Key difference: Both qHD and HD are formats used to display high quality images on an HD enabled screen. However, both these formats differ in their resolutions and coverage of devices.

High definition or HD, as it is popularly known, has come to define the viewing experiences of an average television viewer. Simply put, any video image which has more than 480 horizontal lines (America) or 576 lines (Europe) is deemed to be an HD or a high definition image. An HD image presents its users with a crystal clear viewing experience, made possible by its resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Along with providing a true-to-life expression to its viewer, HD also eliminates the distortion of images, by making them crisper and tighter as compared to the normal video images.

High definition technology has set new benchmarks in the film, television, internet and gaming industries alike. More and more film crews, directors, producers, etc. are investing in this technology to present the viewers with a surreal viewing experience. Trends acquired from the gaming industry show a clear inclination of the gamers towards the HD enabled gaming consoles and games. HD is all about an immersive viewing experience, which has been showcased by the sheer demand of this technology from people all over the world.

HD has also served to bring to the fore, background technical information of broadcasting such as pixels, aspect ratio, et al. Information of this kind has made consumers more aware and knowledgeable about technology, and helped them stay at pace with its constant innovations. Further, it has helped the consumers while buying electronic products which are purely marketed by using technical terms such as HD, HD ready, etc. Reasons like these have made HD popular among the masses and led it to branch out as full HD, qHD, QHD, UHD, etc.

qHD is the abbreviation for quarter High Definition. As the name suggests, qHD is called so because it is precisely one fourth of the standard full HD screen. A typical qHD image will measure 960 x 540 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio, which exactly amounts to a fourth of 1080p, the size of one full HD frame. This format is mainly popular in the high-end mobile phones and tablet sections. Since early 2011, many phone companies have started incorporating qHD into the making of the screens in their devices and gadgets. Phones such as the Sony Xperia P, HTC Amaze 4G, HTC Sensation, HTC Evo 3D, HTC Desire 600, Motorola Droid RAZR, etc. comprise of a qHD screen. Moreover, Sony’s portable handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Vita also features a qHD display in it.

Comparison between qHD and HD:

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