The Google Nexus 10 comes out shortly, and is the first device to use xxhdpi resources. It sports a display density of about 300 DPI (according to the Nexus 10 website and this calculator).
However, when I go to the Android documentation, it states:
ldpi : ~120dpi
mdpi : ~160dpi
hdpi : ~240dpi
xhdpi : ~320dpi
xxhdpi is not specified.
How come the Nexus 10's 300 DPI screen is xxhdpi instead of xhdpi, and what should be the approximate DPI of xxhdpi? Should we even worry about having new resources (aside from icons) for xxhdpi at this point, or should we just let the OS scale up xhdpi resources?
According to the post linked in the G+ resource:
The gorgeous screen on the Nexus 10 falls into the XHDPI density
bucket. On tablets, Launcher uses icons from one density bucket up
[0] to render them slightly larger. To ensure that your launcher icon
(arguably your apps most important asset) is crisp you need to add a
144*144px icon in the drawable-xxhdpi or drawable-480dpi folder.
So it looks like the xxhdpi is set for 480dpi. According to that, tablets use the assets from one dpi bucket higher than the one they're in for the launcher. The Nexus 10 being in bucket xhdpi will pull the launcher icon from the xxhdpi.
Source
Also, was not aware that tablets take resources from the asset bucket above their level. Noted.
xxhdpi was not specified before but now new devices S4, HTC one are surely comes inside xxhdpi .These device dpi are around 440. I do not know exact limit for xxhdpi See how to develop android application for xxhdpi device Samsung S4
I know this is late answer but as thing had change since the question asked
Note Google Nexus 10 need to add a 144*144px icon in the drawable-xxhdpi or drawable-480dpi folder.
The DPI of the screen of the Nexus 10 is ±300, which is in the unofficial xhdpi range of 280‑400.
Usually, devices use resources designed for their density. But there are exceptions, and exceptions might be added in the future.
The Nexus 10 uses xxhdpi resources when it comes to launcher icons.
The standard quantised DPI for xxhdpi is 480 (which means screens with a DPI somewhere in the range of 400‑560 are probably xxhdpi).
480 dpi is the standard QUANTIZED resolution for xxhdpi, it can vary something less (i.e.: 440 dpi) or more (i.e.: 520 dpi). Scale factor: 3x (3 * mdpi).
Now there's a higher resolution, xxxhdpi (640 dpi). Scale factor 4x (4 * mdpi).
Here's the source reference.
The resolution is 480 dpi, the launcher icon is 144*144px all is scaled 3x respect to mdpi (so called "base", "baseline" or "normal") sizes.
The newer android phones in the market like HTC one, Xperia Z etc have resolutions in the >480dpi range, putting them in the new xxhdpi class as well. The new assets might be useful for them too.
A set of four generalized sizes: small, normal, large, and xlarge
Note: Beginning with Android 3.2 (API level 13), these size groups are deprecated in favor of a new technique for managing screen sizes based on the available screen width. If you're developing for Android 3.2 and greater, see Declaring Tablet Layouts for Android 3.2 for more information.
A set of six generalized densities:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
From developer.android.com : http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
As per this PPI calculation tool, Google Nexus 10 has a display density of about 300 DPI...
However, Android documentation states that:
ldpi : ~120dpi
mdpi : ~160dpi
hdpi : ~240dpi
xhdpi : ~320dpi
xxhdpi is not specified.
I think we just let Android OS scale up xhdpi resources...
Related
The set of six generalized densities:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dp
From my understanding:
ldpi = Android watch wearable size devices?
mdpi = small/medium sized Android Phones
hdpi= Larger Android phones and small Android tablets
xhdpi = Medium sized and Large Android Tablets
xxhdpi = what for?
xxxhdpi = what for?
I want to create my app to work on Android phones and tablets only. So should I just create images in mdpi, hdpi, and xhdpi only and ignore the rest?
dpi has nothing to do about the physical screen size but it is all about the screen density.
DPI means for DOT PER INCH which mean that how many pixels there is in an inch.
Right now there is no device with ldpi and mdpi out there in the market anymore. My suggestion is to prepare all the images in xhdpi (x2) and if any specific image appears to not clear enough in high density phone, for example, Samsung Galaxy S8, xxhdpi one may be needed for that image as well.
I cannot find the answer to this question anywhere on or off stack overflow:
Google defines common sizes and densities for devices as follows:
Sizes:
xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp
Densities:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
My question is:
Which of these sizes corresponds to mobile phone devices? None of the sizes are portrait (height > width).
Say you are trying to figure out what dp to make a full screen bitmap to accommodate all mobile devices...
Generalizing a lot:
For phones (in portrait mode, width by height)
ldpi was typically 240 by 320
mdpi was typically 320 by 480
hdpi is typically 480 by 800 or 480 by 854 and lately 540 by 960
xhdpi is typically 720 by 1280 or 800 by 1280
xxhdpi is typically 1080 by 1920
xxxhdpi is typically ? by ? // who knows that? Feel free to edit, if absolutely sure.
For tablets, it's totally different.
But you asked for phones only.
You can't make best bitmap for all devices.
Many manufacturer set density via build.prop file ro.sf.lcd_density
so tablet could act like phone.
It's better to get current device values with getResources().getDisplayMetrics() and go with it.
You can set ImageView as background and continue with cropping options:
ImageView.ScaleType
After reading the Supporting Multiple Screens Android documentation several times over, and brainstorming a lot, I believe I have identified a couple of ways Google would like developers to generally go about this.
Legacy Solution:
Primarily, they wanted developers to use these small, normal, large, xlarge size qualifiers for drawable/ resource directories to allow Android to pick the correct resource to use.
I think the important thing to notice here, and I could be wrong, is that maybe they originally didn't want developers to have worry about whether the dimensions for these small, normal, large, xlarge sizes apply to a phone or tablet, but rather know they apply to both.
The caveat with that, of course, is that a full-screen image with landscape dimensions (width > height) will not look the same on a portrait device (height > width).
The solution using the legacy method would be to use an ImageView and set it's ScaleType appropriately, so it crops your tablet-sized image on mobile devices.
But there is another possible solution...
Alternate Solution:
There is a also a section on "New Qualifiers" for supporting different screen configurations. In this section, Google details qualifiers such as smallestWidth or available width, that could in theory, be used on your drawable/ resource directories to define proper portrait or landscape resources for your available device width.
For those familiar with web development, these qualifiers are the equivalent of CSS media queries.
As for specific widths to use, Google details some typical configuration examples:
320dp: a typical phone screen (240x320 ldpi, 320x480 mdpi, 480x800
hdpi, etc).
480dp: a tweener tablet like the Streak (480x800 mdpi).
600dp: a 7” tablet (600x1024 mdpi).
720dp: a 10” tablet (720x1280 mdpi, 800x1280 mdpi, etc).
The only doubt left in my mind is that all of their examples use these qualifiers for layout, but not drawable resources. It begs the question whether this is the defacto solution they want developers to use for the given problem.
I'm developing an android app. I've done much so far, but I've some problems. So far, I've compiled the app on Nexus 5 and I've designed the layout for that device. I know that, I should have different layout folders for different screen categories, but my problem is that, for example, my app works pretty good on Nexus 5, but not good on Nexus S.
And I also know that those 2 devices are in the same layout category.
How can I solve this issue? I want a layout for Nexus S which differs Nexus 5.
Note: Please, do not comment documentation links. I've read them all, but couldn't solve my problem.
Thanks!
From official documentation:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
Using desnity:
Nexus 5 is ~445 dpi => belong to xhdpi category.
Nexus S is ~233 dpi => belong to mdpi category.
So you can use layout-xhdpi directory for Nexus 5, and layout-mdpi directory for Nexus S.
UPDATE
Using dimensions:
Nexus 5 is 1080 x 1920 pixels. => layout-1080x1920 directory
Nexus S is 480 x 800 pixels. => layout-480x800 directory (or just the default one)
my project currently just has one dimens file.. I know all my dimens look good on a nexus 5 which i believe has a dpi of 445 and a dpx of 3. My question is does that make it mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi? I am asking as i want to use this as the standard when i go ahead and make my other dimens files.
according to this graph: http://i.stack.imgur.com/1NXYH.png
that would make it xxhdpi which seems wrong to me, especially since our dimens seem really small on a tab 4 which has a much bigger screen than the nexus 5.
A set of six generalized densities:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
Since Nexus 5 has pixel density of 445 therefore it is xxhdpi
Read this android developer link
Also have a look at this question
The Google Nexus 10 comes out shortly, and is the first device to use xxhdpi resources. It sports a display density of about 300 DPI (according to the Nexus 10 website and this calculator).
However, when I go to the Android documentation, it states:
ldpi : ~120dpi
mdpi : ~160dpi
hdpi : ~240dpi
xhdpi : ~320dpi
xxhdpi is not specified.
How come the Nexus 10's 300 DPI screen is xxhdpi instead of xhdpi, and what should be the approximate DPI of xxhdpi? Should we even worry about having new resources (aside from icons) for xxhdpi at this point, or should we just let the OS scale up xhdpi resources?
According to the post linked in the G+ resource:
The gorgeous screen on the Nexus 10 falls into the XHDPI density
bucket. On tablets, Launcher uses icons from one density bucket up
[0] to render them slightly larger. To ensure that your launcher icon
(arguably your apps most important asset) is crisp you need to add a
144*144px icon in the drawable-xxhdpi or drawable-480dpi folder.
So it looks like the xxhdpi is set for 480dpi. According to that, tablets use the assets from one dpi bucket higher than the one they're in for the launcher. The Nexus 10 being in bucket xhdpi will pull the launcher icon from the xxhdpi.
Source
Also, was not aware that tablets take resources from the asset bucket above their level. Noted.
xxhdpi was not specified before but now new devices S4, HTC one are surely comes inside xxhdpi .These device dpi are around 440. I do not know exact limit for xxhdpi See how to develop android application for xxhdpi device Samsung S4
I know this is late answer but as thing had change since the question asked
Note Google Nexus 10 need to add a 144*144px icon in the drawable-xxhdpi or drawable-480dpi folder.
The DPI of the screen of the Nexus 10 is ±300, which is in the unofficial xhdpi range of 280‑400.
Usually, devices use resources designed for their density. But there are exceptions, and exceptions might be added in the future.
The Nexus 10 uses xxhdpi resources when it comes to launcher icons.
The standard quantised DPI for xxhdpi is 480 (which means screens with a DPI somewhere in the range of 400‑560 are probably xxhdpi).
480 dpi is the standard QUANTIZED resolution for xxhdpi, it can vary something less (i.e.: 440 dpi) or more (i.e.: 520 dpi). Scale factor: 3x (3 * mdpi).
Now there's a higher resolution, xxxhdpi (640 dpi). Scale factor 4x (4 * mdpi).
Here's the source reference.
The resolution is 480 dpi, the launcher icon is 144*144px all is scaled 3x respect to mdpi (so called "base", "baseline" or "normal") sizes.
The newer android phones in the market like HTC one, Xperia Z etc have resolutions in the >480dpi range, putting them in the new xxhdpi class as well. The new assets might be useful for them too.
A set of four generalized sizes: small, normal, large, and xlarge
Note: Beginning with Android 3.2 (API level 13), these size groups are deprecated in favor of a new technique for managing screen sizes based on the available screen width. If you're developing for Android 3.2 and greater, see Declaring Tablet Layouts for Android 3.2 for more information.
A set of six generalized densities:
ldpi (low) ~120dpi
mdpi (medium) ~160dpi
hdpi (high) ~240dpi
xhdpi (extra-high) ~320dpi
xxhdpi (extra-extra-high) ~480dpi
xxxhdpi (extra-extra-extra-high) ~640dpi
From developer.android.com : http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
As per this PPI calculation tool, Google Nexus 10 has a display density of about 300 DPI...
However, Android documentation states that:
ldpi : ~120dpi
mdpi : ~160dpi
hdpi : ~240dpi
xhdpi : ~320dpi
xxhdpi is not specified.
I think we just let Android OS scale up xhdpi resources...