Panasonic 20-inch 4K2K

Display Size & Technology

The Panasonic 20-inch 4K2K displayed at CES is a IPS-Alpha LCD panel using LED edge-lighting. It has a pixel count of 3840 × 2160. With a screen size of 20 inches, that puts the resolution at 216 ppi, which is pretty remarkable. It’s close to print resolution, which is 300 ppi (or dpi, if you’re being particular). By comparison, most web resolution, like this website, is 72 ppi.

There’s actually some debate about whether the 3840 × 2160 resolution should truly be called 4K, as the horizontal resolution is below 4000 pixels, but that’s not stopping Panasonic from branding it as such. Somehow they must think that the alternate moniker, Quad Full High Definition, just doesn’t have the same buzz.

This is not Panasonic’s first 4K display, either. At last year’s CES they unveiled an enormous 152-inch plasma with the same 3840 × 2160 pixel count. Granted, the engineers probably needed that much room to fit so many pixels, as plasma cells are difficult and expensive to shrink, which is why you don’t see many plasma TVs under 50 inches. Panasonic is clearly eager to prove their engineering adeptness, though, because this year they went to the other extreme and packed it into a 20-inch LCD.

Formats & Resolution

The sharpness of this screen is unbelievable. Because of the small screen size, you have to get right up in front of it to see the detail, but once you do you’ll be amazed. For demonstration purposes, Panasonic had a 1080p display positioned side-by-side with the 4K display. The most impressive sample was a screen full of letters, like an optometrist’s chart. The letters on the bottom line were impossible small, and the 1080p display could only render a square block of black pixels. The 4K display could perfectly resolve each letter.

That sort of resolution has a certain wow factor, but it’s fair to ask what practical application that would have in your house. But that’s not the right question. It’s not intended for your house. The first place we’d expect to see it is in medical imaging. Imagine your doctor missing a tumor because the screen resolution was too low. Not so dismissive now, are you?

Below are the best examples that we could grab given the lighting conditions and semi-restricted access of the CES show floor. It was shot in a dark room at close range with a First, the 1080p sample:

Now here’s the 4K version:

That’s an awful lot of extra detail.

Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio

The Panasonic 20-inch 4K2K is rated at a maximum brightness of 450 cd/m, according to the manufacturer.

Color

The Panasonic 20-inch 4K2K conforms to the sRGB, or about 70% of NTSC, as it was explained to us by a product specialist on-hand.