Most of the photos on this website have been shot using my Canon SX110IS point and shoot camera out of convenience. One good thing about this camera is a very good macro ability “right out of the box”. As part of that, it can easily resolve the pixels on all screens provided you hold it very carefully and very still.
By shooting a variety of screens with the camera fixed at the closest focus distance – we can see a visual comparison of the pixel and subpixel sizes on a variety of devices relatively accurately. I have also listed their specs in terms of ppi – pixels per inch (which pretty much describes it all).
The Dell monitor is your average run-of-the-mill desktop monitor with a measily 94ppi resolution (the ripply pixels are caused by the matte surface on the screen). Most portable devices have since surpassed this relatively “low” level of resolution. Sure, the (original) iPad was nothing to rave about with 132ppi (slight improvement), the retina display of the new iPad (generation three) is twice as dense. They like to make a lot of fuss about retina displays – but as you can see, the Asus (Google) Nexus 7 isn’t too far off the beat at a much lower price! Ironically, the iPad mini only weighs in with 163ppi and yet they try to persuade you that it’s better. The Samsung Galaxy SIII has an impressive 306ppi, along with the Super AMOLED display with a different offset RGBG matrix (as opposed to RGB in LCD technologies). Interestingly, the Sony Playstation Vita is an OLED display as well, but with the more classic RGB pattern, but with pixels that cover most of the area.
In the LCD displays, the proportion of dark areas represent areas where light is not transmitted from the rear backlight to the user. These areas represent inefficiency – and unsurprisingly, the retina display shows a large proportion of area which is shaded somehow. Maybe one day they could make it better …
