There’s been a strange disconnect lately between what many smartphone users consistently say they want (i.e., better battery life) and what smartphone vendors are actually delivering. I’m already on the record saying that I don’t want Apple to even think about making the iPhone any thinner until it figures out a way to vastly improve the device’s mediocre battery life, but it looks like the company isn’t going to listen to me. However, Apple isn’t the only company that’s giving us something that we don’t need at the expense of better battery life, as Sony has recently embarked on an insane quest to push smartphones with 4K displays.
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I was reminded about how little I want a 4K smartphone display today when I read this terrific PhoneArena feature that showed it’s virtually impossible for the human eye to tell the difference between a Quad HD display and a 4K display on such a tiny device. What makes 4K displays particularly pernicious is that they may actually detract from the overall user experience.
“System performance will take a massive hit, and so will battery life—already exemplified by our Xperia Z5 Premium battery test, which put it on equal footing with the 1080p Xperia Z5, despite having a battery with 530 mAh extra,” PhoneArena writes. “Clearly, the screen is drawing a lot of power, even if it downscales content (our battery test is entirely rendered in 1080p).”
