With the iPhone 4, Apple started an all new race for display resolutions. More than half a year after it was introduced, the Retina display still has little competition. But its not about the iPhone now, it’s the time of the year when all eyes are on the iPad 2. There has been debate earlier on the kind of display the iPad 2 would sport and some have pointed our that doing a 326PPI Retina display on the iPad isn’t possible (given even most of the 13? or 15? notebooks don’t sport that kind of resolution).
Clues from iBooks are what have raised the speculations this time. Apparently iBooks has a few graphics that have a resolution that’s 4x the current iPad size of 768×400 (i.e. those graphics are now 1536×800). Whats interesting is the fact that these graphics are from Apple itself (marked with @2x in the naming scheme). This includes “bookmark-ribbon-iPad@2x.png” and the background “Wood Tile@2x.png”. That simply indicates a 4x pixel size on the iPad 2, just as we saw in the iPhone upgrade next year.
Now 2048×1536, isn’t Retina density (on a 9.7? screen), but its 4x the existing iPad resolution of 1024×768. That’s what the iPhone 4 did over the 3GS, right? While a 2048×1536 looks way above the competition, we won’t be surprised if this turns up at the iPad 2 with a successor to the A4 chip, churning out 1080p videos like ‘running water’
Note: Others have noted and even we feel the same. Since Retina display is defined by the distance at which you hold the screen from your eyes. Considering that the iPad would be held further away from the user, a lower PPI (pixels per inch) would also qualify as Retina Display. You may also consider the fact that it’s a term coined by Apple itself!
