How many individual subpixels are needed for a 640-by-480 colour LCD display?

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Diagram comparing three liquid crystal phases: nematic with parallel rods aligned vertically, smectic A with rods arranged in horizontal layers, and smectic C with rods in tilted layers. — liquid crystal display Liquid crystal arrangements
In nematic arrangements the crystals are randomly positioned with all their long axes pointing in essentially the same direction, given by a vector known as the director. In smectic arrangements the crystals are further constrained to parallel planes; in smectic A the director is perpendicular to these planes, while in smectic C the director is at some other angle to the planes.

To calculate the number of subpixels in a 640-by-480 colour liquid crystal display, we must first determine the total number of pixels and then account for the colour components.

A 640-by-480 resolution indicates a grid of 640 pixels horizontally and 480 pixels vertically, resulting in a total of 307,200 pixels ( $640 \times 480 = 307, 200$ ).1

In a standard colour LCD, each individual pixel is composed of three distinct subpixels—typically red, green, and blue—to produce the full range of colours. Therefore, to find the total number of subpixels, you multiply the total number of pixels by three:

$307, 200 pixels \times 3 subpixels/pixel = 921, 600 subpixels$

Thus, a 640-by-480 colour display contains 921,600 individual subpixels.