Technology firm Displaymate has pitched the IPS displays found in the iPad 2, Kindle Fire, and Nook Tablet against one another, looking at both the hard statistics as well as how the displays perform in real life. The report uses the iPad 2 as a benchmark, saying that Apple's implementation of the technology is "fairly well calibrated, and delivers bright images with excellent contrast, reasonably accurate colors and very good viewing angles," though adds that the color depth (or gamut) is less impressive.

The Kindle Fire doesn't fare too well in comparison with the iPad 2, with two significant shortcomings cited by the tester. The biggest issue is the "highest reflectance levels we've ever tested", despite Amazon's use of an anti-reflective coating on the screen — 70 percent more light was reflected by the Kindle than the iPad 2. A couple of other issues are possible to fix in software, however — issues like a lack of 24-bit color support (leading to visible steps in color gradients) and oversized menus in the gallery are particular bugbears. This wasn't fixed in the update a couple of days ago, as far as we can tell.

The Nook Tablet performs far better, with the tester calling it a "nice all-round display". In contrast with the Kindle Fire, the reflectance levels are the lowest Displaymate has seen, with very good color calibration out of the box, matching our feelings when we reviewed the tablet. However the writer finds the UI the major issue with the device, with poor use of space and navigation issues. The tester felt that the Nook Tablet was the overall best display of the three, despite being beaten in some aspects by the iPad.