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A prominent analyst on Wednesday challenged Apple's claims that Apple's new iPhone contains a so-called "retina display" with a display whose sensitivity outweighed the eye.
In his keynote address at the Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs noted that there was a point at which pixels blurred together into continuous curves. That point is about 300 ppi, he said, held at about between to twelve inches from one's eye. At that point, he said, the resolution of the display outweighed the ability of the eye to resolve the differences between the original pixels.
Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technolgies, disputed the claim.
"The resolution of the retina is in angular measure - it's 50 Cycles Per Degree," he wrote in an email. "A cycle is a line pair, which is two pixels, so the angular resolution of the eye is 0.6 arc minutes per pixel.
"So, if you hold an iPhone at the typical 12 inches from your eyes that works out to 477 pixels per inch," Soneira added. "At 8 inches it's 716 ppi. You have to hold it out 18 inches before it falls to 318 ppi.
"So the iPhone has significantly lower resolution than the retina," Soneira wrote. "It actually needs a resolution significantly higher than the retina in order to deliver an image that appears perfect to the retina."
Soneira said that the display in the iPhone 4 should prove to be comparable to the "outstanding" display of the Motorola Droid. He added that he was glad that Apple resisted the "emotional rush to OLEDs".
"It's a great display, most likely the best mobile display in production (and I can't wait to test it) but this is another example of spec exaggeration," Soneira concluded.
Apple could not be reached for comment.
In his keynote address at the Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs noted that there was a point at which pixels blurred together into continuous curves. That point is about 300 ppi, he said, held at about between to twelve inches from one's eye. At that point, he said, the resolution of the display outweighed the ability of the eye to resolve the differences between the original pixels.
Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technolgies, disputed the claim.
"The resolution of the retina is in angular measure - it's 50 Cycles Per Degree," he wrote in an email. "A cycle is a line pair, which is two pixels, so the angular resolution of the eye is 0.6 arc minutes per pixel.
"So, if you hold an iPhone at the typical 12 inches from your eyes that works out to 477 pixels per inch," Soneira added. "At 8 inches it's 716 ppi. You have to hold it out 18 inches before it falls to 318 ppi.
"So the iPhone has significantly lower resolution than the retina," Soneira wrote. "It actually needs a resolution significantly higher than the retina in order to deliver an image that appears perfect to the retina."
Soneira said that the display in the iPhone 4 should prove to be comparable to the "outstanding" display of the Motorola Droid. He added that he was glad that Apple resisted the "emotional rush to OLEDs".
"It's a great display, most likely the best mobile display in production (and I can't wait to test it) but this is another example of spec exaggeration," Soneira concluded.
Apple could not be reached for comment.
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