A newly discovered display technology could pave the way for ultra-sharp smartphones, TVs and virtual reality glasses, researchers say.

The new OLED displays are developed based on existing designs for ultrathin solar panel electrodes, Stanford researchers and collaborators in Korea announced in a recent paper. The new technology can handle resolutions of up to 10,000 pixels per inch (PPI), compared to the 400 to 500 PPI of current smartphones.

“A higher pixel density allows the display to display more detail, better mimicking the human eye,” said Stefan Engel, vice president and general manager of the Visuals Business at device maker Lenovo, whose company was not involved in the study, in an email interview.

"The challenge with higher pixel density, however, is the required computing power, which is enormous. Given the required computing power, it makes the most sense for virtual and mixed reality use cases, where a small display is used but can still be directly connected to a powerful PC."