The resolution wars are officially on. Today, full HD resolution (1920x1080p) is the standard on all new smartphones and tablets.
Over the next year, we’re going to see smartphones with quad HD displays (2560×1440). We’ve already seen the LG G3 with its beautiful quad HD display and the Note 4 will also feature the same resolution – according to early rumors and reports.
One thing we haven’t seen on Android, however, is 4K resolution.
That changed this past week when Qualcomm unveiled a Snapdragon 801-powered Samsung tablet at an event. That doesn’t sound so special, until you consider that the tablet had a 4K display – something we’ve never seen before.
In the demo, a Qualcomm employee showed how someone could view an HD map of an area, scroll through a social media feed, and still enjoy a full HD quality tennis match on the top of the screen – that’s pretty cool.
Obviously, 4K resolution comes with a lot of screen real estate. In fact, it comes with a ridiculous amount of screen real estate compared to most other smartphones and tablets ever made.
4K resolutions come in two varieties: 3840×2160 and 4096×2160. The first resolution is built for consumers, while the second is the “industry standard” definition.
Both resolutions have been marketed under the more consumer-friendly name “UHDTV”, where the “U” stands for “Ultra”.
Why is Qualcomm showing off this mysterious new tablet instead of Samsung? Why would Samsung develop 4K tablets before quad HD tablets were ever released? These are all good questions.
We’ll likely found out more about the mysterious tablet on June 12. Samsung recently scheduled a tablet unveiling event for June 12 in New York City.
If this is legit, then you can expect to learn more about it on June 12.