Sharp, LG, Samsung, and others may be known for their smartphones and TVs, but they are also the same companies behind many of the best screens available on the market. At this point, 4K TVs are a dime a dozen, but a phone with a 4K display has yet to debut. There’s plenty of 2K, Quad HD screens on flagship phones, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and LG G3, but a 4K smartphone has yet to hit the market.
But, we’re getting close. Sharp showed off a brand-new IGZO screen that’s more pixel dense than any other screen in the world, according to Extreme Tech. The 4.1-inch screen has a 2560 × 1600-pixel resolution, which results in a pixel density of 736 pixels-per-inch. That’s nearly six times more pixels than what you’ll find on the 4-inch iPhone 5S screen. No, it’s technically not 4K, but it’s closer than anyone’s gotten before. Even though it’s not exactly necessary to have an even sharper smartphone screen – especially one that’s just 4.1-inches – it’s still an amazing feat of technology.
Of course, the higher the resolution, the greater the battery drain. Many say that even Quad HD screens consume too much energy, but device manufacturers and software makers are hard at work improving battery life to support these massive resolutions. Additionally, sometimes the screen itself can be a power saver. Sharp’s IGZO technology, for example, breaks away from the standard amorphous silicon, which is used to make most screens, and is therefore more energy efficient. IGZO technology also promises higher fidelity to original colors and brightness than other screens.
It’s unclear where Sharp aims to install its new pixel-dense screen, but no doubt it will appear on smartphones in the near future, or even a virtual reality device – one can hope.