We Don't Need No Stinkin' 4K, LG Says It's Bringing 8K Love

One of the most in-your-face buzzwords at the past couple of CES shows has been '4K', and there's little doubt that the forthcoming event in early January will bring it back in full force. As it stands today, 4K really isn't that rare, or expensive. You can even get 4K PC monitors for an attractive price. There does remain one issue, however; A lack of 4K content. We're beginning to see things improve, but it's still pretty slow going.

Given that, you might imagine that display vendors would hold off on trying to push that resolution envelope further – but you just can’t stop hardware vendors from pushing the envelope. Earlier this year, both Apple and Dell unveiled '5K' displays that nearly doubled the number of pixels of 4K displays. That's a little insane when you think about it. 4K already brutalizes top-end graphics cards and lacks good video content, and yet here we are looking at the prospect of 5K.

I am sure many jaws dropped when 4K was first announced, and likewise with 5K. Now? It might be best to rest your face on your fist for the sake of safety, because 8K is on its way.

We have LG to thank for that. At CES, the company will be showing-off a 55-inch display that boasts a staggering 33 million pixels - derived from a resolution of 7680x4320. It might not be immediately clear, but that's far more pixels than 4K, which leads me to believe this whole "K" system of measuring resolutions is a little odd. On paper, you might imagine that 8K has twice the pixels of 4K, but instead, it's 4x.

Here's a graphic to help put things into perspective:

4K is essentially 1080p x 4, whereas LG's 8K is 1080p x 16. According to CNET, a total of 20 display driver ICs are required to make 8K a reality. Worried about brightness? Don't be: With an added "W" sub-pixel, LG was able to crank the brightness up to 500cd/m2.

Often, companies like LG will show off products like this 8K display at CES as a mere tech demo, but according to the company, if there's interest, and a reason to do so, it'll consider bringing these displays to mass market.

Until then, let's just focus on getting more 4K content on our 4K displays.