Display Resolutions Explained

What is Resolution?

Resolution is the way to denote the number of pixels on a display or screen. A single pixel, the smallest unit to measure the display resolution, is a tiny square on the screen often not visible to the naked human eye. A single pixel measures 0.26mm x 0.26mm.

A general rule of the thumb is: the more the number of pixels, the better the quality of the display. However, the number of pixels alone does not decide the quality of the display, but that’s a topic for another discussion.

540p / qHD

A 540p or qHD has 960 pixels horizontally and 540 pixels vertically. Note that the qHD must not be confused with QHD (1440p) resolution. The “q” in qHD stands for “quarter” since it has one-fourth the number of pixels as that of a 1080p resolution display.

720p / HD

High Definition or HD resolution displays refer to 720p resolution that have 1280 pixels horizontally and 720 pixels vertically.

1080p / Full HD / FHD

Full HD or FHD or 1080p displays have 1920 x 1080 pixels. 1080p displays pack roughly 2 million pixels which is about twice as much as a HD or 720p display.

2K & DCI 2K

Things start to get tricky when it comes to 2K displays. Displays sold as 2K displays has the resolution of 2048 x 1080 pixels which pack around 2.2 million pixels. These displays have the same 1080 pixels vertically as that of a 1080p or FHD display while having more pixels horizontally.

Now the DCI 2K where DCI stands for Digital Cinema Initiatives is the vertically cropped version of 2K to provide the more cinematic widescreen experience. DCI 2K have 2048 x 858 pixels. This standard, although marketed as 2K pack only over 1.7 million pixels.

1440p / Quad HD / QHD

2560 x 1440 pixels if the Quad HD or QHD or 1440p resolution. These displays pack around 3.6 million pixels which is 4 times the number of pixels in a 720p or HD display (thus the name Quad HD).

2160p / Ultra HD / UHD

2160p or Ultra HD or UHD displays have 3840 x 2160 pixels. This resolution is often confused and used interchangeably with True 4K. Most of the consumer displays (TV, monitors) that are marketed as 4K are NOT 4K but actually 2160p or UHD displays. These displays have 4 times the number of pixels as that of a 1080p or FHD display.

4K / True 4K

4K or True 4K has 4,096 x 2,160 pixels. Professional production and digital cinemas make use of True 4K resolution.

5K & WUHD 5K

True 5K resolution is not a commonly used display standard. These displays had 5120 x 2880 pixels.

Some ultrawide monitors marketed as 5K displays actually have the same vertical resolution as a 2160p or UHD display while the horizontal resolution is bumped up to 5120 pixels to give achieve the widescreen. These displays are referred to as WUHD 5K where WUHD – Wide Ultra HD because of the same vertical resolution as a UHD display.

8K

7680 × 4320 pixels is the resolution for 8K though the horizontal resolution is quite less than 8000 pixels.

NOTE: All the resolutions/displays mentioned above have the standard 16:9 aspect ratio except for 2K, DCI 2K, True 4K and WUHD 5K resolutions.

Conclusion

While the resolution of a display is a quick way to roughly tell how good a display is, the quality of a display depends on various other factors such as sRGB color space coverage, brightness, dimming zones and so on. So going through the actual horizontal and vertical pixel count is a good practice while buying TVs and monitors.