Sharp is showing off a new Windows 8 tablet sporting a 10.1 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel IGZO display. The company’s IGZO technology allows Sharp to create high-resolution displays that use less power than LCD screens with similar resolutions.
While there are some Windows laptops with even higher-resolution screens, most have screens that are significantly larger, which means that the Sharp Mebius Pad may have a higher pixel density than any Windows device introduced to date.
Engadget spotted the Sharp Mebius Pad at the CEATEC show in Japan this week. It’s powered by a quad-core  Intel Atom Z3370 Bay Trail processor and runs Window 8.1 software.
Like other small Windows tablets, it’ll come with Microsoft Office preloaded.
It’s a dust-proof and waterproof device with support for 4G LTE wireless networks in Japan.
Sharp says the tablet is likely to be available in Japan in early 2014. Unfortunately we probably won’t see this tablet outside of Japan anytime soon — the company doesn’t tend to sell tablets internationally.
Hopefully other tablets with similar displays will show up overseas though.
Not to date.
The fujitsu u820 was 5 inches and 1280×800 which is the same pitch.
It’s really not that bad to use. Yes we need better color contrast and brightness, but the resolution war will be a quick one. If they get it out of the way now then so be it.
This is obviously a silly marketing hype for silly people, because this display is about 8” wide, and that resolution means 320dpi pixel density, that is nonsense, your eyes can not distinct so tiny pixels, maybe with a loupe. Maximum resolution of a rested healthy eyes of a young man is about 250dpi from 10” distance, in good lightning. If you are not young, not rested, not healthy, or you watch it from farther, it gets even worse.
Since when hasn’t resolution been marketing hype? Also, the marketing IS working. Just look at how many people who spew the whole “my phone has 1080p. Why can’t this have it too? EPIC fail, hur dur.” They don’t even realize that they can’t tell much difference anyway unless their face is an inch away and the screens are side by side.
Personally, I’d like to see more attention towards contrast ratio, brightness, color accuracy and power
consumption. The focus of the IGZO display, at least for me, is the claimed lower power consumption without sacrificing the other screen quality metrics. I was rooting for Pixel Qi and Mirasol but they seem to have not succeeded and made too many sacrifices.
I am certainly not disputing anything you have said, and you likely have heard this already, but according to Apple, the magic number for a phone is 325dpi. I don’t know the distance they used to get to this number, but somewhere around 10″ seems reasonable for a phone. Anyways, I agree, this resolution based marketing is quite overrated.
Hoping to see some netbooks or whatever marketing they call them to avoid the stigma. I tried the tablet (Android and Windows 8) thing and it’s too much hassle for most things. I’d rather have a physically attached cramp keyboard and mouse.
Maybe an updated version of this: https://liliputing.com/2010/12/chinese-netbook-takes-interesting-road-to-tablethood.html
It can still be used as a tablet for the few situations that’s useful.
I’ll take a Bay Trail version of that!
I’m also in the camp who thinks tablets just aren’t that useful due to the lack of keyboard and mouse for both work and play. An active digitizer and pen don’t really solve the problem beyond inking and drawing or some sort of expensive electronic clipboard. Buying a keyboard and mouse kind of defeats the purpose of getting a tablet and the detached or flimsy nature of the setup makes it awkward.