Wii U controller has 854×480 resolution

At the heart of the new Nintendo Wii U console launch was the console’s novel touchscreen controller. With an embedded display over 6 inches in size, it features motion controls as well as the ability to mirror the action on a HDTV. Though confirming that the controller would NOT have a HD display, Nintendo did little to clarify the actual specific resolution of the LCD screen.

That’s all been cleared up now though, albeit roughly, by an estimate from entertainment site Golgotron. By counting the exact pixels on hi-res photo of the controller, they came to the conclusion that the display was around 870 pixels across.

This is quite an unusual figure for a widescreen display of this size, which the site duly noted:

“That doesn’t jive with any standard screen resolutions and it certainly doesn’t match any LCDs commonly in production,” wrote the site.

“854, though…now that’s a winner. 854 x 480 (WVGA) is a very common widescreen resolution, and it’s within 2% of our not-scientific-enough measurement.”

WVGA it is then, it would seem. For the sake of comparision, here’s a list of screen resolutions of comparable tablet and smartphone devices:

iPad: 1024×768
iPhone 4: 960×640
Desire S: 800×480
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 inch: 1024 × 600
Samsung Galaxy S II: 800×480