updated 21 April 2022
Resolution is the one that you always hear, just like "oh nice, the video is 1080p", "this camera is 1080p".
But when you consider 1080p and a display, just like a computer monitor, there is a relationship between the two.
1080p will not always be good if the screen monitor is large enough, say, 32". That will be truly pixelated for normal viewing distance for a computer monitor. Take note, larger TV monitors can be 1080p but we are talking about computer monitors.
Resolution is the clarity of an image displayed on a screen. They always say that the higher the resolution, the better. But this should be in the context of the size of the screen.
Resolution is always expressed as a fixed number of pixels horizontally and vertically. So, 1920x1080 resolution means, 1920 pixels arranged horizontally and 1080 pixels vertically.
As was mentioned, this will not always be good if the screen is large enough. This will be truly pixelated for normal viewing distance for a computer monitor.
Pixel Per Inch (PPI) is the result when you compute the resolution against the size of the screen. This will also determine whether a certain display is retina or not.
But don't you know that distance is another factor? Even 1080p can be retina when far enough!
The Retina Display term was popularized by
Apple. Yet, high-end Android phones back then
were naturally retina for a good quality
because, of course,
smartphones tend to be viewed at close range.
For large monitors, this is really for productivity. Mac emphasized it for productivity. The downside is that it's not good for highly-demanding games, where speed is a very crucial one.
Retina displays are pixel-densed when you measure the PPI. Of course, the more pixels, the more demanding it is for the processor or the graphics card.
Whether the computer supports the resolution of the monitor or not, it is the resolution of the display that tells the maximum resolution.
For example, you bought 24" 1080p and you think that, for example, your MacBook Air can project 4k or higher on that external monitor. Although MacBook Air supports higher resolution, it will still project 1080p because that's the limit of the monitor you bought.
Display scaling is another important one
when you measure the overall quality of
your display. Windows tends to be left behind
when it comes to display scaling. It
cannot make all the GUI components proportional
to one another. For example, on a 1080p
Windows 10 OS, 125% is the recommended scaling,
yet, I cannot satisfy myself looking at the very
large Close button of this Chrome, for example.
Yet the iMac issued by my company, no matter whether you adjust the scaling up or down, you still get the proportion.
Take note, this is always being misinterpreted that when you scale up a certain resolution, it will make the resolution lower. No, it is not. It only makes things bigger on your screen.
As for productivity, I'm into Mac, all Macs, even MacBook Air can be projected to two 4k monitors. iMac is perfect.
For gaming, nothing can replace Windows.
This is actually being demonstrated by Joma Tech at this vlog,
where, there is the Windows setup at the other table that later on, in another video, he showed being used for gaming, and his productivity, the Mac with the two big ass monitors shown above.