Was the iPad 3′s Retina display just confirmed?

The iPad 3 is almost certainly going to have a Retina display. We could have said that regardless of any reports today, but now it’s looking like the drastically-upgraded display is all but confirmed (though it won’t be 100% confirmed until Tim Cook takes the stage next month).

Several Asian supply chain sources have leaked display components that were allegedly for the iPad 3. These displays can’t be powered on, though, so it was difficult to confirm the resolution. This time, though, MacRumors was able to put one of the displays under a microscope to get a better view of the hardware. The result? It appears to have exactly double the horizontal and vertical resolution of the iPad 2, as expected.

As you can see in the image below, a 2×2 pixel segment of the iPad 2 display was isolated. The same size on the iPad 3 display showed a 4×4 pixel area. If the display compononent is legit, then this appears to confirm that the iPad 3 will have a resolution of 2048×1536 — four times that of the iPad 2:

The phrase Retina display, of course, is a marketing term that was coined by Steve Jobs. In his 2010 keynote for the iPhone 4, he said that a display that’s above (roughly) 300 pixels per inch crosses a threshold from which the human eye can’t distinguish individual pixels. This iPad 3 display wouldn’t hit that supposed 300ppi mark, but Apple has an easy way around this: a tablet is typically held farther away than a smartphone, so Retina it is.

Though Apple hasn’t made any official announcements yet, we can expect to see an iPad 3 event on or around March 7, with the tablet’s release falling a week or so later (March 16?). In addition to the upgraded display, it is expected to have an A6 (quad-core?) chip, with a larger battery, (possibly) upgraded cameras, and an external appearance that is almost identical to the iPad 2.

More at Macrumors

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/has-the-ipad-3-retina-display-just-been-confirmed-20120217/

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