Samsung phones have the best screens, but they're set to a lower resolution than they're capable of by default - here's why

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

• Samsung smartphone screens are set to a lower resolution than they're capable of by default.
• They're preset to 1080p FHD+ rather than 1440p WQHD.
• Samsung explained that the 1080p FHD+ option offers the best balance of screen sharpness and battery life, and that the 1440p WQHD option might have a small impact on battery life.
• I've kept the Galaxy Note 10 Plus to its default screen resolution, and I haven't felt the urge to increase the resolution. 1080p FHD+ is plenty sharp.
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Samsung phones have the best screens in the smartphone business. They're sharp, bright, color-rich, and they come with HDR.

However, the last few Samsung phones I've tried, including the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, are preset to a lower screen resolution than they're capable of out of the box. Indeed, they're set to display Android, apps, and content at 1080p FHD+ resolution by default rather than making the most of the screen's 1440p WQHD resolution.

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I always suspected that it had something to do with battery life, and Samsung recently confirmed my suspicion.

The 1080p FHD+ resolution default offers the best balance between screen sharpness and battery life, according to Samsung. Setting a Samsung phone screen to the 1440p WQHD screen will make the phone work a little harder to render the extra pixels on the screen, which will result in a small hit to battery life.

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The default screen resolution on the Galaxy Note 10 Plus is FHD+ 1080p, even though it's capable of the higher WQHD 1440p resolution.

The 1440p WQHD option is there if you value screen sharpness over battery life. With that said, I've kept the Galaxy Note 10 Plus with a massive 6.8-inch display at the default 1080p FHD+ setting, and I can't say I've felt the urge to up the resolution to 1440p WQHD. 1080p FHD+ is plenty sharp.

Changing the resolution to 1440p WQHD for the sharpest image possible on a Samsung phone is easy. You just head to Settings > Display > and tap Screen resolution to set it to the WQHD option.