By Anu Passary | Oct 01, 2012 12:31 PM EDT
With the smartphone market shifting to larger screen sizes, it seems that "bigger is better" is the order of the day. In keeping with the emerging trend, on Oct. 1, LCD panel maker Sharp Corporation announced that it has started production of 5-inch full-HD displays for smartphones. The Japan-based company announced that the screens would also feature a higher resolution than the 1280 x 768 pixels or similar found in current smartphones.
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"Sharp Corporation has started production of 5-inch full-HD (1,080 x 1,920 pixels) LCD panels for smartphones with a pixel density among the highest in the world. Production began at the end of September at Mie Plant No. 3 and full-scale production will begin in October," stated the press release.
The new display panel boasts a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels with a density of 443 pixels per inch (ppi). By contrast, among the current crop ofbest-selling smartphones, Samsung's Galaxy S3 with its 4-8-inch display has a 1280 x 720 pixels resolution and a pixel density of 306 ppi , whereas the latest iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch screen with 1136 x 640 pixels resolution and 326 ppi.
Sharp asserts that the under-production LCD panel has nearly 1.3 times the pixel density of the older LCD panels. The company also touts the fact that the new panels will be able to display crisper text, clearer maps, and realistic-looking HD images. The higher pixel density and resolution would undoubtedly increase the clarity of the images viewed on the device. The LCD panel uses "CG-Silicon technology, a new pixel design, and an innovative production process to achieve the same number of pixels in a smartphone-size screen as there are in a full-HD LCD TV."
"By providing ultra-detailed LCD panels to support the growing worldwide demand for smartphones, Sharp will contribute to smartphones with increasingly higher quality images," stated the press release.
In addition, to making its own smartphones, Sharp supplies screens to other manufacturers as well. However, the company did not disclose which upcoming devices would feature its new 5-inch screens. Sharp Corporation indicates that the panels will head for smartphones; however, going by the current norm, any device that features a 5-inch plus screen size is labeled a smartphone-tablet hybrid or "phablet," putting it in the same league as Samsung's Galaxy Note and Note 2, as well as LG's Optimus Vu.
Sharp, however, is not the only company to have announced that a 1080p smartphone display is underway. In May 2012, LG announced its plans for a 5-inch device with a full-HD panel and 440 ppi. Tawain-based smartphone maker HTC, too, is rumored to be working on the One X, a 5-inch phablet, which has 1080p display resolution.
The 5-inch full-HD screen will be displayed in Sharp's booth at the CEATEC event in Japan from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6.
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