Wanted: High Resolution iPad

I own the latest model of the iPod touch, which has the high-resolution 960 x 640 “retina” display at 326 pixels per inch, and I own the original iPad, which has a 1024 x 768 display at 132 pixels per inch. (The new iPad, released this week, has the same resolution as the original iPad).

I use the Kindle app on both devices. However, after reading from my iPod touch, which truly is so sharp that my eyes cannot distinguish the individual pixels, I find the display on the iPad to be relatively coarse or grainy.

It’s difficult to show the difference between these displays, but here’s an attempt. On each device, I opened the Kindle app, set the font size to the minimum, and took a screenshot of the same paragraph (from Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens). I transferred the images to my MacBook Pro, expanded the images to roughly the same size, and captured them using the Grab application.

Comparison of the two images reveals that text on the iPod touch is much sharper, with more pixels used to draw each character. Text on the iPad is coarsely drawn, with easily seen antialiasing required to make the characters look better. (Antialiasing is also used on the iPod touch, but it is much more subtle since it is not needed as much.)

Kindle App Smallest Text on iPod touch

Kindle App Smallest Text on iPad

Because my eyes tire easily if I use the smallest font in the Kindle app on my iPad, I usually set the font to the next size up. This means there are fewer words per page, and I have to turn the pages more frequently. Of course, the iPod touch is so tiny that it can’t display very many words per page, so it requires a lot of page turning.

Before the new iPad was released, there were many rumors that the new model would have a higher-resolution display. If Apple were able to double the resolution of the iPad display to 2048 x 1536, text and images on the iPad would be much sharper. I imagine that once display technology has advanced to the point that such displays can be manufactured, Apple and other tablet vendors will switch to high-resolution displays. I look forward to those days.

I have not been able to get a close look at the $139 WiFi-only Kindle sold by amazon.com. The Kindle has 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale, which is sharper than the iPad. I chose the iPad, however, as a general media consumption device, since I can also use it to watch television shows or movies and to view photos.