New iPhone's Display Provoked Hectic Discussions

In previous post we talked about new glass cover on iPhone 4. This time our attention was attracted by its new "Retina" display, which became a target of criticism for different industry watchers and rivals.

This Monday Steve Jobs claimed on his keynote that new iPhone’s display has a resolution higher than "the limit of the human retina", which he specified as 300 ppi for 10-12 inches distance between the phone and user's eyes. But display expert and DisplayMate Technologies president Dr. Raymond Soneira is ensured that the distinguishable resolution of the human retina is actually 477 ppi for 12 inches distance. That means the new iPhone's display may be retina display if only it was created to be held at 18 inches distance from the eye.

This opinion was cited by several news sources, including Wired, Fox News and Reuters, which caused different comments on the cituation.

Phil Plait, who is a Discover Magazine blogger, said Soneira's math is for those who have perfect eyesight, but average person is just unable to distinguish the iPhone's pixels at a distance of one foot. A non-profit think tank Digital Society noticed that on his keynote Steve Jobs showed images where iPhone 4’s resolution was nearly 815 ppi, while a separate advertisement of Apple shows 489 ppi. One of the spokespersons for Samsung also noted that even with a higher resolution "visibility difference is only 3 to 5 percent".

So now it becomes unclear whether new Apple display is just a raising stakes move in smartphone competition or a real and useful innovation for consumers.