SEOUL — LG has developed the world’s first Quad HD smartphone screen, the company said on Wednesday.

The South Korean company said the new panel would deliver an “optimal viewing experience on larger smartphone displays”.

With 538 pixels per inch (ppi), the 5.5-inch Quad HD panel is the highest resolution mobile screen to date, according to the company.

The ‘Quad’ HD label comes from the fact that it offers four times as many pixels as HD at 1,280 x 720.

For comparison, the Apple iPhone 5 offers 326 pixels per inch, while the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One offer densities of 441ppi and 468ppi respectively.

The company also claimed it was the slimmest smartphone panel, at just 1.21mm thick

“LG Display, which pioneered the high resolution mobile market with the introduction of the world’s first Full HD smartphone panel in 2012, again opens new possibilities with the successful application of QHD technology,” said LG vice-president Dr Byeong-koo Kim.

“With this breakthrough, LG Display will continue to raise new standards for mobile resolution and lead the mobile display market.”

LG did not suggest when the new product might be available for commercial use, but said in a statement that the screen displayed deeper colours than panels currently on the market and had improved contrast and vividness. “This advancement will enable consumers to fully enjoy more life-like and crisp images, and even Blu-ray equivalent video, on their smartphones,” the company said.

“In addition, the new Quad HD panel will enable users to enjoy a full view of PC-version Web pages at a single glance without image distortion ... even when enlarging the screen, users will be able to enjoy undistorted and sharper text.”

This is not the first innovation to come out of LG’s mobile development department in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, the company unveiled its LG G2 smartphone, the first in the world to feature buttons on the back rather than the side of the handset.

The concept came from research which revealed that the larger smartphones became, the harder it was for users to access side keys, developers said.

LG is the third best-selling smartphone producer in the world, behind Samsung and Apple. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH