Hitachi Develops Low-Cost, High-Quality 4.5-Inch LCDs For Phones

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
hitachi_display

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.

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