A New Record For LCD Resolution: 651 dpi

Japan Display, a consortium of Japanese TV giants, has developed a 2.3-diagonal-inch LCD panel (5.8 cm—a format usually found on cameras) with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution.

That's a record 651 dpi (dots per inch, or pixels per inch). The screens available in phones today pale in comparison. In case this isn't sinking in for you, compare it to:

• smartphones: the Samsung Galaxy S3 (keep your eye out for our full review!) has 306 dpi, the Retina display on the Apple iPhone 4S has 326 dpi and the 5-inch Full HD display that LG plans on releasing "one of these days" has 440 dpi

• SLR cameras: the VGA screens found on SLRs have 640 x 480 pixel resolution

• notebooks: the new Apple Macbook Pro Retina has 220 dpi, with 2,880 x 1,800 pixels on a 15-inch display.

Let's play with the numbers a bit. If instead of producing 2.3" screens Japan Display made 7" panels (6.9", to be precise), the resolution would be 3840 x 2400 pixels. That's better than the next-gen Quad HD TVs (3480 x 2160 pixels)!