As a web developer, I mainly measure everything in pixels. So when I hear of new mobile devices coming out with desktop monitor-like pixels, I assume that means the browsing experience will also be like a desktop monitor, but on a much, much, much, smaller physical screen. When I got my Nexus 7 from work, I was surprised to see that wasn't the case. This is actually a good thing for web developers. I am in no way an expert and am not about to explain hardware pixels, device independent pixels, density, and so forth. Here are a few links that shed light on why mobile devices with supposed high screen resolutions look similar to "standard" mobile devices in a web browser: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/04/a_pixel_is_not.html http://www.quirksmode.org/m/tests/widthtest_vpdevice.html http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2012/07/more_about_devi.html Basically, mobile devices have a hardware resolution, which is the screen width. What they report to web browsers are different figures. For one, the device-width is usually smaller. In the retina iPhone's case, it's actually 1/2. Then there's the viewport, which browsers usually report larger than their device-width. That's why when building a mobile site, it's good to have the meta tag `` so the viewport matches the device width. Just remember *device-width* is not equal to the actual hardware device width (the one that's reported on all the spec sheets as screen resolution). That's where device pixel ratio comes in. Read those linked articles for more details!
