsung Galaxy S9 presents a unique challenge for displaying multimedia content that is not originally in this resolution. Despite the high resolution of the screen, the device must effectively upscale lower resolution content to ensure that the entire screen is utilized without shrinking the actual lit-up area. Here's a detailed look at the process:

How Upscaling Works

Pixel Mapping

The device takes the lower resolution content and maps it onto the higher resolution screen. This involves expanding smaller images, videos, or other media to fit the 1440p screen. For example, when displaying 1080p content, the phone duplicates pixels to fill the gap and ensure the content is displayed across the entire screen.

For instance, in a 1080p video, each pixel will correspond to a 1.5 x 1.5 block of pixels on the 1440p display. This process ensures that no part of the screen remains unused, providing a full-screen experience.

Interpolation Techniques

To further improve the quality of the upscaling, the Samsung Galaxy S9 employs interpolation techniques. These methods are designed to fill in the gaps between the mapped pixels, making the content appear smoother and more consistent.

Bilineare Interpolation: A simple method that averages the colors of surrounding pixels, which is effective for small-scale enlargements. Bicubic Interpolation: A more advanced method that considers more surrounding pixels, leading to smoother and more natural transitions.

Maintaining Aspect Ratio

The Samsung Galaxy S9 ensures that the content maintains its aspect ratio. If the content's aspect ratio does not match that of the screen, the phone will display black bars (letterboxing or pillarboxing) to avoid stretching the image. This helps in preserving the integrity of the original content.

Benefits of Upscaling

Upscaling on the Samsung Galaxy S9 offers several benefits:

Compatibility

By effectively upscaling content, the Samsung Galaxy S9 allows users to view a wide variety of content, regardless of its original resolution. This ensures that all users can enjoy high-quality multimedia experiences on their device.

Visual Quality

Although upscaled content may not be as sharp as native 1440p content, good upscaling algorithms can make lower-resolution content look reasonably good on a high-resolution display. The visual quality of the content can be significantly improved, providing a better user experience.

The Downside: Increased Blurriness

It's important to note that the process of enlarging content can introduce blurriness, especially when viewing content that is already lower in resolution. This can be observed when viewing 720p content on the Samsung Galaxy S9, where the enlarging process can make the content appear slightly blurry.

When you look closely, you may notice this blurring, which is a natural consequence of enlarging smaller content. However, this blurring is less noticeable on the Samsung Galaxy S9 due to its high-resolution display. For anything lower than 720p, the blurring is immediately noticeable.

The extreme example can be observed when viewing 144p content, which becomes highly blurry when upsampled to the 1440p screen. This highlights the limitations of upscaling in maintaining visual quality for very low-resolution content.

Conclusion

In summary, the Samsung Galaxy S9 effectively displays 1080p and 720p content on its 1440p screen through a combination of pixel mapping and interpolation techniques. This ensures that the entire screen is utilized without shrinking the actual lit-up area. However, content that is already lower in resolution may appear blurry when upsampled, highlighting the importance of maintaining the native resolution of multimedia content.