The Display Behind (in Front of) the Apple iPad

The Display Behind (in Front of) the Apple iPad

2010 January 28; By DisplaySearch Analysts; Nearly a year ago, we at DisplaySearch blogged about what Apple’s rumored (now launched) tablet would be, including what features it might have and what the display technology would be used. We hypothesized such a device would use a ~10″ LED-backlit TFT LCD display, have high color saturation, and “…a wide viewing angle both horizontally and vertically.” We also ruled out OLED and sunlight readability as possibilities. In November, we commented publicly on these eventualities. So how did things turn out?

Apple’s iPad was officially launched today and features a 9.7″ 1024 × 768 LED-backlit, IPS (In-Plane Switching) TFT LCD display. It is quite apparent that the display technology was of paramount concern to Apple, who noted that they chose it “because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), [and] it has a wide, 178° viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want, and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.” In addition to highlighting the display technology, Apple claimed that they have the largest capacitive multi-touch display, with “thousands of sensors” to provide the same touch sensing accuracy that the iPod Touch and iPhone have.

What was not noted in the Apple presentation is that the display is not a wide aspect ratio. It is neither 16:10 nor 16:9, but rather 4:3. In a display world that has “gone wide,” this is unique. More than 99% of notebook PCs use wide displays; you would have a difficult time finding an LCD TV with anything other than a 16:9 display, and more than 80% of desktop monitor displays are wide aspect ratio. So why did Apple choose not to use a wide aspect ratio display? Perhaps they were trying to find a middle ground between the requirements for books, magazines and newspapers and the requirements for video and gaming.

Apple also notes that the iPad uses “arsenic-free display glass” (which is now standard from Corning) and a “mercury-free LCD display” (which is one of the benefits of LED backlights). The front surface of the display is coated with a “fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating,” which was introduced in the iPhone 3G S.

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