A rumor from earlier this year claimed that a forthcoming update will bring 1080p display support to Windows Phone 8 later this year, and now it appears that some of Microsoft's own software has added support to that claim. Justin Angel, who has previously worked as an engineer at both Microsoft and Nokia, recently dug through Microsoft's Visual Studio 2013 software and found Windows Phone 8 emulator files that support the 1920x1080 screen resolution. The emulator files are used by developers to test their Windows Phone apps using their computer.

Support for HD displays first made its way into Windows Phone with the upgrade to Windows Phone 8, which allowed for resolutions of 1280x720 and 1280x768. Now that devices with 1920x1080 displays are becoming increasingly common in the mobile world thanks to high-end products like the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One, it makes sense that Microsoft would want to add support for 1080p screens into Windows Phone as well.

Microsoft is reportedly planning to include support for 1080p displays in its upcoming Windows Phone 8 GDR3 update, along with support for 5-inch-and-higher screen sizes and quad-core Qualcomm processors. Overall it sounds like GDR3 is an update that ought to make fans of high-end mobile hardware pretty happy. The only bad news is that while it's said that GDR3 will land sometime in 2013, that's about all that we know about the rollout right now. At least Windows Phone fans can rest easy knowing that 1080p Live Tiles will be headed their way soon. 

Via The Verge, @JustinAngel