As one of the first of its kind, Everdisplay Optronics of Shanghai are showing off a 6" AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen with a 3840×2160-pixel (also referred to as 4K UHD) resolution. That’s 734 PPI (pixels-per-inch), a long way up from, for example, the iPhone 6 Plus’ 401 PPI 5.5" screen with 1920×1080-pixel res.
You could argue that a 4K-supporting 6" screen is a waste for a smartphone, given how tiny things like UI elements would be, and how negligible the video quality difference compared to said iPhone 6 Plus might be. Well, you’d actually be right, in a way. Everdisplay are targeting these at virtual-reality applications more than at smartdevices.
Virtual-reality headsets, like upcoming devices from Oculus, need all the help they can get with maintaining the illusion of reality. A super-high-res screen can make it harder to distinguish a virtual world from the real world, but the screens also need to be compact enough to fit in the VR headset. That’s where Everdisplay can play a strong role.
However, Everdisplay also aren’t ruling out its 4K screen’s rollout into a flagship smartphone one day. The only way forward has been up, lately, for the majority of manufacturers and their products’ screen resolutions; the still-hot 5.7" Samsung Galaxy Note 4, for example, has a 2560×1440-pixel resolution, the largest in a smartphone to date.
