Here at Cult of Mac, I’ve posted time and time again why I don’t think the iPad 2 will have a Retina Display, even though Apple definitely wants to give it one. It’s all about economic feasibility, and the bottom line is that an iPad packing nearly the same amount of pixels as a 27-inch iMac isn’t going to come in at a sub-$500 or even sub-$600 price range.
It appears that Daring Fireball’s John Gruber agrees. His sources, which are usually impeccable, tell him that the iPad 2 simply does not have a Retina Display, and will still run at a 1024 x 768 resolution.
I asked around, and according to my sources, it is too good to be true: the iPad 2 does not have a retina display. I believe the iPad 2’s display will remain at 1024 × 768. Its display may be improved in other ways — brighter, better power consumption, thinner, perhaps. Maybe it uses the new manufacturing technique Apple introduced with the iPhone 4 display, which brings the LCD closer to the surface of the touchscreen glass — making it look more like pixels on glass rather than pixels under glass. But my sources are pretty sure that it’s not 2048 × 1536 or any other “super high resolution”.
I don’t expect this to put the Retina Display iPad 2 rumor to rest, but seriously, it’s just not going to happen this generation, people. However, with Apple having just invested $3.7 Billion in new technology strongly rumored to be Retina Display tech, there’s a very good chance we could see a Retina Display in the iPad 3.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
