Quad HD in smart phones - really?

[Samir Patel]

So I had a few minutes to kill yesterday and after lunch walked through the sprint store (I have been finally off contract for a few months and was considering upgrading my phone) and I saw the LG G3 on display that stated the display was Quad HD so I immediately thought wow I have to read up on that. I received a phone call so I left the store. Now I am online on the LG website reading about the phone and see that yes they state the display is Quad HD (2560 x 1440). Technically 2 x across and 2 x height of 1280x720. Really??? Can we actually come up with very definite descriptions of every resolution in the future. (coming from shooting on a RED and GH4 when I think of Quad HD I think 3840 x 2160)

Don't misunderstand me - on a 5.5" screen this shouldn't seem like something to gripe about and while I welcome the advance in smart phones (and yet I would never shoot serious video or stills on one) it kind of irks me that the manufacturers dupe people using these buzzwords like QHD and 4K when selling phones, tvs, etc.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Yes, confusing Samir, but quad 720p HD, rather than quad full HD. Ultra HD 4k mobile screens are said to be next year I think.

 

[L. Langer]

HIgh-resolution screens in mobile devices make little sense unless they are application-specific devices where they would be of use. But sadly, common sense doesn't apply in decision-making when it comes to consumer electronics. A big problem with these high-resolution screens is that they are pushing devices too far and even causing GPUs to melt down when put to the test by driving these displays. Nvidia is about to release a QHD Tegra tablet and I bet it's going to have some issues driving that resolution at full power due to poor cooling. I'll take a nice 1080P display in my phone or media tablet over what they are pushing these days.

 

[David Kuhn]

I'd not see it as a selling point for a phone (for me anyway)... but those panels will do wonders for VR headsets... Rift with 2k x 2k per eye will allow for very large fov's with minimal pixellation (using decent AA). At that point I see Rift or some similar design replacing my 30" panel for gaming... woot!

 

[Dr. Sassi]

What resolving power is given to these little micro lenses?

 

[Wayne Morellini]

The bigger resolutions on phones don't make much sense. Since you go beyond 150dpi the effectiveness gets less, at over 600-1200dpi it gets useless. But the 4 times extra power actually take up very little extra processing power in normal 2d use compared to the whole system. It is just like a frame buffer. Now if you want to 3d process every pixel, yes upto 4 times more power than doing it on a fullhd screen on a good 3D method, and that amount will be a lot of power. But a lot of 3D is lower quality, and can render to lower resolution resulting in less power. But the real issue with gpu's is they are trying to boost throughput, frame rate and quality and tapping out power savings of design processes, but that extra performance us not needed.

On Tablets, yes 4k us useful, our eyesight less so, but good eyesight can discern 2400 DPI luminance, but 1200 DPI on an bright light emitting screen (rather than a reflected paper like surface). Color information. apparently is 1200 DPI and 600dpi on a light emitting screen.

There is a couple of uses for 4k screens.