iPod touch Don't expect to be blown away by the quality of the retina display on the iPod 4.
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terraphantm
macrumors 68040
There are more differences than just the viewing angle. Whether or not they matter to you depends on whether or not you use an IPS display regularly.
Me? I use an IPS display for my computer, and my iPhone has an IPS display. I really can't stand anything else. The viewing angles, colors, and contrast are all superior to TN. (With that said there are plenty of technologies superior to LCD... if they made plasma PC monitors, I'd definitely get one)
If you don't use an IPS display regularly, and don't care that what you have is not technically the best, you're lucky. I haven't yet upgraded my computer monitor that is about 6 years old now, because there hasn't been a significantly better monitor at a reasonable price (24"-30" IPS displays that don't have stupid things like high gamut are rather expensive still). I'm pretty sure this thing is on its last legs (the backlight has been on for 1055 hours so far)
Alright guys, so the engadget's review finally emerged and Joshua Topolsky has confirmed new iPod's screen is nowhere near the quality of an IPS screen found in the iPhone4 
"there's no question that the iPhone 4 is sporting a qualitatively better display. It may be an "iPhone with no contract" in many regards, but not when it comes to the screen." http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/ipod-touch-review-2010/
I guess that finally ends the dispute...
"there's no question that the iPhone 4 is sporting a qualitatively better display. It may be an "iPhone with no contract" in many regards, but not when it comes to the screen." http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/ipod-touch-review-2010/
I guess that finally ends the dispute...
fertilized-egg
macrumors 68020
Again, you're making an assumption that anything TN panel won't be impressive enough for people no matter how good its resolution is simply because only IPS is good enough for you. It's the same error made in the thread's title by the OP. Just because it's not as good as the iPhone 4's, doesn't mean the screen won't be impressive. And color production become less of a matter on a smaller screen since at that size things look more saturated to eyes even with a smaller color gamut. Also the viewing angle matters more on a bigger monitor because TN's viewing angle is often bad enough that it's impossible to achieve color uniformness across the screen at a normal viewing distance, no such problem with a mobile device screen.
Alright guys, so the engadget's review finally emerged and Joshua Topolsky has confirmed new iPod's screen is nowhere near the quality of an IPS screen found in the iPhone4
Nice way to twist Topolosky's "sporting a qualitatively better display" comment into a "nowhere near the quality" conclusion of yours.
MaCamZa
macrumors 6502
Alright guys, so the engadget's review finally emerged and Joshua Topolsky has confirmed new iPod's screen is nowhere near the quality of an IPS screen found in the iPhone4
"there's no question that the iPhone 4 is sporting a qualitatively better display. It may be an "iPhone with no contract" in many regards, but not when it comes to the screen." http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/ipod-touch-review-2010/
I guess that finally ends the dispute...
According to EnGadget's review, the colours are darker on the iPod Touch compared to the iPhone 4, thus is may be why in EnGadgets video's they up the brightness so you see the difference quite considerably when 'looking' at an extreme angle.
Im sure when the colours are darker, the contrast feels richer in the sense that the darks are pure black.
However, i am not saying the TN display is better than the IPS (which it isn't) and that i can clearly agree with you that the IPS on the iPhone 4 is much better than the iPod Touch when viewing at an extreme angle, but i just wouldn't view it at table view like they show in some pics.
Huh? He practically meant it. Quote "Phone 4 is sporting a qualitatively better display". You have a problem with that?
MaCamZa
macrumors 6502
Tn Just As Good As Ips!
The TN Panel looks pretty much impressive for a TN Panel compared to the IPS Panel, again the IPS is better, but when looking straight at it, hardly much difference...
(Pic by EnGadget)
EDIT: Just look at the Mail and Safari Icons in the dock and compare them. There are much richer for me on the iPod than the iPhone. Also the Settings icon as well as the brown strip on the icon of Wikipanion icon looks much more nicer on the iPod than the iPhone. It may just be personal preference, but i feel i prefer the icons on the iPod than the iPhone.
The TN Panel looks pretty much impressive for a TN Panel compared to the IPS Panel, again the IPS is better, but when looking straight at it, hardly much difference...
(Pic by EnGadget)
EDIT: Just look at the Mail and Safari Icons in the dock and compare them. There are much richer for me on the iPod than the iPhone. Also the Settings icon as well as the brown strip on the icon of Wikipanion icon looks much more nicer on the iPod than the iPhone. It may just be personal preference, but i feel i prefer the icons on the iPod than the iPhone.
yep they would, they posted this as the ipod touch...but look at the bottom of the right ipod....it has a "phone" button....all those pics are probably fake/photoshopped pic of iphone 4 screens to make the display on ipod look better than it actually is
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/more-features.html
You do realize that every product shot on the Apple site has a simulated (aka photoshopped) screen image? They didn't use the iPhone screenshot to make the display look better, it'd look the same whether it was an iPhone or an iPod screenshot. Whoever in the web design department that creates the product shots used the wrong images. It isn't any kind of deception or scam.
Alright guys, so the engadget's review finally emerged and Joshua Topolsky has confirmed new iPod's screen is nowhere near the quality of an IPS screen found in the iPhone4
"there's no question that the iPhone 4 is sporting a qualitatively better display. It may be an "iPhone with no contract" in many regards, but not when it comes to the screen." http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/ipod-touch-review-2010/
I guess that finally ends the dispute...
You conveniently forgot the first half of Topolsky's statement on the screen.
It Is different, but it's not a deal breaker by any means. If it was terrible they wouldn't have scored it 9/10. It IS still a Retina Display because of the resolution and the pixels per inch that it offers: a level just beyond what most people can discern at a normal viewing distance. Did anyone honestly expect every piece of the $229 iPod to be the exact same quality as the $599 (the actual price before the AT&T subsidy) iPhone?
Haha, you really wanna play with Joshua's quates? Alrighty then, here's some more specially for you
- "The new touch isn't magical or revolutionary"
- "the touch isn't without faults -- the lack of GPS and a fairly low-quality still camera come to mind "
- "FaceTime on the touch -- on our device the volume seemed extremely low even when cranked up"
- "it's obvious that the touch's performance for still images is far below that of its big brother."
- "We really would have liked to see a higher quality shooter on the back of this device -- maybe the iPhone 4 has spoiled us, but even something like 3 megapixels wouldn't have felt out of place here. And we're pretty sure Apple could figure out a way to keep this thing thin and light in spite of it."
- "We're a little confused by Apple's reluctance to add a GPS chip"
- "While we like the iPod touch design overall, there's nothing present in the new version that makes it significantly more lust-worthy than previous generations."
The rest of his review is simply saying a new touch 4gen is overall a good iPod, but not anything groundbreaking, and with more spec differentiation to the iPhone 4 compared to previous iPod touches vs iPhones generations.
LoL, can you please show me where Topolsky is saying about 9/10 score or is it only your wishful thinking?
Yes, I expected this. Exactly like was the case with ipod touch 3rd gen vs iPhone 3GS. Same price difference, but spec-wise everything the same exept for the gsm and camera. It was like that with ipod 3rd gen, for whatever reason it is not with ipod touch 4gen...Did anyone honestly expect every piece of the $229 iPod to be the exact same quality as the $599 (the actual price before the AT&T subsidy) iPhone?
MaCamZa
macrumors 6502
LoL, can you please show me where Topolsky is saying about 9/10 score or is it only your wishful thinking?
Your soo negative, and it says it on the right hand side as well as the good and the bad. Screenshot below...
https://forums.macrumors.com/images/editor/attach.gif
Attachments
Haha, you really wanna play with Joshua's quates? Alrighty then, here's some more specially for you
- "The new touch isn't magical or revolutionary"
- "the touch isn't without faults -- the lack of GPS and a fairly low-quality still camera come to mind "
- "FaceTime on the touch -- on our device the volume seemed extremely low even when cranked up"
- "it's obvious that the touch's performance for still images is far below that of its big brother."
- "We really would have liked to see a higher quality shooter on the back of this device -- maybe the iPhone 4 has spoiled us, but even something like 3 megapixels wouldn't have felt out of place here. And we're pretty sure Apple could figure out a way to keep this thing thin and light in spite of it."
- "We're a little confused by Apple's reluctance to add a GPS chip"
- "While we like the iPod touch design overall, there's nothing present in the new version that makes it significantly more lust-worthy than previous generations."
The rest of his review is simply saying a new touch 4gen is overall a good iPod, but not anything groundbreaking, and with more spec differentiation to the iPhone 4 compared to previous iPod touches vs iPhones generations.
LoL, can you please show me where Topolsky is saying about 9/10 score or is it only your wishful thinking?
Yes, I expected this. Exactly like was the case with ipod touch 3rd gen vs iPhone 3GS. Same price difference, but spec-wise everything the same exept for the gsm and camera. It was like that with ipod 3rd gen, for whatever reason it is not with ipod touch 4gen...
Ohhh you're sooo clever-you must have been a sub on your high school debate team. Yes, the iPod touch does have it's faults. No one said it was perfect. I do believe the point of a fair and balanced review of a product is to point out both the good, the mediocre, and also the bad, which Josh did well, per usual. But, just because he says it could probably use some more features and/or it isn't completely equal to the iPhone 4, doesn't mean it isn't a good iPod touch, or one of the best PMP/pocket computer/whatever else you want to call it out there on the market.
That's all beside the point- I wasn't arguing whether or not the iPod touch was good overall or not, just whether the screen not being IPS made all that much of a difference. Given the title of the thread and how most other people seem sto still understand we're talking about the screen, not the whole device, your "quates" don't really help your cause. And, based on this one statement summing up his thoughts on the screen:
He pretty much says yes, it's different, but does it matter in everyday use? No, not really.
Given that the IPS screen probably costs a lot more than the TN display, that's why they didn't use it. And while we're comparing reading comprehension skills, you missed the giant orange and white 9/10 on the right hand side. All of Engadget's reviews have this scoring system on it.
No one's saying it's a bad device. It's still a good iPod. Is it worth upgrading from 3rd gen? I don't think so. There's a few new features in the new touch, problem is all of them are just mediocore, exept for maybe A4 chip. The biggest disapointment for me is the lack of an IPS screen. Apple clearly has made space for future improvemnts - I bet there will be at least 3mpix, if not 5mpix autofocus camera in the touch 5th gen, along with the IPS. It's just so sad Apple didn't implement these features in 4gen already. I love Apple, but sometimes their strategy is pissing me off.
Putting a 5mp camera will be the stake right into the iPhone 4's heart. Steve knows previous Touches are too close to previous iPhones. He needs to draw the line because he needs to sell 2 different products.
Both needs to make good sales numbers and if you put some thought into it, Steve's "iPhone without the phone" comment can be a slight hint that he thinks there's some cannibalizing of sales going on between these 2 products.
Hence he is quick to compare the Touch to Sony and Nintendo products, effectively grouping them together in the same competitive league, while we still remember how Apple tried to compare the iPhone with other smartphones.
He doesn't want the Touch to be as good as the iPhone, but he sure wants as much features as he could possible fit so he can bring the fight towards the gaming device league.
burgundyyears
macrumors 6502
Don't mind me, just posting an A/B of the "mediocre" screen and the screen you love. This thread was all about the display, and here it is.
Don't get me wrong, but it's impossible to spot all differences by looking at the pictures, you have to see it for yourself to believe IPS is actually superior to TN in every aspect. Here you've got comparison between iPhone's4 and iPhone 3GS screens, they also look almost identical in terms of picture quality. In iPhone 3GS there is same TN panel as in iPod touch 2gen/3gen. That means the display in the touch 4gen is no improvement over the last gen iPods, exept for the higher resolution, of course. Does it mean TN is any good or even close to IPS? Of course not.
About the 4th Gen being a worthy upgrade from the 3rd Gen that would be debateable since different people are often looking for features that they would find useful to them. For the average consumer I think the IPS screen is not required to sell iPods.
From a user who used the 1st Gen up until a half a year ago I was completely happy with the device when compaired to the 2nd and 3rd Gen models. The speaker was probably the #1 feature in the new devices that I wanted the most next with the upgraded hardware from the 3rd Gen models only because of the games coming out that required the 3rd Gen devices. Then my wifes 1st Gen crapped out so I gave her my 1st Gen and upgraded mine to a 3rd Gen. Now I'm going to upgrade my 3rd Gen to the 4th Gen and give my wife the 3rd Gen.
Out of all iPods released so far I think this one really seperates it from the rest. The one feature I really wanted from the start was a built in camera so I knew even when I bought the 3rd Gen that if the 4th Gen had a built in camera (even if very few or no other features where added) I would upgrade my 3rd Gen to the 4th Gen model. Now I get not one but two cameras (with the ability to record videos or take stills), plus FaceTime, all the features I enjoyed from my brief time with the 3rd Gen, better display, gyroscope, and maybe even more I'm forgetting at the moment. I'd say that is well worth the upgrade to me.
I think the reason that Apple chose not to include the IPS screen on the iPod Touch is simple.....to be able to keep up with demand of both products. iPhone 4 supply is already costrained as it is, and it would only get worse if an additional product were to use the same screen. I remember reading somewhere that the IPS screen was reponsible for the low supply on iPhones 4.
Alvi
macrumors 65816
No IPS Screen really kills my interest, I've been thinking these days of maybe getting a Touch when my iPhone 3GS breaks/gets lost/stolen or feels sluggish with iOS5 but of course it would've been too good to be true for it to have the same screen
I also feel it's not as pretty as the iPhone 4, the cam in the middle looks odd
I also feel it's not as pretty as the iPhone 4, the cam in the middle looks odd
burgundyyears
macrumors 6502
Huh?
dwarnecke11
macrumors 6502
Like I said, a terrible, practically non-existing blacks. The black color is like a grey washed-out milky thing rather than true black that it should be. Absolutely no change in terms of quality from touch 2/3gen, exept for the bumped resolution.
It looks a little better in person
But yes, definitely, 100% a TN panel.
I could be totally wrong, but it's possible the iphone needs the extra RAM to help with the calling and data functionality, and in reality while the Touch does have less RAM, it is still using about the same amount when it's gaming/multitasking. How much RAM does the ipad have?