Windows Phone 7 target display resolution - recommendations?

Question

The official WP7 emulator uses 800x480 resolution. The only info I can find on planned WP7 phones (eg Samsung Cetus i917) share the same resolution. While I realise the appeal of writing resolution-independant programs, I'd really rather focus on pushing a known set of hardware to the max than sacrificing features and efficiency for one-size-fits-all.

Is it fairly safe to assume 800x480 will be widely adopted as the de facto standard for WP7 devices and to code accordingly? Or are there reasons (other than the obvious) that I should be considering variable display resolution in my program designs?

Answer 1

800x480 is currently a requirement set down by MS for WP7 hardware. However we also know that MS will eventually introduce another resolution for Blackberry type phones (320x480 i think?).

The only problem that remains is knowing whether those resolutions are a minimum requirement or a set requirement.

So to answer your question: its safe to code for 800x480 for now seeing as the first batch of devices will all be 800x480

Answer 2

From some of the XNA 4 documentation I've been reading:

We can define the size of the game back buffer to be different from the size of the target device, and to draw according to our definitions. The hardware will scale our image to the target device. Having the hardware scale our image to the final target size means minimal work porting games between different devices, but to get the best possible image quality we should consider the actual target display in advance. The following code fragment shows how to configure the back buffer for the maximum resolution supported by Windows Phone 7.

C#
if (this.Window.CurrentOrientation == DisplayOrientation.Portrait)
{
    graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = 480;
    graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = 800;
}
else
{
    graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = 800;
    graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = 480;
}

Most importantly, they clearly specify 800x480 as being the maximum supported resolution. It also demonstrates how easy it is to target multiple resolutions should that be desired.

In this instance though, I'm assuming my programs will only ever run on 800x480.

Answer 3

Hi FerretallicA,

The most current and official information I've been able to put together on this is consistant with Darko Z's observations.

800x480 now 480x320 later

Regarding official policy and commentary from within MS, there appears to still be a requirement to support both resolutions, however Microsoft is on record as stating that this requirement will not come into play until 480x320 devices are released and corresponding tools made available to properly deal with this.

Related discussion and policy document references here.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsphone7series/thread/75f2d3ee-88fa-4e5c-8bc0-e70daba1e660