eydendib
So, 1200 nits is peak brightness, not maximum brightness.
Imagine a Samsung display with a maximum brightness of 1200 nits though. That would be crazy.
well___duh
What's the difference? Wouldn't one's peak be the max or highest point?
defet_
Semantically they're the same.
The brightness of 1200 nits is only when a few pixels (≤1% of the pixels on the display) are white, and everything else is black/turned off, and when very bright light is being shined on the ambient light sensor. That's not a typical scenario, and is useless as a statistic for the display's brightness. It's just jerking off the DDIC's (display driver) voltage routing and the TFT (transistors) voltage-carrying capability and means nothing practical.
For actual cases when there are more pixels lit up, the peak brightness goes down.
Typically, however, for Samsung's recent panels it averages out to about 800 nits (~50% APL, 50% of the display lit up). Peak brightness is lowest when the whole screen is white, and that is what is typically called the full-screen brightness, or the full-image brightness, or brightness at 100% APL, in which Note9 measures 700 nits. Still pretty bright, but the display gamma takes a beating in this high brightness state and rises. The dynamic brightness control gets turned off and there is little gamma control.