Show HN: 1080p is 920px tall – 1k real browser viewports
summary
This report provides a snapshot of actual browser viewport sizes and device pixel ratios based on aggregate sessions from ScreenSize.net. The data reveals a strong concentration of specific resolutions, such as 1920x920 for desktops and 400px widths for mobile devices. These findings help developers understand the actual space available for content rendering across different environments. The methodology emphasizes privacy and quality control by excluding anomalous dimensions and legacy data.
key points
- Desktop users most frequently utilize a 1920x920 viewport, with 1920px being the most common width at 22.8%. This suggests a continued dominance of wide-screen monitors and specific browser chrome configurations.
- Mobile viewports show a high concentration around the 400px width, which accounts for over half of the mobile samples. This indicates a predictable target for mobile-first responsive design strategies.
- Device pixel ratios are predominantly 1.00x, representing 57.7% of all samples, though a significant minority use high-density displays. Chrome remains the dominant browser family, capturing over 77% of the session share.
who should read it
Web developers and UI/UX designers who need empirical data to set breakpoints for responsive web design. It is also useful for quality assurance testers verifying site layouts across common device sizes.
discussion skeptical
consensus
Commenters generally view the data as low-quality and the presentation as AI-generated 'slop'. They agree that the sample size is too small to be statistically significant and that the high prevalence of 800x600 resolutions likely indicates bot traffic rather than actual users. The overall sentiment is skeptical toward the utility of the findings.
top insight
The prevalence of 800x600 viewports in the data is likely caused by browser automation tools like Puppeteer, which use this as a default resolution. This suggests that any dataset tracking viewport sizes without filtering for bot traffic will be heavily skewed by automated software. This insight reveals why the data seems outdated or suspicious to several users.
Generated by an LLM from the article and thread. Check the sources before relying on it.