4K Displays, What Are They?

Just when most people were getting used to differentiating between HD and Full HD, a new phrase has been kicking about recently. That phrase is 4K. If you work in the creative sector or know people that do you might have heard this term and had to nod in agreement that these new monitors were next year’s must have without really knowing what 4K meant.

Essentially 4K refers to the quality of a displays resolution. For example, a Full HD display is 1920 x 1080p, which is why it is also referred to as 1080p. A 4K display will have a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and will also be known as Ultra-HD or 2160p.

But what does this mean? In very basic terms, a higher resolution means more pixels. More pixels mean more detail. Therefore, 4K Ultra HD TVs have 8.3 million pixels while current Full HD TVs have just over two million. The result is 4K TVs have four times as many pixels than Full HD TVs at the same size.

The new Mac Pro from Apple has been designed specifically to run with 4K displays and Dell have only recently announced that they will be producing 4K displays for less than $1000. When you couple these facts that both Sony and the Television industry have been using 4K since 2006 and it seems as if 4K will no longer be a buzz word but part of our everyday language.