Sony’s Xperia Z1, announced at IFA at the beginning of this month, is only now starting to trickle into stores around the world, so it’s a bit weird for me to be talking about its successor, but here it goes. According to a leak in a Sony fan forum which was corroborated by AndroidSAS, the Xperia Z2 will be launching at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It will have the same 20.7 megapixel camera as the Xperaia Z1, and the same Snapdragon 800, but it’ll get a RAM upgrade (3 GB compared to 2 GB) and most importantly a screen upgrade.

The Z2 will supposedly be the first smartphone to break the 500 pixel per inch barrier. How will it do that? By shipping with a 5.5 inch display that can push a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, better known as WQXGA.

Now let’s take a step back. Are these specs even possible? The camera, the processor, the RAM, all yes, but the screen? Back in June of this year, I reported on the development of WQXGA screens that would measure 6.0 inches diagonally, resulting in a pixel per inch rating of 500. Is it likely that advances have occurred that enable 550 pixels per inch?

Possibly, and Sony’s smartphones ship in the kind of volumes (sub-10 million in Q2 2013) that would allow them to use such advanced display technology. But still, I wouldn’t hold my breath. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, I don’t see anyone complaining about 440 PPI displays.