Comment by dahart

4 days ago

The term is ‘retina display’ not ‘retina’

> That’s most non-CRT (aquarium) displays. What’s different about high DPI (why we need display scaling now) is that they’re imperceptible even if you put your nose onto them

Neither of those claims is true.

Retina Display was 2x-3x higher PPI (and 4x-9x higher pixel area density) than the vast majority of displays at the time it was introduced, in 2010. The fact that many displays are today now as high DPI as Apple’s Retina display means that the competition caught up, that high DPI had a market and was temporarily a competitive advantage.

The rationale for Retina Display was, in fact, the DPI needed for pixels to be imperceptible at the typical viewing distance, not when touching your nose. It has been argued that the choice of 300DPI was not high enough at a distance of 12 inches to have pixels be imperceptible. That has been debated, and some people say it’s enough. But it was not argued that pixels should or will be imperceptible at a distance of less than 12 inches. And people with perfect vision can see pixels of a current Retina Display iPhone if held up to their nose.