The new iPad: Retina Display Analysis
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 19, 2012 5:49 PM ESTQuantifying Display Performance: Big Gamut Gains
Pixel density may have improved, but what about the rest of the display characteristics? We'll start with the usual suspects - brightness, black levels and contrast ratio:
Despite a tremendous increase in pixel count and density, the new iPad delivers roughly the same brightness and contrast ratio as its predecessor. White point remains unchanged as well at ~6700K.
At the introduction of the new iPad, Apple briefly mentioned a 44% increase in color saturation from the new panel. Although the old display definitely looked good, the new one does actually look better. My eyes aren't normally the best judge of gamut, but we have some tools to help quantify exactly what I was seeing:
Color gamut has definitely improved. While the iPad 2 and TF Prime both were able to represent ~40% of the Adobe RGB color gamut, the new iPad jumps by nearly 50% to representing 65% of the Adobe RGB gamut. More impressive are the gains you see if you look at the color gamut of the new panel compared to the sRGB space:
Here the panel is able to deliver nearly full coverage of the sRGB color gamut. Below is the CIE diagram for the new panel with an sRGB reference plotted on the same chart so you can visualize the data another way (the white triangle is the new iPad, the gray outer triangle is the sRGB reference):
Near perfect coverage. The new iPad's display is a huge step forward in both pixel density and being able to represent a wider color gamut. While it's still no where near the quality of high-end PC displays, this is real progress for tablets. The bar has been raised.
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Griswold - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
I hear theres a bargain sale of ropes. Now all you need is a closet to hang yourself in.Azsen - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
Should be macro lens.Solandri - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
For being the first (and only) review I've found which took pictures where you can actually see the pixels and do a real comparison. All the other pictures I've seen have been a pixellated iPad 2 screen vs. a perfect (pixel-less) iPad 3 screen. Useless for comparison.xytc - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
But it's not like Apple is making their own displays, they just bought them from Samsung and LG, and the same is with other components inside iPad and iPhone.Those that call themselves Apple fans are in fact fans of Samsung, LG and Foxconn because that's what Apple products are made from. hahahaha
Graag - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
And people who are fans of Frank Lloyd Wright are really fans of Bob Jones, his stone mason, since that's who actually made the houses.snuuggles - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
Who's a fan of that hack? Falling water literally almost fell into the water.Modern architects=FAIL
It's funny, it occurs to me that all the negative attributes people ascribe to Jobs fit perfectly on the starchitects such as Ghery and Koolhaas: arrogant a**holes that force thier artistic vision on a public so stupified by "new" they don't understand that "new" doesn't mean "better", or even "good."
mcnabney - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
Not a good comparison.A better example is that if we are talking about the latest airplanes, while the airline does have a lot of say in how the interior is designed, most of what the airplane does is designed by either Boeing or Airbus - and not Delta or United. So if you are impressed by the new technology, look at who designed the components themselves, not who gave designed the case to hold those components.
The only part Apple really had any role in engineering was the A5X, and only because they bought the ARM-licensed company that designs those chips.
Graag - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
No, that's a horrible comparison.Apple *designed* the iPad, just like Boeing or Airbus designed their planes.
The iPad is made of parts from hundreds of suppliers, just as airplanes are made from parts from 1000's of suppliers.
What you are doing is saying that we should give no credit to Boeing because Rolls-Royce actually builds the planes' engines. Or Alcoa produced the aluminum alloy.
Apple gets the credit because Apple designed the iPad and chose appropriate components from hundreds of suppliers. It's not at all like going to Boeing and choosing how many seats you want from the options Boeing offers. Not even close.
Spongebob31 - Monday, March 19, 2012 - link
Following that logic, fans of Samsung, LG and Foxconn love Asian companies compared to American companies. Because of the fact that Apple is an American company which gets its cheap labour from Asia that would mean that people like you are Asian?Or am I being racist? Maybe you're married to an Asian? Or maybe you're a hick who can't afford some of the premium products which Apple charges and so look to other companies to copy its designs and sell them at a cheaper rate albeit with less quality. Or maybe you simply hate Apple for no other reason than envy/jealousy?
I can take this train of thought about as far as you did and be just as genuine as you. Hahahaha
gorash - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
Wait, so you are actually happy that Apple overprice their products so they can be called "premium"? Oh... fanboys.