Choosing the right display resolution for a pen display

Overview

Pen displays have an embedded display panel that has a native resolution. In this document I'll share some thoughts about how to pick a resolution that will work for your needs.

Summary

• In general, as a tablet gets bigger it's useful to have a higher resolution

• At small sizes having a very high resolution does not help

• Some resolutions require some extra work to use well with MacOS

Typical resolutions

Modern pen displays mostly use a small number of resolutions.

The vast majority of pen displays use these three resolutions:

• Full HD = 1920x1080

• 2.5K = 2560x1440

• 4K = 3840x2160

But, a few pen displays use resolutions such as 2560 x 1600.

My experience and recommendations

Based on my experience here's what I think works. Overall the pattern is a PPI between 150ppi and 180ppi is what I think works the best.

Diagonal Size	Full HD (1920x1080)	2.5K (2560x1440)	4K (3840x2160)
13"	~169ppi works fine	~226ppi works fine	~339ppi definitely too much
16"	~138ppi works fine	~184ppi works great (ideal)	~275ppi definitely too much
19"	~115ppi not enough	~155ppi should work great	~231ppi works great (ideal)
22"	~100ppi definitely not enough	~133ppi works great	~220ppi works great (ideal)
24"	~92ppi definitely not enough	~122ppi works fine	~184ppi works great (ideal)
27"	~82ppi definitely not enough	~109ppi probably not enough	~163ppi works great (ideal)

MacOS

MacOS text rendering can appear not work OK by default with certain combinations size and resolutions. This can be addressed with an app called Better Display.