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Sony Unveils Smartphone With 4K Screen

Posted by Soulskill on from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Sony has taken the wraps off its new Xperia Z5 Premium smartphone, which has a 5.5" display that operates at 4k resolution. "The company acknowledged that there was still a limited amount of professional content available in 4K — which provides about four times the number of pixels as 1080p high definition video. But it said the Z5 Premium would upscale videos streamed from YouTube and Netflix to take advantage of the display." Sony's answer to the obvious battery concerns raised by such a pixel-dense (808 ppi) screen was to use a 3,430 mAh battery and memory-on-display technology. The video upscaling can also be turned off to decrease battery drain.

3 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Does Sony also provide... by xenog · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...high-definition bionic eye implants to be able to see the difference?

    1. Re:Does Sony also provide... by Rei · · Score: 5, Informative

      The maximum physically possible resolution for the human eye to see is 2190 dpi. But that's not an average eye, but rather a flawless eye limited only by the size of the pupil; and viewed from as close as an adult can focus, 4 inches.

      If we downgrade from a perfect eye to an average eye, the resolution drops down to 876 dpi... but still at 4 inches.

      At a more practical 12 inches, this drops to around 300 dpi. Which is why magazines are printed at 300 dpi - it's good enough for most practical circumstances.

      Also note some additional limitations:

        * These sort of resolution figures are based on the ability to distingish bright white lines from bright black lines without them blurring together into gray. The smaller the contrast and the dimmer the light, the less the eye can resolve.
        * The human eye also loses a great deal of ability to make out resolution when objects are moving.
        * Obviously the further away one is from the center of the field of view, the lower the resolution - with a rather fast dropoff.

      Yes, 808 dpi is complete and total overkill, unless you've got superb eyes and are in the habit of holding your phone as close to them as you can focus while looking at high contrast stationary images.

      --
      Stale pastry is hollow succor to one who is bereft of ostrich.
  2. Good work, SONY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fix bugs? Address users' complaints? Release updates within the schedule *you* announce? Maybe add basic functionality to your 'premium' music playing software, functionality that media players have had for well over a decade now?

    Naaaah, fuck that, let's put a 4k screen on a 5.5" phone! Yeah!