Samsung is developing an 11K 'super-resolution' mobile display

[Shawn Knight]

Samsung is collaborating with more than a dozen foreign and domestic companies to develop an 11K display for mobile devices. Even the South Korean government is getting involved according to a report from the Electronic Times.

A nice display is right up there with a quality camera and a speedy processor in terms of desirable features when shopping for a premium mobile device. The highest pixel density found on today’s flagship smartphones is Quad HD with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 (534 PPI on a 5.5-inch display, for example).

The next step up would be 4K (3,840 x 2,160 with a pixel density of 800 PPI on a 5.5-inch panel) but with Quad HD looking as sharp as it does now, does an 11K mobile display even make sense for a mobile device?

Assuming the same 5.5-inch size, an 11K panel would offer a resolution of approximately 11,000 x 6,000 pixels with an astounding pixel density of 2,250 PPI. By today’s standards, such a display would require an immense amount of CPU and GPU processing power which in turn would have a tremendous impact on battery life.

This could be a moot point in a few years given mobile chip and battery technology advancements but it’s certainly worth mentioning, especially considering that many would be hard-pressed to spot the visual differences that even Quad HD delivers on a 5.5-inch display.

Bragging rights aside, there’s actually a pretty good reason for developing such a high resolution display. As Samsung Display executive Chu Hye Yong explained during a recent workshop in Korea, a super-resolution display like the proposed 11K unit creates an optical illusion that is similar to viewing 3D content.

Consumers showed little interest in 3D-capable TVs and Amazon’s Fire Phone with its “dynamic perspective” 3D effect but given the recent virtual reality push, it’s probably too early to write 3D off for good.

Samsung said it hopes to have a functional prototype ready by 2018.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61325-samsung-developing-11k-uper-resolution-mobile-display.html

 

[Mister_K]

So that its battery can last a minute?

 

[cliffordcooley]

No thank you! I don't even want 4K on a phone. For me personally it's pointless!

 

[tomkaten]

By today’s standards, such a display would require an immense amount of CPU and GPU processing power which in turn would have a tremendous impact on battery life.

This could be a moot point in a few years given mobile chip and battery technology advancements

Where are those battery technology advancements ? Cause we certainly don't see any.

Plus... We can't game in 4k on a PC with a 300 Watt, 15 inches long monster GPU, and they're telling me they want to put THAT resolution on a phone display ? Yea, right. I want my phone to call people, not to fry eggs or my balls or tits, depending on where I might keep it.

 

[treetops]

Thank god someone is finally jumping to the limit instead of increasing their product with baby steps. When we had hex core computers we were barely getting duo core phones. This leap is refreshing. To bad consoles do not follow suite. Maybe with cloud gaming in a few years.

Huh that just made me realize maybe they will cloud stream to these master phones.

 

[davislane1]

Yea, right. I want my phone to call people, not to fry eggs or my balls or tits, depending on where I might keep it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNJ1B_2b17s

 

[cliffordcooley]

To bad consoles do not follow suite.

Tell me about it, at least consoles don't rely on batteries to power (aka: process) the extra pixels.

 

[Magneto10]

Because **** battery. Because all all of Samsung's phones are perfect and they only need 11K display

 

[BMfan]

This is so perfect,I haven't updated my S4 because I don't see the point of just moving to 1440p.
I finally have a reason,hopefully it wont take too long to release to market.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Prototype in 2018... which means you won't see one for about 5 years.... not really worth commenting on, as we need to see how battery and GPU improve in that same amount of time...

Let's hope they're ALSO working on a kick@ss battery to power this...

I suspect the cruncher will be the GPU - absolute top-of-the-line PCs struggle to run 4k at the highest settings... I can't see mobile phones able to push FAR MORE than that amount of pixels in just 5 years... but here's hoping!

 

[oldikes]

Are they also working on miniaturizing nuclear fusion reactors?

 

[Guest]

Damn, at this rate, we need new eyes that can keep up with an 11k display. Samsung better get working on that as well then.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Complete insanity. And coincidentally I made a post regarding this very matter just moments before stumbling on to this article.

https://www.techspot.com/community/...-windows-10-preview-build-10158.215931/page-2

 

[noel24]

If 11K screens are Samsungs answer for ailing smartphone sales, well, they should take into the consideration improvements in battery and GPU departements as well. Anyway, what kind of productivity boost the consumers can expect from those ridiculous DPIs? Not as much as I would imagine in PC space, where we're stuck at FHD with DPIs of 100+. In the meantime industry, including Samsung abandoned work on PC, Nearly all aspects of it are snailing forward but comes at inflated prices. CPU, GPU, HDD and monitors are stuck at 2010 price to performance ratio, yet "analysts" are scratching their heads why exactly people and companies don't want to upgrade. Samsung is investing in a wrong horse, the one that is still wining, but already hardly breathing from drugs and steroids. Hope S. Korean taxpayers havn't put to much money in a project, its an obvious marketing scam.

 

[bexwhitt]

Must be for the lizard people who have far better eyesight than us humans. POINTLESS

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

11K is still too low a resolution for my tastes, they had better get their asses into gear and release a 128K resolution for the 3" mobile displays I prefer.

 

[Badvok]

"Assuming the same 5.5-inch size"

You know what they say about 'assume' - it makes an *** out of u and me. It really would be ridiculous to have this kind of pixel count on a display that size. More likely it is for their tablet range.

 

[Puiu]

You are all forgetting that VR uses such displays and it needs around 12-16K resolutions to completely remove the screen door effect.
high resolutions mobile displays will have other uses besides smartphones.

 

[Guest]

11k resolution on smartwatches NOW!

 

[Guest]

This step is to enable sharpness on Samsung GearVR and Google cardboard platforms. Existing 2K screens are woefully inadequate on this platforms.

 

[Guest]

Why make an 11k screen when they cant even fix UI lag.......

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Are they also working on miniaturizing nuclear fusion reactors?

Why wait though? If mini fusion reactors come out next year, we don't want to have to wait a few years to take advantage of them. it's OK to get ahead of technology. Not like it's costing us anything.

Complete insanity. And coincidentally I made a post regarding this very matter just moments before stumbling on to this article.

https://www.techspot.com/community/...-windows-10-preview-build-10158.215931/page-2

Never needing 4K in a smartphone... not to disagree, but that statement sounds familiar...
'The internet will never catch on' - Newsweek 1995
" I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse" - Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, 1995
'No one will ever need a computer in their home' - Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
(http://www.techhive.com/article/155984/worst_tech_predictions.html)
And I couldn't find it online, but I think there's one from a CEO of Blackberry talking about how no one would ever want a phone with a touchscreen.

Point being... 'Never' is a dangerous word. Unless, of course, you're talking about Windows... as in' MS will never improve on Win 7', then you're pretty safe.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Why wait though? If mini fusion reactors come out next year, we don't want to have to wait a few years to take advantage of them. it's OK to get ahead of technology. Not like it's costing us anything.

Never needing 4K in a smartphone... not to disagree, but that statement sounds familiar...
'The internet will never catch on' - Newsweek 1995
" I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse" - Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, 1995
'No one will ever need a computer in their home' - Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
(http://www.techhive.com/article/155984/worst_tech_predictions.html)
And I couldn't find it online, but I think there's one from a CEO of Blackberry talking about how no one would ever want a phone with a touchscreen.

Point being... 'Never' is a dangerous word. Unless, of course, you're talking about Windows... as in' MS will never improve on Win 7', then you're pretty safe.

Yeah, I can see what your saying in one sense. But most of my point is made from a personal perspective. What I am saying to be perfectly clear, is that I don't foresee myself ever using a 4k cellphone "by choice". If I am gonna sit for 2 hours and watch a movie, I sure as hell ain't gonna waste my time watching it on a device with a 5.5" screen size, not if it has 4k resolution, and not if it has 11k resolution.

I guess another point I am making is that, the industry tech nerds like "us" love so much can be very deceptive at times in the name of profits. We always fall for the "more must better" hype.

I look at my cellphone as a supplementary device to my life to be used only when a desktop can't be found. There are niche applications I use which are actually superior to desktop applications I use given that mobility is the preference over the screen size itself. But they are fewer in number. So, to be perfectly fair, I guess if somebody has no choice but to watch a 4k movie on their cellphone given circumstances then...let it be so.

I hope that person is never me.

I guess I shouldn't even bother going into whether or not the naked eye can even tell the difference between 4k/11k..."in that small of a space". They say there is no humanly perceptible difference between an MP3 and an equivalent .WAV file that is 10x it's size. So....these are things to consider before you rush out and purchase your 11k cellphone.

One more point. I am not against 11k screen resolutions. I just don't see the purpose on a postage sized stamp screen. On a 27" full-sized desktop monitor? Yeah, bring it on.

 

[BSim500]

Never needing 4K in a smartphone... not to disagree, but that statement sounds familiar...

'The internet will never catch on' - Newsweek 1995

Or "192Khz DVD-Audio & 2.8224 MHz Super Audio CD sampling frequencies offer no real perceivable quality gain above CD's 44.1Khz due to depreciating gains above measurable human physiological limitations, and they will both die out soon due to lack of consumer interest and recognition of being almost entirely manufactured hype driven"... ;-)

When a cheap $30 Nokia "dumb" phone has 10-20x the battery life of some $900 "smart" phones in a device half the size & weight, I'd rather they get their priorities right and put their effort into closing that gap for the benefit of 100% of the population, not widen it even more with gimmicks designed for the 1-2% of the population with freakish 20/10 vision who can read the bottom line of a Snellen chart from half a mile away...

 

[tomkaten]

Or "192Khz DVD-Audio & 2.8224 MHz Super Audio CD sampling frequencies offer no real perceivable quality gain above CD's 44.1Khz due to depreciating gains above measurable human physiological limitations, and they will both die out soon due to lack of consumer interest and recognition of being almost entirely manufactured hype driven"... ;-)

They weren't very wrong about that one It didn't die out, but its qualities are questionable.
Recommended reading:

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html