Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has suggesting adding 4K screens to smartphones would require too many compromises to be made for the technology to be worthwhile.
According to the Ascend Mate 7 maker, jumping from Full HD and 2K panels to 4K displays would have such a negative affect on battery life, that the minimal visual gains would not be worth the trade-off.
“The power consumption would be so huge that your phone would last just half a day,” Kevin Ho, President of Huawei’s Handset Product Line told TrustedReviews at the company’s R&D headquarters in Shaghai, China.
Looking to the pro – con balance of moving to 4K smartphone displays, he added: “Maybe we have to compromise. For huge screens 4K is very good but for the smartphone it is 5-inch or 6-inch at the very most. Maybe our eye’s can’t tell the difference.
“Most of the consumers would rather choose a phone that can last more than one day.”
Although suggesting 4K smartphones are not likely to make an appearance anytime soon, Ho failed to rule out Huawei, or other manufacturers, moving into this space in the future.
“In the future I don’t want to say there is no chance for 4K on smartphones,” He stated.
“If we make a compromise and if our eyes can tell the difference, maybe we could work with other companies to introduce 4K.”
Related: Huawei Ascend P7 review
The possibility of progression to 4K phones has been banded around for some time, despite a number of manufacturer’s slamming the benefits of such a step.
Despite 2K displays now being an increasingly present addition to flagship phones, some leading handset manufacturers have even questioned the benefits of QHD panels.
Speaking late last year, Calum MacDougall, Sony’s Director of Xperia Marketing, suggested 2K screens were not worth the battery compromise.
He stated: “If we believe that a key part of the user experience for consumers is to have a longer term battery, and if we believe we can deliver a great screen with Full HD and our Sony technologies, we don’t believe the trade-off between having a 2K screen and battery consumption is the right trade-off for a consumer.”