iPhone 4's retina display claim put under the math microscope
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 10th 2010 4:01PM
posted June 10th 2010 4:01PM
But not so fast, says Phil Plait from Discover, whose résumé includes calibrating a camera on board the Hubble space telescope. He's done the math too and finds that the 477 number applies only to people with perfect vision. For the vast majority of us, Steve's claim stands up to scrutiny; even folks with 20/20 eyesight wouldn't be able to tell where one pixel ends and another begins. So it turns out Apple can do its math, even if its marketing isn't true for every single humanoid on the planet.
Could everyone please stop the grumbling and realize what an achievement this is? By putting this on a handheld device, it will have the psychological effect of increasing the expectations of consumers which will eventually lead to ubiquitous adoption of this new hi-res standard across the board. The people who say that 150 ppi or 250 ppi are "just fine" are the same people who said that a really big candle is just as good as electricity. This will have immense application in military warfare as soldiers will now be able to have sharper images of enemies on their screen, decreasing casualties as well as increasing accuracy. Additionally, to reply to one of Grumble's remarks, I would much rather have a surgeon with a 326 PPI screen slicing into my brain than a 150 ppi. Imagine what new things we will be able to operate on with this new technologies and the technologies that come subsequent. Apple is moving the market and setting a standard that will confer benefits to many different industries.
Its clear this phone is not for Geeks they all wear glasses and thus don't need 300+ppi so its all about crappy android ppi for them.
Geeks and nerds are not welcome I see.
so what you're all saying is, you can tell this is fake from the pixels?
It's correct calculation. To test it against real perception I also made a small test pattern (http://rethinkit.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/retina-display-test/). I did not have perfect vision but the bars are still noticeable at normal viewing distances. However usage of color shades should solve the problem.
The fact that Apple even brought up the term "PPI" in their presentation means that that's all we're going to be seeing in the coming months as new handsets are rolled out. They've started a resolution war.
blah blah blah APPLE SUX blah blah blah YOU FANBOI blah blah blah AT&T COVERAGE blah blah blah BUY ANYTHING THEY TELL YOU TO blah blah blah KING JOBS blah blah blah APPLE TAX blah blah blah 5 PERCENT MARKET SHARE blah blah blah DROID blah blah blah OPEN SYSTEM blah blah blah VERIZON blah blah blah SHEEP blah blah blah...
there goes another blow for Jobs!! the guy who prepared the presentation is probably fired by now i guess...
I just find it funny that the only reason the resolution is what it is on the new iPhone is for scaling reasons, and yet he hypes it like this. I think the resolution choice was the best, since you can just use pixel doubling (4 pixels to represent the 1 on the old phones). But instead of just saying that, he had to hype the retina display thing. Its all marketing like it has been said before.
If the resolution ended up being 800x480 (hypothetically if the old one was 400x240), he would have said the same thing or something similar. Either way, I know I can't see the pixels on my phone and i'm good with that. I'm glad the iPhone users will have a better display than the old ones, but nit picking over marketing terms is getting kind of old. Apple will always market their stuff as the best. Its in their best interest to do so, after all.
Whats a pixel?.... Sorry, just don't get the point of the argument. I could care less about how many pixels there are in a 3-5 inch screen. If I am going to take the time to watch/look at something I want to see, I am doing it on my tv or computer. Can't stand looking at small a** displays...