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Am I the only one getting annoyed by the term Retina?

F

Flybye

macrumors regular
Original poster
So everyone is saying "Oh I hope there is a Retina display in the iPad3."

Yeah? And what resolution or ppi would you like it to be at? Most people I've talked to are like "umm" Yeah because you have no clue so stop using the term Retina because you don't even know if you want to have the same resolution of the 4S on the iPad or if you want the same pixel density.

If the current Retina resolution is blown up to the size of the iPad's screen, then its gonna look like poo. The current Retina's resolution of 960x640 would be pretty bad considering that the iPad's resolution is 1024x768. You have no clue if Retina means 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 2048x1152, 2560x1600 and on and on. And why is that? Because its just a marketing term!

Retina has no official tie with dictating that a Retina screen has to have 320ppi. So unless you know what you are asking for, whether its the same resolution or the same PPI, don't be asking for Retina! And be ready for a fight if you tell me you want the same resolution! LOL

Sorry all. Rant mode off. Had to vent. I'm really a nice guy. 😀 People saying they want something without knowing what they want somewhat annoys me.
 
Flybye said:
So everyone is saying "Oh I hope there is a Retina display in the iPad3."
[...]
People saying they want something without knowing what they want somewhat annoys me.
Click to expand...
You're overthinking this. The vast majority of people (read: not techies) have no idea what the resolution of the iPhone 4 is, nor do they care. They only know that it looks a hell of a lot better than most other devices out there. When they say they want a Retina display, they want their iPad to look like the iPhone 4. Meaning, they want high pixel density.

Again, stop overthinking it.
 
I'm not annoyed at the term Retina over what your actual resolution is, over the choice of the word Retina. Stupidest word to pick. A "Retina" iPad would also refer to 2048 x 2048 I would assume (doubling the iPad's resolution like the iPhone did from 1024 x 1024
 
chrf097 said:
I'm not annoyed at the term Retina over what your actual resolution is, over the choice of the word Retina. Stupidest word to pick. A "Retina" iPad would also refer to 2048 x 2048 I would assume (doubling the iPad's resolution like the iPhone did from 1024 x 1024
Click to expand...

Just to be a bit of a smartarse: The iPhone's resolution was quadrupled from 480 x 320 to 960 x 640. The iPad's resolution is 1024 x 768, thus a "Retina" resolution (if one ignores the PPI factor) would be 2048 x 1536 pixel.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Just to be a bit of a smartarse: The iPhone's resolution was quadrupled from 480 x 320 to 960 x 640. The iPad's resolution is 1024 x 768, thus a "Retina" resolution (if one ignores the PPI factor) would be 2048 x 1536 pixel.
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I didn't know that 1) The original iPhone's resolution was 480x320 and 2) It was QUADRUPLED! Wow!
 
For a display to be "retina," supposedly the human eye should not be able to distinguish between pixels. This is a function of pixel density and distance to the eye. I can give you two pixels 1 mile apart, but if you are sitting on mars, it would be indistinguishable and thus "retina."
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Just to be a bit of a smartarse: The iPhone's resolution was quadrupled from 480 x 320 to 960 x 640. The iPad's resolution is 1024 x 768, thus a "Retina" resolution (if one ignores the PPI factor) would be 2048 x 1536 pixel.
Click to expand...

Just to be a bit of smartarse: The iPhone's resolution was doubled and the number of pixels quadrupled from the original iPhone's. Resolution refers to the pixel density, or if you've read some descriptions of satellite imagery: the images captured from the satellite have a resolution of 50 cm. Meaning, how much detail there is in a unit area.

A 'Retina' resolution refers to (as correctly explained the way I like it by mobilehaathi, in the extreme) the ability of the human eye to discern individual pixels at a certain distance. Now, iirc, the distance Jobs' referred to in the original usage of the term 'Retina' is 12 inches for the iPhone 4. The iPad, in a rough guess, is used typically in the 1.5-2 foot distance from the eyes.

Baseline: 300ppi at 1 foot (for simplicity, otherwise it's ~ 1 arcminute for minimum discernible detail).

1.5 foot: 300/1.5 = 200ppi
2.0 foot: 300/2.0 = 150ppi

The 'Retina' iPad is ~264ppi. It would appear to be 'Retina' until you held it 13.6" from your face. Just a couple inches shy of the baseline.

I don't think I'd be holding it that close to my face.

Apologies, I may have went on/ranted a little.
 
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