One trend is becoming clear at CES this year—the emergence of a new breed of Superphones. What is a Superphone, you ask?

Let’s start with the smartphone that started this madness trend. Samsung launched the Galaxy Note with a massive 5.3 inch screen in late 2011 to an awed but skeptic market.

The blogosphere largely ignored the ”phablet”. But 10 millions units sold later, Samsung knew it had a hit on its hands. Samsung followed up with the Galaxy Note II, released late last year and it has already sold more than 5 millions units world-wide.

Although Samsung solely invented the ginormous-screen smartphone market, they haven’t yet create a Superphone. The Galaxy Note II’s screen resolution of only 1280×720 means its pixel density is only measured at a paltry 267 pixel-per-inch (ppi) on a 5.5 inch display. The iPhone’s screen in comparison is measured at a much higher 326ppi. However, Apple’s iPhone 5 could never be a Superphone with its minuscule 4 inch screen.

At CES this year, a slew of largely Chinese manufacturers have clearly defined this market space of super-high-res and super-size smartphones. These Superphones pack a minimum screen size of 5-inch and a full HD (1920×1080) screen panel to match. The pixel density goes up as high as 441 ppi on these behemoths. Some of these Superphone’s screens move into near-tablet territory. Let’s look of these giant behemoths shall we? (more…)