2013: The year of 1080p mobile screens

[Dari]

LG has already announced it. Sharp has gone a step further and actually began production of said screens. Now we it's SONY's turn via Japan Display. I don't know where Samsung stands but they are married to OLED and are always changing the size of the respective pixel in their RGB lineup in order to increase resolution or crispness or whatever so something tells me their OLED issues are a work in progress. The other heavy hitter, Apple, even though it does not produce its own screens, may sit out the 1080 milestone for another year or two. Samsung and Apple may instead focus on battery life or other stuff to compensate for their lower resolutions. That may be just as well since nothing may (be able to) take advantage of such a high resolution on such a small screen. However, marketed right, these 1080 screens could prove a necessity in any OEM playbook. I hope the manufacturers do not just focus on the ppi and make the screen better in other ways. Either way I know I'm excited.

 

[God Mode]

Nice. More ppi makes things pleasant to look at.

 

[RockinZ28]

Meh, be good for 7"+ tablets as the minimum res offered. Phones I don't really care, 720p on my S3 looks great. Don't watch movies/shows on a 4.8" display. Sure if battery life, game fps and price are the same as current stuff I'll take it, otherwise no.

 

[s44]

Do not want. More power/GPU consumption, no perceptible return.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

cool but as others said... battery life?

I can understand higher resolutions because for example 800x480 was insufficient as we moved to 4.3" and larger, and so 720p is beautiful. While 720p is nice I wouldn't say my SGS2 looks like crap. But i can understand 720p being useful at least.

The question is if you made a 1080p vs 720p GS3, would it make that big of a difference? I'm not too sure.

And this whole resolution thing is just gonna drive bigger phones. It's hard to have 4.3" or smaller 720p phones so they pushed us to 4.8" How about 1080p? Hello 5+" phones. While those phablets may be liked by some, I'd prefer high quality smaller phones too (ahem GS3 Mini fail).

 

[bearxor]

I'm perfectly happy with the 720p-ish range of current phones.

I wouldn't say no to higher resolution screens. For instance, a 2272x1280 iPhone screen would be really nice. But I wouldn't want to sacrifice cost or battery power for it.

I'm sure there will be 1080p phone next year, but I have a good feeling most devices will be in the 1080p range by 2015 or so.

 

[Fingolfin269]

720p is fine. I know everyone is now looking to one up everyone else in terms of features but this is not the one they need to be focused on in my opinion.

 

[dguy6789]

720p screens in today's phones are well past the point of diminishing returns. A 1920x1080 Galaxy S3 would not look noticeably better than the current one. Higher resolution would just hurt battery life and require greater processing power to do the same things. Phone manufacturers would be better off adopting SAMOLED if they don't have it yet versus moving to 1080p.

 

[Dari]

720p is fine. I know everyone is now looking to one up everyone else in terms of features but this is not the one they need to be focused on in my opinion.

OK, aside from battery life, what else should they be focused on?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

OK, aside from battery life, what else should they be focused on?

1) build quality - samsung could improve here.
2) LED notifications done right - Samsung could make a better LED light
3) Dedicated camera shutter? Almost no one has this.
4) Software - Software takes pure manpower. You all know this. You need tons of engineers to implement a small feature. There needs to be large manpower driving to improve Android.

 

[s44]

The first three are either highly subjective or really small potatoes.

The latter is both unnecessary (Jelly Bean is already way ahead of its competitors) and counterproductive (we want improvements to base Android, not ever-more elaborate OEM skins).

 

[God Mode]

720 screens are inadequate if you like to read very small text. It's the same reason I wanted the 1080 option for my 15" notebook. More real estate without scrolling around. Bring on the 1080. Those that don't need it can probably find 720 as the standard for even mid range phones.

 

[Mopetar]

OK, aside from battery life, what else should they be focused on?

Honestly, I'd be happy if they didn't bother with anything else except for battery life for a while until we get back to the point where we have week long charge times.

 

[Brian Stirling]

All this complaining about 1080 screens -- please, as soon as they're available many here complaining will be early adopters...

This day was going to come sooner or later and I predicted a couple years ago that the time would be about now...

Yeah, the first ones will likely push the GPU and be harder on the battery but the next generation and all will be well. A 5 inch phone with a 1920x1080 screen will have a dpi of about 450, which is higher than the 320dpi of the iP4 but is within the range considered the max the eye can see. As it turns out the 300dpi number may be fine for some but other see better up to and beyond 450dpi.

Give me a Note 2 sized phone and screen and 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 resolution and I'll be there for sure...


Brian

 

[MagickMan]

Now it's getting ridiculous. No thanks.

 

[Fire&Blood]

720p, at least for me is more than enough for any sub 5" device. The display improvements needed are in power consumption, contrast, brightness and outdoor visibility, not in resolution. 1080p sounds cool but the higher workload with higher pixel count would negate the gains from next gen SoC's. For me, 720p throughout 2014, let those SoC's catch up a little.

 

[Fingolfin269]

OK, aside from battery life, what else should they be focused on?

I was really just thinking battery life more than anything else at this point. I know some folks don't care to carry around extra batteries, constantly plug in when available, etc. but it sure would be nice to not have to worry about any of that.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I'd have to see them side by side to see if I care.

 

[Apex]

I'd personally rather them focus on things like high brightness (for better outdoor use), improved colors/contrast, and things like that than 1080p on a <5" screen.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I will take a 720p non-pentile SAMOLED please.

 

[zerocool84]

I'd personally rather them focus on things like high brightness (for better outdoor use), improved colors/contrast, and things like that than 1080p on a <5" screen.

If you haven't seen the screen on the One X then you need to check it out.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

720 screens are inadequate if you like to read very small text. It's the same reason I wanted the 1080 option for my 15" notebook. More real estate without scrolling around. Bring on the 1080. Those that don't need it can probably find 720 as the standard for even mid range phones.

big difference between a 4.5 inch screen and a 15" screen. Good luck reading text that small. Even the smallest text of my gnex is clear and crisp, but who the hell would want to read anything smaller?

Honestly, I'd be happy if they didn't bother with anything else except for battery life for a while until we get back to the point where we have week long charge times.

Phones are at a point where specs are almost irrelevant, so bring on better battery life. My Gnex is pretty fantastic though btw. After 16 hours off the charger with moderate use, im usually around 40-50% by the end of the day. Problems come when im using it a ton, or when i get in a really bad area that causes crazy drain.

Wouldnt mind a smaller phone too. My perfect phone would be the gnex, with a better camera, and a smaller bezel.

 

[Apex]

If you haven't seen the screen on the One X then you need to check it out.

Agreed, it's easily one of the best big-displays in terms of brightness.

I haven't seen a Lumia 920 yet (600 cd/m2), but I am curious.

 

[jpeyton]

2013 for Android, 2014 is when Apple will follow.

 

[fstime]

720 screens are inadequate if you like to read very small text. It's the same reason I wanted the 1080 option for my 15" notebook. More real estate without scrolling around. Bring on the 1080. Those that don't need it can probably find 720 as the standard for even mid range phones.

Then you must have inadequate vision my friend, I recommend an eye exam.

I can view this forum on my One X completely unzoomed, and still make out the forums directory links to the right which are extremely small letters but sharp and legible.