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Scintillating specs: New 5.2-inch OLED display for smartphones

Japanese manufacturers unveil a white-hot display destined for future smartphones.

Christopher MacManus
Crave contributor Christopher MacManus regularly spends his time exploring the latest in science, gaming, and geek culture -- aiming to provide a fun and informative look at some of the most marvelous subjects from around the world.
Christopher MacManus
Here's the first look at a blockbuster OLED screen in the works. Japan Display

Get ready to see more smartphones sporting a spectacular OLED screen.

Japan Display -- a joint venture consisting of Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi's manufacturing muscle -- revealed the development of a 5.2-inch OLED smartphone screen featuring 1,080p resolution and an ultra-sharp 423 pixels per inch (ppi).

The full HD OLED screen offers a RGBW pixel layout, which is a screen technology that offers an extra-white subpixel alongside the traditional red, green, and blue pixels; this addition enhances brightness and battery life in comparison to regular OLED displays and LCDs.

This OLED screen stacks up nicely in comparison with the two current smartphone heavyweights with LCDs: HTC's One packs a 4.7-inch screen with 468 ppi, and Sony's Xperia Z uses a 5-inch display with 443 ppi. Samsung's Galaxy S4 and its Super AMOLED screen contains a whopping 441 ppi, but that figure isn't directly comparable in this situation since the S4's display uses PenTile screen tech -- meaning the S4 utilizes subpixel rendering and contains one less subpixel.

As usual, JDI didn't announce a release date for this OLED display, but it's possible it could be included in a future Sony smartphone or a device from another major manufacturer.