Sony’s 4K smartphone won’t actually display much at 4K

A few weeks back, we learned that Sony is launching the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium this year, the first smartphone on the market to feature a 4K display. However, it turns out that the display may rarely actually display things at that resolution. Sony has confirmed that the phone will stick to displaying 1080p or a lower resolution on apps, websites and the homescreen.

In a  statement sent to PhoneArena, Sony confirmed how its 4K display will be handled: “Xperia Z5 Premium features a 4K display with a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels based on SID Standard and enables all video and image content to be enjoyed in 4K resolution. All other content is displayed at 1080P or lower resolution”.

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, after all, even 1440p is considered too high a resolution for a 5.5 inch screen by many. However, this does raise the question, is Sony's 4K screen worth that bump in price if its rarely going to be running at full resolution? We also don't know if 4K video will work from third-party streaming services like YouTube or Netflix. 4K video viewing may be limited to things you have shot on the phone's camera.

Sony did say that it was taking these measures to preserve performance and battery life, which is fair. However, if smartphones aren't actually ready for 4K, why bother at all? The Xperia Z5 Premium launches in November and will feature a Snapdragon 810, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Pricing is not yet available.

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KitGuru Says: That 4K screen is likely going to bump up the price of the Xperia Z5 Premium quite a bit, so customers may want to keep this information in mind before making a purchase. It seems a bit silly to put so much money in to a nice screen if it is rarely going to be used to its full potential. 

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