If you thought 8K was the end of where TVs and monitor resolutions could go, think again. Next year, we could see even bigger.
You can now get your hands on 8K TVs and 8K monitors, though to be fair, both aren’t exactly commonplace. But in a few years, they will likely change, and pave the way for bigger displays as well.
And it’s not just bigger displays, but bigger resolutions altogether, because 8K isn’t the limit, and there’s more space out there.
Beyond 8K, there’s the 10K and 16K resolutions, and they’re coming soon to a desktop near you, though granted, probably an expensive desktop to begin with.
That’s the news coming out of the Video Electronics Standards Association, also known as “VESA”, which has recently announced version 2.0 of its DisplayPort technology, something Apple’s Thunderbolt initially used.
DisplayPort is one of the ports you can find on many a monitor, and offers high resolutions and refresh rates over that of the older VGA port, and over HDMI. While computers can use HDMI like a TV, DisplayPort’s advantage may be higher resolutions, especially given what’s being announced for the next generation of DisplayPort technology.
In that next generation, it’s looking like DisplayPort 2.0 (or “DP 2.0”) will play nicely with both the original DisplayPort connector and USB Type C, meaning you can expect it in computers sporting the Type C Thunderbolt 3 connector, just like on the MacBook Pro.
Once connected, DisplayPort 2.0 will offer more data bandwidth, up to over twice the amount of the current version, which in turn translates to more resolution and HDR support on monitors.
Those resolutions include 4K, 8K, 10K and 16K, the latter of which you may not have heard of before, but offer 10240×4320 and 15360×8460 comparatively.
You can also opt for up to three 10K displays together on the port, potentially providing a massive amount of pixels that stretch around you.
“DP 2.0 offers differentiated end-to-end user experiences, across a multitude of market segments, such as productivity and gaming, as well as wider end-to-end interoperability with various connectivity options,” said VESA’s Syed Athar Hussain.
“It sets a new paradigm for display interface specifications by providing scalability from power-efficient small form-factor displays, to high-resolution and high-refresh-rate large form-factor displays.”
DisplayPort 2.0 isn’t expected in devices until next year, so you don’t really have to worry about waiting for it, and it’ll likely show up in new products by 2020. However, the big monitors that it will support, they are likely even longer off, because with 8K barely found in the monitor world, we suspect the luxury of 10K and 16K are going to be a little ways off, as well.
