Share this article

Improve this guide

HD+ vs Full HD: What do They Mean & Which one is Better

Full HD defines a higher resolution than HD+

4 min. read

Published onOctober 23, 2023

published onOctober 23, 2023

Share this article

Improve this guide

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

Key notes

In the HD+ vs Full HD battle, FHD will win every time because it defines a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels while HD+ is only 1600×900 pixels.

What do HD, HD+, and FHD mean? HD means high definition and it is used to define the resolution of 1280×720 pixels or up to 1366×768 pixels. HD+ is a slightly higher resolution of 1600×900 pixels and FHD or Full HD is the 1920×1080 pixels resolution.

Which one is better, HD+ or Full HD?

Which one is better, HD+ or Full HD?

If you just compare the resolution, higher is always better. Full HD (FHD) has a higher pixel count at the same aspect ratio of 16:9 than HD+, so Full HD is clearly better.

There is also the Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels which you will usually see on smartphones and it’s clearly better than Full HD.

While we established that Full HD has more pixels than HD+, there is also the question of the screens you apply it to.

If you display images of HD+ and Full HD resolutions to a 5-7 inch smartphone screen, you won’t see much difference but if you do the same on a 32-inch or higher diagonal TV, you will notice a difference in quality.

That is simply because, with Full HD resolution, you will have a bigger pixel density on the same screen area.

On a 32 inch screen with HD+ resolution (1600×900 pixels) you will have a total of 1.4 million pixels and a pixel density of 57.4 ppi (pixels per inch).

The same screen with Full HD resolution (1920×1080 pixels), will display 2 million pixels on the same area, so a higher pixel density of 68.8 ppi.

As a fun fact, to get roughly the same pixel density on a 65-inch TV, you will need a 4K resolution (3840×2160 pixels).

What is the best resolution to display on my screen?

The image you can display on your screen is limited by the resolution of your device. You can still force playing higher image resolutions on a lower-resolution screen but that means that the image will be reduced to the actual resolution of the display.

There are a lot ofvideo editing toolsout there but only a few of them can process 8K content.

At the same time, there are a lot of4K TVs that upscalethe lower-resolution images so that you don’t see the difference on the screen.

Right now, the highest resolution you can get on a screen is 8K (7680 x 4320 pixels). However, there are a few commercially available screens out there that can reproduce that resolution.

At the same time, even if you get an 8K TV there is a lack of 8K content that can be viewed on such displays.

The next best is, of course, 4K with variants of 3840×2160 pixels or 4096×2160 pixels to cover different aspect ratios. Here’s what to do if yourdevice doesn’t display 4K on Windows 10.

So, if there was any confusion, HD+ is not the same as Full HD or FHD, and Full HD is better than HD+ because it has a higher resolution.

You might also be interested in reading our guide on what to do if your4K TV is displaying blurry images.

For any questions about HD+ and Full HD, feel free to access the comments section below.

More about the topics:display,screen

Claudiu Andone

Windows Toubleshooting Expert

Oldtimer in the tech and science press, Claudiu is focused on whatever comes new from Microsoft.

His abrupt interest in computers started when he saw the first Home Computer as a kid. However, his passion for Windows and everything related became obvious when he became a sys admin in a computer science high school.

With 14 years of experience in writing about everything there is to know about science and technology, Claudiu also likes rock music, chilling in the garden, and Star Wars. May the force be with you, always!

User forum

0 messages

Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes

Comment*

Name*

Email*

Commenting as.Not you?

Save information for future comments

Comment

Δ

Claudiu Andone

Windows Toubleshooting Expert

Oldtimer in the tech and science press, with 14 years of experience in writing on everything there is to know about science, technology, and Microsoft