14 DAY TRIAL // Before the unveiling of the 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina display, rumors had gone about Sharp supplying the denser panels created with IGZO technology. According to the techies at iFixit, that’s not the case here.
Although IGZO (Indium gallium zinc oxide) helps create even better displays than the one found inside Apple’s new MacBook Pro, the yield rates are said to be unsatisfactory for Apple’s demand.
Moreover, they’re not cheap to produce either. Or, at least, not cheap enough to achieve the profit margins Apple has grown so accustomed to.
After tearing down the computer to see how it was assembled and using what parts, repair shop iFixit decided to tear down the notebook’s Retina display, individually.
They found two important things: 1 - the Retina display in Apple's new MacBook Pro is an engineering marvel, and; 2 - they discovered it was not made by Sharp, as previously rumored, but by the Korea-based LG.
“Markings on the inverter read LP154WT1; it's soldered to the rest of the LCD. This appears to be a display manufactured by LG Philips,” reads a tweet from iFixit.
The new MacBook Pro’s Retina display is the world’s highest resolution laptop screen with over 5 million pixels. That’s 3 million more than any HD television you can buy today.
The density of the dots is 220 pixels-per-inch (ppi) – high enough that the human eye cannot distinguish individual pixels on this screen from a normal viewing distance. Thanks to these advancements in display technology, text and graphics look sharper and more vivid than ever before.
LG’s Retina display uses IPS technology, which allows for a 178-degree-wide viewing angle. Because it doesn’t have any overlaying glass (to keep the Pro nice and thin), this new display has 75 percent less reflection and 29 percent higher contrast than the previous generation display.
“The MacBook Pro with Retina display pushes the limits of performance and portability like no other notebook,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With a gorgeous Retina display, all flash architecture and a radically thin and light design, the new MacBook Pro is the most advanced Mac we have ever built.”