Smartphones with a pixel density of more than 500 per inch have moved one step closer after a Taiwanese firm produced the world’s highest resolution quad HD (QHD) screen.
AU Optronics (AUO), which supplies screens to the likes of Samsung, has built a 5.7 inch QHD AMOLED panel that can offer a resolution up to 2560×1440. This would offer a ppi of 513, dwarfing that of the Apple iPhone 5s (326ppi), Samsung Galaxy S5 (432ppi), Sony Xperia Z2 (424ppi) and Nokia Lumia 1520 (368ppi).
AUO announced the phablet sized screen amid a range of new high definition screens for televisions. It also revealed a five inch HD720 AMOLED panel that is 0.57mm thick. The company said it had introduced a special driver design to support 10 touch points on the screen. AUO also launched a 1.6 inch panel for wearable technology such as smartwatches.
The Taiwanese manufacturer has been producing screens to meet growing demand for larger sized handsets. Last week, court documents released during the Apple and Samsung patent trial in the US revealed that the iPhone maker was increasingly concerned that “consumers want what we don’t have” – namely, larger screens or more affordable devices.
Screen sizes have dramatically increased from when Apple kickstarted the smartphone market with its iPhone in 2007. That device featured a 3.5 inch screen.
In January, AUO mass produced its six inch WQHD screen for the first time. It offered a ppi of almost 500, four times that of a standard high definition screen.