The new iPad: Retina Display Analysis
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 19, 2012 5:49 PM ESTGoing Into the Pixel: Retina Display Under a Microscope
If we take a few (or an order of magnitude) more steps closer to the display and put it under the microscope we can get an even better appreciation for exactly what Samsung (and Apple's other display vendors) have done with the creation of this panel. Below are shots at 50x magnification of the display from the iPad 2, new iPad, ASUS TF Prime and iPhone 4S, organized from lowest to highest DPI:
Apple iPad 2, 1024 x 768, 9.7-inches
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, 1280 x 800, 10.1-inches
Apple iPad Retina Display (2012), 2048 x 1536, 9.7-inches
Apple iPhone 4S, 960 x 640, 3.5-inches
What you're looking at here are shots of the three subpixels for each pixel. Subpixel shapes will vary by panel type/manufacturer (hence the iPhone 4S vs. iPad subpixel structure), but the increase in density is tremendous.
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doobydoo - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
They are 'premium' because they have the longest battery life, highest resolution, best reliability ratings, best customer satisfaction ratings, and by far and away the fastest GPU (over 4x in some benchmarks) when compared to the very best of the rest.If you find a comparable tablet you can describe this one as overpriced. Oh... haters.
gorash - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
You can say the same thing about anything, Transformer Prime, Galaxy Tab, whatever.Transformer Prime... fastest CPU, longest battery with docks, Galaxy Tab 7.7... best screen.
doobydoo - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
You just illustrated the difference.Transformer Prime ..... 4x slower GPU. Not longest battery without being plugged in.
Galaxy Tab, 'best screen' ? Please. That's not a fact at all.
So out of the three examples you gave, for 2 tablets, 2 of them are wrong. That leaves precisely one point you were able to make about the iPad - that it doesn't have the fastest CPU. A point easily debunked by citing the fact that iOS is more heavily optimised and so you don't actually ever feel anything slower due to the CPU. Also iOS is GPU accelerated so the GPU does a lot of the work.
Compare that weak argument to the 5 items I listed, and I could have gone on. You're fighting a losing battle if you're really trying to claim there's a better tablet out there right now.
gorash - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
4x is a stretch, it's more like 2-3x at best. And at native resolution, there's no difference between iPad 3 and iPad 2. And it has 4x the slower CPU than Tegra 3.Please, it has an OLED screen which means it wins by default.
Again with the "iOS is heavily optimized, blah blah blah" myth. It just goes to show that you're yet another blind Apple fanboy.
doobydoo - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
iOS is heavily optimised. Even Google admits that is a large advantage iOS has over Android, which necessarily can never be as tightly coupled to the hardware. The benchmarks for example the GL fill test show over 4x faster in some cases. The iPad also has the capability to render at the lower resolution of the iPad 2 - giving it the choice of either 4x better than Android in FPS, or 4x Android in quality of that FPS. Therefore there clearly is a difference, and to say there isn't is to ignore the quality of the resolution, clearly ridiculous. Your claim that the CPU is 4x slower is simply nonsense, not evidenced by any benchmark anywhere. Just a flat out lie.Comments like 'OLED screen wins by default' aren't logical discussions, particularly when comparing screens with just over 25% of the resolution of the new iPad.
gorash - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
Btw, the latest review on Engadget shows that Galaxy Tab 7.7 has the best battery life by far - by 12 hours :).I don't care what you say, it may be a preference but it is a fact that OLEDs have better response time, color reproduction rate and contrasts than LCDs. FACT.
doobydoo - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
The Galaxy Tab 7.7 doesn't have better battery life 'by' 12 hours, it has a 2 hour better battery life 'OF' 12 hours. It is a lower powered, lower sized tablet (7.7 inch screen vs 9.7) and therefore isn't really directly comparable to the Galaxy Tab or the iPad.I will concede the battery life is good though, even taking into account the fact it is a smaller, slower, lower resolution device.
The problem with the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is mainly the fact it stutters with the software it runs.
gorash - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
4x slower CPU is an exaggeration/sarcasm, duh, just like your exaggerated claim of 4x faster GPU.doobydoo - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - link
I'm glad you admit, essentially, that your claim is wrong, and no benchmarks show the CPU being 4x faster.My claim, on the other hand, can be evidenced by some benchmarks:
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/Tegra3_v_A5X_GL...
gorash - Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - link
Ever notice how you tend to justify everything for Apple? It has a slow CPU... but it's okay, because iOS is so heavily optimized that it doesn't need a faster CPU! Yeah, right. Even if it was, it doesn't help to have a faster CPU.