question: Why do most cell-phones have a higher resolution screen than most above average monitors and TV's?
comment: Because you look at your phone from a lot closer. That's where resolution matters and why a TV you sit 4-8 feet from doesn't need a higher resolution.
passages: Comparison of high-definition smartphone displays
  
  The following is a comparison of high-definition smartphone displays, containing information about their specific screen technology, resolution, size and pixel density. It is divided into three categories, containing smartphones with 720p, 1080p and 1440p displays. 
   "to our eyes, there has never been a more detailed, clear, or viewable screen on any mobile device. Not only are the colors and blacks deep and rich, but you simply cannot see pixels on the screen…webpages that would be line after line of pixelated content when zoomed out on a 3GS are completely readable on the iPhone 4, though the text is beyond microscopic."
  
  Former Microsoft employee Bill Hill, an expert on font rendering, offered similar comments:
   The first smartphone following the iPhone 4 to ship with a display of a comparable pixel density was the Nokia E6, running Symbian Anna, with a resolution of 640 × 480 at a screen size of 62.5mm. This was an isolated case for the platform however, as all other Symbian-based devices had larger displays with lower resolutions. Some older Symbian smartphones, including the Nokia N80 and N90, featured a 2.1 inch display at 259 ppi, which was one of the crispest at the time. The first Android smartphones with the same display - Meizu M9 was launched a few months later in beginning of 2011. And in October of the same year Galaxy Nexus was announced, which had a display with a better resolution. And by 2013 the 300+ ppimark was found on midrange phones such as the Moto G. From 2013–14, many flagship devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One (M8) had 1080p (FHD) screens around 5-inches for a 400+ PPI which surpassed the Retina density on the iPhone 5. The latest major redesign of the iPhone, the iPhone 6, has a 1334 × 750 resolution on a 4.7-inch screen, while rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 have a QHD display of 2560 × 1440 resolution, close to four times the number of pixels found in the iPhone 6, giving the S6 a 577 PPI that is almost twice that of the iPhone 6's 326 PPI.
   One of the main characteristics of phones is the screen. Depending on the device's type and design, the screen fills most or nearly all of the space on a device's front surface. Many smartphone displays have an aspect ratio of , but taller aspect ratios became more common in 2017.
   With newer smartphones, screen resolution and processing power has become bigger and better. Some new phone CPUs run at over 1 GHz. Many complex programs are now available for the various smartphones, such as Symbian and Windows Mobile.
   On 2 September 2015, Sony unveiled the Xperia Z5 Premium; the first smartphone with a 4K display.
  
  On 9 September 2015, Apple Inc. announced that their new smartphone the iPhone 6s could record video in 4K.
  
  On 6 October 2015, Microsoft unveiled the latest version of their Microsoft Surface Book laptop with a display of "over 6 million pixels" and their new phones the Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL, which, aside from 4K video recording that their predecessors included, feature a display of "over 5 million pixels".
   BULLET::::- Power consumption: While an OLED will consume around 40% of the power of an LCD displaying an image that is primarily black, for the majority of images it will consume 60–80% of the power of an LCD. However, an OLED can use more than three times as much power to display an image with a white background, such as a document or web site. This can lead to reduced battery life in mobile devices, when white backgrounds are used.
   The resolution is also used in portable devices. In September 2012, Samsung announced the Series 9 WQHD laptop with a 13-inch 25601440 display. In August 2013, LG announced a 5.5-inch QHD smartphone display, which was used in the LG G3. In October 2013 Vivo announced a smartphone with a 25601440 display.
  
  Other phone manufacturers followed in 2014, such as Samsung with the Galaxy Note 4, and Google and Motorola with the Nexus 6 smartphone. By the mid 2010s, it was a common resolution among flagship phones such as the HTC 10, the Lumia 950, and the Galaxy S6 and S7.
   Smartphones use small displays, but modern smartphone displays have a larger PPI rating, such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 with a quad HD display at 577 PPI, Fujitsu F-02G with a quad HD display at 564 PPI, the LG G6 with quad HD display at 564 PPI or – XHDPI or Oppo Find 7 with 534 PPI on 5.5" display – XXHDPI (see section below). Sony's Xperia XZ Premium has a 4K display with a pixel density of 807 PPI, the highest of any smartphone as of 2017.
  
  Section::::Named pixel densities.
   BULLET::::- Processing power – significantly more processor performance is required for mobile TV than that used for UI and simple applications, like browsers and messaging.
  
  Section::::Digital television.
  
  Section::::Digital television.:North America.
  
  , there were 120 stations in the United States broadcasting using the ATSC-M/H "Mobile DTV" standard – a mobile and handheld enhancement to the HDTV standard that improves handling of multipath interference while mobile.
   BULLET::::- Display resolution: the number of pixels in each dimension on a display. In general a higher resolution will yield a clearer, sharper image.
   Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, and AMOLED displays. Some displays are integrated with pressure-sensitive digitizers, such as those developed by Wacom and Samsung, and Apple's "3D Touch" system.
  
  Section::::Hardware.:Sound.
   There are hundreds of handsets in the market and they differ by screen size and supported technologies (e.g. MMS, WAP 2.0). For color images, formats such as PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP are typically supported, along with the monochrome WBMP format. The following gives an overview of various handset screen sizes and a recommended image size for each type.
  
  Source: Mobile Marketing Association
  
  Section::::History.
   Similar to DVGA, this resolution became popular for high-end smartphone displays in early 2011. Mobile phones including the Jolla, Sony Xperia C, HTC Sensation, Motorola Droid RAZR, LG Optimus L9, Microsoft Lumia 535 and Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini have displays with the qHD resolution, as does the PlayStation Vita portable game system.
  
  Section::::High-definition.:1280720 (HD).
   On September 4, 2014, Microsoft announced a firmware update for the Microsoft Lumia 1020, 930, Icon, and 1520 phones that adds 4k video recording. The update was later released by the individual phone carriers over the following weeks and months after the announcement.
   From 2010 onwards they became popular in India and Indonesia and other emerging markets, attributed to the desire to obtain the lowest on-net calling rate. In Q3 2011, Nokia shipped 18 million of its low cost dual SIM phone range in an attempt to make up lost ground in the higher end smartphone market.
  
  Section::::Display.
  
  Mobile phones have a display device, some of which are also touch screens. The screen size varies greatly by model and is usually specified either as width and height in pixels or the diagonal measured in inches.
   One of the main characteristics of smartphones is the screen. Depending on the device's design, the screen fills most or nearly all of the space on a device's front surface. Many smartphone displays have an aspect ratio of , but taller aspect ratios became more common in 2017.
   BULLET::::- 8K UHD (7680 × 4320 progressive scan)
  
  Section::::Current standards.:Computer monitors.
  
  Computer monitors have traditionally possessed higher resolutions than most televisions.
  
  Section::::Current standards.:Computer monitors.:2000s.
  
  , 1024 × 768 eXtended Graphics Array was the most common display resolution. Many web sites and multimedia products were re-designed from the previous 800 × 600 format to the layouts optimized for 1024 × 768.
   Section::::Considerations.
   Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, and AMOLED displays. Some displays are integrated with pressure-sensitive digitizers, such as those developed by Wacom and Samsung, and Apple's Force Touch system.
  
  Section::::Hardware.:Sound.
   Section::::Hardware.:Display.
  
  The Xperia 1 showcases the world's first 21:9 aspect ratio 4K HDR OLED display officially called CinemaWide, with a 1644 x 3840 pixel resolution and 643 ppi pixel density. This aspect ratio was previously found in LG New Chocolate (BL40). In a more practical approach, the display resolution on regular usage and throughout the UI only is at 420 ppi, which is still considered sharp and is especially beneficial for the battery. The full 4K resolution only triggers automatically when a compatible content is displayed on-screen.
   A third column of live tiles, which was previously available only to Windows Phones with 1080p and select phones with 720p screens, is now an option for all Windows Phone 8.1 devices regardless of screen size. Microsoft has also added the ability for users to skin live tiles with a background image.
   The most common source of LDTV programming is the Internet, where mass distribution of higher-resolution video files could overwhelm computer servers and take too long to download. Many mobile phones and portable devices such as Apple’s iPod Nano, or Sony’s PlayStation Portable use LDTV video, as higher-resolution files would be excessive to the needs of their small screens (320×240 and 480×272 pixels respectively). The most recent generation of iPod Nanos have LDTV screens, as do the first three generations of iPod Touch and iPhone (480×320).
   The size of a computer monitor is given as the diagonal measurement of its display area, usually in inches. Wider aspect ratios result in smaller overall area, given the same diagonal.
  
  Section::::Smartphones.
  
  Until 2010, smartphones used different aspect ratios, including 3:2 and 5:3. Since then, most smartphone manufacturers have switched to using 16:9 widescreen displays, driven at least partly by the growing popularity of HD video using the same aspect ratio.
   List of mobile phones with WVGA display
  
  Mobile phones with WVGA native display resolution have become common. This is a list of phones that have such displays.
  
  Wide VGA or WVGA an abbreviation for Wide Video Graphics Array is any display resolution with the same 480 pixel height as VGA but wider than 640 pixels, such as 800x480, 848x480, or 854x480.
  
  The following mobile phones have WVGA displays:
  
  BULLET::::- Acer Liquid A1
  
  BULLET::::- Casio G'zOne Commando
  
  BULLET::::- Dell Streak
  
  BULLET::::- Dell Venue
  
  BULLET::::- Dell Venue Pro
  
  BULLET::::- Dell XCD35
  
  BULLET::::- HP Pre 3
  
  BULLET::::- HTC 7 Mozart
  
raw_presuppositions: Resolution matters equally for cell-phone screens and tv screens. There is a reason to have an equally high resolution screen across monitors, TVs and cell phones.
raw_corrections: Resolution matters more on a phone because a phone is viewed from a lot closer. There is a reason to look at a phone with higher resolution because it's held at a closer distance than TVs and monitors.