iPhone 4 Retina Display

One of the big features of the Apple iPhone 4 is the new display that Apple [AAPL] calls the “Retina Display”. Since the screen plays a huge part in how you interact with the iPhone 4, it makes sense that Apple has opted for the highest resolution screen made to date on a smartphone.

The iPhone 4 screen manages to quadruple the number of pixels when compared to the iPhone 3GS and successfully packs in 960 x 640. Having 640 pixels across the 3.5 inch diagonal screen allows for the ppi (pixels per inch) to reach 326. Apple say that the human eye can only distinguish around 300 ppi which is why they give it the name of the Retina Display.

What the retina display does is allows graphics and text to look smooth at any size with no visible pixelation. It’s quite difficult to demonstrate the difference without actually holding an iPhone 4 in your hand along side an iPhone 3GS or other smart phone, but the picture above (larger below and even larger if you click on it) I think gives you a good idea of what is in store on the new iPhone 4.

The image captured shows the iPhone 4 on the left vs the iPhone 3GS on the right. On the 3GS screen you can visibly see the pixels and slight jagged edges around objects, whereas on the iPhone 4 retina display, you just see smooth lines. Remember to click to make larger and once loaded you might need to click again to blow it up to full size.

The video below explains in a little more detail how Apple achieve the results of the retina display.

By developing pixels a mere 78 micrometers wide, Apple engineers were able to pack four times the number of pixels into the same 3.5-inch (diagonal) screen found on earlier iPhone models. The resulting pixel density of iPhone 4 ” 326 pixels per inch ” makes text and graphics look smooth and continuous at any size.

Image Credit

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