What the cynic in me finds interesting in Retina displays is how people will tend to hit their data caps more quickly on their mobile plan merely because they are downloading more pixels.
The Retina War is upon us.
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Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#12I think that Retina resolution displays will dominate the field in much less time than ten years: Since every mobile device maker has to match Apple I'd bet that by next year every new phone and tablet will feature a higher resolution screen. maybe that won't be 256, but maybe it will be at least 150. Then you can bet that in at least two years you'll see the same thing happen on laptops — and desktops will have to f…
I agree... I think many of us have been saying that for years, too:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/06/where-are-the-high-...
Despite the fact that many people primarily associate "Retina" with the iPhone (because that is where it was introduced first), I think this is the area in which it has actually had the least impact. Other phones had high DPIs before the iPhone 4, and the difference between the best Android displays and the iPhone 4 display was not overly dramatic.
OTOH, pushing laptops and tablets out of low-DPI land is a truly remarkable achievement. Other platforms are much farther behind in this area, IMO, and at least on laptops have a much longer path to catching up.
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#13I enjoy the high pixel density displays on small devices like iPhone 4. However the iPad 3's display doesn't really interest me. I just don't hold the device that close to my eyes.
Snappy, responsive UIs are the most important thing to me. I'll trade the animations, rounded-corners, gradients, drop shadows and bouncy effects for a more craigslist-like UI. Something that's simple, basic and functional.
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#14The article raises the specter of a "1x-tax", along the lines of the "IE7 tax". The difference, of course, is that it's easy and free for people to upgrade their browsers, whereas upgrading the screen is not. As inconvenient as it is for the designers, it would be incredibly bad PR to say, in essence, "Only rich computer users should be using our site".
That should really not be a problem. Websites and apps can detect and load appropriate images for 2x or 1x displays. Same for apps. You design for 2x, and downsample for 1x.
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#15"but it won’t be long before Retina Cinema Displays replace their outdated siblings" I was honestly surprised with each retina release by Apple starting with the IPhone4. After the initial “aww” of it had passed, it was easier to wrap your head around its production due to its relatively small screen. Now we have 15” macbook pro’s with retina. Apple released a professional production machine for its retina ecosystem…
> Does the average kitchen need retina imacs?
Does the average kitchen need a 21" screen, 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive? (That's the base iMac.)
Does the average garage need a 4x4 SUV with cruise control, climate control, 6-disc CD, sat nav, heated seats, flip down DVD screens, etc. etc. ?
Of course not.
The developed world stopped caring long ago about what average people "need", and has long since focused on what people "want". Or at least what advertising can convince us we "want", before we even know we do.
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#16Just to clarify, Retina is an Apple brand for a screen with a significantly increased resolution and high pixel density.
Its definitely a brand name, so lets not confuse that. Maybe just refer to the actual pixels per inch or even easier, the screen size/type and resolution. MacBook Pro 2012: 2880×1800
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#17Does anyone else find the 1x and 2x conventions confusing? I never realized it till I got a bit confused reading the article.
Also: I'm a bit surprised at the reverence Dustin Curtis is given for the pixel fitting article.
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#18Does anyone else find the 1x and 2x conventions confusing? I never realized it till I got a bit confused reading the article. Also: I'm a bit surprised at the reverence Dustin Curtis is given for the pixel fitting article.
Its not just confusing, its misleading. The marketing copy is being confused for technical terminology.
At 2880 pixels wide, the new MacBook Pro resolution is about 1.5 times as many pixels across the screen as a typical high resolution display at 1900 pixels.
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#19Ironically... when I visited on the link on my iPhone, the text appeared pixel doubled. If I go back, it appears correct. No idea why. :)
Re: The Retina War is upon us.
#20What the cynic in me finds interesting in Retina displays is how people will tend to hit their data caps more quickly on their mobile plan merely because they are downloading more pixels.
Would be nice if only the supported artwork assets were downloaded to a particular device. This could help w/ the data caps issue. However there are corner cases like universal iOS apps.