The future of our screens, introducing 8K and “11K”

It’s now becoming fairly affordable to own a 4K TV at home. You’re looking between £350 to £500 for a decent size of about 43 inches or so. That’s not bad, but technology seems to be getting ahead of us – yet again.

It’s quite hard to imagine, but 4K isn’t actually the best possible image you can get. At 3840 pixels wide and 2160 pixels tall, that’s a pretty high resolution for a screen. There’s a lot of detail there, but 8K boasts a whopping 7680 pixels by 4320 pixels. There’s also talks about an alleged “11K” resolution, which we will get onto in a moment.

8K

While it’s far from the standard right now, we will be getting even higher quality screens in the near future. This is pretty insane and hard to fathom, because 4K is already crystal clear. This has lead to arguments over whether there’s any point to 8K, since it’s admittedly very difficult to tell the difference between the two. I doubt this will stop all the tech enthusiasts in getting an 8K TV in time though!

8K has actually been in the minds of directors for a few years already, ready for “future-proofing”. In 2017, Marvel’s Guardian’s of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was the first feature film to be filmed with 8K cameras. So, while we’re only really hearing about 8K in recent times as consumers, it has been around for a few years now. If you’re rich enough, you can get an 8K TV right now, just don’t expect to be able to use its full potential very often… yet.

In recent light, Microsoft have put forward a few details about their next generation console which is dubbed “Project Scarlett”. It’s set to release in fall 2020, and boasts to have 8K and 120 fps support. It’s not likely we will get any games with those types of visuals straight away, but the technology is there, and it will probably come sooner than we think!

Down-scaled screenshots don’t do it much justice, but this is how 8K could look in games. (Image: Microsoft)

“11K”

There’s a reason I put this in quotes. Back in 2015, Samsung claimed to be working on 11k screens for TVs and mobiles. They were supposed to be revealed in 2018, but I’m unable to find any evidence of this unveiling.

So, what makes the alleged “11K” so special? Why is it not called 12K? This resolution claims to have “invisible” pixels, that means the screen’s picture will appear to be 3D to the eye, without the need of any glasses. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Whether it will work or not, who knows. I imagine it’s difficult to advertise this without it being in front of you.

If this type of technology was to be implemented on TVs, phones and PC screens it would immense. Whether you’d enjoy it or not though is a different matter. Imagine playing a game in that quality, which is also 3D… the motion sickness might be a bit too much!

What are your thoughts on our advancing technology when it comes to screens? Excited? Do you think it’s too much? I’m personally pretty happy with how 4K is right now when it comes to home use. Maybe these higher resolutions would be more effective in the likes of cinemas?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!