“It’s easy to say the iPad mini should have a Retina display, but unfortunately for Apple and for us, it’s not so easy to engineer,” Rene Ritchie reports for iMore. “It comes at a cost.”
“Apple achieves Retina display while maintaining software compatibility by pixel doubling both horizontal and vertical resolution. 1 pixel at standard density becomes divided into 4 pixels at Retina density,” Ritchie reports. “It comes down to technology and price. The goal of the iPad mini was thinness and lightness; to give you everything the full-sized iPad has but in a more concentrated form. When the full-sized iPad went Retina, it actually got slightly thicker and heavier. Apple couldn’t have an iPad mini that was that thin, light, and cheap, with 10 hours of battery life, and a Retina display. They had to choose 2 of the 3, and they chose form factor and battery.”
Ritchie reports, “Apple might have been able to put a Retina display in the iPad mini, but it would required it to be as thick and almost as heavy, and cost almost as much, as the iPad 4. That’s not the device Apple wanted to make, and likely not the device most of us would want to buy. So Apple compromised on screen density in order to deliver a thinner, lighter, cheaper iPad mini today. When technology and costs allow for a thin, light, cheap iPad mini with a Retina display and the same great battery life, we’ll get one.”
Much more, including photos and screenshots, in the full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
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