Never gonna be a Retina display on iPad...

[XboxEvolved]

What is everyone's big deal on trying to deny the idea of a "Retina Display" being on the iPad. Let's look at what the Retina display actually is:

• A screen with pixels so small the human eye can't see them due to ppi
• A marketing term cooked by Apple

When you consider the RIM Playbook is 1024x600 at 7' doesn't it have much more pixels per inch? I think Apple could probably push some pixels further than that, and while it may not be 320ppi or w/e, possibly 200 ppi, it will still be so damn good that from 2 feet away from the users face, it would be impossible to see a pixel.

Then there is a few other things people keep egging on about.

• Power constraints
• GPU/CPU constraints
• No such technology exist!

First off, such tech does exist that could handle this. It's called the Cortex A9 and *GASP* Apple has been using the A8 this entire time, not only that but there are very low energy multi-core versions of it. Then there would be that pesky PowerVR needing to be more powerful. Well look no further than the lower power consuming Power SGX MP: http://www.imgtec.com/PowerVR/sgx.asp

It is the multi-core version of the current PowerVR and the extra core (or cores) could be used for handling such tasks as high resolution.

Of course this is all Jetson's stuff though that could never happen right?

 

[ssdeg7]

wait wait

13" macbook pro = 110 DPI , people are like whoa what an awesome screen.

iPad = 132 DPI, people are like "no retina?! this sux!"

come on people!!

Good point, totally agree with you!

 

[bri1212]

Missed the point entirely

But that's the point that the last few posts were coming to. In order to upgrade the resolution without breaking all of the existing apps, the "new and improved" iPad would have to either be a straight doubling of resolution (which, as everyone concurs, would be too expensive and too processor intensive), or use a fractional multiplier and risk making lots of apps look bad. Either way, developers would need time to fix their apps, so if a higher-resolution display is coming, we'll hear about it well before it ships.

No, my point was that the term "retina display" never existed before the iPhone 4. People use it now like it means something, like it has become part of the lexicon. However, it means crap. we could call it a poop display and it would not mean anything more. The iPad has an incredible display already. When it first came out, there was nothing in a portable machine that could even come close to matching it. However, since the iphone4 came out, people throw these words out like it has meant something. My point is not that their won't be a resolution increase in the next generation, it's that the term that these people keep using, is meaningless. If you want to talk about higher resolution, that is fine. But I think it is ridiculous to use that term.

 

[ntrigue]

iPad 3 will absolutely meet the specs you listed. Currently, the architecture can't support that resolution. Apple has an iPad 3 under a black cloth running at least a 1080p screen that today cost them $5000. When it becomes affordable in two years and graphic chipsets smaller, more powerful it will be available for purchase.

 

[Piggie]

iPad 3 will absolutely meet the specs you listed. Currently, the architecture can't support that resolution. Apple has an iPad 3 under a black cloth running at least a 1080p screen that today cost them $5000. When it becomes affordable in two years and graphic chipsets smaller, more powerful it will be available for purchase.

Unless the competition is no where near it, in that case it will be held back for iPad 4

 

[zhenya]

No, my point was that the term "retina display" never existed before the iPhone 4. People use it now like it means something, like it has become part of the lexicon. However, it means crap. we could call it a poop display and it would not mean anything more.

They use the term like it means something, because, well, it does. It even has a definition - 'a screen whose resolution is high enough that the human eye cannot detect the individual pixels' or something along those lines. Like it or not, that's exactly how language works - it's a constant evolution - and the term 'retina display' is making its way into the lexicon. That's why dictionaries must be constantly updated.

As an owner of both an iPad and an iPhone 4, I still find the pixel resolution to be the iPad's greatest weakness. For me, it has nothing to do with reading distance, because I have good enough vision that I use both devices at about the same distance. I don't know what is in the pipeline, but I have to believe that if they can fit a graphics chip powerful enough to run the display in the iPhone 4, that the tech to scale that up to the iPad, which is ~5 times larger, can't be too far behind.

 

[Sedulous]

Eventually, yes, the iPad dpi will improve but the need is not as pressing as other issues.