Resolution Data
Display resolution and mouse sensitivity
Table 1 illustrates the evolution of PC hardware over the last thirty years. While processing, storage and communication capabilities have been subject to a hundred, thousand or million-fold increase, the situation is quite different for computer displays. The screen of today's largest Apple iMac is only 3 times bigger than the one from the 1984 Macintosh and only shows 21 times more pixels. Comparison with the 1981 Xerox Star screen (17'', 1024x808 pixels) leads to even smaller numbers: 1.59 times larger with 4.45 times more pixels.
| Parameters | Apple Macintosh 1994 | Apple iMac (2011) | Scale factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Motorola 68000 | Intel Core i7 | |
| Transistors | 68 000 | 731 000 000 | 10 750 |
| Clock rate | 8 MHz | 3.4 GHz | 425 |
| Memory | 128 KB | 16 GB | 125 000 |
| Disk | 400 KB | 2 TB | 5 000 000 |
| Network | 230.4 Kb/s | 1 Gb/s | 4 340 |
| Display size | 9'' | 27'' | 3 |
| Resolution | 512 x 342 (0.17 megapixel) | 2560 x 1440 (3.68 megapixel) | 21.05 |
| Pixel density | 68.41 PPI | 108.79 PPI | 1.59 |
| Colors | monochrome | 24-bit | 8 388 608 |
Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the resolution, pixel density and size of 2 763 displays listed on newegg.com: 1911 portable displays (tablet PCs, tablets, netbooks and laptops) shown with red dots, and 852 desktop ones (touch screens, LCDs and large displays) shown with blue dots. The queries used to collect this information also returned 237 displays for which we were unable to retrieve the resolution, pixel density or size. A few specific products are also shown on as black squares for comparison. The iMac 27" screen happens to be one of the largest and with the highest pixel density available to the general public for an affordable price. Note that a few higher resolution displays can be found at other retailers for specific applications, e.g. medical diagnostic. But for the most part, current computer screens have a pixel density lower than 150 PPI (pixels per inch) and cannot display more than 2.5 megapixels.
Figure 1 - Resolution and pixel density of the displays.
Figure 2 - Size and pixel density of the displays.
Figure 4 shows the sensitivity of 637 mice listed on newegg.com. For 262 of them (41%), the sensitivity is actually unknown as it is not mentioned on the product sheet. A value of 400 CPI can probably be assumed for those mice. In any case, at least 58% of the mice sold on this particular website have a sensitivity of 800 CPI or more, the highest value being 11 400. Figure 5 shows the sensitivity of the 44 top selling mice and illustrates the current trend for high-sensitivity products.
