Do you have a 4K television or computer at home and wonder what exactly that term means? Screen resolution technology continues to advance for a variety of devices, including smartphones, laptops, mobile gaming consoles like Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita, ad of course TVs. But unless you're a tech enthusiast or industry insider, the jargon can be a bit difficult to understand if you're unfamiliar.

4K refers to the number of horizontal pixels present in a screen's resolution. The majority of 4K displays contain a resolution of 3,840 pixels wide by 2,160 pixels tall. This is also exactly four times the number of pixels of traditional Full HD displays, which contain 1,920 pixels wide by 1,080 pixels tall (bonus fact: this is where the term '1080p' comes from!).

A pixel (short for picture element) is the base component that makes up a full picture display. In modern TVs, each pixel is lit up either individually or by an LED backlight to display a color that makes up the overall picture. The more pixels in a display, the better the resolution will be.