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Why do you want a Retina Display?

T

TheyCallMeSaint

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 17, 2010
172
0
Ok, so without a doubt the most sought after feature of the new iPad is the "Retina Display" -- to the point of some people claiming not to upgrade until it happens.

Yet, the display on the current iPad is just fine! No, I daresay more than fine! The current iPad's pixel-per-inch is a whopping 132 -- thats just about equivalent to the new MacBook Air 11" with the sharp resolution. It's better than every MacBook and MBP. Better than every iMac. Better or similar to the best monitors for sale today.

So I pose the question: why would you have Apple expends hundreds of dollars in cost to making a super-display, when the current one is just fine and instead you could have other features such as low price, better battery, better performance, etc?
 
TheyCallMeSaint said:
Ok, so without a doubt the most sought after feature of the new iPad is the "Retina Display" -- to the point of some people claiming not to upgrade until it happens.

Yet, the display on the current iPad is just fine! No, I daresay more than fine! The current iPad's pixel-per-inch is a whopping 132 -- thats just about equivalent to the new MacBook Air 11" with the sharp resolution. It's better than every MacBook and MBP. Better than every iMac. Better or similar to the best monitors for sale today.

So I pose the question: why would you have Apple expends hundreds of dollars in cost to making a super-display, when the current one is just fine and instead you could have other features such as low price, better battery, better performance, etc?
Click to expand...

The old iPhones were 160pi, which is greater than the Air you mentioned. Would you rather Apple not have released the Retina Display on the iPhone4?
 
darngooddesign said:
The old iPhones were 160pi, which is greater than the Air you mentioned. Would you rather Apple not have released the Retina Display on the iPhone4?
Click to expand...

Two thoughts:

1) I can see it on a phone because you hold it much closer to your face and because even an upgraded display wouldn't cost that much

2) It's not that wouldn't want Apple to do it, it's just that I'd rather have them expend their resources elsewhere considering that the display is already great. Nobody is asking for Retina MacBooks for example.
 
TheyCallMeSaint said:
Two thoughts:

1) I can see it on a phone because you hold it much closer to your face and because even an upgraded display wouldn't cost that much

2) It's not that wouldn't want Apple to do it, it's just that I'd rather have them expend their resources elsewhere considering that the display is already great. Nobody is asking for Retina MacBooks for example.
Click to expand...

What people want is a higher res screen so it appears to be retina and the greater viewing distance. Although something like 200ppi would suffice, the only way to not be a nightmare for devs is by doubling the resolution with nets a significantly higher res display.
 
I want a retina display because I have an iPhone 4. And it looks amazing.

I think super-hi-res displays are the next "big thing" which all the smartphone/tablet manufacturers are going to jump upon.
 
The primary reason would be text clarity, particularly as it doesn't have LCD font smoothing.
 
How many millions has Apple dumped into a display manufacturing company ?
They do their CPU/GPU in house.

A 300 dpi or so iPad display? (yea yea, the distance factor).

I really don't know what to expect for iPad2. But they are position to send the would be competitors back to the drawing board.


darngooddesign said:
What people want is a higher res screen so it appears to be retina and the greater viewing distance. Although something like 200ppi would suffice, the only way to not be a nightmare for devs is by doubling the resolution with nets a significantly higher res display.
Click to expand...

How does Android scale it's apps ? I have heard that it does a nice job scaling phone apps on the Tab. Can iOS be tweaked to do a better job of scaling?
 
I enjoy the iPad, but I have no desire for a higher resolution display. It seems that the items Apple focuses on are so random. Areas that give them bragging rights, and jack up the Apple Tax.

Why not play catch up after YEARS of limiting the MBP with a pathetic low-res display. Then insulting anyone with basic knowledge by conning some people into believing the 2010 15" MBP actually has a hi-res display as an option, just because Apple says it does. It's laughable. The reality is the "hi-res" is nothing more than medium res. I know I have one. Next to my true hi-res full HD 15" ThinkPad, the MBP display is grainy and off colored. That's not a complaint just a fact. At least it's better than my 2009 MBP was.

Poor Apple they've fabricated stories & lied for so long, they believe their own BS.
 
Why do people want a Retina Display? They want it because they can. People's capacity for wanting stuff is limitless, especially when those people aren't responsible for actually inventing the thing, or making it, or selling it.

Demanding things without considering the implications, consequences, or what is at stake is the easiest thing in the world - why, even little babies know how to do it.
 
Last edited:
It's not a selling point for me. Don't get me wrong, increased resolution is always a good thing. But if that was the lone feature that Apple decided to roll into the iPad 2, I wouldn't upgrade.

I'm pleased by the iPads screen as-is.
 
iPad screen is lovely as-is.

Can't imagine it can be any more sharper/clearer than it already is.

Definitely not a selling point for me in upgrading as I am more than satisfied with the OG iPad.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F5153d Safari/6533.18.5)

Personally, I like the iPad screen as it is, but I certainly wouldn't complain too loudly if a higher resolution screen appears in a future iPad.
However, cameras and a higher res screen wouldn't be enough for me to upgrade from my first gen iPad, whereas a gig of ram and a dual core processor might: everyone has their own priorities, I guess
 
While the lack of a retina display alone would not deter me from buying an iPad 2, there would have to be more than the addition of cameras to get me excited about upgrading. There would have to be some "killer" feature to make me upgrade since the iPad 1 is still doing quite well in our household.

A retina display would be a "killer" feature for me because it would be so much easier to read text. I mean, when the iPhone 4 came out, it was amazing how much nicer it was to view web pages. The improvement on the iPad would be extraordinary, especially for web browsing and e-book reading. While the current iPad's screen is not too shabby, you can certainly see the pixels and the lack of text clarity in some situations.

So why not ask for a Retina display if it can be done? I would personally pay a premium for an iPad with this kind of display. I think it's a good idea if Apple diversified their product line by offering more than one version of the iPad, not including WIFI vs 3G diversification.
 
I don't think you need Retina Display for the iPad since you hold it farther away than how you hold the iPhone, the chart below is to illustrate how far away you need to be to notice individual pixels
 

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The people who want a retina display are most likely people who bought the iPhone 4, saw how amazing the display is, and now want that on the iPad.
 
Benjy91 said:
The people who want a retina display are most likely people who bought the iPhone 4, saw how amazing the display is, and now want that on the iPad.
Click to expand...

This. The iPad screen looks horrible after looking at an iPhone 4 for more then a few minutes.
 
peterja said:
The primary reason would be text clarity, particularly as it doesn't have LCD font smoothing.
Click to expand...

^This!

Its not that the display isn't beautiful, but text/fonts could really be improved. Without even holding the ipad close its very easy to see pixels and choppiness in text.
 
Don't get me wrong,RD is nice but have you seen the comments that say that they wouldn't upgrade if the next iPad didn't have it? Retina Display is nice but it's not "OMG IT'S THE BEST THING EVER! THE NEW IPAD MUST HAVE IT."
I also hate seeing all these high res apps and not high res apps mixed up on my iP4.
It ruins the look of my home screen.
 
NeoMayhem said:
This. The iPad screen looks horrible after looking at an iPhone 4 for more then a few minutes.
Click to expand...

Looks "horrible", eh?

...then so does your computer's screen, and your TV's screen, and every other display you've ever owned or looked at, ever. It must drive you mad and is totally, utterly unfair! Peace be with you and may God have mercy on your soul. :)
 
gatearray said:
Looks "horrible", eh?

...then so does your computer's screen, and your TV's screen, and every other display you've ever owned or looked at, ever. It must drive you mad and is totally, utterly unfair! Peace be with you and may God have mercy on your soul. :)
Click to expand...

Viewing distance is everything. It's why 1080p looks fine on a 60" HDTV as long as its hanging on the wall across the room. 1080p on a 60" is horrible DPI, but you don't sit close to it. Something that you hold 1-2 feet from you face when reading is different from a computer display at arm's length.
 
TheyCallMeSaint said:
Ok, so without a doubt the most sought after feature of the new iPad is the "Retina Display" -- to the point of some people claiming not to upgrade until it happens.

Yet, the display on the current iPad is just fine! No, I daresay more than fine! The current iPad's pixel-per-inch is a whopping 132 -- thats just about equivalent to the new MacBook Air 11" with the sharp resolution. It's better than every MacBook and MBP. Better than every iMac. Better or similar to the best monitors for sale today.

So I pose the question: why would you have Apple expends hundreds of dollars in cost to making a super-display, when the current one is just fine and instead you could have other features such as low price, better battery, better performance, etc?
Click to expand...

I'm a graduate student and so I can't afford to buy an iPad just to surf the web and play angry birds. I need it to actually perform a function for me that will improve the quality of my life and make me more productive or make something easier/more convenient. If I can take the 400 lb stack of scientific papers I have on my desk and read the PDF files on an iPad instead of paper, that would be a huge benefit. I could bring them ALL everywhere with me instead of picking one or two and later finding out they weren't what I was looking for. I have a 13" macbook pro but the screen isn't quite good enough to read papers on all day. I prefer to have a copy in front of me that I can interact with, highlight, make notes on, etc... With a good PDF reader I can do that on the iPad 1, but I want it to be a big improvement and a retina display would make doing a lot of reading much easier on my eyes and more enjoyable.

Also if I want to start reading books on it, the iPad 1 won't cut it. The shiny and reflective screen on the iPad 1 makes it not worth it for me, but if it had a shiny reflective screen AND a retina display, I could live with it (the positives would outweigh the negatives at least).
 
I want a usable RDP machine, and 1024x768 is the absolute bare minimum to be able to get anything done - and even that is a pain.
 
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