What is the difference between VGA and QVGA screens?

Pocket PC world is flooded by devices with QVGA screens. But what is the difference between VGA and QVGA screens?

Word Mobile on the lowest zoom level:




Google Maps can show a bigger area:





Pocket Internet Explorer can show more data on high-res mode (this mode is only available in WM6):





You can see a bigger part of any image:



Smallest font is not readable in QVGA screens:





Reading is a pleasure. VGA shows scanned pages like real paper. Click on the image to view bigger version:





The one with QVGA screen is an HP iPaq hx2490, and the one with VGA screen is a Dell Axim x50v. The difference is obvious, with the VGA screen, you can see much more information. iPaq's screen is better in terms of color, while x50v's screen has a blue tint.

The advantage of a VGA screen is not limited to information it can show. Everything looks way better. Fonts are smoother. Also on QVGA screens, images lose detail. Just look at the diagram above.

VGA screens are better for reading ebooks. I don't think the text is too small to read, you can zoom in as you wish.

The drawback is, VGA screens consume more power and they make the device slower. At least my x50v is slower. And its battery life is terrible.

Lets add Palm Zire 72 to the comparison:



Update: The above images belong to a graph from Joel's Evidence Based Scheduling article, viewed in IE Mobile in "One Column" mode. It appears worse on the QVGA screen because IE Mobile shrinks the image to fit screen width. It is not that bad when you switch to "Desktop" mode (But I don't recommend trying to browse web on a QVGA device using this mode). Please see this and this photo for comparison. (And yes, I broke x50v's digitizer).

Remote Desktop in QVGA and VGA screens:


Click for bigger version:


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