No discussion of AR displays would be complete without mentioning pixels, those tiny colored dots that make up the image on the display screen. The more, the better. It is measured in terms of resolution. What's more important, perhaps, is pixel density, pixels per inch, as well as the color depth. Higher density displays produce a crisper image. Greater color depth, such as HDR displays (high dynamic range), provides more bits per pixel so there could be a more natural and linear range of brightness.

We also talk about motion-to-photon latency. This is the time it takes for the AR device to detect changes in the location and orientation and have that represented on the screen. A lagged latency is not just unrealistic and feels sloppy, it can result in motion sickness, especially in wearable displays. Depending on the device, the screen may refresh in cycles of 60 frames per second or more. All the sensor readings, analysis, geometry, and graphics rendering must be performed with that tiny timeframe or the user will experience latency.