How to two laptops have the same resolution and screen size but different pixel densities

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According to this comparison:

http://laptops.specout.com/compare/6734-7129/ThinkPad-X250-vs-ThinkPad-X260

Lenovo's X250 and X260 have the same native resolution (1920×1080), the same screen size of 12.5" but different pixels-per-inch density values: 183 ppi vs 176 ppi. How is that possible? Rounding errors?

Best Answer

They can't, some parameters have been reported incorrectly. You can verify this yourself as follows.

There is a convenient pixel density calculator at this website. The calculation is trivial (from wikipedia)

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Using this formula and/or the online calculator shows that for the X250 to have a ppi of 183 with a resolution of 1920x1080 it would need to be a 12" screen, not a 12.5" screen.

Using the value of 12" instead of 12.5" comes out to almost exactly 183 ppi while 12.5" comes to 176.

So either the manufacturer has redefined ppi, or they are not reporting the resolution or screen size accurately.

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