03 January 2006

Hitachi Claims First to Mass Produce
800×480 LCD Panel for Mobile Phones

A few weeks ago I wrote article about amazing Toshiba’s ~3” WVGA demo screen and now I’ve just found another one with even better characteristic, this panel boasts a viewing angle of over 170 degrees in both vertical and horizontal directions, contrast ratio of about 400:1, luminance of 250 cd/m2 and last but not less important this is not a demo version, Hitachi’s displays isn’t demo, its the in final production phase, actually Hitachi Hitachi Displays, Ltd. started mass production.

Yeah I know, my obsession with High Definition screens is very well known and if you've been here for long enough then you're well aware of my love for phones that use high resolution screens. I truly hope this display is the final proof that all my best dreams appears to be true and that we’ll see phones that features this great 2.9” screen in near future, as soon as better.

The pixel count is five times that of QVGA (240 x 320), which has become the norm for mobile phone panels that we have on our lovely N series phones. The physical screen size is 2.49”x1.49” with diagonal of 2.9”, WVGA resolution, actually 384000 pixels compressed on the mentioned physical measures sounds amazing and after some simple calculating its obviously that it guarantees more than 16000 pixels on a single square centimeter or ~320 dots per inch.

In my personal opinon we always need few more dots per inch and therfore working with such a screens on a mobile phone may just be a little more practical, actually it will be amazing ;)

Of course, high resolutions has some downsides, you see, if the resolution of an LCD panel is boosted by simply increasing the pixel count, areas through which no light from a backlight unit can pass, e.g. wiring, will also increase. In order to boost resolution while maintaining the brightness, the luminance of the backlight unit must also be enhanced, resulting in an increase in power consumption. To solve the problem, the company has focused on the improvement of the transmittance of light from the backlight unit by revamping the pixel structure and microfabricating the wiring.

IPS LCD works differently from the general TFT LCD in that a horizontal electric field causes liquid crystal molecules to rotate in a plane parallel to the TFT substrate. This simple movement allows a wider viewing angle, better color reproduction and faster grey-to-grey response time, claims the company. The new product is a transmissive LCD panel that boasts a viewing angle of over 170 degrees in both vertical and horizontal directions, contrast ratio of about 400:1 and luminance of 250 cd/m2.