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Retina Display: Chill Out

2002cbr600f4i said:
Credentials? Let's see....

Computer science degree from Georgia Tech... Working on a masters in Cs from Drexel University... Specialized in computer hardware and computer graphics as an undergrad. Work in an r&d lab at a fortune 100 company... Published author of one programming book and tech editor of several others... Yeah I think I know a bit more about this stuff than the typical person on this site...


Now, that being said, YES I DO have an iPhone 4... Yea the display is nice compared to my older 3G... But.... Hold them both at 1-1.5 ft away from your face side by side and you won't see that much more sharpness. The reason for the retina display is to make things sharper because you are looking at a display only 6" from your face! You use the iPad 1-2 ft from your eyeballs. The drop off in sharpness isn't that noticeable at that distance...

Look at it this way... Take 3 tv sets... A 52" 1080P, a 32" 1080P and a 32" 720P... Set them all 10 ft away from your face... The 52" is going to look fuzzy because with the same resolution as the 32"1080P the pixels are like 75% larger. BUT, you can move that 52" set farther away and it will look just as sharp aa the 32".

Compare the 1080 and 720P sets at that distance and you probably won't notice much difference. Move in closer, and yes the 1080 will look better, it has higher pixel density at the same size display.

You guys are wanting a retina display on an iPad... That will cause the display to be something like 5200x3000... You don't even get that on high end computer monitors today. The higher the resolution the screen is, the larger the graphics files for bitmapped resources have to be, the bigger the frame buffer (both displayed and backing) have to be to address all those pixels, and the more pixels 3D routines have to calculate and draw to. That requires more RAM, faster CPU and GPU, and thus more power draw and heat.

Now, I could see apple maybe making MODEST improvements to the display... Maybe taking it up to 1280x1024 (or 1080 to get full HD even though the aspect ratio is a bit wrong). But something up to retina display density is just pointless and wasteful and neither needed nor cost effective.

Are you telling me that you get THAT much more eye strain reading on your iPad vs your iphone4??? Maybe you shouldn't be holding it so close to your face!
Click to expand...
Thank you for being a voice of reason. The iPad's display is fine, people.
 
2002cbr600f4i said:
Credentials? Let's see....

Computer science degree from Georgia Tech... Working on a masters in Cs from Drexel University... Specialized in computer hardware and computer graphics as an undergrad. Work in an r&d lab at a fortune 100 company... Published author of one programming book and tech editor of several others... Yeah I think I know a bit more about this stuff than the typical person on this site...


Now, that being said, YES I DO have an iPhone 4... Yea the display is nice compared to my older 3G... But.... Hold them both at 1-1.5 ft away from your face side by side and you won't see that much more sharpness. The reason for the retina display is to make things sharper because you are looking at a display only 6" from your face! You use the iPad 1-2 ft from your eyeballs. The drop off in sharpness isn't that noticeable at that distance...

Look at it this way... Take 3 tv sets... A 52" 1080P, a 32" 1080P and a 32" 720P... Set them all 10 ft away from your face... The 52" is going to look fuzzy because with the same resolution as the 32"1080P the pixels are like 75% larger. BUT, you can move that 52" set farther away and it will look just as sharp aa the 32".

Compare the 1080 and 720P sets at that distance and you probably won't notice much difference. Move in closer, and yes the 1080 will look better, it has higher pixel density at the same size display.

You guys are wanting a retina display on an iPad... That will cause the display to be something like 5200x3000... You don't even get that on high end computer monitors today. The higher the resolution the screen is, the larger the graphics files for bitmapped resources have to be, the bigger the frame buffer (both displayed and backing) have to be to address all those pixels, and the more pixels 3D routines have to calculate and draw to. That requires more RAM, faster CPU and GPU, and thus more power draw and heat.

Now, I could see apple maybe making MODEST improvements to the display... Maybe taking it up to 1280x1024 (or 1080 to get full HD even though the aspect ratio is a bit wrong). But something up to retina display density is just pointless and wasteful and neither needed nor cost effective.

Are you telling me that you get THAT much more eye strain reading on your iPad vs your iphone4??? Maybe you shouldn't be holding it so close to your face!
Click to expand...

Game, set, match. Best post of this convoluted thread. Thanks for explaining it in a way that makes it pretty clear that this thread was a waste to start with, not to mention a repeat of previous threads.
 
obamtl said:
whichever way one cuts it. as a user of both an iPad and iPhone 4, I can say without any doubt that the iPad is now a lot less impressive and I use is a lot less than I did when I had a 3GS. The screen is markedly poor compared to the iPhone, but what really kills it is the slowness of the device and the operating system. Not being able to multitask really sucks... Having so many pages of Apps too stinks. Retina display? I don't know if it needs it, but I'd like to see a marked improvement in the screen.
Click to expand...

Slowness????

You DO realize they have the exact same CPU, except the iPad one runs at 1000mhz and the iPhone 4 one runs at something like 600mhz, right???

I see absolutely NO performance difference between the two devices...

What are you basing your "slowness" of iPad vs iphone4 on??? What apps seem slower?
 
I cannot tell a speed diff between the iPad and my iPhone 4. Yes, I see a screen difference, but only if I hold it at silly close range. For reading in bed before falling asleep, I swap to the iPhone 4 because it's easier to palm and rest on my side while I read.

For couch surfing and crosswords, it's the iPad all the way. Sits in my lap and the screen looks great.

What most people gloss over is the fact that any resolution that's not a doubled one is going to be difficult to implement because it'll fragment the app store even more. Thus, I don't see anything but the same res on iPad for quite awhile unless they start implementing more "scaling" in the app SDK to where everyone switches to vector graphics only. Then apps would be able to dynamically scale provided it uses the same aspect ratio. Works in theory, different in practice, esp with games that have a lot of artwork/shading/etc.</ramble> :p
 
2002cbr600f4i said:
Now, I could see apple maybe making MODEST improvements to the display... Maybe taking it up to 1280x1024 (or 1080 to get full HD even though the aspect ratio is a bit wrong)
Click to expand...

1280x1024 is 5:4 aspect ratio so I don't think Apple will use that in future iPad. Perhaps 1280x960 or even 1600x1200 for 4:3 aspect ratio which is fine for a portable/tablet device like ipad and will make a 9.7 inch display a bit sharper.
 
2002cbr600f4i said:
Now, that being said, YES I DO have an iPhone 4... Yea the display is nice compared to my older 3G... But.... Hold them both at 1-1.5 ft away from your face side by side and you won't see that much more sharpness. The reason for the retina display is to make things sharper because you are looking at a display only 6" from your face! You use the iPad 1-2 ft from your eyeballs. The drop off in sharpness isn't that noticeable at that distance...
Click to expand...

Holy crap it's nice to have a voice of reason in here instead of people fawning over the retina display.
 
Someone said that the digitizer should be glued to the screen on iPad. I have never had problem with sand getting into the display on any of my iDevices. All it does is makes the iPhone tend to break more than just the glass when dropped.
Besides, does no one care about screen estate? iPhone 4 has a gorgeous display but it still isn't quite big enough. Asking to have a 6'' iPhone upgrade is how ridiculous a Retina display for the iPad sounds.
 
Distance is critical.

Apple is simply going to do the same math they used with the iPhone 4 display.

iPhone 4: 6" viewing x 326ppi = 1956 ppi(viewing)
iPad 2: 24" viewing x 120ppi = 2880 ppi(viewing)*

*totally rudimentary calculation but makes the point.
 
The iPhone 4 display makes the iPad display look fuzzy. I am really F***ED by it. I don't want to read web sites on my iPad anymore.
 
mklnk said:
Alright, I did the math. An iPhone 4 held 12 inches from your face is 68.3 pixels per degree. An iPad held at 24 inches from your face is 55.3 pixels per degree, or 23% more pixels per degree.
Click to expand...

I don't know about you, but I don't hold the iPad 2 feet from my face, more like 1 to 1.5 feet.

Anyway, I don't think the iPad needs a Retina Display (as in > 300 ppi), but I do think it would benefit a lot from a moderate resolution bump. I would like to see 1600x1200, but I think 1280x960 would even be a big improvement, especially for text antialiasing in iBooks.
 
toxic said:
an iPad has less need for a Retina display because you hold it farther away than a phone. moreover, phones don't use IPS panels.
Click to expand...

Debatable on the first point (depends on the person), incorrect on the second: the iPhone 4 display is IPS.
 
AR15MBP said:
how is the ipad obsolete? strangely my ipad still works even after the release of iphone 4. seeing as you don't have an ipad you may have received some bad information. the retina display is beautiful, but the ipad is still a great device.

PS. ipad has 256mb of ram.
Click to expand...

Tottaly agree with you.
 
mklnk said:
Retina display is to compensate for the fact that people are holding the iPhone a lot closer to their face than they would the iPad.

iPhone users are usually holding the thing a foot away from their faces, while iPad users will often have it sitting in their lap, or held out at near arms length.

The iPad doesn't need a retina display, and all these hope/wish threads with people expecting one in the second gen iPad are ruining my life.
Click to expand...

Who the hell holds their iPad at arm's length? I'd love to see a photo of anyone doing this. It would look quite ridiculous.
 
donster28 said:
I don't know why people keep describing Retina Display as this hard to achieve, expensive feature.

I'm not an expert but if there is anyone here who can prove that Retina Display is un-achievable on a bigger screen now, please chime in...and oh, don't forget to include your title in the industry.

Retina Display (or call it something else if this name gives you the chills) is here now and I have it in the palm of my hands and I didn't pay $1,000 for it, it came with my iPhone.

I can't wait to come here a few months from now, after Apple introduces the next iPad (with Retina Display).
Click to expand...

There are rumors circulating about a new 7" iPad w/ 1024 x 768 resolution. That's 183 ppi. The current iPad is 131 ppi. A 7" iPad would have roughly 40% higher pixel density than today's 9.7" iPad. It's fair to assume that if the 7" iPad sees the light of day, the 9.7" iPad will have higher resolution in order to maintain the same or higher pixel density. In order to achieve that, the resolution would need to be at least 1427 x 1060. Maybe Apple will call that the "cornea display" lol.
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
Who the hell holds their iPad at arm's length? I'd love to see a photo of anyone doing this. It would look quite ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I do all the time, specifically if I'm sitting at a table and have my forearms rested on the table, or even if I am resting my arms on my knees while sitting. It's probably farther away if it's in its apple case and I have it just resting on a table. Actually come to think of it I'd say the vast majority of the time it's at "arms length".
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
Who the hell holds their iPad at arm's length? I'd love to see a photo of anyone doing this. It would look quite ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Do you mean elbows locked, arms length? Yes that would look odd.

I hold mine about this far.

steve-jobs-ipad-apple-ap.jpg
 
You want a Retina Display iPad? Here yah go...

IPad.jpg


Granted it's 4 iPhone 3GS but you get the gist.
 
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