Morris reports, “I spent about 45 minutes playing with Apple’s new iPhone 4. In a word: Wow. And I don’t throw that word around lightly. Here are a few of my first hands-on impressions.”
“Let’s start with the screen, which Apple has branded a ‘Retina Display.’ I can safely say it’s the best mobile phone display I’ve ever seen,” Morris reports. “The form factor of this phone is super thin and really solid. It makes my current iPhone 3GS look like it had one too many burritos. You won’t appreciate the solid stainless-steel frame until it’s in your hand. Everything about the build of this phone feels solid — even the stainless steel buttons.”
“The speed of the operating system is apparent in every app I launched — particularly in the new iMovie app which let’s users shoot, edit, and render full movies on the iPhone,” Morris reports. “In a normal world, editing video on a mobile phone would sound like a ridiculous feat of strength, but Apple just made it happen. And they made it happen without any of the sluggishness I’d expect. I couldn’t help thinking the company just turned everyone with an iPhone into an amateur movie producer.”
“Steve Jobs was asked last week if his WWDC Keynote would have a stylish answer to Google’s recent round of nice Android phones. He answered, ‘You won’t be disappointed,'” Morris reports. “He was right.”
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
@ bildad
> I wonder if Retina will make it to the iPad?
There would be no need to have the new iPhone’s 326 PPI (pixels per inch) on an iPad, because you probably don’t hold an iPad 10 to 12 inches from your eyes (like with an iPhone). That’s the distance where 300 PPI is supposed to have the effect of pixels becoming indistinguishable. Let’s say you hold an iPad 50% further, or 15 to 18 inches. Then about 200 PPI would have the same effect. The current iPad’s display is about 130 PPI.
There’s another point that is not being considered by folks who assume iPad will soon get a 326 PPI “retina display,” or even a 200 PPI display. Let’s go with 200 PPI. A 10-inch diagonal display that is 200 PPI would have a resolution of 1600×1200 pixels. That is substantially more than the current 1024×768 pixels. It’s actually almost 2.5 times more pixels that need get pushed around the screen. The iPad is all about compromises that balance efficiency with performance to get 10 hours of power on one charge; it’s not a regular computer that has an ultra-powerful CPU and graphics card, with a huge battery or power plug to the wall. So while 1600×1200 is certainly achievable, I think it will take a few generations before Apple attempts it in a device that needs to cost under $500 retail (with no huge iPhone-like subsidy from the wireless carrier).
Also, consider that Apple stayed with the same resolution on the iPhone for three generation before changing it with iPhone 4. A key reason was to keep the platform consistent. I think the iPad will probably keep the same display for at least two generation.