Overkill? LG Phone Has 2560x1440 Display, Laser Focusing

MojoKid (1002251) writes LG is probably getting a little tired of scraping for brand recognition versus big names like Samsung, Apple and Google. However, the company is also taking solace in the fact that their smartphone sales figures are heading for an all-time high in 2014, with an estimated 60 million units projected to be sold this year. LG's third iteration of their popular "G" line of flagship smartphones, simply dubbed the LG G3, is the culmination of all of the innovation the company has developed in previous devices to date, including its signature rear button layout, and a cutting-edge 5.5-inch QHD display that drives a resolution of 2560X1440 with a pixel density of 538 PPI. Not satisified with pixel overload, LG decide to equip their new smartphone with 'frickin' laser beams' to assist its 13MP camera in targeting subjects for auto-focus. The G3 performs well in the benchmarks with a Snapdragon 801 on board and no doubt its camera takes some great shots quickly and easily. However, it's questionable how much of that super high res 2560 display you can make use of on a 5.5-inch device.

Google Cardboard

[The Raven]

Google Cardboard, like the Oculus Rift, zooms in on the screen making some pixels very large. Perhaps this QHD resolution will look nicer than average when used as a Rift replacement? (note: I'm well aware that it will not actually be a good rift replacement, just that it's abnormally high pixel density could make a difference in extremely specific circumstances.)

Rangefinder handy for more than camera focusing

[GGardner]

I don't know how accurate the laser would be for general purpose rangefinding, but if this device were available to apps in general, not just the camera, I could imagine all kind of interesting new apps one could develop.

Probably not

[alvinrod]

Probably not, given that most reviewers tend to focus on technical specs or other flashy points after spending perhaps a week with the device before moving on to something else. A lot of consumers are going to buy whatever costs them the least, even if they still end up paying the same ridiculous amount every month for a contract. Even then, a lot of them will take whatever the sales droid pushes on them.

When Google still owned Motorola they tried to make some quality designs that had a lot more polish than the typical Android phone, but the sales didn't follow because it didn't have the bells and whistles that attract tech geeks or the type of people who fill buy based on some shiny, new feature. Similarly, none of the sales people were pushing it for any reason (usually some kind of kickback^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsales incentive) and so sales were poor and Google ended up dumping Motorola because they couldn't make a profit with the company.

That and if they make a quality device that lasts for three years, they can't sell you a new phone after two. Why do you think so many of the manufacturers and carriers stop providing Android updates even though the device could easily support them or a different version of the essentially the same hardware is getting the update?

Re:laser beam focus? sounds harmful...

[drinkypoo]

Wonder if you can hack the laser rangefinder to work as a remote window listening device :)

Marketed for Asia?

[chowdahhead]

The best argument I've read is that the complex characters in the Korean, Japanese, and Chinese languages really benefit from higher density screens, even over what the G2 was providing last year.

Re:Embarrasment

[jd2112]

The principle reason to put 2560x1440 pixels on a phone is to further the embarrassment of monitor manufacturers who can only manage to get 1/4 of the pixels into a 19" screen.

Monitor manufacturers like, LG?

Re:Probably not

[nadaou]

The Moto G is selling like hot cakes, and rightly so.

Just maybe not in the US, but India and friends are a bigger market, at the G's lower price. With the self-inflicted implosion of Nokia a big gap in the market opened up over there. And it's a new market not an already saturated one.

Google got the patent portfolio, which was what they were really after. Hardware isn't their core business so of course they'd move that part of the operation on at the first opportunity.

Re:Probably not

[GuB-42]

When Google still owned Motorola they tried to make some quality designs that had a lot more polish than the typical Android phone.

I don't consider phones without user replaceable batteries "quality design". For real quality oriented design, the goal should be "as long as a network exists". And considering that batteries are expected to last for about 3 years, they make for an obvious planned obsolescence.
My old Nexus One is still in use today( although not my me and with a new battery) and there is no reason to dump it as it still works as well as it did when I bought it. The 2 or even 3 year smartphone is a pure fabrication. For normal (non-geek) people, keeping a smartphone for 5-10 years should be the norm.

Re:Marketed for Asia?

[raph]

Glad you like it. We don't do anything special, really. It's mostly just FreeType doing the rendering, and HarfBuzz doing the text layout. Hinting is turned off by default, though, as we find that looks a lot better once you get to 200dpi. A 2012 Nexus 7 is now considered a fairly low resolution device, even though its 216 dpi would be pretty amazing on a desktop.

The new CFF renderer that's now open sourced and part of FreeType should make the rendering of CFF fonts a lot better.

Re:Probably not

[BillX]

Still does. I just bought, and then returned, a Moto X after discovering that Motorola's "unlock your bootloader" page is a sham. Tried it on a brand-new, retail, unlocked device and got "Your device does not qualify for bootloader unlocking" . The better part of an hour going round in circles with their tech support and they are unable (or unwilling) to even state the criteria that would, theoretically, make a device "qualify".

(An aside: While most companies might claim unlocking or rooting a device "could" void the warranty, it's usually with a wink and a nudge as long as the device is factory-restored before RMA'ing or at least not obviously bricked. A couple have software tamper flags that can likewise be reset. Motorola, on the other hand, uses the device serial # to generate and return - by email - a bootloader unlock code, and immediately blacklists the device for warranty service the moment they do so, whether you actually use the code or not.)