A typical laptop screen measures about 36 centimeters (14 inches) from one corner to the opposite corner. Screen sizes are given this way, as the length of the diagonal. As of September 2026, 14 inches is both the most common size and the middle size among laptop models certified by ENERGY STAR, a U.S. government energy-efficiency program.

Size

Makers give a screen's size as its diagonal. Apple, for example, states that screen size is measured diagonally, and lists the screen of its 13-inch MacBook Air as 13.6 inches (34.5 centimeters). That screen has rounded top corners, so Apple measures it as if it were a full rectangle.

ENERGY STAR, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administers, lists the screen size of almost every laptop model it certifies. Of the 1,174 models with a listed size in September 2026, 40 percent have 14-inch screens and 23 percent have 16-inch screens. Nearly nine in ten are between 13 and 16 inches (33–41 centimeters). The middle value, or median, is 14 inches, and the mean is 14.6 inches (37 centimeters).

These figures count models, not laptops sold. A model that sells millions counts once, like any other.

Size comparisons

A 14-inch screen of the most common shape is about 30 centimeters (11.9 inches) wide, almost exactly the length of a 12-inch ruler.
The diagonal of a 14-inch screen is about one and a half times the width of a basketball.
Each pixel on a 14-inch laptop screen 1,920 pixels across is about 0.16 millimeters wide. That is about half the width of a pixel on a 27-inch desktop LCD monitor, 0.31 millimeters.
If each pixel of a screen 1,920 pixels wide and 1,200 high were enlarged to the width of a U.S. penny, 19.05 millimeters, the screen would be about 37 meters (120 feet) wide and 23 meters (75 feet) tall.

Screen shapes

A screen's shape is given as its aspect ratio, the ratio of its width to its height. Working from the diagonals and screen areas ENERGY STAR lists, about two-thirds of laptop models have 16:10 screens. About a quarter have wider 16:9 screens, and about 5 percent have squarer screens, closer to 3:2.

The shape changes the width and height of a screen with the same diagonal. The width, height and diagonal form a right triangle, so the diagonal squared equals the width squared plus the height squared. A 14-inch 16:10 screen is 30.2 by 18.8 centimeters. A 14-inch 16:9 screen is wider and shorter, 31.0 by 17.4 centimeters.

Pixels

The most common resolution on the ENERGY STAR list is 2.3 megapixels, or 2.3 million pixels, found on 31 percent of laptop models. On a 16:10 screen, that works out to 1,920 pixels across and 1,200 down. On a 14-inch screen, about 160 of those pixels fit side by side in an inch.

Some screens pack pixels more tightly. Apple's 13.6-inch MacBook Air has 2,560 by 1,664 pixels, 224 to the inch, so each pixel is about 0.11 millimeters wide.

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