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Please, what is the device with the minimum screen resolution on the market?

Reto Meier
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Abramodj
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6 Answers6

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According to the latest Compatibility Definition Document, the definition for screen configurations require that:

  • Screens MUST be at least 2.5 inches in physical diagonal size
  • Density MUST be at least 100 dpi
  • The aspect ratio MUST be between 1.333 (4:3) and 1.779 (16:9)
  • The display technology used consists of square pixels

In practical terms, the lowest screen resolution currently being used is QVGA (240x320). There are a couple of phones that use this resolution including the HTC Tattoo and Wildfire. The smallest device I'm aware of is the 2.55" QVGA Sony Ericsson X10 Mini.

Reto Meier
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    Thanks, i have the WildFire so i can test my apps on it and be sure they'll work everywhere! – Abramodj Dec 27 '10 at 09:02
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    Don't be so sure that testing on small devices will give universal presentation. Scaling up in terms of resolution can cause just as many problems as scaling down, especially with custom views. – Ben Taliadoros Mar 11 '12 at 21:36
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    I own an Android Watch that runs a full version of Android 4.4.2 and has 240x240 screen. I think it is bellow the official minimum for Android, but the question was "minimum screen resolution on the market". Thus, 240x320 is not the lowest screen resolution used on devices in the real world. If you want to make sure that your app works on _all_ devices, make sure that most (all) of the components supports scrolling. – Daniele Testa Oct 05 '14 at 22:52
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    @DanieleTesta - it's not actually below the official minimum as there's an exception in the more recent documents for watches. See my answer below. – Periata Breatta Sep 04 '16 at 15:36
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This is a device (a smart watch) with 240 x 240 resolution: http://www.omate.com

Oskar Lundgren
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    What is the reason for the down vote? I think my answer is relevant to the original question. A user of my app e-mailed me about support for this device. I googled "android minimum screen size" to see if there were even smaller screen sizes to support, found this thread, realised that there was nothing about screens that small, and added this answer . What did I do wrong? – Oskar Lundgren Mar 17 '14 at 11:25
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    Hi, I just came across this discussion while I was searching for some minimum screen sizes. My search is in regards to setting a min-width on a responsive website, so not exactly relevant here. But I am of the school that one shouldn't design regular apps that run both on smart watches and phones. The available real estate and hardware makes them too different in my opinion. – ranma2913 Feb 26 '15 at 19:51
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Take a look at Supporting Multiple Screens to see all of the possible screen resolutions, and Screen Sizes and Densities to see what the current Android market looks like in terms of both measurements.

Right now a "Small Screen with Low Density" has an expected resolution of 240x320, so you can think of that as the market's minimal screen resolution for now (until Google updates these figures).

McStretch
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5

The smallest screen is probably the HTC Tattoo with a size of 2.8 inches. The resolution of that screen is QVGA (240×320, low density, small screen).

Muz
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Mark Mayo
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The current minimum values for android compatibility have changed from those shown in the accepted answer. Minimum size for recent versions of Android is 426x320, except for devices defined as watches which must have at least 120dpi and a diagonal size of at least 1.1 inches. As watches are permitted to be square (which other devices are not), this means the lowest permissible resolution of a watch is 1.1/sqrt2 * 120 = 93x93. In reality, this would probably not work, as I doubt the system UI would function in that size.

Periata Breatta
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  • Despite the lack of upvotes and seemingly incorrect width and height (seems reveresed), this is the correct answer. This answer is taken from the Android O requirements section 7.1.1.1. Screen Size and Shape. – Ray Li Aug 19 '21 at 21:02
  • You should put a link to reference from where you got this numebrs @Periata Bretta – Sudhir N Mar 06 '23 at 07:31
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The most current Android O requirements for screens are here:

https://source.android.com/compatibility/android-cdd.pdf

The smallest screen now applies to Android Watches (1.1 to 2.5 inches). Refer to section "2.4. Watch Requirements".

Santiago Villafuerte
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