Huge 8K panels shipping from China this year

Thirty-three million. That's the approximate number of pixels Chinese display manufacturer BOE is jamming into its latest panels.

That's right, 8K screens are starting to do the rounds this year.

According to reports by Digitimes BOE recently showed off its 98-inch and 110-inch 8K panels and is looking to supply them to the Japanese market this year.

The new screens are rocking Advanced Super Dimension Shift (ADSDS) panel technology, which sounds like some serious quantum physics kinda extra-dimensional voodoo, but is actually another liquid crystal tech allowing the wee molecules to be rotated in a more efficient way.

The advantages of this technology is it's capable of dealing with incredibly high resolutions (lucky as we're talking about 7680x4320 here…) with low levels of power consumption. Another bonus of ADSDS - and why it's part of these big screens - is that it has a seriously wide viewing angle of 178º.

OLED on the other hand is still sat at a slightly more limited 160º viewing angle.

These first panels aren't really aimed at the home user however - BOE is looking to supply the screens with apps for medical, finance and transportation uses. That said, Japan's broadcast service, NHK, is reportedly looking to start trial testing of 8K content on its network some time next year with a full launch in 2018.

NHK though is also going to be filming the Women's World Cup from Canada in 8K next month. Teaming up with FIFA it will be showing various matches at public screenings in Japan, the US and Canada via 300-inch screens.

No wonder LG is stepping up its high-tech OLED plans - showing off a 0.97mm thin bendy display - with increasing technological competition coming from China…

But BOE is by no means the only player in the 8K market, with LG itself outing Apple's plans to release an 8K iMac sometime this year and Sharp showing off 8K panels at CES in January.

Via Digitimes

• The 8K standard is already here...