Only last month, LG Display gave us a glimpse of a possible future filled with super-thin smartphones by unveiling the "world's thinnest" Full HD display panel. Now the company has pulled back the curtain on an even slimmer LTPS-based LCD display called the Quad HD that also stakes a claim for the title of highest resolution mobile display produced so far.
The Quad HD AH-IPS panel is so named because it packs in four times more pixels than 720p displays. That translates to a 5.5-inch display panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution at 538 pixels per inch (ppi). At 430-nit, it's not as bright as last month's 5.2-inch panel from LG Display, but it is a good deal slimmer at 1.21 mm (with a bezel of just 1.2 mm).
A quick comparison with Gizmag favorites already on the market shows the new panel to be a clear winner. The iPhone 5 has a resolution of 1136 x 640 at 326 ppi, Samsung's Galaxy S4 comes in much higher at 1920 x 1080/441 ppi, and the HTC One beats both with a stunning 1920 x 1080 resolution at 468 ppi.
LG Display says that currently-available smartphone screens can't touch its new panel for color reproduction or contrast ratio either, which should make mobile movie viewing more of a pleasure, as well as offering crisper text and more vibrant images.
Unfortunately, there's currently no official word on how long we'll have to wait before this technology makes its way to the consumer space.
Source: LG Display
It makes sense to go slightly beyond 326 ppi (which Apple calls Retina) so if you have a larger screen than the iPhone 5 the jump from native 720p to native 1080p makes some sense. The result is the ppi of the current 1080p screens is probably already more than people need.
The next major standard after 1080p will be UHD (4K) at 3840×2160 so even though the quad HD (2560 x 1440 ) panel above is only ~15% higher PPI than the HTC One there isn't a good reason to use it outside of marketing.
Power consumption has been very good; extremely intense use on web and with camera has earned this one a trusted place, and the ability to swap batteries has been the icing on the cake, even if only used once. In one year, I went through 27 different wireless devices with AT&T, and swore I'd never be their customer again. Incredibly, with this, I have no complaints, but still sometimes lose it in pants pockets despite its mighty proportions. Very well executed ergonomically; thin, light, comfortable and tough. Now, we seem to finally have a selection of phones and tablets that deliver on the potential we've long sought. Best use so far: quickly animating weather satellite and radar images for storm spotting and pilot weather briefs and educating fellow aviators on unseen hazards-this has been a transformational device, LG. Job well done.
How does the same resolution, at an even more overcrowded density (too fine for the eye to resolve), make the HTC "beat" the Samsung? I would reverse that conclusion.