Japan Display announces 803ppi and 1,000 ppi LCD screens for VR headsets

Most displays these days have at most 500 pixels per inch densities, and the highest ppi counts usually come with smartphone displays. Even though these densities are more than enough for normal viewing, they may prove insufficient when used in conjunction with VR headsets that include zooming lenses. In this case the individual lines between the pixels become apparent, an effect known as the “screen door”, which most of the times proves to be distracting when being immersed in VR games or videos. Upping the ppi seems to be the solution here, and Samsung already presented an 885 ppi screen for VR headsets earlier this year, but it seems that the South Koreans are not the only ones concerned with these problems. Japan Display recently unveiled its own 803 ppi VR screen, while a 1,000 ppi model is scheduled to be launched in the second half of 2018.

The 803 ppi screen is using a 3.60-inch IPS LCD panel with 1920 x 2160@90 Hz resolution and 4.5 ms grey-to-grey response time. Although it has reduced dimension in order to fit a compact VR headset, the display is able to exceed the industry standard 120 cd/m2, with a peak brightness of 150 cd/m2 and a decent 700:1 contrast ratio.

It would be interesting to see if the 1,000 ppi screen launching next year could provide near 4K resolutions and maybe even some HDR certification. The 803 ppi screen may just as well end up a test prototype for future denser models, as Japan Display has not released any information about pricing or availability.

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