As for FWVGA, I've never heard of that. What does the F stand for?

Steve

Recently I’ve seen VGA (800×600) and WVGA (854×480) screen resolutions.

I believe VGA is 640 x 480 and there are plenty of PDAs and phones with VGA screens. 800 x 600 is SVGA, but I don't believe I've seen a phone or PDA with that resolution. I've seen PDAs like the Sony Xperia described as WVGA at 800 x 480, but How Many Dots Has It Got? says WVGA is either 852 x 480 or 858 x 484.

I think 800 x 480 makes more sense as WVGA, though. That same chart defines WQVGA as 400 x 240 (like the Samsung Omnia), so WVGA should double both dimensions to 800 x 480.

Like you, though, I'm not convinced you gain much by cramming more pixels in the same-size screen. Yes, fonts and images are sharper if you keep the display the same size, but, unless you have eagle eyes, you can't get four times the information on the screen readably going from 320 x 240 to 640 x 480. You can probably get some extra information by using slightly smaller fonts and having the extra sharpness compensate for the reduced size, but I'd be surprised if you can get even 25% more in each direction.

Increasing the screen size and resolution makes more sense.

And when are we going to see PDAs with 24-bit color? Most Windows Mobile devices seem stuck at 16-bit color. Of course, increasing the color depth 50% means screens will likely require 50% longer to draw, too. That's where faster processors come in, but then your battery life descreases. Designing portable devices is a series of big compromises. :D

Steve