How much bigger is that screen, really?
Screens are sold by diagonal, which hides how the area grows. A 65-inch TV is not 8% bigger than a 60-inch — it is 17% bigger.
Almost exactly TV, 43 in
0.5 m² is bigger than 4 of the 8 references on this page.
Reference figures are measurements and are rounded; the unit conversion behind them is exact.
| Reference | Size | Yours ÷ theirs | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| phone, 6.1 in | 0.0102 m² | 49× | |
| tablet, 11 in | 0.0333 m² | 15× | |
| laptop, 14 in | 0.0538 m² | 9.29× | |
| monitor, 27 in | 0.201 m² | 2.49× | |
| TV, 43 in | 0.509 m² | 0.982× | |
| TV, 55 in | 0.833 m² | 0.6× | |
| TV, 65 in | 1.16 m² | 0.43× | |
| TV, 85 in | 1.99 m² | 0.251× |
Worth knowing
- Going from a 55-inch to a 65-inch TV adds 18% to the diagonal but 40% to the area — the number your eyes actually respond to.
- A 16:9 screen’s area is 0.4239 times the diagonal squared. That constant is the whole trick.
Frequently asked
How do I work out screen area from the diagonal?
For a 16:9 screen, area = 0.4239 × diagonal². For 4:3 it is 0.48 × diagonal². The ratio matters: a 16:9 and a 4:3 screen of the same diagonal differ by 13% in area.
What size TV should I buy?
For 4K, a common rule is a viewing distance of about 1.2 times the diagonal. At 2.5 m that suggests a 75–85 inch set, which is larger than most people expect.