The Best Phone Display Resolution

[DannyMcDannerton]

I am curious as to the community's thoughts on phone display resolution. Personally, I find that high refresh rate displays make the user experience more smooth, and higher pixel density eliminates distractions caused by pixelation. Currently the best phone display resolution seems to be QHD (1440p) of various heights ranging from the old standard 16:9 2560p by 1440p to somewhere around 3200p by 1440p (as seen on the S21 Ultra), at 20:9.

 

But Sony is doin something a bit different with their "4k" display on the Xperia 1 series; a 3840p by 1644p 21:9 display. What bothers me is that while it is marketed as 4k, you cannot natively view 4k content at 3840p by 2160p, but are limited to "cinema " content in 4k. It seems very misleading to me. 

 

Does this bother anyone else?

 

Is 4k something people really want on their phones?

 

If a display was actually a true UHD display, it would be able to scale quite smoothly with multiple resolutions. HD (720p) is scaled up by a factor of 9, and FHD (1080p) is scaled up by a factor of 4, both of which are common streaming resolutions. The only issue I see is QHD, as there isn't an exact scaling measurement, and the scale is something like 2.25. 

 

Would anyone want an ultrawide UHD phone? 5120p by 2160p seems like a decent option, though at the cost of battery life.

 

What is the best possible resolution for a phone? 

[Entropy.]

Just now, DannyMcDannerton said:

I am curious as to the community's thoughts on phone display resolution. Personally, I find that high refresh rate displays make the user experience more smooth, and higher pixel density eliminates distractions caused by pixelation. Currently the best phone display resolution seems to be QHD (1440p) of various heights ranging from the old standard 16:9 2560p by 1440p to somewhere around 3200p by 1440p (as seen on the S21 Ultra), at 20:9.

 

But Sony is doin something a bit different with their "4k" display on the Xperia 1 series; a 3840p by 1644p 21:9 display. What bothers me is that while it is marketed as 4k, you cannot natively view 4k content at 3840p by 2160p, but are limited to "cinema " content in 4k. It seems very misleading to me. 

 

Does this bother anyone else?

 

Is 4k something people really want on their phones?

 

If a display was actually a true UHD display, it would be able to scale quite smoothly with multiple resolutions. HD (720p) is scaled up by a factor of 9, and FHD (1080p) is scaled up by a factor of 4, both of which are common streaming resolutions. The only issue I see is QHD, as there isn't an exact scaling measurement, and the scale is something like 2.25. 

 

Would anyone want an ultrawide UHD phone? 5120p by 2160p seems like a decent option, though at the cost of battery life.

 

What is the best possible resolution for a phone? 

For me, 1080p. I don't notice the res bump, better battery life even while at a high refresh is worth it. Durrently using a 6.5' redmi note 8 pro. Even when I span the video content to fit the full screen at 1080x2340 and put it 6' away from my eyes, I'm fine. Roughly 400 ppi for me. 

[mon1ka]

the oppo A52 has a 1080x2400 resolution and i like it. i never watch anything beyond instagram stories and the occasional video on my phone and all i play on it is COC so im happy.

 

obvious if someone watched more videos on their phone id understand the need for a better resolution, but im happy with mine for now.

[BiotechBen]

Honestly, the view distance required for discerning between pixels above 1080p on a 6" screen is going to be less than 3 inches, at which point, you likely aren't going to be able to focus your eyes in on, so unless you plan on doing VR with it, 1080p is the way to go and go for the screen with the best peak brightness and pixel response. My Moto G7+ is 1080p and I can watch sports on it and have it look like it's real life. In all reality, a good display on a phone is going to be something with good brightness and 300ppi or greater, and the beautiful one will have above 400ppi.

[WolframaticAlpha]

40 minutes ago, DannyMcDannerton said:

I am curious as to the community's thoughts on phone display resolution. Personally, I find that high refresh rate displays make the user experience more smooth, and higher pixel density eliminates distractions caused by pixelation. Currently the best phone display resolution seems to be QHD (1440p) of various heights ranging from the old standard 16:9 2560p by 1440p to somewhere around 3200p by 1440p (as seen on the S21 Ultra), at 20:9.

 

But Sony is doin something a bit different with their "4k" display on the Xperia 1 series; a 3840p by 1644p 21:9 display. What bothers me is that while it is marketed as 4k, you cannot natively view 4k content at 3840p by 2160p, but are limited to "cinema " content in 4k. It seems very misleading to me. 

 

Does this bother anyone else?

 

Is 4k something people really want on their phones?

 

If a display was actually a true UHD display, it would be able to scale quite smoothly with multiple resolutions. HD (720p) is scaled up by a factor of 9, and FHD (1080p) is scaled up by a factor of 4, both of which are common streaming resolutions. The only issue I see is QHD, as there isn't an exact scaling measurement, and the scale is something like 2.25. 

 

Would anyone want an ultrawide UHD phone? 5120p by 2160p seems like a decent option, though at the cost of battery life.

 

What is the best possible resolution for a phone? 

1080p. Doesn't suck too much battery. Looks nice.

[Commodus]

12 hours ago, DannyMcDannerton said:

I am curious as to the community's thoughts on phone display resolution. Personally, I find that high refresh rate displays make the user experience more smooth, and higher pixel density eliminates distractions caused by pixelation. Currently the best phone display resolution seems to be QHD (1440p) of various heights ranging from the old standard 16:9 2560p by 1440p to somewhere around 3200p by 1440p (as seen on the S21 Ultra), at 20:9.

 

But Sony is doin something a bit different with their "4k" display on the Xperia 1 series; a 3840p by 1644p 21:9 display. What bothers me is that while it is marketed as 4k, you cannot natively view 4k content at 3840p by 2160p, but are limited to "cinema " content in 4k. It seems very misleading to me. 

 

Does this bother anyone else?

 

Is 4k something people really want on their phones?

 

If a display was actually a true UHD display, it would be able to scale quite smoothly with multiple resolutions. HD (720p) is scaled up by a factor of 9, and FHD (1080p) is scaled up by a factor of 4, both of which are common streaming resolutions. The only issue I see is QHD, as there isn't an exact scaling measurement, and the scale is something like 2.25. 

 

Would anyone want an ultrawide UHD phone? 5120p by 2160p seems like a decent option, though at the cost of battery life.

 

What is the best possible resolution for a phone? 

The best from a technical perspective is one where pixels are invisible at virtually any distance.

 

But in terms of practical purposes? Probably don't have to go much higher than 1080p, if at all. It's very hard to distinguish pixels at reasonable viewing distances, the battery life is still reasonable, and most phones won't struggle to display content. We can do "technically perfect" displays when there's no significant sacrifice to be made.

[lboolaka_33]

I'd go for 1080p if it's an RGB display and 1440P if it's PenTile. Preferably in the 16:9 aspect ratio.

[Darkseth]

1080p is fine (doesn't matter if the larger side goes to 1920, or 2220 or 2340 or whatever, depending on ratio).
sharp enough to not be an issue, even with the lower subpixel-density of Amoled screens, and low enough to not affect battery life too much.

 

If you're too sensitive, maximum 1440p (and larger side idk... 3340? whatever). More than that makes no sense, even with only 2 subpixels per Pixel instead of 3, and thus lower subpixel-density, you don't really see pixels anymore, or the pixel structure.

More than that (2160p) would be sharper on Paper, but you won't see a difference.

Because most don't see a difference between 1080p and 1440p.

 

Phone screens don't really need to scale to anything else than the native resolution.

I've used scaled 1080p already on a native 1440p screen. pretty much no visible difference, and also pretty much literaly ZERO difference in battery Life.

The amount of Pixels that light up is the same, even if you scale down to 720p. The only difference in Power consumption will be the GPU has to push slightly less pixels. You almost can't even measure that difference.

The Screen panel itself will consume the exact same amount of Power, if it runs on native 1440p resolution, or scaled down to 1080p or 720p. Anandtech already confirmed that. 

[EL02]

Currently using the redmi note 8 pro. While 1080p is fine, 1440p really makes a difference for me.