14 DAY TRIAL // iFixit it has been in touch with the people at MacRumors who earlier this month obtained a purported iPad 3 display. The rumor blog put it under the microscope to confirm it was Retina-grade, and now iFixit chimes in with its own analysis.
The famous repair firm reveals in a new blog entry that the Apple rumors site sent them “a special little something in the mail the other day – the same purported iPad 3 screen with which they confirmed the existence of a ‘Retina’ display!”
“Since they had no means of hooking up the LCD to an iPad 2, we investigated the issue a bit further and saw if we could get their LCD running on the current-gen iPad,” iFixit says. “So, does the ‘iPad 3’ LCD work in an iPad 2? No. And here’s the reason why,” reads the entry.
As MJ herself explains in the iFixit video, the LCD cable on the iPad 3 display is completely different compared to the one used for the iPad 2 screen. “Our efforts to plug it in – even partially, if possible – were unsuccessful,” says the repair shop.
“But that didn’t stop us, no siree… We took out our USB microscope and double-verified that this display was indeed a ‘Retina’ display, and also noted some other interesting discrepancies between the two displays,” says iFixit.
In the video they posted for all Apple fans eagerly anticipating the iPad 3 announcement, MJ elaborates on differences like the resolution, the retaining clips, and even the display’s weight. She also points out to several indicators that the hardware indeed belongs to an Apple iPad.
The enthusiastic MJ also does a great job to explain why 260 ppi (pixels per inch) make this display Retina-grade, despite the fact that the iPhone’s Retina display boasts 326 ppi. In a nutshell, it’s all about the viewing distance. And the resolution is said to be 2048x1536.
This, and more technical stuff from the cute female geek, in the video embedded below.
