CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidscreen-resolutiongalaxy
Desenfoque
Desenfoque

Reputation: 816

Confused about screen density/resolution/size in Android, Why they look different?

I'm almost ready with my app and I'm testing it on several devices... The app is designed for tablets (old tablets) so I'm testing mainly on that kind of target...

The problem is this: I have 3 tablets: A) ViewPad 7 (480x800, 7", 133dpi), B) Lenovo IdeaPad (600x1024, 7", 170dpi) and C) Samsung GALAXY tab 7 plus (600x1024, 7", 170dpi).

As you can see Tablet B and C have the SAME screen specs, but everything in the B tablet looks big (giant!) like when Windows can't recognize the VGA driver and use 640x480 resolution.

The app (and everything) int the B tablet looks like a 480x640 screen... B tablet look worse than the A tablet....

What a weird behaviour... Do you know what is happening...?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 632

Answers (1)

Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Reputation: 2794

Android layout works according to “nominal” screen pixel densities, not actual hardware densities. The standard values for nominal density are 120, 160, 240 and 320dpi, also known as “ldpi”, “mdpi”, “hdpi” and “xhdpi” respectively. My guess is that the OS on tablet B is specifying a nominal density of 240dpi, while C is saying 160dpi.

In other words, something is wrong with tablet B. What version of Android is it running? I think support for different screen densities came in with Android 1.6.

Upvotes: 1

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