While 960 X 640 certainly doesn't meet TV HD requirements, (which is fine since it's NOT A TV) it will certainly meet my personal definition of "high definition" and be clearer than... well almost ANYTHING, since it will have so many pixels on a 3.5" screen as opposed to a 50" screen of a TV. The pixel density will be out of this world. Can't wait.
Spot on.
If you're watching a movie on a display that small,
320 dpi is crazy good. You're a hair's breath away from 720p on a handheld device. Unless you watch films with a loupe from your dark room you'll never see the difference between "portable
HD (960 x 640)" and "big-@ss plasma/LCD tv
HD (720p/1080p)" resolutions on an iPhone.
Sheesh.
You want to see every hair on Chewbacca's muzzle as he lets out one of his monosyllabic unintelligible groans (that someone onscreen always manages to construe as a meaningful compound sentence)? If you are over 35, your freaking eyes probably couldn't resolve that level of detail without bifocals anyway.
300 dpi in color can make a decent still photo print. A 320 dpi, constantly refreshing progressive scan display? Man, that'll be gorgeous. At this point, the limitations of the codecs and/or video processing will be the only obstacles to perfect images.
This all reminds me of the sample rate spec war for pro audio. Once you get to 48k (with a theoretical 24k high end response) you've achieved overkill. Every double-blind ABX study, even among elite studio engineers, proves that higher sample rates are completely pointless unless you are BOTH a) in a sound lab with equipment that can actually reproduce audio signals higher in frequency to 20k, AND b) you are not human--rather, you are a dog or a bat with ears that can HEAR ultra high frequencies. If neither are true, then your "audiophile" 96k recordings are expensive monuments to your wealth and gullibility.
I'll say that 320 dpi is probably at the overkill point, at least for anyone over 40. It's all pointless spec-fight nonsense from here on out.