Basic About Mobile Phone Screens and resolutions

It’s sleek and stylish, but it’s complicated! That’s how normal buyers describe smartphones in the market today. Is this description accurate? Not necessarily!

They may look complicated, but most mobile phones now are actually user friendly. What is missing then? Why is it that some users feel a little alienated and apprehensive about the new technology in mobile phones?

Somehow, there’s a technological gap brought about by the use of technological lingo to describe functions and applications in these state-of-the-art communication gadgets. Many would-be users simply do not understand the terms used to describe most of the product’s functions, applications, and processes.

So in order to cope, most users who are not really well versed when it comes to the technical terms used to describe products and product specifications go with what can be seen with the naked eye: the phone’s physical attributes. This means the screen, the keypads, the camera, and the games. Users use the most basic functions of the phone as a basis for their purchasing decisions, which is good, but which does not truly give the whole picture of what the mobile phone unit is and what it can do for the user.

So to help users know a little bit more about mobile phone deals, most especially the latest smartphones, here’s a list of terms commonly used in mobile phone conversations and product descriptions and specifications.

Screen Size and Resolution

When screens are considered, two factors are taken into account when it comes to measurements: 1) the size, and 2) the resolution. The size is generally measured diagonally in inches, and the resolution is on the number of pixels displayed on the screen.

Screen resolution is frequently referred to as a modification of the classic VGA resolution, which is 640x480 pixels. Years before, the size of mobile screens used to be 128 x 128. Today, the biggest screen size for mobile phones is 800 x 480 (WVGA). The smaller screens have a portrait orientation, while the large screens have landscape orientation. Today, a lot of mobile phones can change orientation. Most of these mobile phones have a dominant overall screen size of 240 x 320 or QVGA.

Today, however, a lot of companies are beginning to refer to resolution as a fraction of 1920x1080 pixels, or full high definition.

Here’s an example of how companies today refer to resolution, from an article in cnet.com.au:

o        QVGA       :        quarter VGA (240x320 pixels)

o        HVGA       :        half VGA (320x480 pixels)

o        WVGA      :        wide VGA (480x800 pixels)

o        FWVGA:   full wide VGA (480x854 pixels)

o        nHD         :        one-ninth high definition (360x640 pixels)

o        qHD         :        one-quarter high definition (540x960 pixels)