ZTE to be first phone maker to win the 4K race with Star 3?

While there are a number of rumors suggesting that the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 may be among the first smartphones to break the QHD barrier, a new rumor out of China suggests that ZTE might be the very first player to embraced a higher-than-QHD resolution for the upcoming Star 3.

As the rumor goes, the ZTE Star 3 will be equipped with a 5.5-inch UHD display with an impressively high resolution of 2160 x 3840 and a PPI of 806. While Sharp already has a 5.5-inch display that matches this size and resolution, it won’t be ready for mass production until 2016 and so the rumor mill claims that China-based BOE will be the maker behind the high-res screen. It needs to be said that this rumor could very easily prove to be nothing more than unfounded gossip.

All that said, for just about every major jump in resolution we’ve seen at least one Chinese company among the first to offer a bleeding edge display. For example, the jump to 1080p saw the OPPO Find 5 as one of the very first contenders, even if the HTCButterfly (aka Droid DNA) actually was the first to make it to market. With QHD, vivo and OPPO (with the Find 7) were among the very first, followed closely by LG with the G3.

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The big question here is if UHD (or 4K) offers a noticeable difference when compared to QHD, or even 1080p for that matter. After all, many have criticized QHD for offering a negligible difference when compared to 1080p, while causing a very noticeable difference in terms of battery drain and processor strain. With UHD, the same negatives will apply but with possibly even less to gain, with only the sharpest eye likely to note the difference.

Of course, tech will continue to march forward and even if the gain isn’t that noticeable, we are sure the display will look absolutely stunning, provided the rumor is accurate. It is also worth mentioning that ZTE will reportedly use a TFT panel with a special crystal structure that is designed to reduce power consumption while improving the display’s durability, which could help somewhat resolve the battery strain issues that come with a higher resolution display.

What do you think, are you excited to see the first UHD/4K smartphones, or do you feel QHD (or even 1080p) is more than good enough?