Screen Size/Display is really 5 inches?

[devm]

I bought this version.

http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00JG8FHJQ/

On the box it says Kindle Paperwhite 6th Generation. I was hoping for a 6 inch display buy the actual display on the device is 5 inches (entire device is sized at 6 inches). It doesn't make any sense.
Every description, every review on every page assures a 6 inch display. Maybe amazon sent me a wrong version of kindle?

Here's an image of my kindle with a scale:

[HYPE]

Originally Posted by devm

I bought this version.

http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00JG8FHJQ/

On the box it says Kindle Paperwhite 6th Generation. I was hoping for a 6 inch display buy the actual display on the device is 5 inches (entire device is sized at 6 inches). It doesn't make any sense.
Every description, every review on every page assures a 6 inch display. Maybe amazon sent me a wrong version of kindle?

Here's an image of my kindle with a scale:

Screen size is measured diagonally. Because a screen is not just one dimension.

[devm]

ok. that makes sense.

[patrickt]

The screen measuring standard is silly but I can't imagine you've never noticed it before. My Nexus 5 cellphone has a screen size of 4.95" but appears to be much smaller than 6" Paperwhite because the width to length ratio is different. I'm no engineer but a screen measurement diagonally is a marketing dream. I think it started with the first screen we cared about...television and has simply continued.

[pdurrant]

At least screen measurements are now of the visible display area, and not of the entire display component, as it was in the days of CRT TVs. (When, outside the US, the visible diagonal was usually 1-2" smaller than the quoted size.)

Originally Posted by patrickt

The screen measuring standard is silly but I can't imagine you've never noticed it before. My Nexus 5 cellphone has a screen size of 4.95" but appears to be much smaller than 6" Paperwhite because the width to length ratio is different. I'm no engineer but a screen measurement diagonally is a marketing dream. I think it started with the first screen we cared about...television and has simply continued.

Yes it is deceiving to our eyes. My iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5" screen yet looks a lot smaller than the Kindle Voyage 6" screen, even though it really isn't. Optical allusion.

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[dwig]

Originally Posted by patrickt

The screen measuring standard is silly ...

It's not silly and it is the way electronic displays (TVs, Computer displays, Oscilloscopes, ...) have been measured since the beginning.

Originally, it was the measurement of the diameter of the face of the CRT display tube. The functional size of the rectangular image was somewhat smaller. "Evolution" brought the shape of the tube closer to that of the image and eventually the tube was replaced by other electronic components. The only thing that has changed about the sizing in nearly 100 years is that the rated size is now a rather accurate measure of the visible size.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dwig

Originally, it was the measurement of the diameter of the face of the CRT display tube.

Exactly. And the reason that they were measured that way is because they were circular.

[ametzler]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Yes it is deceiving to our eyes. My iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5" screen yet looks a lot smaller than the Kindle Voyage 6" screen, even though it really isn't. Optical allusion.

....

It is not an optical illusion. Looking at the surface area the kindle is about 33% large than the iPhone. (Pythagoras gives 4.79x2.70 for the 16:9 5.5'' iPhone display vs 4.8x3.6 for 6'' 4:3 Kindle.)

Originally Posted by ametzler

It is not an optical illusion. Looking at the surface area the kindle is about 33% large than the iPhone. (Pythagoras gives 4.79x2.70 for the 16:9 5.5'' iPhone display vs 4.8x3.6 for 6'' 4:3 Kindle.)

I was referring to the diagonals being closer to the same than what they appear to be. Obviously the surface area is way bigger on the V.