A week ago we brought you news that a retina display for Apple’s forthcoming iPad 3 had made it into the wild. The 2048×1536 display has a pixel density of 260 pixels per inch. While that’s a bit less than the 300 pixels per inch that Steve Jobs defined as a retina display, it still counts because the iPad is usually held a bit farther away from the user’s face than an iPhone.
MacRumors, the site that originally got their hands on the new display, sent it on to iFixit once they were done. iFixit specializes in free, user-edited repair manuals. On their blog they regularly post tear-downs of the latest gadgets, so that users can get a closer look at what’s inside their devices. They took a closer look at the display and found that although the iPad 3 display doubles the pixel density of the iPad 2, it’s actually lighter by 26 ounces.
They also found that the iPad 3 display uses a completely different connector than the iPad 2, so anybody who might’ve had hopes of sticking a retina display in their iPad 2 is out of luck, since there’s no way to connect the display to the logic board. That being the case, iFixit wasn’t able to power up the display. They did, however, follow MacRumors’s lead and stick it under a microscope. They confirmed earlier reports about the 2048×1536 display.
iFixit also put together a short video about the new display. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.