14 DAY TRIAL // In a tablet shoot-out carried out by the screen technology experts at DisplayMate, Apple’s Retina iPad mini came in at a distant third place behind devices from Amazon and Google.
Calling Apple’s reliance on IGZO screen technology “bad planning,” DisplayMate reveals that the Cupertino giant actually uses combinations of different parts – essentially making different versions of the same tablet – to fight supply constraints.
An easier approach would have been to employ Low Temperature Poly Silicon (LTPS), which is used in all of the iPhones and in all of Samsung OLEDs, “so it’s available in large quantities,” DisplayMate estimates.
However, this isn’t the reason behind Apple’s low score. The main problem lies with the lack of improvement in color gamut, according to the firm.
DisplayMate builds its case explaining that “The first generation iPad mini was disappointing because not only did it have a low resolution low PPI display, but its small 62 percent Color Gamut was the same as the older iPad 2, instead of the 100 percent Color Gamut on the iPad 3 and iPad 4 (and the new iPad Air).”
“The new iPad mini with Retina Display has a high resolution high PPI display like the other two Mini Tablets that we test here. But shockingly, it still has the same small 63 percent Color Gamut as the original iPad mini and even older iPad 2,” it reveals.
“As a result, the iPad mini with Retina Display comes in with a distant 3rd place finish behind the innovative displays on the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and new Nexus 7. More on these issues below,” DisplayMate concludes.
The full post is worth a read if you’re into geeky stuff like what display technologies are just around the corner, including a few tidbits on Quantum Dots, a technology that’s actually based on Quantum Physics.