Digital Media: Pixel Games

This is the first of a multi-part series covering various aspects of digital media. With the ever closing gap between premium and budget devices in the mobile industry, manufacturers are desperate to add features exclusive to their premium models. One aspect where this is being done is in screen resolution. Laptops, phones, tablets and TVs now have HD screens. HD content is either 720p (1280 x 720) and 1080p (1920 x 1080) or anything in between. 1080p is generally referred to as Full HD and this is the highest quality available for home video in the form of Blu-ray discs or digital downloads. With this in mind, I think manufacturers are pushing the envelope with their ever increasing pixel counts. There are already phones and tablets that have a native resolution of full HD. So why do manufacturers perceive a need for higher resolutions in their products? Devices like the iPad 3 and the Nexus 10 have a native resolution well in excess of 1080p.