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iPad 2 text rendering not as sharp as the iPad 1

2

212rikanmofo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 31, 2003
1,979
803
Is it me or the iPad 2 text viewing under safari not as sharp as the iPad 1 screen. I am noticing horrible anti-aliasing around the letters that makes it look kind of grainy and not as crisp. Especially when viewing this website while holding the device in portrait mode.
 
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I think you are correct. I just started to notice it and did a search and found your post.

It appears as text is less clear or a bit choppy. The smaller the text the worse it appears.
 
laff2 said:
I think you are correct. I just started to notice it and did a search and found your post.

It appears as text is less clear or a bit choppy. The smaller the text the worse it appears.
Click to expand...

Especially if you're holding the iPad in portrait mode you can see the text is not as crisp. I really hope that there will be some sort of fix for this. Strange how the iPad 2 screen would be worse than the iPad 1.
 
Ditto...I wonder if it is a iOS 4.3 thing or we have goofy iPad 2's. I had a iPad 1 and never thought the text was blurry or of this nature.
 
laff2 said:
Ditto...I wonder if it is a iOS 4.3 thing or we have goofy iPad 2's. I had a iPad 1 and never thought the text was blurry or of this nature.
Click to expand...

Sound like something software could fix... Get over it for now and enjoy the iPad 2 :-D
 
Another unintended shortcoming to add to the list.
clap-slow.gif


But text isn't that important.
 
To find out if it's software or hardware we need a screenshot of an iPad 1, portrait, of the Mac Rumours homepage; and an iPad 2 in portrait mode, of the same Mac Rumours homepage.
 
I never had an iPad 1 but do have an iPhone 4. I assumed the poor text quality on the iPad 2 was just the nature of the DPI on the relatively low resolution screen.

I would appreciate seeing screenshots from an iPad 1 vs an iPad 2 on the same Safari page if possible.
 
The text in safari inn the ipad2 is definitely worse than in safari on the ipad1. Iimmediatkey noticed this on my first day when using safari in portrait mode. I'm sure it's an iOS issue, and not a hardware issue.
 
I have found even on other things the small text is not as clear as on iPad 1 as well as graphics are not as sharp.
 
Wow - I believe this to be a pretty serious accusation.

As a prospective buyer (still waiting) this shortcoming is significant (to me) if true. Considering the hype on the increased GPU, I think this really deserves some attention.

If true, I will delay my purchase (whenever I actually can)

If someone could post some screen shots that would really help dispel or prove this issue.

I'm not sure how to do a screen cap on ipad, but on my iphone 4 it's by pressing home and power button at the same time (for those that might not know.)

Is it the same on the iPad's?
 
Nishi100 said:
To find out if it's software or hardware we need a screenshot of an iPad 1, portrait, of the Mac Rumours homepage; and an iPad 2 in portrait mode, of the same Mac Rumours homepage.
Click to expand...

Both iOS 4.3 please.
 
This was taken from my iPad 2 directly (holding down power and main button). It may be worse if viewed on a monitor, laptop, etc.
 

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This has actually been noted by several reviewers. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to find a link, but the issue has been blamed on apples anti-aliasing tech. Apparently they are a little behind the curve in the current iOS.
 
For what it is worth, I have seen a worsening of the text in zoomed comics on an iPad 1 using iOS 4.3

jdg

Edit: Never mind - it is a source problem.
 
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Anthony8720 said:
This has actually been noted by several reviewers. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to find a link, but the issue has been blamed on apples anti-aliasing tech. Apparently they are a little behind the curve in the current iOS.
Click to expand...

Oh god. Don't even start going down this route! :D

You will have an Army of Apple fans telling you how Apple's font rendering is actual far better than any there system and Apple themselves are very proud of it, and professionals agree it's THE accurate system

Other systems (Windows) may look better to the eye on screen, but are not accurate and actually worse systems.

We've been down this path /argument before.
 
Hmmm . . . I'm guessing no one has left their iPad 1 at the previous version of iOS to do a fair comparison . . .
 
johnc22 said:
Hmmm . . . I'm guessing no one has left their iPad 1 at the previous version of iOS to do a fair comparison . . .
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I would but my dad has the iPad 1 but has left for vacation so I can't do a side by side comparison shot. From what I can recall though, the text on the iPad 1 wasn't this bad. I'm referring to viewing the macrumors forum when viewed in portrait mode. On the iPad 2 the text looks very bad and is a big problem since this is the way I like to hold my iPad when surfing. I really hope that apple can address the issue and that it can be fixed via software. I'm not sure if iOS 4.3 was the culprit because my dads ipad 1 was running iOS 4.2.1 when I was using it.
 
I had the same impression when I first got my iPad 2, but then I realized that I probably just got used to the hi res screen on my iPhone 4 after selling my iPad 1 a week before launch. I do not think the resolution of the text is actually any worse than the iPad 1 after a week of using the iPad 2. I'm curious to as how of you that feel this way have an iPhone 4
 
I'm currently using my laptop which is a 15.4" 1440x900 widescreen and the text is razor sharp in FireFox, as is my iPhone 4 in Safari. The iPad has much higher DPI (calculator: http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html) than my laptop but the text looks significantly worse.

Because I thought the iPad would be an excellent couch web surfing device, I'm a bit disappointed.
 
I have both. (Well, I gave my original one to my wife, so it is still in the house.)

I just did a side by side with cnn.com and espn.com. Both are running on 4.3.

There was no difference at all in how the text looks -- not great in either.

I too thought that it looked worse on the iPad 2 in portrait mode -- looks fine in landscape. But both the iPad and iPad 2 looked identical in both modes.

I obviously can't compare 4.2 to 4.3, but that may be the difference, since I had recalled the iPad being cleared in portrait mode.
 
We need someone with both iPads on 4.3 to see if there is a difference. It's got to be a software issue since the screens are the same res/dpi.
 
bmat said:
I have both. (Well, I gave my original one to my wife, so it is still in the house.)

I just did a side by side with cnn.com and espn.com. Both are running on 4.3.

There was no difference at all in how the text looks -- not great in either.

I too thought that it looked worse on the iPad 2 in portrait mode -- looks fine in landscape. But both the iPad and iPad 2 looked identical in both modes.

I obviously can't compare 4.2 to 4.3, but that may be the difference, since I had recalled the iPad being cleared in portrait mode.
Click to expand...

Hrmm I really think it's a software issue then that's causing rendering of the text to look overly grainy when in portrait mode. When viewing on the iPad 1 with iOS 4.2.1 the text didn't look this bad.
 
Is only on safari? i think is the Safari Nitro JavaScript the webapps are more slow now.
 
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