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Detect Retina Display?

J

Jigga

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
471
74
Odd and random question.
I bought an iPhone 4 off Craigslist. Though it's performing great, I have this sense that the display might not be the Retina.
The reasons being, whenever I've looked at an iPhone 4 with my polarized sunglasses on, the display wasn't clear. This screen is.
Also, from the side, it's completely viewable.
Is there a way to see if I actually have a retina display or if it might have been changed?

Thanks for any help.
 
All iPhone 4's have a retina display. It cannot be changed out with a non-retina display.
 
It just seems so odd to me, every iPhone 4 I've seen with my glasses on were distorted. Not mine.
 
To be sure, just make a screenshot, open that image on your computer and look at the resolution.
 
I think what the OP is trying to ask is if the original LCD assembly broke and the seller replaced it with one of lesser quality, perhaps bought somewhere in the Chinese market.
 
boss.king said:
I'm pretty sure it would just give 960x640 screenshot. Although now thinking about it I may be wrong. Apologies if I am.
Click to expand...

You might be right. Te iPhone might think that it's displaying 960x640 when it really isn't.

No idea.
 
wordoflife said:
You might be right. Te iPhone might think that it's displaying 960x640 when it really isn't.

No idea.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then part of the right and bottom of the screen would be missing. I tricked my 3Gs into thinking it had a retina display and all I got was the top right corner.
 
Jigga said:
Odd and random question.
I bought an iPhone 4 off Craigslist. Though it's performing great, I have this sense that the display might not be the Retina.
The reasons being, whenever I've looked at an iPhone 4 with my polarized sunglasses on, the display wasn't clear. This screen is.
Also, from the side, it's completely viewable.
Is there a way to see if I actually have a retina display or if it might have been changed?

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

The iPhone 4's screen is polarized vertically, so if you look at it with polarized glasses while it is in the vertical position (portrait mode) then it will appear to have rainbow colors across the screen. This is completely normal, their is nothing to worry about.
 
Unless the person you bought it from somehow figured out a way to fit a non-retina display screen in the iPhone 4, and then found a manufacturer to make it, and put it in that iPhone just to screw you, I think it's just your imagination playing with you :)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Place it next to an iPhone 3G or 3GS. If you don't look at your screen a go "wow, that's a huge difference" it's not a retina display.
 
The Californian said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Place it next to an iPhone 3G or 3GS. If you don't look at your screen a go "wow, that's a huge difference" it's not a retina display.
Click to expand...

Which means it's not an iPhone 4.
 
Jigga said:
The reasons being, whenever I've looked at an iPhone 4 with my polarized sunglasses on, the display wasn't clear. This screen is.
Click to expand...

I haven't heard of any iPhone screen being polarized. I grabbed my polarized sunglasses and looked at my iPhone 4. I thought I could see a tiny difference at 45 degrees off vertical, but it's probably my imagination or an interesting side affect of my screen protector. My understanding of polarization is that if they are both polarized the light passed would be dramatically affected. I think old-school LED screens were polarized to enhance the display and turning them sideways would produce an "is this thing on?" moment.
 
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