What's the role of Megapixels on digital cameras?

[MariaJane]

I wonder if the more the Megapixels your digital camera have, would it mean a better photo quality?

My aunt got an 8 Megapixels cam while mine is only 7.2 but the photo quality is better than her 8 Megapixel. Can someone explain why?

[tamia]

Oh yeah, that's what most of those sales person told you right? Well, having more megapixels in your camera doesn't mean that you can have better photo quality. Increasing the megapixel (resolution) of the camera simply increases the size of the photo. It means that you can make large prints or crop a large area without losing too much detail. 4 megapixel camera can make a nice 8 x 10 inch print. You don't need to spend much cost on 8 or 10 megapixl camera.