Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

B.A.T

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 16, 2009
872
784
Idaho
I'm totally ignorant in how this stuff works but I'm curious if it is possible and or likely to show up in some future version of the iMac. What are your opinions in this happening in the next two or three years?
 
I sure hope not that would look awful at that size!
wink.gif



already well surpasses it. what you meant was pixle density, not resolution!

for the same density, not for a while
What he said.
 
I think the next major screen update for the iMac will be OLED which would probably make the iMac even more thinner..
 
Thanks for clueing me in. What is it about OLED that so many people want it in the iMac so bad? Is it just the thinness or is there something else?
 
OLED is better than LCD in every way...sharper, better color, perfect blacks, response time, viewing angle, uses less power....the only problem is lifespan which significantly improved in the last couple of years...OLED is slowly being rolled out starting with mobile devices right now as more factories are being built
 
OLED is also fabulously expensive - Sony announced 17" and 25" OLED displays last month that will run ~$16,000 and $29,000 (both are 1920x1080). Prices will have to come way down before something like an iMac screen would be feasible.
 
Hi everybody,
here is an announcement from Samsung at SID 2010:
"Samsung expects to sell 1 Billion OLED Displays in 5 Years. Samsung is investing $2.2 billion to the 5.5 Gen OLED factory which starts production in 2012."
 
possible if you want such a small iMac ...under 10 inch then you get the display of a iphone ..dont know how deep that iMac would be then ...
 
Last edited:
What most people forget about this "Retina" display thing is the viewing distance. iPhone is viewed at around 1 foot, i.e. close to your eyes. However, you won't, or at least should not, view your iMac from 1 foot. The distance is something like 2 feet. When the viewing distance doubles, your eyes can see see less. At 1 foot, your eyes are limited to 300PPI, where the Retina thing comes from. At 2 feet, the distance is twice as much so your eyes can see only half of what it saw at 1 foot, i.e. 150PPI.

27" iMac has a PPI of 108, so it is not that faraway from 150PPI. At 3 feet, it is already "Retina".
 
What most people forget about this "Retina" display thing is the viewing distance. iPhone is viewed at around 1 foot, i.e. close to your eyes. However, you won't, or at least should not, view your iMac from 1 foot. The distance is something like 2 feet. When the viewing distance doubles, your eyes can see see less. At 1 foot, your eyes are limited to 300PPI, where the Retina thing comes from. At 2 feet, the distance is twice as much so your eyes can see only half of what it saw at 1 foot, i.e. 150PPI.

27" iMac has a PPI of 108, so it is not that faraway from 150PPI. At 3 feet, it is already "Retina".

exactely what i want to say...
 
Just to point out for everyone:

Resolution = pixel density. Not pixel count.

Note that the use of the word resolution here is a misnomer, though common. The term “display resolution” is usually used to mean pixel dimensions, the number of pixels in each dimension (e.g., 1920×1200), which does not tell anything about the resolution of the display on which the image is actually formed: resolution properly refers to the pixel density, the number of pixels per unit distance or area, not total number of pixels. In digital measurement, the display resolution would be given in pixels per inch.

EDIT: thanks HellHammer, keep spreading the word!
 
Apple should instead focus on oled displays and resolution independence like their iOS devices. Having perfectly rasterized text when zoomed in via command zoom would be nice, considering I personally abuse that feature.
 
Apple should instead focus on oled displays and resolution independence like their iOS devices. Having perfectly rasterized text when zoomed in via command zoom would be nice, considering I personally abuse that feature.

I've often wondered why screen zooming never smoothed out text myself. It would seem like a fairly simple thing given how (as I understand it) things are rendered onto the screen.

Thanks to you for pointing this out with your amazing graph (which I was too lazy to search) sometime ago :) I didn't know about this until you explained it.

At the risk of tooting my own horn :) Here it is:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10505516/
 
Why not?
OLED is pretty much getting there, 1-3 years..
Good joke :D The first time I've read that sentence was some time around 2005 or so. It has become sort of a running gag since then. ;)

OLED is better than LCD in every way...sharper, better color, perfect blacks, response time, viewing angle, uses less power....the only problem is lifespan which significantly improved in the last couple of years...OLED is slowly being rolled out starting with mobile devices right now as more factories are being built
If so, how come that the OLED displays you can actually buy can't even beat the IPS panel of the iPhone 4 in tests like this one or this one? :confused:
And the iPhone4 doesn't even have a wide color gamut display to boot.

I'd rather like to see Apple use even higher-end "conventional" displays for the time being. Features like 30bit color-depth, hardware-LUT and better AdobeRGB-coverage would be nice.
 
A couple of days ago I switched to verizon and ended up going with the HTC Droid Incredible (wanted a more open environment) and it has an AMOLED screen. Its very nice. It looks more...natural...than the iPhone 4 screen. It feels like the image is on the surface of the glass rather than behind it like the iPhone/iMac/every other display.

I'd be JUST FINE with apple moving to AM/OLED screens.
 
I've often wondered why screen zooming never smoothed out text myself. It would seem like a fairly simple thing given how (as I understand it) things are rendered onto the screen.



At the risk of tooting my own horn :) Here it is:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10505516/

Nice chart.

Now I would venture to say that for people with really good eyesight it may be wrong. I know my eyes are 20-12 not 20-20 since my cataracts have been repaired. So sitting 8 feet away from a 46 inch 1080 tv I can see the pixels. Right now I am about 3.5 feet from my 27 inch iMac and I can't quite see the pixels but at 30 inches I can see them.

I would think the chart is based on 20 20 vision clarity not 20 - 12.

But most people don't correct to 20-12 with glasses or cataract surgery. There is a drawback with the 20-12 vision I need reading glasses for close up. So Apples move to small screen clarity is a waste for me. But from 2 feet out I see really well.
 
Nice chart.

Now I would venture to say that for people with really good eyesight it may be wrong. I know my eyes are 20-12 not 20-20 since my cataracts have been repaired. So sitting 8 feet away from a 46 inch 1080 tv I can see the pixels. Right now I am about 3.5 feet from my 27 inch iMac and I can't quite see the pixels but at 30 inches I can see them.

I would think the chart is based on 20 20 vision clarity not 20 - 12.

But most people don't correct to 20-12 with glasses or cataract surgery. There is a drawback with the 20-12 vision I need reading glasses for close up. So Apples move to small screen clarity is a waste for me. But from 2 feet out I see really well.

Of course it varies since none of us share the exact same eyes. I think that chart is generalization and it does good job at that. It would be great if someone (probably a doctor) who really knew about eyes would tell his input on this. I find this topic interesting.
 
I think what the OP means, is will there ever be an iMac screen with a resolution and pixel density that would be "retina" from any distance.

With my iPhone 4, I can't see a single pixel when holding the screen up to my eyeball let alone from 1 foot. If the 27" iMac could get above the retina curve on that graph, it still wouldn't be iPhone-like-retina unless it could get a PPI of 300 or more.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.