LCD Resolution (is higher really better?) and DPI Calculator

LCD Resolution (is higher really better?) and DPI Calculator

16:10 "Widescreen"			17" (14.47x9.04)	15.4" (13x8.125)	14" (11.86x7.42)	12" (10.16x6.36)
		Area (in^2)	130.8	105.6	88	64.6
WXGA	1280x800 =	1024000	88.5	98.5	107.9	125.9
WXGA+	1440x900 =	1296000	99.5	110.8	121.4	141.6
WSXGA+	1680x1050 =	1764000	116.1	129.2	141.6	165.2
WUXGA	1920x1200 =	2304000	132.7	147.7	161.8	188.9
4:3 "normal"			15" (9x12)	14" (11.2x8.4)	12" (9.6x7.2)
		Area (in^2)	108	94.08	69.12
XGA	1024x768 =	786432	85.3	91.4	106.7
SXGA	1280x1024 =	1310720	110.2	118.0	137.7
SXGA+	1400x1050 =	1470000	116.7	125.0	145.8
UXGA	1600x1200 =	1920000	133.3	142.9	166.7

About the Table

This table was designed to be a resource to help you choose the screen size and resolution that is right for you. This is important information because while higher resolutions are generally better because they provide more screen area, many people prefer a lower resolution so the text on their computer is larger. For example, the writer of this article is 25 years old and wears glasses, and he prefers a 15" SXGA+ screen, but text on a 15" UXGA screen is just a little uncomfortably small for him. Other people may actually prefer even lower resolutions than SXGA+ for a 15" screen.

Granted, there are ways of increasing the text in Windows, but not all programs respect this setting. Plus, if you are connecting an external monitor to your laptop in order to have 2 simultaneous displays, those external monitors often run at a lower resolution than the internal laptop display. Increasing the text size in Windows will increase it for both internal and external monitors, which creates a situation where the text on one of the two screens is either too big or too small to comfortably use.

While you can often change the resolution for an LCD, there are physical dots in the screen for the native resolution. Because a different resolution requires the dots to be in different places than the dots are physically on the screen, the screen interpolates (technical term: "fakes it") the lower resolution, and this often looks a little fuzzy. Many people can tolerate some non-native resolutions on some screens, but it is difficult to project what any individual might be able to tolerate. However, if you ever see a fuzzy LCD screen, it is probably not running at the screen's native resolution.

How to read the table

From the left, the first column is the resolution name. The second column is the resolution in pixel dimension, and the third column is the total pixels in that resolution.

From the top, the screen size plus actual screen dimension (eg. '17" (14.47x9.04)') is shown, and then the area in inches squared is shown for that screen.

Because widescreens and 4:3 screens have different aspect ratios, different resolutions are required in order for normal-looking text and graphics (not fat and not skinny), the two different types of screens are broken into two different tables. This is also useful because you can compare the screen area for some screens and discover that a 15.4" widescreen really is slightly smaller than a 15" 4:3 screen.

The numbers in the middle (between the screen area and the total pixels) is the meat of the table. The calculation to reach these numbers is ( x = square root of (Area * Pixels)). HTML isn't good at math, so imagine the "square root of" part is actually a square root symbol. The point of these numbers can only be made relevant if you have some baseline experience with a laptop screen. That gives you a frame of reference for which other screens/resolutions would provide a similar pixel size to that screen.

Example of use

Let's presume you prefer a 15" SXGA+ screen just like I do. Well, you know starting off that anything >130 on the table is too high. So if you still wanted a fairly high resolution, that leaves 14" SXGA, 17" WSXGA+, 15.4/14 WXGA+ screens as the closest matches. Unfortunately, of those screens, only the 17" WSXGA+ screen exists. Otherwise, if you go to different screens, you'll have to make a compromise. The 14" SXGA+ and 15.4" WSXGA+ are possibilities, but they might easily be too high.