QHD Displays are the hot topic on the smartphone websites with most participants upset that neither the HTC One M8 nor the Samsung Galaxy S5 were released with the QHD display – they kept the Full HD Display of 1920 x 1080 resolution…oh, boo hoo. Sure, I wanted to see the QHD display myself, but after all of the ‘smoke and mirrors’ die down, you really have to ask yourself, “Is it really necessary to put a QHD display on a 4-6-inch smartphone?” Maybe it is, as Huawei’s Richard Yu claims…is “nonsense” or just outright a “stupid thing.”
In the past few days, we learned that the new LG G3 will come with one of these new QHD displays – a 5.5-incher with 538 pixels per inch (PPI) and as excited as we are about seeing the newest display, Yu just cannot understand all of the hype. TechRadar got to sit down with Richard Yu in Paris and talked with him about all of this QHD madness. Some of Yu’s thoughts:
“I don’t think we need QHD displays on mobiles. Your eyes totally cannot identify between full HD and 2K on a smartphone. You can’t distinguish the difference, so it’s totally nonsense…We can [put a QHD display on a smartphone], but it’s very bad for power consumption and it doesn’t offer anything in return…You eyes cannot see the difference, so why should we do that? I think it’s a stupid thing.”
He says that while the higher resolution display panels would add additional manufacturing costs to the device, it was clear that his main concern was for the extra drain on the battery – always another hot topic in the field of mobile devices. With all that our smartphones do, the manufacturers are hoping to get a full day of use before we have to charge our device – and users will not settle for anything less than three days! Manufacturers are working on several ways to increase battery life, from things like quick-charge batteries, quick charging power packs, new processors that help manage battery usage, all the way to the operating system itself – Android 4.4 KitKat actually built-in some power saving features. Many new phones themselves, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 have several power saving modes that will help extend your battery life…me, I am in the minority – as long as I can get a full day out of my device, I am happy. I have to sleep sometime, so it is no big deal to plug-in overnight – to me 2-3 days is way too much to expect out of a battery, especially with what we require of it on a smartphone.
I am hoping the next Galaxy Note 4 comes with a QHD, 2K, 2560×1440 resolutions, or whatever you want to call it – I would gladly give up a little battery life to say that I have a QHD display. We do have to understand that a great display, just like a great camera, is about more than simply pixels. The type of display – AMOLED, LCD, and IPS, can also factor into our ‘perception’ of how good a display looks. The type of image processor, like Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine, can have an effect, as well as the type of glass used on the display.
So why are we so fixated on QHD displays when an executive for one of China’s largest manufacturers of smartphones thinks it is “nonsense?” It comes down to a simple philosophy that we have – more is better. When something can be broken down into pure numbers, we always want more – a higher number is better – just like a camera has to be better the more megapixels it has, a display must be better the higher the resolution. What all of these experts say may indeed be the true, but I’m not taking any chances – give me more, please.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page what you think about QHD displays – are they really needed – are you looking forward to getting one on your next device…as always we would love to hear from you.