16:9 resolutions from 640×360 to 8K
| Name | Resolution | Exact 16:9? | Megapixels | Scale vs 1080p | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nHD | 640×360 | Yes | 0.23 | ×0.33 | Smallest common 16:9 step; thumbnails, low-bandwidth streams |
| 480p widescreen | 854×480 | No* | 0.41 | ×0.44 | Streaming "480p" — see the footnote, not exact 16:9 |
| qHD | 960×540 | Yes | 0.52 | ×0.5 | Exactly quarter of Full HD by area |
| HD / 720p | 1280×720 | Yes | 0.92 | ×0.67 | Minimum for "HD" labels on most platforms |
| HD+ | 1600×900 | Yes | 1.44 | ×0.83 | Budget laptop panels |
| Full HD / 1080p | 1920×1080 | Yes | 2.07 | ×1 | The default for video, monitors and TV |
| QHD / 1440p | 2560×1440 | Yes | 3.69 | ×1.33 | Popular for gaming monitors |
| QHD+ | 3200×1800 | Yes | 5.76 | ×1.67 | Occasional high-end laptop panels |
| 4K UHD / 2160p | 3840×2160 | Yes | 8.29 | ×2 | Exactly 2× 1080p per side, 4× the pixels |
| 5K | 5120×2880 | Yes | 14.75 | ×2.67 | Design/editing displays; exactly 4× 1280×720 per side |
| 8K UHD / 4320p | 7680×4320 | Yes | 33.18 | ×4 | Exactly 4× 1080p per side, 16× the pixels |
*854×480 simplifies to 427:240 (1.7792), about 0.08% wider than true 16:9 — the standard rounds 853.33 up to the nearest even number because video encoders require even dimensions.
Worked example: is 1600×900 really 16:9?
The GCD of 1600 and 900 is 100, so it simplifies to exactly 16:9 — yes. Compare that with the other common laptop panel, 1366×768, where the GCD is only 2 and the exact ratio is 683:384. The lesson: you cannot tell by eye whether a resolution is exactly on-ratio; two panels that look identical in a spec sheet can be one exact and one approximate. The reverse lookup page is built for exactly this check.
Worked example: scaling 1080p to 4K
3840×2160 is precisely double 1920×1080 on each side, which means one 1080p pixel maps onto a clean 2×2 block of 4K pixels. That integer relationship is why 1080p video looks acceptable upscaled on a 4K screen, and why the jump from 1080p to 1440p (a ×1.33 factor) can look softer than the bigger jump to 4K: 1.33 forces fractional pixel mapping, 2.0 does not. The same logic makes 8K exactly ×4 of 1080p and ×2 of 4K.
Where 16:9 is the right export choice
- YouTube main feed: the player is 16:9; other ratios get padded or shrunk.
- Presentations and TV: screens and projectors are overwhelmingly 16:9 panels.
- Landscape phone video: phones record 1920×1080 or 3840×2160 in landscape by default.
Exporting for a vertical feed instead? That is a different world — see the 9:16 vertical video page. For monitors wider than 16:9, the 21:9 ultrawide page covers what "21:9" panels actually are, and the main calculator handles any custom ratio.