Why the need for higher res screens and quad core processors?

[podsnap]

I've just been skim reading an article about what people hope to see in the new Samsung Galaxy S3.

I just don't understand this thing for bonkers hi res screens. They want a screen 1280x720 pixels and this on a 4-5inch screen!

I mean, my 24" monitor has a resolution of 1920x1200 and it's great.

My Omnia 7 has a 4" screen and the 480x800 resolution is fantastic. I can't see individual pixels, everything is smooth and beautiful.

Same thing with processors, if the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign shows anything, it's that it has more to do with the UI and steps of a process than it has to do with how fast the chip is.

I know companies will always try to outdo each other on spec sheets, but this is getting silly!

 

[cckgz4]

There isn't a need for it at all. It's simply a want that derived from the fast pace of Android OEM's burning through hardware specs.

 

[anotherhawkeye]

I beg to differ on the resolution...see iPad or iPhone to see the retina difference.

 

[badMojo69]

On a phone I dont see the need. My wife has a LG Nitro HD and I had a HTC Vivid QHD
they look nice, but I really don't miss any of it on WP.

Only possible reason is if you do a lot of web page reading. Then you don't have to zoom in so much.

 

[cckgz4]

I beg to differ on the resolution...see iPad or iPhone to see the retina difference.

Want. People would like to see that. It's not necessary to make your device function. It would be nice but IMO it's definitely not something (for me) to take away from the phone

 

[trivor]

Actually - that's not true - it has to do with viewing distance and whether you can see the pixels from the average viewing distance. With your computer screen you are normally 24-36 inches away so the individual pixels are not visible. With your phone very often you are only 12 inches away and on larger screen sizes (4.3" or larger) it does make a difference having a higher res display (tell me the Titan/Titan II doesn't have some pixelation). Anyone who says the iPhones retina display isn't amazingly crisp is lying to themselves (330 pixels per inch does make a difference). And next time you're in an ATT store take a look at the new HTC One X (4.7" Super LCD II display). Tell me you wouldn't like to see WP7 on hardware like that and you're not only lying to me, you're lying to yourself.

 

[freestaterocker]

I'm all for higher resolutions and more powerful processors, but with a caveat: at the end of the day, my smartphone is a phone FIRST. I don't want a dead battery if my vehicle leaves me stranded on the way home from work, and I don't want to have to charge it midday to avoid that. If they can make the smart aspect nicer to look at or more fast and responsive and still give me 16+ hours on a charge-even if I *gasp* USE IT, then I'll buy it regardless of "specs". Ironically, I'm typing this on an HD7, which I'm about to put back on the charger to make sure I have enough juice for work. I picked the wrong WP but I didn't know it at the time.

 

[welsbloke]

Its simply a means to differentiate against another product and as somebody has brought up the iPad that is a classic case in point.

Was it needed? No. Was it wanted? By some yes.

This market is driven by the few telling the many what they want. The many are like most people in essence and are waiting to be led. So like sheep they fall in line and start demanding and bemoaning the lack of functionality.

If we take this to extremes my Nokia 6310i was a fantastic phone good voice quality light and lasted all year but now I have a Smartphone it lasts 1 day and craps all over the functionality of the 6310i but at its core the Nokia 6310i probably does a better job of being a phone.

I would not go back though. The trouble is we seem to see this extreme even when refering to the same generation and that is in my opinion where the hardware creep comes into its own.

 

[hbananas]

Actually - that's not true - it has to do with viewing distance and whether you can see the pixels from the average viewing distance. With your computer screen you are normally 24-36 inches away so the individual pixels are not visible. With your phone very often you are only 12 inches away and on larger screen sizes (4.3" or larger) it does make a difference having a higher res display (tell me the Titan/Titan II doesn't have some pixelation). Anyone who says the iPhones retina display isn't amazingly crisp is lying to themselves (330 pixels per inch does make a difference). And next time you're in an ATT store take a look at the new HTC One X (4.7" Super LCD II display). Tell me you wouldn't like to see WP7 on hardware like that and you're not only lying to me, you're lying to yourself.

Agree. Was in a store to play with the Titan and easily saw pixelation especially the text on email. Black text on white background.

Regarding higher resolutions, sure 800x480 may suffice. But phones with 720p displays can easily fit the windows phones screen and still have room to spare for widgets, etc or other pieces of information. I don't think higher resolutions are just for clarity, because if it is, the iPhone would win majority of the time via pixel density. Higher resolutions offer a bigger canvas to fit pieces of information, whatever it may be.

Imagine if a piece of information (widget, icon, block of text, picture, etc) was 300x200. You'd only be able to fit about 2.5 of them on a 800x400 screen, as opposed to fitting almost 4 of them on a screen resolution of 1280x720.

Whether higher resolutions are a want or a need, I'd Absolutely much prefer a higher resolution. And I'm sure there's quite a few windows phone users that would agree. Thus for me, I can't wait to see what windows phone 8 can bring.

 

[jimski]

Definitely two features that would "not" make me rush out for a new phone. But if they happen to be on my next phone, and have zero impact on battery performance, no problem then.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[welsbloke]

Agree. Was in a store to play with the Titan and easily saw pixelation especially the text on email. Black text on white background.

Regarding higher resolutions, sure 800x480 may suffice. But phones with 720p displays can easily fit the windows phones screen and still have room to spare for widgets, etc or other pieces of information. I don't think higher resolutions are just for clarity, because if it is, the iPhone would win majority of the time via pixel density. Higher resolutions offer a bigger canvas to fit pieces of information, whatever it may be.

Imagine if a piece of information (widget, icon, block of text, picture, etc) was 300x200. You'd only be able to fit about 2.5 of them on a 800x400 screen, as opposed to fitting almost 4 of them on a screen resolution of 1280x720.

Whether higher resolutions are a want or a need, I'd Absolutely much prefer a higher resolution. And I'm sure there's quite a few windows phone users that would agree. Thus for me, I can't wait to see what windows phone 8 can bring.

An example of the few driving the many... The 800 by 480 screen on my Nokia does not suffer with any of those problems in fact its clear black display means that it is superior in many ways to the higher resolution screens but because we now count these things in pixels it somehow is inferior.

The same argument stands for dual and quad processors which are no longer being fitted because we need them but because the few have said we need them despite the OS being optimised in such a way that it is pretty much redundant.

 

[podsnap]

Definitely two features that would "not" make me rush out for a new phone. But if they happen to be on my next phone, and have zero impact on battery performance, no problem then.

Completely agree, I'm not against these features just can't work out why they are causing such a fuss.

Imagine if a piece of information (widget, icon, block of text, picture, etc) was 300x200. You'd only be able to fit about 2.5 of them on a 800x400 screen, as opposed to fitting almost 4 of them on a screen resolution of 1280x720.

Totally get what you are saying, fitting more onto a 4-5 inch screen is allgreat but there comes a point where things are too small to use/read.

At the point where text isn't rendered crispt on my Omnia 7 because of resolution is at the point where it would be too small for me to read anyway.

Yes, the iPhone 4 display is very crisp but I would have my AMOLED screen over it every day of the week. I honestly have not found a point where on it's 4" screen the resolution is an issue at all.

And greater res isn't always good. My friends iPad 3 has to upscale all the images on a webpage if you view it full screen and so the images are a bit blury. Not so great.

 

[jalb]

I want it so that Samsung can make a WP version of the Galaxy Note. Even if they just make one. For me.


As for more processing power, I don't know. I bought Pac Man and Sonic Episode 4 just this week, and was sad to see how laggy and jerky they performed on my Titan. Unplayable, for me at least. I'll stick with my word games for now.

 

[foosball]

Higher specs can be a way for companies to gain bragging rights. This is especially true when it comes to processors on phones with quad core being the latest example of marketing hype.

As far as screen resolution, this is an area where the hype mostly lives up to its billing. Go take a look at an iPhone or better yet an HTC One X screen. Its a sheer joy to use screens like that because they make great eye candy. Who cares what the specs say because at that point your brain will tell you its a richer experience.

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

 

[sting7k]

I've just been skim reading an article about what people hope to see in the new Samsung Galaxy S3.

I just don't understand this thing for bonkers hi res screens. They want a screen 1280x720 pixels and this on a 4-5inch screen!

I mean, my 24" monitor has a resolution of 1920x1200 and it's great.

My Omnia 7 has a 4" screen and the 480x800 resolution is fantastic. I can't see individual pixels, everything is smooth and beautiful.

Same thing with processors, if the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign shows anything, it's that it has more to do with the UI and steps of a process than it has to do with how fast the chip is.

I know companies will always try to outdo each other on spec sheets, but this is getting silly!

Have you not seen the screen on the iPhone 4/4S or Galaxy Nexus? They are vastly superior.

As for quad-core processors. I don't know. Probably over kill. Even Apple seems to agree as the new iPad retained the dual core CPU and went quad core GPU only.

 

[HeyCori]

Dual core processors are great when you want to do things like edit video on your phone. I wouldn't use that option often, much like how I don't use photo filters on my phone, but I would like to have that option from time to time.

WP stepping into the multi-core family later this year will provide a big boost to the platform. However, the great thing about WP 7.5 being so smooth is that you don't notice there's not a dual core processor in your phone. The vast majority of what people do with their phones can be accomplished without hindrance from lag. IMO, that's a huge accomplishment.

As far as screen resolution goes... A HD display will make everything look sharper, agreed. However, I don't think my Titan looks bad. Not at all. In fact, even at 480x800 I think the screen looks quite good and so do most people who look at my phone. All I hear is "Wow, look at that screen!" The screen is not a blurry mess. Can it look better? Obviously. Does it look bad? I'm gonna have to disagree.

I think some credit needs to be given to the underlying tech as well. My Titan and Focus are the same resolution but boy does my screen look far superior on my Titan and it's Super LCD. Personally I'm not making a huge deal out of the screen resolution because I don't think I have an ugly screen. Definitely lower resolution but not ugly.

 

[selfcreation]

Android is SOOO BAD that they NEED duel-core.

and the Android UI is such a MESS that they needs high res to see all does randomly placed messy STATIC icons....

lol

 

[gsquared]

Whoever said marketing hype = good call.

I, like most users, need a phone that can run a few productive applications (games and video are NOT productive applications). Not a pocket mainframe. Same goes with tablets. I still do not get the latest tablet craze. I have yet to meet anyone carrying an IPad, etc that actually does anything useful with their devices.

Now, about 10 years ago (maybe less) there were Windows XP tablets that you could really do stuff with.

 

[ejb222]

Come on...Imagine the Lumia AMOLED screen in 1280x720! The full color richness and high ppi! That would be killer! I for one can tell the difference. Though it may not be a selling point, if it was offered I would take it. Here's hoping battery technology starts taking off!!!

 

[dkp23]

Need quadcore and high resolution to work smoothy? No

Need quadcore and high resolution to sell your product? Yes

It is now becoming a spec war, doesnt matter if you need it, you have to have the biggest and fastest specs in all the land to compete.