Resolution Question

Umm Yeah

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I know that MS has certain requirements for all WP7 phones and one of them was a resolution of 800 x 480. I always assumed that was a MINIMUM resolution standard but with the Titan coming out with a 4.7" screen, it still only has a 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Now, I know that most every reviewer says the screen looks good, etc. but it seems that many are saying that the resolution HAS TO BE 800 x 480, no more or no less.

Is that the case? If not, where are the higher resolution devices? If it is a required resolution, is that why most (not all but most) of the screen sizes hover in the sub 4" size? I would LOVE to see a larger screen WP7 phone with a higher resolution so the UX remains positive. If any of you can enlighten me on whether the 800 x 480 resolution is the required resolution or the required minimum resolution, I'd be grateful.
 

smartpatrol

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Nope, it's the required resolution. For now, ALL Windows Phones require 800x480. (Actually there was originally supposed to be a second screen resolution for a Blackberry-like Windows Phone with a landscape-oriented screen and QWERTY keyboard, but that never happened.)

I don't expect this requirement to change until Windows Phone 8.
 

GekkoAce

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Nope, it's the required resolution. For now, ALL Windows Phones require 800x480. (Actually there was originally supposed to be a second screen resolution for a Blackberry-like Windows Phone with a landscape-oriented screen and QWERTY keyboard, but that never happened.)

I don't expect this requirement to change until Windows Phone 8.

I bet Tango brings another resolution. Since its going to enable cheaper phone models
 

Umm Yeah

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Nope, it's the required resolution. For now, ALL Windows Phones require 800x480. (Actually there was originally supposed to be a second screen resolution for a Blackberry-like Windows Phone with a landscape-oriented screen and QWERTY keyboard, but that never happened.)

I don't expect this requirement to change until Windows Phone 8.

Wow. That sucks. I mean, while I understand it is a convenience for developers to only have to code for one resolution, it makes larger screen WP7 phones less appealing to consumers at a time when they are growing in popularity. And I can't say that I am disappointed in the quality of the resolution in the WP7 phones I've seen. Even most reviews of the Titan's mammoth 4.7" screen say the resolution is pretty good. But the vast array of resolutions found in the Android environment hasn't scared away too many developers there and a higher resolution on the larger screens will always look better.

I know that WP7 is still a nascent OS so possibly after the marketplace is of sufficient size so that coding for more than one resolution is worth the extra effort and it becomes self sustaining, MS will keep this as a minimum requirement and possibly have a higher resolution requirement for screens over, say, 4.1", to keep the VERY positive UX experience going.
 

jkercado

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One funny thing, though, is that the screen resolution in the XAML files for WP7 apps is a variable. Meaning, it can be changed by the developer. I wonder what would happen if I tweak that. I can try it on the emulator.
 

Umm Yeah

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One funny thing, though, is that the screen resolution in the XAML files for WP7 apps is a variable. Meaning, it can be changed by the developer. I wonder what would happen if I tweak that. I can try it on the emulator.

While I recognize the individual words there as English, somehow once you strung them all together, it came out sounding like "The Iliad". Are you saying that the developer may be able to easily change the resolution of their apps with some simple code changes? If that's the case, then I REALLY don't see why this rule is in place.
 

thed

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One funny thing, though, is that the screen resolution in the XAML files for WP7 apps is a variable. Meaning, it can be changed by the developer. I wonder what would happen if I tweak that. I can try it on the emulator.
Are you referring to the page width and height? You can make those larger and even put content in the expanded area. Obviously, anything in the area outside the screen will be cut off.

Are you saying that the developer may be able to easily change the resolution of their apps with some simple code changes? If that's the case, then I REALLY don't see why this rule is in place.
It's not that simple unfortunately. Devs will have to design their apps with variable resolution in mind and I'm guessing that right now a lot of them haven't. Most apps that haven't been designed to work with different resolutions will likely look terrible if run at a higher resolution. You can't really automatically scale things if you want to support a wide range of resolutions.

I'm guessing that's why the iPhone resolution doubled between 3 and 4, so that they could just scale the old apps by 2x in hardware and it would look fine. That may be what WP eventually does. I'm not sure how Android does it; I don't have any Android development experience.
 

cdook

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Wow. That sucks. I mean, while I understand it is a convenience for developers to only have to code for one resolution, it makes larger screen WP7 phones less appealing to consumers at a time when they are growing in popularity. And I can't say that I am disappointed in the quality of the resolution in the WP7 phones I've seen. Even most reviews of the Titan's mammoth 4.7" screen say the resolution is pretty good. But the vast array of resolutions found in the Android environment hasn't scared away too many developers there and a higher resolution on the larger screens will always look better.

I know that WP7 is still a nascent OS so possibly after the marketplace is of sufficient size so that coding for more than one resolution is worth the extra effort and it becomes self sustaining, MS will keep this as a minimum requirement and possibly have a higher resolution requirement for screens over, say, 4.1", to keep the VERY positive UX experience going.

I agree if you've got a huge phone (or a tablet) the resolution is not going to be up to par. The way I kind of look at it is like a video game console. For a while the Xbox 360 only output at 720p. If you had a 20inch or a 60inch 720p TV you were getting the same number of pixels, but the bigger the screen, the bigger the pixels. Think of the phone as having a bigger TV connected to it. Of course later Microsoft allowed for games to be rendered in lower resolutions and at the same time allowed for 1080p playback... I'm sure they'll relax restrictions for WP7 the same way too. Especially as hardware gets more powerful.
 

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