Rumor: new iMacs may also come equipped with Retina displays

During yesterday, many vehicles commented on the rumor about the new MacBook Pro and its possible high resolution display. But, if it depends on the sources of Joanna Stern, ABC News, iMacs will also win Retina displays.

If we think about it, there is nothing more natural, for Apple, than implementing a nice feature in its entire line of computers. However, the 21.5 and 27 inch screens on the iMacs are already very close to what Ma calls Retina, after all, from a normal (healthy) distance, I doubt anyone will see pixels on these beautiful screens.

Making a quick count, if Apple doubles the screen resolution of MacBooks and iMacs, as it did on iPhones and the third generation iPad, the 15-inch MBP will go from 1440 × 900 pixels to 2880 × 1800; 21.5-inch iMacs would go from 1920 × 1080 to 3840 × 2160 pixels, something very close to a supposed Retina display for the 17-inch MBP. Meanwhile, 27-inch iMacs would go from 2560 × 1440 to a staggering 5120 × 2880 (!) Pixels.

In my opinion, the Retina screen will reach all displays of all (relevant) Apple products, however, not necessarily doubling in size. It is clear here that iMacs do not need this entire upgrade. The problem that currently pixel density (Pixels Per Inch, or PPI), is in the range of 100-130. And increasing this “just a little bit” is also not easy, especially for developers / users.

Taking the 27-inch iMac as an example, David Barnard gave a possible solution to the problem. Instead of doubling the resolution to 5120 × 2880 pixels, Apple could implement a 3840 × 2400 screen which would be Retina if the desktop were 1920 × 1200. In other words, at size @ 1X the density would be 84, while at @ 2X (code used for images prepared for Retina screens) the density would be 168. The problem with this is that the elements of the graphic interface would be larger than the current ones, the that can displease many people.

Opera summary: such a change is not easy, so it is good to keep your feet on the floor so as not to be disappointed if the screens on the iMacs (and even MacBooks) remain the same.

(via MacRumors)