Samsung’s new 2560×1600 screen: Retina for iPad 3?

By Andrew Couts Published May 13, 2011

Samsung announced today plans to debut a new ultra-high-resolution display at the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium in Los Angeles next week. The 10.1-inch WQXGA tablet touch screen far exceeds the specs of any other screen currently on the market, with a resolution of 2560×1600 and a pixel density of 300 dpi.

In addition to cramming the LCD display with bright pixels, Samsung’s PenTile technology allows the screen to pull 40 percent less battery energy in power-saving mode than those that use standard legacy RGB stripe technology.

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“Samsung’s PenTile display technology is the only display technology that operates at 40 percent less power yet provides twice that of Full HD-viewing performance for consumers compared to legacy RGB stripe LCDs. There is no other commercial display technology on the market today that offers this high of a resolution and pixel density in a 10.1-inch size display,” said Dr. Sungtae Shin, Senior VP of Samsung Electronics, in a statement.

While some industry watchers, like TUAW‘s Chris Rawson, say that it “unlikely for a number of reasons that Apple will employ this exact display in the iPad 3,” the high-resolution, low-power combination of the screen shows that, at the very least, it is now technologically possible (and economically viable) to make a tablet with a display that rivals the Retina display of the iPhone 4.

Apple debuted the Retina display on the iPhone 4 last year. Since then, speculation has repeatedly swirled around when Apple might bring such a high-quality screen to its iPad line. The screen used in both the original iPad and the iPad 2 currently measures 9.7-inches and has a resolution of 1024×768, less than half that of Samsung’s new display. (So far, rumors have indicated that the iPad 3 would have a screen with exactly twice the resolution of the iPad/iPad 2.

Samsung does sell tablets that compete with Apple’s iPad line in the form of its Galaxy Tab line. But the company is also a huge parts supplier to Apple and a wide variety of other technology makers, which makes it at least possible that Samsung’s hot new screen could find its way into the next-generation iPad — or at least the next Galaxy Tab. As always, only time will tell.

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Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…

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