> Android devices are many different sizes and shapes, so this sort of consistency is practically impossible

Instead of incorrect speculation, here are some facts:

https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/AzwMc3pS...

> surely there's a way to get physical device dimensions in the Android SDK

Since Android 1.0. You get the x and y dpi which can then be multiplied by screen resolution.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/DisplayM...

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/Display....