You've probably seen the term QVGA a lot lately, usually when looking at a smartphone or PDA's specs. QVGA basically means a device's screen displays 320 x 240 pixels (or 240 x 320 if the display is taller than it's wide).

Once upon a time, most desktop computers used a display standard called VGA, short for Video Graphics Array. It displayed an amazing total of 16 colors at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (256 colors when showing 320 x 200).

Thus QVGA actually stands for "Quarter VGA," since as you can see on the picture above, 320 x 240 pixels represents one-fourth of VGA. It's an easier way of saying "320 x 240" (landscape orientation) or "240 x 320" (portrait). But keep in mind today's gadgets easily display more than 16 colors, with the P990i capable of showing almost a quarter-million hues.

Here are some smartphones and PDAs that have a QVGA display:

• Sony-Ericsson P990i


• Nokia N95


• Motorola Q


• HTC STRTrk / Cingular 3125 / QTek 8500


• TDS Ranger and Recon


• HTC TyTN / Dopod 838 Pro / XDA Trion


• HTC Excalibur

Find out more about QVGA.