How do I compare two screens?
Type a diagonal for each screen and pick its shape, or tap one of the presets above. Both screens are drawn from the same bottom left corner, so the part of B outside A is the extra picture you gain.
The table below the drawing gives the width, height and area of each, with the change from A to B.
Why compare area, not diagonal?
Area shows how much picture you actually get. A 65 inch (165 cm) TV is 18% larger than a 55 inch (140 cm) TV by diagonal. It has 40% more screen area.
How does aspect ratio change screen size?
A wider shape trades height for width. A 34 inch (86 cm) 21:9 ultrawide is 31.4 in (79.7 cm) wide but only 13.1 in (33.3 cm) tall. A 27 inch 16:9 monitor is 13.2 in (33.6 cm) tall, almost the same height.
Is a 34 inch ultrawide bigger than a 32 inch monitor?
Wider, but not bigger. A 34 inch 21:9 ultrawide is 31.4 in (79.7 cm) wide against 27.9 in (70.8 cm) for a 32 inch 16:9 monitor. Yet it is only 13.1 in (33.3 cm) tall against 15.7 in (39.8 cm), so the 32 inch has 6% more screen area.
So the ultrawide suits games and side by side windows, while the 32 inch gives more height for documents and code.
Two 27 inch monitors or one ultrawide?
Two 27 inch 16:9 monitors side by side give 47.1 in (119.5 cm) of screen across, plus the frames in the middle. A 49 inch 32:9 super ultrawide is 47.2 in (119.8 cm) wide and 13.3 in (33.7 cm) tall. That is almost exactly two 27 inch screens with no gap.
A 34 inch ultrawide is a smaller step, about one and a third 27 inch screens wide. Enter the sizes above and pick the shapes to see each one drawn to scale.
How do I compare laptop screen sizes?
The same way, with the laptop’s shape. A 17.3 inch laptop screen has 23% more area than a 15.6 inch one, and is 1.5 in (3.8 cm) wider. Many newer laptops use 16:10, so pick that shape when the spec sheet lists 1920 × 1200 or 2560 × 1600.
Does a bigger screen always look sharper?
No. At the same resolution, a bigger screen spreads its pixels further apart, so text looks softer up close. Each monitor pair page below shows the pixels per inch (PPI) of both sizes, so you can see the trade.
Distance matters as much as size. A screen twice as far away looks half as big, which is why a TV can be much larger than your monitor.
How much bigger is each common monitor upgrade?
The area column is the one to watch, because it tracks how much more picture you get. Each pair has its own page with sharpness, desk distance and a verdict by use.
More questions about comparing screens
Do you compare the screen or the whole TV?
The visible screen only. The frame adds a little to each edge, so check the model dimensions before you measure a shelf or wall.
Can I compare tablets or laptops?
Yes. Type any diagonal from 1 to 150 inches and pick its shape, such as 4:3 for many tablets or 16:10 for many laptops. For iPhones, use the iPhone size comparison.
Is a 16:10 screen bigger than a 16:9 screen of the same diagonal?
Yes, by about 5% in area. A squarer shape gets more screen from the same diagonal, and a 4:3 screen has 12% more than 16:9.
Is a 32 inch monitor twice as big as a 24 inch?
No, but it is close. It has 78% more screen area, because area grows with the square of the diagonal.
How we measure
Width = diagonal × a ÷ √(a² + b²) and height = diagonal × b ÷ √(a² + b²) for an a:b screen. Area = width × height, and differences are screen B compared with screen A.