At IFA 2015, Sony surprised everyone with the launch of first 4K UHD display (2160 x 3840) smartphone, the Xperia Z5 Premium. The perennial debate for whether we need or can even notice the presence of those many pixels has stretched for far too long ever since Apple started the pixel density wars marketing those crisp Retina displays, but will Xperia Z5 Premium mark the culmination of this trend?
There has been a jump in 4K media content. As 4K TVs go main stream, many digital streaming services are already providing or working on 4K content every day. Besides most modern flagships can shoot 4K videos, and thus a 4K mobile phone was bound to arrive sooner or later.
[stextbox id=”alert” caption=”Also Read”]Recommended: 4K Display Smartphones – You May Not Need Them But They Are Here[/stextbox]
All this resolution scaling is not without its merits. Content shot at high resolution is more lifelike and thus is also better suited for applications like virtual reality. Though it’s hard to see resolved pixels from naked eyes even with full HD or HD resolution, our brain can distinguish far beyond.
We got to try Xperia Z5 Premium yesterday and the display seemed great, but in such short span of time it’s hard to judge if it’s any better than QHD screens.
Experts claim that we can differentiate and appreciate something close to 600 pixels per inches (PPI), and thus the staggering 800+ PPI should be accepted as the upper limit, at least on a smartphone screen, right? That combined with the fact that 4K content is still scarce to come by, should be enough to conclude that pixel density wars are over. Unfortunately, we don’t think they are.
There will always be need for greater and flashier specs as being content is not the way tech market works. Of course, other manufacturers have some catching up to do and perhaps we will see OEMs momentarily drifting away from this madness and focusing on things which have actual well pronounced impact on user experience.
Meanwhile, Netflix has already started experimenting with 6K content streaming. Even the last season of house of cards was filmed in 6K. Perhaps, someone will plaster an absurd 6K display on a smartphone couple of years down the line. We would like to know your opinion on the subject. Let us know in the comment section below.
