Thread: Display Resolution Explained

There is a lot of misunderstanding about what makes a display a good display. I want to put my 2 cents with this thread.

In 1979 I was programming systems with no fonts, we have to design the fonts pixel by pixel, the Apple II used a Regular TV as monitor. it was not digital, pixels (dots) were analog and they blur with each other and every pixel was only 2 bits deep for color. (iPhone is 32 bit deep)

At that time a single character to be readable needed a minimum of 6 to 8 pixels wide (about 1 cm). Obviously you only can put very small amount of info on the screen.

I want this to be un-bias and I will address just the physical characteristics of the different displays.

The factor that affect the quality of detail, the sharpness of text and graphics and the readability of text are : Density, resolution, Screen size, color (I won’t discuss here Luminosity and contrast ratio)

-The most important factor for a detailed and sharp screen is DENSITY
-The factors that affect the density are RESOLUTION and SCREEN SIZE
-the bit depth of pixels (Amount of colors) contributes the appearance with tonality and fidelity

Let’s see some examples:
……………....Screen….Sq in…..resolution....Total…..….pixels in…..…linear
…………….....Size………Area….. Ht x wd……..Pixels…....Sq inch….....dpi
XPERIA….....3.00…...4.32…..800x480......384000…... 88889……...333
Touch Pro….2.80…….3.87…..680x480......326400…...84341….… ..316
iPhone……...3.50……..5.88…..480x320.....153600…....2 6122……...171
Omnia……....3.20…….5.00…..400x240.......96600…....1 9200……...160

Screen density is measured with dpi (pixels per inch) or dpsi (pixels per square inch of screen).
Higher dpi just means more data of information per line therefore better detail and sharper screen.
Less dpi is less information data per inch therefore less detail or a more pixilated screen.

Both Touch Pro and Xperia with 329000 and 384000 pixels to play with and about the same high density dpi have about the same high quality of text and graphics. BUT the Xperia can show more information (15%) because of the larger screen. Therefore if the touch Pro wants to show the same amount of info as the Xperia the graphic and text detail must be reduced. But to the naked eye the difference is minimum.

But if you compare with the iPhone with only 153600 pixels, low density 171 dpi the detail and sharpness of text and graphics per inch is noticeable inferior to Xperia and Touch Pro. The compensating factor in the iPhone is the larger screen that allows still show enough info and the bit per pixel colors also helps with better tonality and faithful colors but still with inferior detail and sharpness.

The Samsung Omnia with only 96000 pixels per square inch and a bare density of just 160 dpi, graphics loose a lot of detail and because the screen is relatively large looks very pixilated and small text is very difficult to read.

In general assuming a minimum of 8 pixels per character based on the respective resolutions in landscape mode : Experia will show 100 characters, Touch Pro 85, iPhone 60, and Omnia 50

This means that Xperia and Touch Pro can duplicate the number of pixels per character to 16 pixels and to display the same number of characters than iPhone or Omnia. THEREFORE the display will be with better detail more readability. The opposite is true for the Omnia and iPhone to display the same amount of information as the Xperia or the Pro they have to reduce the details of fonts and graphics making them less readable.

The graphics of hardware, software and the actual application are a totally separate discussion.

thanks Pinguino1, i enjoyed reading you post..very informative


thx

good to know... does that mean the 64k coloured screen is lots better than iphone's 256k or nokia's 16M. How then does the 64K compares to those??thanks alot!

Originally Posted by kenniy

good to know... does that mean the 64k coloured screen is lots better than iphone's 256k or nokia's 16M. How then does the 64K compares to those??thanks alot!

For graphic detail and text readability the dpi (pixels per inch) is the most important factor. So high resolution is necessary to have high dpi.

The depth bits per pixel do not add detail to the display just color:
Example: if the information to display ONE Pixel contains 8 bits (1 byte) then that pixel can be displayed in any one of 256 colors (2 to the 8th power = 256)

16 bits = is 65000 colors; 18bits is 256000 colors; 24 bits is 16 Million colours per pixel.

The experia with a dpi of 333dpi is a lot sharper and show more details per inch than the iPhone witth only 177 dpi.
But the iphone with millions of colors the display is richer in colors than the Xperia with 65000 colors per pixel.

Think about this. If the iPhone puts 153000 pixels in a 5 SQ inches screen then those "dots" are very big so are not as readable. The Xperia crams 384000 pixels in 4 Sq inch screen of incredible detail.

thanks alot..really appreciate it.. now i can take my Xperia as soon as possible!!...

Nice breakdown on the resolutions, glad to see we have 1up on the iphone (well atleast in pixels)

Hi Pinguino1,


Very good post. Congratulations!

I have some comments about the resolution. I arrived to the same results and conclusions as you, when comparing the resolution of the XPERIA, Touch Pro, iPhone, Omnia. I agree that higher resolution is a better display. Nevertheless, my questions are:
1. Is our eye going to notice the difference?
2. How much resolution is the naked eye able to distinguish?
3. In a higher resolution display the fonts are going to be smaller. That's bad for my age. Does Windows mobile allow to change display resolution or font size (as you do on the display settings of a desktop or notebook)?


As a comparison my laptop has a 15.4" display, 13" wide with an horizontal resolution of 1280. That makes a linear resolution of about 100 dpi. Even the Omnia, with its lowest resolution is 70% better than a standard notebook display. about 30% of the information displayed in my notebook can be shown on the Omnia, without reducing the font size. Obviously the total amount of information that can be fitted on the XPERIA is about the double. But, can we see the difference?

Originally Posted by srs

Hi Pinguino1,


Very good post. Congratulations!

I have some comments about the resolution. I arrived to the same results and conclusions as you, when comparing the resolution of the XPERIA, Touch Pro, iPhone, Omnia. I agree that higher resolution is a better display. Nevertheless, my questions are:
1. Is our eye going to notice the difference?
2. How much resolution is the naked eye able to distinguish?
3. In a higher resolution display the fonts are going to be smaller. That's bad for my age. Does Windows mobile allow to change display resolution or font size (as you do on the display settings of a desktop or notebook)?

As a comparison my laptop has a 15.4" display, 13" wide with an horizontal resolution of 1280. That makes a linear resolution of about 100 dpi. Even the Omnia, with its lowest resolution is 70% better than a standard notebook display. about 30% of the information displayed in my notebook can be shown on the Omnia, without reducing the font size. Obviously the total amount of information that can be fitted on the XPERIA is about the double. But, can we see the difference?

1- Yes. But how much you notice is a factor of Distance and screen size. 800x480 on the 3" experia will be a lot smoother than 800x480 on the 4" Touch HD where the pixels will be bigger. (maybe a bit pixlelated, I have to see it)

2- The limit on Mobile screens is about 300-350DPI at normal reading distance. For big 60" TV 20-40 DPI at normal "reading distance" (ha ha) you can count the pixels with your fingers. So, better back up to watch the movie.

3-Let make this clear. I have some replies asking tne same. The problem (if there is a problem) is not that the higher resolution fonts are smaller. Is that a lower resolution OR a big screen size (see answer #1) can not have smaller READABLE fonts because the pixels are bigger Example: Omnia low res OR iPhone big screen.

The other part of your question is does WM allow font size change? technically YES just watch zooms. But ultimately, each individual application can offer that control.

For your desktop example: I think answer#2 clears that. However Let's make a distinction: The physical Pixel resolution of a display is not the same as resolution of an application window: example: at 1280px every pixel = 1 dot. If you change to VGA 680. The resolution of your laptop doesn't change what happen is that every DOT now will use 4 physical pixles.

But this is important: if your laptop could reduce the size of the font to the same physical size of a mobile (about 1/16" or less) then font WILL BE UNREADABLE.

This brings one corollary, "NORMAL" font in a big screen has a larger size than "NORMAL" font in small screen and still display about the same information.

One last thought. It's good to understand all this stuff, but you don't have to understand anything when you have it in your hands and say "WOW".

Hope this help to a lot of you who make comment on my original Post "display resolution explained" about 3 days ago (NOTE: the actual numbers in the table are a bit off because I was give the wrong ASPECT RATIO, but the overall concept was explained)

great Post very informative
Thanks

OK here is my 2cents worth...

Yes pixel density does matter a lot here, since we do have a very small screen we want to be able to put as much detail in as possible, but this information needs to be readable so in english...

Higher the pixel density = smaller the text can be and still be readable (depending on your eyesight) = more info on the screen.

Colour depth issue... I was a bit upset by the colour depth of 65536 colours before my brain kicked (originally i thought my old P800 had 65k but it was 4k )

65536 colour depth is 16 bit, it tends to be what most monitors are set to by default even if they are capable of 32 bit.

No-one really knows how many colours the eyes can percieve or what the brain can distinguish but here is some important info to help you out:

The higher the colour depth, the more processing power and RAM is needed to show the image = slower system for the same specs.

Most DVD/films that have been ripped and optimised for phones strip out colour to 65k or less to save on the file size and to help stop stuttering on playback.

99% of the time you will not be able to tell the difference between 65K or above.

Personally I would have liked 16 million colours but am more than happy with 65k if it can make the thing run faster.

Try it yourself, run a DVD on your monitor with colour depth at 16 bit and then again at 32 bit colour depth and see if it makes any difference, I haven't yet but I might trty it tonight.