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From a rough estimate, a 2x increase in resolution reduces the battery life by 30 percent overall, if everything else is equal. But they usually increase batter
by higherpurpose 12y ago
From a rough estimate, a 2x increase in resolution reduces the battery life by 30 percent overall, if everything else is equal. But they usually increase battery size and get a more powerful (therefore more efficient with high resolutions) GPU, to mask that. That's how a 1440p phone can get the same, or almost the same battery life as a phone with 720p screen and a significantly smaller battery.
Now the question that most OEMs don't seem to ask themselves is - how much better would the battery life be, if they kept the old "standard" resolution, and increase the battery life and used a new GPU, too? It could be up to 50 percent longer.
Not to mention that focusing on resolution, and making the screen more expensive that way, takes away from them focusing on other aspects of the screen, such as viewing angles (there was a comparison around between LG G3 and Galaxy S5 viewing angles, which I can't find now, but LG G3 viewing angles were pretty bad).
Focusing on needlessly expensive higher resolution screens also takes component money away from investing in even better cameras, more storage, and so on. For example, instead of paying $70 for a 1440p display, they could be paying $50 for a 1080p one (which are pretty abundant now), and get a $40 camera sensor instead of a $20 one. I, for one, would appreciate such a component choice much more.