iPad mini iPad Mini 2 resolution

this one and a half resolution of 1536x1152 makes no sense. the choice will be either to double the resolution to 2048x1536 or keep it at 1024x768, same as what happened to the iphone, ipod touch and ipad.

2048x1536 gets my vite

As far as I understand (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), iOS does not scale graphics to fit any resolution like Android does. iOS does have a simple scaling function, where it can scale up an iPhone app to an iPad screen, or it can show an app not optimized for retina on a retina display, but this isn't proper variable scaling the way other fragmented OSs do it.

Meaning, developers have to include in their iPad apps the graphics for 1024x768 (to support iPad, iPad2, and iPad Mini) and/or the graphics for 2048x1536 (to support iPad3, iPad4). Unless Apple wants to force develops to support a third resolution, they will probably stick with one of those two for the iPad Mini 2.

For comparison, currently iOS 6 supports 3 iphone resolutions (3.5", 3.5" retina, and 4" retina), but they are phasing out one of them in iOS7 (non-retina 3.5" devices are not supported any more). To me this indicates Apple's desire is to reduce the amount of resolutions developers have to support.

I really don't see the mini getting retina this year

SmokyD said:

Doubling would be nice, but it would make the mini's screen better than the iPad 5. That would also be strange. The mini would have better pixel density than the full sized iPad. With a better screen, same resolution, lighter, smaller, cheaper, and all the same functionality, why bother with the full sized iPad?

Click to expand...

Cus it's bigger. Same thing they did with the rMBP 13" and 15". The 15" has a lower ppi than the 13", because the screen is smaller, but they use similar resolutions (not the same though). It's not a big deal, and it doesn't really constitute one screen to be "better" than another. Your iPad mini retina, and iPad 5 retina will both look great. The iPad 5 might still be "better" because it has more screen real-estate, and likely, a faster gpu.

While I see your point about the resolution being slightly in favor of the iPad mini, it doesn't make sense for them to use any other configuration; as it would cause fragmentation of apps that would easily be avoided by using the same resolution that the iPad 4 (retina) uses right now.