Phil Schiller on iPhone XR Display: 'If You Can't See the Pixels, at Some Point the Numbers Don't Mean Anything'

[Zandros]

Unless you put the screen right in front of your eyes, that's BS.

I am, because when I'm lying sideways in bed and holding the phone that's what's comfortable. Maybe 15 cm away?

I'm don't want to pull a "you're holding it wrong" here but it really sounds like you're holding the device way too close to your eyes if you're seeing individual pixels on a 326 PPI display.

See above. It's the only way that's comfortable. Also a big reason why I bought a plus phone, because 401 ppi is good enough for me but 326 ppi really isn't.

 

[Marshall73]

iPhone 10 Sport
iPhone 10 Rally

Aye, fits fine with car naming schemes.

 

[Malcster]

iPhone X: "OMG look what we've done it's an incredible 458 PPI!!"
iPhone Xr: "PPI is for dummies, it looks great!"

Marketing 101 For what it's worth i'm sure the Xr display will still look fine.

 

[Ramchi]

There are many mobiles far less than $750 have FHD AMOLED and QHD AMOLED displays ....

 

[subjonas]

It's marketing speak. He means "when Apple is ready".
They could have shipped the XR a month earlier then the XS if they wanted to.
Make sure you give your premium phones the "gotta have the new phone" stage first.
It's not like there is a shortage of 720p screens

Possible he could have inferred that with a *wink wink*. Or he could have expected to be believed at face value. Hard to tell without context.

 

[nitropowered]

Bring on the "iPhone WRX STI Type RA-R" next year. The racing Subaru edition.

Complete with spun rod bearing and blown head gasket

 

[FelixDerKater]

If you can’t see the margins, the sales price doesn’t matter.

 

[tromboneaholic]

There are many mobiles far less than $750 have FHD AMOLED and QHD AMOLED displays ....

But most of those individual models won't sell in any real quantity. Sourcing 6 million displays is less work than sourcing 60 million.

 

[Princejb134]

maybe its just because i dont care about it to much but i upgraded from the iphone 6s to the iphone xs and i dont notice the difference

 

[otternonsense]

For crying out loud, P Schiller is the human embodiment of Apple baloney in every possible form. I can't tell the 221 ppi on my 15" MacBook Pro either, but I don't hold my computer 30-40cm away from my face.

Phil, least you can do with your gawd expensive phones (the XR starts at €850 in EU, that is not a budget phone no matter how hard you try to spin it) is to retain the PPI your OWN COMPANY introduced as a breakthrough 8 years ago, and allow at least for 1080p streaming of content in a 2018 device whose screen is twice the physical size as that of 2010.

 

[adamski23]

For most individuals that are coming from a phone with a similar pixel density, it wont be noticeable. If coming from the plus models or the X, Xs, or Xs Max, it will be greatly noticeable in the beginning, but you probably wont care after a week or so, ala the "notch", because the ios experience is what keeps us buying iphones. I have the 7 Plus and 7 in front of me and I can tell the difference right away without trying to pixel peep. The 1080p display is so much crisper

 

[fathergll]

"I think the only way to judge a display is to look at it. …

If you can't see the pixels, at some point the numbers don't mean anything. They're fairly arbitrary."



Fast forward to 2019 Phil will best proclaiming that the new iPhone is the "best ever" with more pixels.

 

[Zimmy68]

Remember, "courage"!

 

[Rogifan]

You know, I've realized that I really don't have a problem with Apple itself, it's the "old guard" exec team thats living on Steve's legacy. When he was at the helm, he kept them all in check and made the team work. Without him, they all see to be arrogant and out of touch.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to when these guys finally get pushed out and we get a new team and new CEO. It'll breath new life into the company. I continue to say it, I think the company will finally get a new "feel" once a new set of execs finally get in place, just like MS and Google. I'm looking forward to that.

Satya Nadella isn’t new. He’s been at Microsoft since 1992. The guy that runs cloud & AI at Microsoft has been with the company since 1997. The guy that runs Windows started there in 1990. Sundar Pichai Started at Google in 2004.

 

[code-m]

He is right, once your eyes can't detect the difference, than you're just wasting extra battery life and graphics performance for no reason other than to play the specs game.

I'm not a huge fan of Phill, but he is right about this.

And yet they increased the PPI for the X and XS... Apparently Apple's design team could still see the pixels.

I believe the technical minds knew this when the first Retina Display was released, even the marketing term “Retina” means nothing. The performance hit to the battery and GPU were also a given, no revelation on Phil Schiller’s part. Who is he trying to convince with his double speak, himself. He seems to be polarizing between his onstage persona and his intimate interviews (fear of being called out).

People with poor vision may have to hold a low resolution screen closer to their eyes and able to see the individual pixels. While people with great vision have to hold that low resolution screen farther from their eyes to see much of a difference.

It was Apple who bumped the resolution on the X/Max displays along with a cheesy marketing name. It was Apple who decided to call this sub 720p display “LiquidRetina”. Did anyone really care what the Xr or X display was going to be called, IDTS.

Curious to know the sales figures for this years iPhone lineup. I suspect Max sold well. Xr still available for Oct 26 delivery in Canada ($1K+ affordable phone lol).
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Not sure he’s being totally forthcoming here.

Sr. Execs are like politicians you cannot trust them if their mouth is moving. Actions not words speak for themself.

 

[Virinprew]

Also, the 5K iMac's display is 218PPI and you really have to get close to the screen to see pixels.

If anything, I'd rather have the lowest number of pixels needed to not see the pixels. This results in the best performance possible since the GPU is pushing less data per frame.

So you don't need iPhone XS and XS Max. Am I correct?

 

[Baymowe335]

Viewing distance matters. 4K 65" TV is only 67.78 PPI and looks fantastic when viewed at the appropriate distance. In the same manner you would watch an iPad Pro further away than you would an iPhone XR.

I want to see the XR in person. I have had a Sony Z5 Compact which is 4.6" 720p (319.26 PPI) and it was noticeably blurry compared to the 5.5" 1080p (400.53 PPI) Oneplus One I had. Both with LCDs.

You've essentially seen the XR screen if you have an iPhone 8 (not Plus)...except the iPhone XR will be better colors, more contrast, and probably brighter.

I don't think it will looks as good as the XS, but it doesn't have to and probably shouldn't.

 

[code-m]

maybe its just because i dont care about it to much but i upgraded from the iphone 6s to the iphone xs and i dont notice the difference

Why would you, if you did not notice the pixels on your RetinaDisplay why would you if there are more, tightly placed together.

 

[Baymowe335]

I am, because when I'm lying sideways in bed and holding the phone that's what's comfortable. Maybe 15 cm away?



See above. It's the only way that's comfortable. Also a big reason why I bought a plus phone, because 401 ppi is good enough for me but 326 ppi really isn't.

So you can't use the iPad Pro either? Or are you going to say you hold that farther away so it's fine?

 

[Alisstar]

I agree, Phil Schiller. I'll remember that on the next keynote when you're trying hype the next-generation iPhone screens.

 

[Baymowe335]

$749 is “affordable” ... sure Phil, whatever.

For the tech inside, it is...it's a bargain too.

Think about your smartphone. You take it wherever you go. It replaces your every day camera. It replaces your music player. Your alarm. Your web browser. You watch videos. You shop. You order things. You get support and software updates. You use it more than any device you own. You can use it for years. Is $749 really that expensive when it's such a useful device?

We pay $400 for blenders in America.

 

[redheeler]

At least with respect to the first point, Schiller believes this is a case of what's on paper not doing justice to reality. "I think the only way to judge a display is to look at it," he told me, adding that Apple calls these screens "retina displays" because your eye can't discern individual pixels unless you press your face up right against the glass. "If you can't see the pixels, at some point the numbers don't mean anything. They're fairly arbitrary." And when asked if the screen was to blame for the XR's staggered release, he simply said, "This is when it's ready."

This can't discern individual pixels argument is extremely pointless to be using like it's still 2010 and the Retina display is brand new tech, and certainly doesn't mean resolution or pixel density is now just an arbitrary number. 2x to 3x does increase the sharpness of any graphics and text optimized for it, as many of us could see when placing an iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus side-by-side four years ago.

Apple used to be well ahead of the competition with display quality on iPhones. While the iPhone Xs Max is arguably still one of the best, it's sad to see Phil make an outdated and irrelevant argument like this for the iPhone XR, as if he doesn't seem to care anymore.

 

[honglong1976]

Apple were going on quite a lot about retina, super retina, the more dots the better it is, now all of a sudden, it doesn't matter. Why not make the XS the same res as the XR then!

Nonsense.

I had I had a xiaomi redmi note twice. One with a 720P screen and another 1080P.

There is actually a big difference between them. Screen Size 5.5" for both.

 

[Velli]

I don't think Apple should try and go for the "more affordable" angle when it comes to a $749 phone...I mean it's technically true considering their flagship starts at $999, but still...it's $749.

When you create a product strategy, you’re thinking ahead. I believe it’s obvious that this phone is not designed to be cheap now. It’s designed to be a better trickle-down in one and two years. In two years, this will cost the same as an iPhone 8 Plus would otherwise have cost (in the same two years), perhaps even less. As it trickles down in price, it will be a better candidate to fight against Android competitors, than simply trickling down the actual high-end model. I think that will be the strategy going forward, next year XS will not trickle down, like the X didn’t. Instead there will be a new X-whatever, a new Xr, and current Xr trickles down a notch. Same the year after. It will make the cheaper offerings more compelling (if not cheaper).

In general, combine Apple’s latest strategy of not selling CPU’s more than two gens old, with the fact they are at least a year in front of competition, and over time buying last years model becomes an increasingly competitive strategy.
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Apple were going on quite a lot about retina, super retina, the more dots the better it is, now all of a sudden, it doesn't matter. Why not make the XS the same res as the XR then!

Nonsense.

I had I had a xiaomi redmi note twice. One with a 720P screen and another 1080P.

There is actually a big difference between them. Screen Size 5.5" for both.

Way to miss the point!

 

[Ankou_Sabat]

Yeah except the numbers that do matter are the $$$'s. Where is the savings returns to customers after offering the same display specs since the essentially the iPhone 4. At this point this display is nothing special and has to be an incredible savings by now on build. Just renaming it "Liquid Retina" didn't change that its the same display even most competitors are using.