The last nine years has seen an increase, not only in the physical size of smartphone screens, but even more dramatically, in their resolution. We've gone from the original S60 smartphones (e.g. the 7650 and 6630) right up to the monster 'superphones' of 2011, with the highest resolution model offering a staggering twenty-five times as many pixels, all to (arguably) do a job that's not dissimilar. Which begs the question of how the various resolutions compare, of how many pixels you actually need, and whether Symbian as we currently know it is up to the job for competing in screen resolution with the smartphone class of 2012? Here are my (illustrated) thoughts.

The graphic on the right tells quite a story. The tiny grey rectangle was where we were from 2002 right up to 2006, then we had resolution at QVGA (in black) up to more or less now in most S60 3rd Edition phones. With all the 'touch'-enabled phones running at nHD, resolution, in blue, 360 by 640 pixels.*

* Note that I've excluded a few oddball devices like the E90 and E6.

But wait - the chart extends further - quite a bit further. We all know the ubiquitous iPhone 4 was launched with a 'retina' display, by which Apple meant that the resolution was high enough that it was physically impossible to discern the pixels. But take a typical top end Android smartphone of today, e.g. the Motorola Atrix, with a qHD display - do the maths and we see that this has twice as many pixels as all the current Symbian touchscreen phones. For the recently announced Samsung HD LTE 'phone', this rises to three times as many pixels.

Hmm....

Now, obviously, more is usually better in the tech world. I mean, look at the resolution difference between Symbian nHD and the old QVGA displays of the N95/E71 era - for a practical demonstration of the difference, try using a QVGA device for a few days - coming back down to such a pixellated screen is a very obvious come-down even though the raw functionality is often all there.

In analagous form to my old articles from the phone camera world, where I explored the 'megapixel myth', it's tempting to start talking about (and desperately trying to alliterate, it seems) 'resolution rubbish' - but this would be disingenuous. It's true that noone really needs a 'retina' display - aside from geeks, I've never heard anyone complaining about the resolution of the original iPhone, I've never heard any normal user complaining that their Symbian phone's display is too 'blocky' [they may complain about other things, but never the display]. And nHD resolution is absolutely fine for the 3.5" screen of the C7, 701, N8, etc. And it's more than enough for the 3.2" screen of the 5800, the C6-01, and so on.

We should remember that these devices are supposed to be phones - 100% mobile devices that go everywhere with us - they don't need to be monsters and you don't necessarily need a monster display resolution. And part of me still looks back wistfully at devices of yesteryear - as evidenced by my regular 'pimping' series - at smartphones that were smart and converged AND relatively small.

But my eye does keep getting drawn back to the chart above. And to the row of smartphones on my desk, from various manufacturers. It does seem as though 3.7" and (even more so) 4" screens are becoming the new 'sweet spot'. At 4" on the Nokia E7 and X7, nHD is definitely looking a bit stretched - you can't see it when browsing photos or watching videos (at least, it's not obvious), but the general UI furniture, text and web fonts in particular, all show that a little more precision, a higher resolution is really needed.

When nHD was introduced for S60 5th Edition, we all assumed that this was just an initial attempt at an optimum screen resolution and that the OS would evolve to support higher dimensions. Symbian^3 came and still no change. Then Symbian Anna. It's true, we've seen the oddball VGA resolution in the Symbian Anna-powered E6, but even that has seen incompatibility with some apps and a distinct feeling of 'here we go again', following the E90 widescreen saga. And the new Symbian Belle handsets are all resolutely nHD still.

In a fantastically healthy Symbian world, with full resources behind it, I've no doubt that other screen resolutions (probably qHD) would even now be supported and implemented. But with Symbian OS development now all being outsourced to Accenture and with (presumably) less and less money pumped into development each month as we head into the brave new world of 2012 and Windows Phone, I suspect that we're stuck with nHD.

Of course, for the mid-tier (mid-budget) smartphone market and even for specialist devices like the N8, nHD continues to do the job just fine. But if the smartphone world really is focussing on the 4"+ form factor (look how many Galaxy S IIs Samsung have sold - over ten million already - and that's with a 4.3" display) then a resolution-limited Symbian is going to struggle, however sprightly and modern Symbian Belle tries to be.

Your comments welcome. How many pixels do you need?

Steve Litchfield, AAS, 28 Sept 2011