5-inch, 1080p displays soon coming to a smartphone near you

LG Display has announced a 5-inch, full HD LCD panel for smartphones – the highest resolution mobile panel to date, giving a clear indication that the 720p display on your current top-end smartphone won't reign supreme for long. This new, 5-inch Full HD LCD panel is a step forward from the existing mobile display technology and is based on AH-IPS (Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching) technology. It features a 440ppi and 1920x1080 resolution, providing, for the first time, Full HDTV quality on a smartphone. We had first carried a story about AH-IPS displays, way back in May 2011 and LG had announced then that they were indeed developing AH-IPS panels for smartphones. Here's how AH-IPS improves on the existing technology.

This new generation of In-Plane Swtiching showcases better colour accuracy, which in turn allows it to reproduce the original colour without any distortion. In addition to this, it provides greater light transmission, which translates to lower power consumption, while delivering exceptional picture quality, thereby making it ideal for use in outdoor settings. It also provides for better viewing angles with more stability.

Taking a look at the existing display technologies, the iPhone 4S has an IPS panel with a ppi of 326, compared to the HTC One X's 312 ppi density with a super IPS screen and a 720p display. The soon-to-be announced for India Galaxy S III comes with a ppi of 306, while the popular Galaxy Note has 285 ppi. To put it simply, the higher the PPI the more indistinguishable the pixels are, giving the user a very refined display. The new line-up was to be employed in 3.5 and 4.5-inch panels for smartphones and LG has stayed true to its promise. With a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, this new panel is also 0.5 inches larger, 2.2 times denser in pixels, and 1.3 times more advanced in ppi than the preceding 4.5-inch panel at 329ppi and 1280x720.

"As smartphones become increasingly valued for how well they do multimedia and with the rapid growth of LTE enabling faster large file transfers, our new 5" Full HD LCD panel is certain to prove a significant asset to the mobile market," said Sang-Deok Yeo, CTO and Executive Vice President of LG Display. "With the world's highest resolution smartphone display, LG Display continues to remain a step ahead in developing the most innovative in display technology products."

The 5-inch Full HD LCD panel from LG Display is expected to be released during the second half of this year, and will be on exhibit for the first time at SID 2012 Display Week in Boston, starting June 4. LG has been a popular display supplier for most of the smartphone companies and if all goes according to plan, then it won't be too long before we see 1080p displays on smartphones. The future of displays is here, well almost!