WP8 emulator screen size

Question

I am migrating my WP7 application to the WP8 platform. Now, if I start debugging my application in the WXGA emulator (screen size should be 768 × 1280). I have Host.Content.ActualWidth=480 as well as Host.Content.ActualHeight=800 .

Is this normal behavior? Why does the WXGA emulator have a screen size of 480x800?

Answer 1

Yes, how WP8 should work.

Zen WP8 with multiple permissions should force developers to do as little work as possible to accommodate different permissions. Other platforms dump all the hard work on developers to use physical pixels for different resolutions. Instead, WP8 uses the logical pixels 480x800 and 480x853 to account for different resolutions.

Application developers really only have to do two things. First, use the geometric design of the Grid (rather than the absolute design of the Canvas) to help with a logical resolution of 480x853. Secondly, make sure you use media assets that work well for different permissions. For example, you don’t want to play 720p video on low resolution screens, and you don’t want to stretch a 240p image on an HD resolution screen.

I wrote a lot about this issue, including code examples and the behavior of the corresponding APIs. @ http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/What%27s_new_in_Windows_Phone_8#Multi_resolution

Answer 2

This is expected behavior, the application will automatically scale and, unfortunately, you cannot use your own permission. It works similarly in a 720p / phone emulator - the width is also 480, then the height is 853 px.