LG hasn’t made any confirmation of any such thing at this time but there is some rife speculation across the internet that the company is working towards installing a 4K ultra HD LCD panel in their upcoming G8 flagship 2018 smartphone.
The main source of these rumors seems to be the twitter leaker Ice Universe, which already has a history of accurate leaks under his belt. In other words, these particular rumors are credible to at least some extent for this reason alone. Beyond that reason, they have some credibility due to the simple fact that 4K displays on smartphones are indeed already a real thing and because LG is one of the world leaders in the manufacture of ultra HD device screens, with a lineup of such technologies that covers PC monitors and 4K TVs most notably of all.
As for the rumors sparked by Ice Universe, they claim that the flagship phone will come equipped with a full-blown 4K ultra HD display at 3840 x 2160 pixels. For something as tiny as a phone screen, that translates to a tremendous amount of sharpness since 8.29 million pixels will be packed into just a few inches of LCD visuals.
Ice Universe however offers one BIG hole in his supposedly leaked tidbit of a rumor: This of course is a total lack of supporting evidence for the claim. In other words, however plausible it might be, it’s completely unsubstantiated. Furthermore, he specifically mentions an LCD 4K display, which is actually sort of strange. If anything, the company would be expected to just go for an even more advanced OLED panel in such a powerful screen with possible VR, thus giving it much better overall energy efficiency and superior contrast. Then there’s the not so minor fact that LG is the absolute world leader in OLED 4K display panel manufacture, making an OLED display seem all the more reasonable.
If the 4K display does end up coming true, it would definitely help LG’s standing not only in the smartphone industry, it would also allow the company’s flagship device to offer some wicked support for use as a virtual reality headset, since higher resolutions in such devices mean a much more realistic VR experience. LG would however have to include support for some sort of VR platform, like Google Daydream for example, in order to also support VR on this hypothetical 4K screen.
In the current smartphone market, 4K screens are exceptionally rare things and this makes sense given their tiny displays. Even QHD or 1440 phone displays are hard to find due to practical display specs reasons. Instead, the greater focus to-date has been on larger 18:9 and 19:9 display ratios. We’ll have to see as 2018 progresses.
As for rumors of other major smartphone makers pulling out the stops for near-future phones with 4K resolution, there are some even less substantiated claims that Samsung will also deliver 4K resolution on its upcoming Galaxy S10.