back to article Taiwan parts firms point to iPad 2 res rise

Confirmation - kind of - for the iPad 2's screen resolution increase has come from Taiwan's component maker community. Sources from within that group have indicated that Apple's next-gen tablet will indeed sport a resolution of 2048 x 1536 - four times as many pixels in the same area as the current iPad's screen delivers. The …

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  1. whats the point of kenny lynch?
    Stop

    let's get this straight.....

    a speculating mole possibly has some information about a higher res screen but you are "cautiously optimistic. The evidence for such a resolution hike is at best circumstantial"

    hmm..

    make a sentence out of the following words*

    "we have no idea about the next ipad but like to put its name in articles because its the only product that people are actually interested in, and mentioning apple always causes a bit of a ruck"

    *see, i've done it for you.

  2. Annihilator
    Paris Hilton

    Twice as magical..

    Although it's lovely that we're fixating on something as mundane as resolution, I don't know many people that were holding back from buying one, or are desparately frustrated with their current one, simply because the resolution is too low...

    Be interested to see what the "one more thing" will be. Or if that phrase will even be used without (presumably) Steve J at the podium..

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Title

    I'm the first to agree that the retina display on the iPhone is really really good, but not sure you need something of that DPI on a tablet. I think you do need at least HD definition (1920x1080), but not sure going above that is worth the extra cost and power consumption (both for the LCD itself plus the more powerful GPU required to drive that sort of resolution at the required framerate). Still, probably wont stop it selling like hot cakes!

  4. Jedibeeftrix

    hmmmm

    i'm still betting on 1920x1280.

    it would bring the ipad into harmony with the iphone, and provide a resolution more suitable for its media roots to boot.

    1. Ammaross Danan
      Boffin

      Why they think it's 2048x1536

      The sad thing is, just why they assume the resolution will be 2048x1536:

      File name conventions for images for the new iPad2 vs the original iPad ask that the iPad2 images have an X2 in the filename so the iOS can automatically display the proper images for the new device (likely due to a resolution bump). Now, X2 could be gen2, but very likely could be "twice as big" x2 multiplier... Guess which one makes the best news story? Even if it is x2, the 2048x1536 guessed resolution is taking the current 1024x768 and multiplying BOTH dimensions: 1024x2 = 2048, and 768x2 = 1536 and boom: x4 screen. LIKELY what they're using the x2 for (if it is indeed indicating a multiplier) is a rounded PIXEL count. Current iPad displays are 786k pixels, so 2x786k = 1.57MP. Granted, reversing that down to a 1920 screen leaves only 819 for the x9 side instead of 1080, this discrepancy is likely just because it's easier to say x2 than x2.63671875.

      'Nuf said.

      1. GrahamS

        Yes it is a guess but...

        ..you're missing the fact that the same "@2x" naming convention was used for the iPhone 4 images, which *did* turn out to be twice the resolution of its predecessor: 960x640 (326 ppi ) versus 320x480 (163 ppi).

        Also doubling the resolution makes a lot of sense when it comes to existing apps as they can be upscaled by an integer amount. Which again is what happened with the iPhone 4.

        Remember 2048x1536 would still only be around 260ppi, so there is no doubt that they can make a display that dense. Whether they can provide enough horsepower to shift that number of pixels around without killing the battery is a different matter.

  5. GrahamS
    Jobs Halo

    2048 x 1536? I'm sold!

    The resolution of the current iPad is one of the things that puts me off buying it.

    It looks like blocky crap compared to silky smooth 326ppi display on an iPhone 4.

    What's the point of an "electronic magazine" if the text and photos are blockier than a paper magazine?

    If they can up it to 2048x1536 (without killing CPU, RAM, battery life or form factor) then I'll definitely be taking another look.

    1. Abstract8

      ... So it will come with more RAM?

      and likely more bandwidth use.

      There's a lot you can stretch without quality loss, but not bitmapped images, etc.

      I just hope iOS 5(?) will let you download "updates" and not just whole replacements for the apps. The GPS apps are over 1Gb and you have to download the whole danged thing if they release ver 1.x+

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What they don't tell you is....

    The new ipad is bigger than A3 size, and comes with a free slave to carry it.

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