Updated at: 17-03-2023 - By: Leo Hall
Is there a noticeable quality jump between HD and Full HD, and can you tell the difference with your own eyes? If you have any questions, this comprehensive manual has the solutions.

If you’re a gamer in the market for a new monitor, you’ve probably given the display’s resolution your first thought. After all, a higher resolution means more playable area and crisper images, so it’s easy to see why this would be an important consideration.

There will be a plethora of resolution labels in 2022, including HD, Full HD, Quad HD, Ultra HD, 2K, 4K, 8K, and more. Even though high-resolution displays are becoming more standard, those with lower resolutions are not entirely out of the hardware picture.

In this article, we’ll take a quick look at HD and Full HD, two resolutions that can be found in many modern laptops and televisions, to determine which one is superior and whether or not it’s still worth considering in the year 2022.

What Is HD?

HD, also known as 720p or HD Ready, typically refers to displays with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, though the latter term was more common before the widespread availability of high-definition screens in the 2010s. This has a total resolution of just under a million pixels.

Despite having their own display standard labels, common parlance tends to lump 1280p/800p and 1366p/768p resolutions under the HD/720p umbrella.

As was previously stated, good old HD is now only found in some budget TVs and laptops and is therefore completely obsolete in the gaming monitor market.

HD, FHD, UHD, 4K : What are the differences ? | Strong.tv

What Is Full HD?

Full High Definition, also known as 1080p or simply “HD,” denotes a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, or approximately two million pixels in total; this is roughly twice as many pixels as 720p provides.

New Full HD TVs are generally outnumbered by 4K and even by 8K models, so 1080p is also slowly descending into irrelevance. However, 1080p is still very popular when it comes to laptops, and it has a place in the world of gaming monitors, whether they are cheap, entry-level models or high-refresh-rate models (such as 144Hz or 240Hz).

What is Image Resolution and Why is it Important?

The term “image resolution” will be familiar to you if you’ve ever shopped for a laptop, monitor, screen, or TV.

Millions of these miniscule light points, or pixels, create the image on your screen. Standard-definition televisions can display images with a resolution of 480, which translates to roughly 480 horizontal lines from top to bottom.

High-definition (HD) televisions and displays are superior to standard definition (SD) models because they can show more lines of pixels. There was a time when HD and full HD were both referred to as simply “HD” in the early days of high definition television.

  • Lower than 1080p in the HD spectrum, 720p displays 720 lines of pixels.
  • The highest quality available is Full HD, which displays 1,080 horizontal lines of information.

For several years, 1080p full HD has been gradually replacing lower-end HD. Blu-ray players, DVD players, cable and satellite TV, and video game consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation all offer full 1080p resolution. Read our Acer monitor review and Asus monitor review to see what two of the most well-known brands in the world have to say about this.

Is HD Ready the Same as Full HD?

No, that’s the wrong question. Both “HD Ready” and “Full HD” refer to “high definition” in their respective meanings. ” We already covered the connection between these two formats. As a matter of fact, some home television viewers may not realize the difference between these resolutions and may use them interchangeably.

HD Ready TV is Out

For televisions to be able to receive and display a 720p (1280×720) high-definition signal, the “HD Ready” certification program was launched in 2005. Even though many Blu-ray discs, video players, and similar display products support 1080p image resolution, full HD resolution movies were still uncommon at the time.

Though it can receive a High Definition signal, an HD-Ready TV can only display a maximum of 720 horizontal lines of resolution. If a TV screen is advertised as “HD-ready,” it means that it uses overscan technology to downsample any HD content (with 1080 horizontal pixels) to 720.

Now that 720p resolution (and the higher-pixel 1080p) have become the bare minimum for TVs and similar displays, the “HD Ready” label has become largely obsolete. In addition to their well-known TV sets, Samsung is also a great brand for monitors; read our review of the best Samsung monitor and the Sceptre monitor to see what they have to offer.

HD Ready vs Full HD | Difference between HD and Full HD

Full HD TV (and other newer formats) are In

You probably guessed that there are different kinds of visual representations, some of which are more up-to-date. Included herein (in order of publication) are:

  • Standard Definition (SD): a pixel count of 720 by 480
  • High Definition (HD): Pixel dimensions of 1280 by 720
  • In other words, a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels is considered Full HD (2k).
  • The ultra-high definition (UHD) standard is a pixel count of 3840 by 2160.
  • “4k” refers to a pixel count of 4096 by 2160 and is the standard for “hi-vision systems” (or “HV”).
  • With an 8k (super hi-vision system/SHV) display, the image resolution is 7680 by 4320.

This article will explain the difference between FHD (full high definition) and HD (high definition) resolutions so you can better evaluate your options. There is no assurance that all content will be available in full HD resolution, even if your TV supports it. However, this is not a fake. If your cable company, TV network, or other sources of programming offer content in both standard definition and high definition, then it doesn’t matter what kind of TV you have.

For instance, if you have a 4K TV but the channel you’re watching only broadcasts SD content, even though your TV is capable of displaying 8K, the movie you watch will be broadcast in SD quality. This is why many people still prefer HD televisions to 4k UHD televisions (for more on this topic, see the “UHD vs. HD” post).

While it’s tempting to focus on the newest gadgets, keep in mind that UHD, 4k, and 8k formats with higher resolutions are primarily used in theaters and large displays. Although such TVs are currently available, it will likely be several more years before they are able to support the massive use of full HD today and their prices become affordable for home use.

FHD vs HD – What is the difference?

After reading this, you may have narrowed your options down to two similar formats: full HD and high definition (HD). You need only be aware that HD was the de facto standard for TVs and monitors before FHD entered the scene.

The transition from an HD display (typically around 1 million total pixels) to an FHD display (typically around 2 million total pixels) was a significant one. Only these two factors, however, will allow you to detect a distinction:

  • Close inspection of the screen reveals the exact distance from which you are viewing the TV. For one thing, the closer you sit to your TV, the better the picture quality will be, and the higher the resolution of your TV, the further away you can sit without losing anything. Visuals would be clearer, more expansive, and more satisfying to view.
  • What matters most is not the screen’s diagonal, but rather the number of pixels it has (exactly 2,073,600 pixels for a 1080p HDTV). This means that regardless of whether your screens are 26 or 55 inches in size, the maximum resolution they can display is 2,073,600. When comparing two 1080p HDTVs, keep in mind that the pixels on a 26-inch TV are much smaller than those on a 55-inch TV. Even if you have a large TV, you may not want to use it if the resolution is only 1080p, as this will cause your video or content to look pixelated and unappealing.

HD vs Full HD – Which Should You Choose?

In 2022, a 720p or 1080p display will likely be found on a low-priced laptop or television. So, in that light, what factors should you consider when picking one of these two alternatives?

Screen Real Estate

For professional use, nothing is more important than the size of the laptop’s display.

The term “screen real estate” refers to the visible area of a display that can be used to display data from an application. In other words, even though the screen size may be the same, applications can make use of twice as much of the available real estate in Full HD as they would in HD.

Naturally, a higher display resolution can facilitate multitasking, and reading documents in such a resolution would not necessitate as much scrolling as it would in a lower resolution.

Gaming

There are a few things to think about before purchasing a laptop for gaming or connecting a console to the television.

Remember that higher resolution gaming requires more hardware power if you plan on doing so on a laptop. Even if the laptop has a high-definition screen, the hardware inside will probably be underpowered.

The problem is that few integrated graphics solutions can match the performance of a dedicated graphics card, so such a laptop will almost certainly use integrated graphics instead. Thus, a low-end laptop that isn’t optimized for gaming will struggle with the latest 3D AAA titles unless you reduce the settings and, perhaps, the resolution.

However, the latest 9th generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, will be focusing not on HD or Full HD, but on 4K. This is something to keep in mind if you plan on purchasing a TV for use with a console. It would be a waste of the $400-$500 consoles’ graphics processing power to pair them with a 720p or 1080p television.

For those who don’t plan on upgrading their 1080p TV for at least another couple of years, the Xbox Series S is a good option because it costs only $300 and can render games in 1440p instead of 4K.

Future-Proofing

Lastly, there’s the issue of future-proofing, and as we’ve already discussed, both of these resolutions are quite out-of-date by 2022 standards.

Since even consoles are starting to support 4K and more and more content is being released in 4K, 720p displays look very dated and 1080p isn’t holding up much better.

If you’re worried about the future, it might be wise to put away money for a higher-resolution television set. After all, the price of a 4K TV has dropped to below $300, down significantly from even just a few years ago.

For laptops, however, things get a little more complicated because of all the other hardware components beyond the screen. A lower-resolution screen may be preferable if you’re trying to save money to upgrade the internal components (CPU, RAM, storage, etc.) instead.

On the other hand, a more attractive display with more screen real estate would be preferable over beefier hardware if you only plan on using the laptop for casual activities like web browsing and watching movies or for light office work, as these don’t really require much hardware power in the first place.

Nonetheless, if you are in the market for a gaming laptop, we recommend taking a look at our recommendations for the best models to be released in 2022.

Full HD vs HD Ready - YouTube

FAQs

1. Which is better HD or FHD?

Compared to HD, FHD is superior. Full High Definition, or FHD, describes the maximum resolution that can be achieved by a screen. Full HD (FHD) provides images with a resolution of 1080p, which is roughly double the pixels of standard High Definition (HD) 720p images.

2. Is FHD good enough?

Full High Definition’s status as the de facto standard in the industry does not automatically render it superior. With the current state of technology, only the most advanced games and broadcast television can achieve such a level of visual fidelity.

3. What is the difference between HD and full HD display?

The size of the image is the primary differentiator between HD Ready and Full HD. Full HD only applies to 1080p resolutions, while HD can refer to either 720p or 1080p. However, Full HD is defined as having a height of 1080p and a width of 1920 pixels.

4. Should I buy 4K or Full HD?

If you can afford a higher resolution, do so. The resolution of a TV screen can be described in a number of ways, including 4K and FULL HD (also QHD vs. FHD). Displays with a resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels are considered 4K. Full HD displays have a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. The higher resolution allows for a more specific picture. A 4K television is a worthy investment if you can afford one.

5. What is full HD display?

Full high definition, also known as 1080p, is a display resolution of 1920 horizontal pixels by 1080 vertical pixels.

Conclusion

While HD and Full HD may have been cutting-edge as recently as yesterday, by 2022, they will be hopelessly out of date.

If you’re wondering how much more detail you’d be seeing and how much more screen real estate you’d be getting with a higher-resolution display, consider that 4K boasts over eight million pixels.

As was previously mentioned, if you’re in the market for a new TV, 720p and 1080p are your only real options if you’re on a tight budget. Even so, it’s important to remember how much lower the price of a 4K TV is now compared to when it first came out; this makes the value of cheaper HD and FHD TVs very questionable, especially if you’re looking for something more future-proof.

While HD is still perfectly usable on laptops with smaller screens, we strongly advise going with Full HD instead, especially since 1080p isn’t that much more expensive. However, as we’ve already established, there are other factors to consider when buying a laptop in addition to the display resolution.