Report: iPad 3 to Have 2048×1536 Resolution Display

Long before Apple launched its iPad 2, it’s been rumored that the company has been working with certain manufacturers to make sure a super high-resolution display finds its way into a future iPad. According to sources close to CNET, such a display will be making its way into the iPad 3, despite its low yields.

The current iPad’s resolution of 1024×768 is by all accounts suitable for a tablet, but with Apple’s goal of giving as many of its devices a “Retina Display” as possible, small devices seem like the easiest target to tackle. The reason for a retina display is simple. Cramming as large a resolution into a small screen as possible will help us reach the top theoretical limit of how much information a human eye can capture when looking at it from a foot away. I guess if there’s any company to go to such lengths, it’d be Apple.

The problem with such displays is that they are difficult to manufacture thanks to their small size. To give an idea of just how high of a PPI (pixel-per-inch) count this would be, most 1080p (1920×1080) notebooks are equipped with 15-inch screens or higher, whereas the iPad features one just under 10-inches and is looking to have an even better resolution of 2048×1536. It’s almost mind-boggling, isn’t it?

There are concerns for such a design from consumers, though, such as what sort of battery-life hit a tablet powering four times the number of pixels is going to result in. After all, if the GPU needs to work theoretically four times as hard, it’s bound to affect battery-life in some way. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before we find that out, because such a crazy resolution on a small display is kind of drool-worthy, even if it is a little overkill.