Why do OEMs pick such a wasteful dpi on larger screen phones?

[dawheat]

One of my pet peeves has been manufacturers picking such high display dpis for larger screen phones, making everything large and IMO a waste of space. What is the point of having larger phones if you can't actually view more content all at once?

Of course there is a point where too low a dpi makes things too small to be easily legible, but I've found substantial improvement in lowering the dpi a moderate amount.

Below is a brand new G2 at stock dpi with small font size - the on screen buttons in 4.2.2 eat up some space, but even so the stock dpi results in not much content being viewable.

Next to it is a rooted Note 3 (obviously larger) set to a dpi of 380 (vs 480 stock). Content is still easily viewable and you can see much more at a single glance. The Note 3 at the stock 480 was similar to the G2.

This has made rooting a must have for me - not to load custom ROMs anymore, but just to set the dpi to a level I want.

 

[Fardringle]

I agree with your basic sentiment that a higher resolution (to a point) makes for a better experience on a larger scree since you can fit more onto the screen. However, setting the DPI to a lower number (going from 480 dpi to 380 dpi, for example) will make everything on the screen bigger, not smaller.

 

[Rdmkr]

No, the OP has it right, a lower DPI *setting* makes the content get displayed smaller so more fits on the screen. The idea behind this is that when the DPI is set correctly, the content is displayed at a fixed real world size on screens of all sizes*. So tricking your phone into thinking it is larger (lower DPI) causes it to display more on the same surface because it thinks it has more real world surface area to play with.

* in reality most DPI settings are largely arbitrary; all 1080p phones I've used were set to 480dpi, whether they were 4.7, 5 or 5.5 inch.

Anyway, I agree fully with the OP and consider this one of the things that can be easily done after rooting that OEMs should just start offering as standard features. I can understand the wish to play it safe by picking a large DPI setting so that at least no one complains about not being able to read things on the screen, but they should at least offer alternative options.

 

[captainslow]

I'm still thinking the OP has got it wrong. When a phone has more dots to display something (higher DPI), it can display more content in a smaller space. So when a phone screen has a real DPI of say 200, setting it to a DPI of 72 (standard computer DPI), it will display less content over the entire screen (larger appearance, but the actual resolution of the content has not changed).
Unless I am totally misunderstanding this?

 

[dawheat]

I guess I should have clarified that I was referring to only changing the dpi setting (generally lcd density) in software. Obviously the screen has a set hardware dpi.

This is pretty standard for rooted phones to gain more real estate. I'm guessing when you change the software dpi value, you're basically telling the OS and apps to display the same content at a lower resolution (fewer pixels) b/c the screen isn't high res. However, b/c the screen really is high res and is fixed, the fewer pixels get displayed in a smaller physical space. So you're not 'gaining' resolution, you're just tricking the software into shrinking everything.

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/04/09/get-more-screen-real-estate-for-your-android-phone/

I guess Google recommends certain hardware dpis based on resolution - going outside those standard settings used to cause issues with Google Play. However, most apps these days seem to scale fine (or can be adjusted via an xposed module) and I haven't gotten an incompatible message in over a year.

Still - I feel OEMs should look at their screen resolution and physical size and come up with the best value. Apple IMO does a good job with the iPhone in picking the right size of content (e.g. browser nav bar) for the screen size. The Note 3 should have had a software dpi of 380 (or 420 at the most for a compromise) stock.

 

[stlc8tr]

However, most apps these days seem to scale fine (or can be adjusted via an xposed module) and I haven't gotten an incompatible message in over a year.

The app that's given me the most problems is the Play Store app. Once I changed the dpi, some apps wouldn't update because it thought my device was incompatible. But there's a Xposed module to patch this problem.

 

[gorcorps]

Yeah, the way you explained it is totally backwards.

Anyway, I agree such a thing would be nice to adjust stock. Especially on the phablet sized devices or bigger.