Would A Retina Display On The iPad Make Sense? That Depends How You Define Retina Display


There has been a back and forth struggle between bloggers and rumors as more and more indicators point towards an iPad with a Retina Display. A Retina Display on the iPad would be amazing and set the tablet apart from its competitors but would require a massive engineering feat. Also, content doesn’t exist at such a high resolution.

Simply put, we need to define what a Retina Display is on the iPad.

The Retina Display, in its current form is a display that has a higher amount of pixels per inch that can’t be discerned by the human eye. Our eye’s limits is 300 PPI which the iPhone and iPod Touch beat by 23 pixels. A Retina Display on either of these iOS devices makes sense as the hardware can support the resolution (960 x 480) and context exists within this resolution.

The jump to the iPhone 4’s Retina Display resolution is a doubling of vertical and horizontal pixels, or quadruple the number of pixels across the 3.5″ display. Pixel doubling on the iPad to achieve a retina display means developing a 2048 by 1536 pixel display. To put that in perspective, I recommend reading John Gruber’s post Cold Water on the iPad 2 Retina Display Hype which further explains the Retina Display hype on the iPad and why it might not be happening anytime soon.


Apple Gazette Team
We are a team of writers passionate about entrepreneur lifestyle and innovation. We write about topics which you are sure to find useful. This includes everything from economics and finance topics, product and technology reviews, to in-depth how-to guides and much more.

2 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *