Back in February this year, Hitachi Displays took the wraps off a super-advanced LCD for smartphones that boasted a 4.5-inch IPS LCD with 720 x 1,280 resolution. Fast forward to today, and the company is now announcing [JP] the development of a very similar panel with (almost) the same quality that costs “10-20%” less than touch displays currently used in smartphones.
This new panel shares the main specs with the one shown in February: same size and resolution, 500cd/m2 brightness, LED backlight, and 329ppi pixel density. The only difference is that the older model had a better contrast ratio (1,100:1 vs. 1,000:1).
And this time, Hitachi used amorphous polysilicon to manufacture the display, a material that’s often used for making TVs and that’s cheaper than the low-temperature polysilicon smartphone panels usually are made of.
Hitachi Displays (or possibly Japan Display) expects to begin mass-production of the new LCD display by the end of this year, targeting phone makers in Japan and abroad.
Note: the picture shows the old model, as Hitachi hasn’t released one showing the new display.