Microsoft: Surface LCD Screen Is Better Than iPad’s Retina Display

Microsoft’s Surface has always been considered a potential iPad killer, but now that the technical specs are finally available, is it really capable of challenging the tablet market leader?

The Redmond-based technology company says it is and points to the LCD screen available on the Surface. This is much easier to read than iPad’s Retina Display, the Microsoft Surface team said in an AMA session on reddit.

“With the ClearType Display technology we took a 3 pronged approach to maximize that perceived resolution and optimize for battery life, weight, and thickness. First prong, Microsoft has the best pixel rendering technology in the industry (cleartype 1.0 and 2.0)... these are exclusive and unique to Windows, it smooths text regardless of pixel count,” the Surface team wrote.

“Second, we designed a custom 10.6” high-contrast wide-angle screen LCD screen. Lastly we optically bonded the screen with the thinnest optical stack anywhere on the market… something which is more commonly done on phones we are doing on Surface. While this is not official, our current Cleartype measurements on the amount of light reflected off the screen is around 5.5%-6.2%, the new IPad has a measurement of 9.9% mirror reflections.”

To make sure that the Surface screen is indeed better than the one available on the iPad, Microsoft has even performed some tests to determine how easier it actually is to read text on a Surface in a consistently lit room.

The result? Microsoft’s device predictably impressed everyone thanks to its top-notch display.

“Doing a side by side with the new iPad in a consistently lit room, we have had many people see more detail on Surface RT than on the Ipad with more resolution,” the team explained.