Common CSS Media Queries Break Points

Common breakpoints for media queries on a responsive site

When deciding on breakpoints for your media queries, consider these realities:

• There are hundreds of different screen sizes across thousands of different devices.
• The future will bring new screen sizes.
• Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, LG, Nokia and any other device manufacturer can, at any time, change the screen size of their popular models.

With so many viewport possibilities, matching breakpoints to specific devices doesn't sound like an efficient strategy. Just keeping up with what's popular, what's new, and what's changed will be a never-ending task.

A better approach may be to set breakpoints based on content and layout.

With this approach your site uses its natural breakpoints to adapt to all viewport sizes, rather than artificial breakpoints targeting currently common screen sizes.

This method is so simple and easy it may be hard to believe:

1. Run your website on a desktop or laptop.
2. As you narrow the browser window, notice how the website responds.
3. When you reach the point where your layout is no longer perfect, that's your first breakpoint.
4. Adjust your site for that screen size (which may have no relation to any device).
5. Keep narrowing the browser window.
6. When you hit the next layout problem, that's your second breakpoint.
7. ... and so on and so forth.

Of course, if you're designing mobile-first, then the process goes in reverse: Start with a narrow screen and work your way out.

With natural breakpoints you no longer need to focus on a giant universe of viewport sizes because your site will adapt to any device, both now and in the future.

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According to one developer, this approach brings breakpoints full-circle to their original intent:

I'm not sure how we ever came up with the phrase "device-specific
breakpoints" anyhow... As I've understood it, the term "breakpoint"
was always a reference to where the content or layout would "break"
(i.e. appear flawed) and thus you'd need to apply a media query at
that point. But I guess that's just semantics, I just always thought
it was common sense to refer to breakpoints in the context of content
or layout.

~ Louis Lazaris, ImpressiveWebs

_{source:
https://responsivedesign.is/articles/why-you-dont-need-device-specific-breakpoints#comment-1685967450}

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More information (external sites):

• Why You Don't Need Device Specific Breakpoints
• Setting Breakpoints in Responsive Design
• Google Developers: How to choose breakpoints
• The Goldilocks Approach to Responsive Design
• Viewport Sizes (a list of hundreds of devices and viewport sizes)
• Media Queries for Standard Devices (a list of media queries targeting popular devices)

Media Queries: How to target desktop, tablet, and mobile?

IMO these are the best breakpoints:

@media (min-width:320px)  { /* smartphones, portrait iPhone, portrait 480x320 phones (Android) */ }
@media (min-width:480px)  { /* smartphones, Android phones, landscape iPhone */ }
@media (min-width:600px)  { /* portrait tablets, portrait iPad, e-readers (Nook/Kindle), landscape 800x480 phones (Android) */ }
@media (min-width:801px)  { /* tablet, landscape iPad, lo-res laptops ands desktops */ }
@media (min-width:1025px) { /* big landscape tablets, laptops, and desktops */ }
@media (min-width:1281px) { /* hi-res laptops and desktops */ }

Edit: Refined to work better with 960 grids:

@media (min-width:320px)  { /* smartphones, iPhone, portrait 480x320 phones */ }
@media (min-width:481px)  { /* portrait e-readers (Nook/Kindle), smaller tablets @ 600 or @ 640 wide. */ }
@media (min-width:641px)  { /* portrait tablets, portrait iPad, landscape e-readers, landscape 800x480 or 854x480 phones */ }
@media (min-width:961px)  { /* tablet, landscape iPad, lo-res laptops ands desktops */ }
@media (min-width:1025px) { /* big landscape tablets, laptops, and desktops */ }
@media (min-width:1281px) { /* hi-res laptops and desktops */ }

In practice, many designers convert pixels to ems, largely because ems afford better zooming. At standard zoom 1em === 16px, multiply pixels by 1em/16px to get ems. For example, 320px === 20em.

In response to the comment, min-width is standard in "mobile-first" design, wherein you start by designing for your smallest screens, and then add ever-increasing media queries, working your way onto larger and larger screens.

Regardless of whether you prefer min-, max-, or combinations thereof, be cognizant of the order of your rules, keeping in mind that if multiple rules match the same element, the later rules will override the earlier rules.

Multiple media queries for the same break point

You are safe to take out the portrait and landscape options as they are overridden by the 3rd option.

However, the very fact that the question was asked and that we are pondering this means that it is not completely intuitive. If you think about the more ‘normal’ CSS rules a more specific rule overrides a less specific one. For example

p.col { color: red; }
p { color: green; }

Paragraphs with class col will have text in red.

By contrast

@media (orientation : portrait), @media ( orientation : landscape ) {
  p { color: red; }
}

p { color: green; }

Will have paragraphs in green even though a more specific selection has been made beforehand.

It might be clearer for future readers of the code therefore to keep the portrait and landscape media queries and ditch the general (the 3rd) one, especially if there are quite a few instances of portrait or landscape media queries as this would clearly show where they are the same.

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