Sharp Dynabook AIO PC Features Stunning 32-inch 8K 120Hz Display
Can you remember the last time you bought a PC built by Sharp? For many of you reading this, the answer is probably "never," though Sharp is indeed in the PC business, having purchased Toshiba's PC division last year for four billion yen (~$36 million). Sharp apparently plans to make a splash—at a recent press event in Tokyo, Sharp unveiled an all-in-one desktop PC with an 8K resolution display.
The new Dynabook system wields a large 31-5-inch display with an IGZO panel sporting a 7680x4320 resolution and fast 120Hz refresh rate. It also supports HDR visuals. It doesn't quite reach the 1,000 nits brightness level that is ideal for HDR content, but gets fairly close at 800 nits, which is twice as bright as lower-end HDR displays that only crank out 400 nits (the minimum requirement for VESA's entry-level DisplayHDR 400 certification).
Sharp has not disclosed the specs of what appears to be a prototype AIO PC. It will need a burly GPU to properly drive the display, though. Even pushing a 4K resolution panel is taxing on a GPU, especially if playing games at that resolution. An 8K resolution display actually offers four times as many pixels as a 4K panel, and 16 times that of a Full HD 1080p monitor.
There is also the issue of how it connects. According to Anandtech, Sharp in 2016 demonstrated a 27-inch 8K IGZO monitor with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,000 nits brightness. At the time, Sharp used a whopping eight DisplayPort cables to provide the necessary bandwidth for such a display.
Things have changed since then. There is now an HDMI 2.1 specification that bumps the bandwidth up from 18Gbps (HDMI 2.0) to 48Gbps. HDMI 2.1 supports resolutions up to 10K at up to 120 frames per second, along with 16-bit color, dynamic HDR, and variable refresh rates.
It is also worth noting that Sharp is not the only one with an 8K product on its hands. Dell launched an UltraSharp 32 monitor with an 8K resolution in early 2017, and there are some manufacturers that have already produced 8K televisions (including Sharp, with its Aquos 8K TV).
