liquid retina lcd panel manufacturer

Retina Display is a brand name used by Apple for its series of IPS LCD and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays.trademark with regard to computers and mobile devices with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

The Retina display debuted in 2010 with the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch (4th Generation), and later the iPad (3rd generation) where each screen pixel of the iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPad 2 was replaced by four smaller pixels, and the user interface scaled up to fill in the extra pixels. Apple calls this mode HiDPI mode. In simpler words, it is one logical pixel = four physical pixels. The scale factor is tripled for devices with even higher pixel densities, such as the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone X.

The Retina display has since expanded to most Apple product lines, such as Apple Watch, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Pro Display XDR, some of which have never had a comparable non-Retina display.marketing terms to differentiate between its LCD and OLED displays having various resolutions, contrast levels, color reproduction, or refresh rates. It is known as Liquid Retina display for the iPhone XR, iPad Air 4th Generation, iPad Mini 6th Generation, iPad Pro 3rd Generation and later versions,Retina 4.5K display for the iMac.

Apple"s Retina displays are not an absolute standard for display sharpness, but vary depending on the size of the display on the device, and at what distance the user would typically be viewing the screen. Where on smaller devices with smaller displays users would view the screen at a closer distance to their eyes, the displays have more PPI (Pixels Per Inch), while on larger devices with larger displays where the user views the screen further away, the screen uses a lower PPI value. Later device versions have had additional improvements, whether an increase in the screen size (the iPhone 12 Pro Max), contrast ratio (the 12.9” iPad Pro 5th Generation, and iMac with Retina 4.5K display), and/or, more recently, PPI count (OLED iPhones); as a result, Apple uses the names “Retina HD display", "Retina 4K/5K display", “Retina 4.5K display", "Super Retina HD display", “Super Retina XDR display”, and "Liquid Retina display" for each successive version.

When introducing the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs said the number of pixels needed for a Retina display is about 300 PPI for a device held 10 to 12 inches from the eye.skinny triangle with a height equal to the viewing distance and a top angle of one degree will have a base on the device"s screen that covers 57 pixels. Any display"s viewing quality (from phone displays to huge projectors) can be described with this size-independent universal parameter. Note that the PPD parameter is not an intrinsic parameter of the display itself, unlike absolute pixel resolution (e.g. 1920×1080 pixels) or relative pixel density (e.g. 401 PPI), but is dependent on the distance between the display and the eye of the person (or lens of the device) viewing the display; moving the eye closer to the display reduces the PPD, and moving away from it increases the PPD in proportion to the distance.

In practice, thus far Apple has converted a device"s display to Retina by doubling the number of pixels in each direction, quadrupling the total resolution. This increase creates a sharper interface at the same physical dimensions. The sole exception to this has been the iPhone 6 Plus, 6S Plus, 7 Plus, and 8 Plus, which renders its display at triple the number of pixels in each direction, before down-sampling to a 1080p resolution.

The displays are manufactured worldwide by different suppliers. Currently, the iPad"s display comes from Samsung,LG DisplayJapan Display Inc.twisted nematic (TN) liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) to in-plane switching (IPS) LCDs starting with the iPhone 4 models in June 2010.

Apple markets the following devices as having a Retina display, Retina HD display, Liquid Retina display, Liquid Retina XDR display, Super Retina HD display, Super Retina XDR display or Retina 4K/5K/6K display:

Reviews of Apple devices with Retina displays have generally been positive on technical grounds, with comments describing it as a considerable improvement on earlier screens and praising Apple for driving third-party application support for high-resolution displays more effectively than on Windows.T220 and T221 had been sold in the past, they had seen little take-up due to their cost of around $8400.

Writer John Gruber suggested that the arrival of Retina displays on computers would trigger a need to redesign interfaces and designs for the new displays:

The sort of rich, data-dense information design espoused by Edward Tufte can now not only be made on the computer screen but also enjoyed on one. Regarding font choices, you not only need not choose a font optimized for rendering on screen, but should not. Fonts optimized for screen rendering look cheap on the retina MacBook Pro—sometimes downright cheesy—in the same way they do when printed in a glossy magazine.

Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, has challenged Apple"s claim. He says that the physiology of the human retina is such that there must be at least 477 pixels per inch in a pixelated display for the pixels to become imperceptible to the human eye at a distance of 12 inches (305 mm).Phil Plait notes, however, that, "if you have [better than 20/20] eyesight, then at one foot away the iPhone 4S"s pixels are resolved. The picture will look pixelated. If you have average eyesight [20/20 vision], the picture will look just fine... So in my opinion, what Jobs said was fine. Soneira, while technically correct, was being picky."

Apple fan website CultOfMac hosts an article by John Brownlee"Apple"s Retina Displays are only about 33% of the way there."visual acuity in the population saying "most research suggests that normal vision is actually much better than 20/20" when in truth the majority have worse than 20/20 vision,WHO considers average vision as 20/40.presbyopia

The first smartphone following the iPhone 4 to ship with a display of a comparable pixel density was the Nokia E6, running Symbian Anna, with a resolution of 640 × 480 at a screen size of 62.5mm. This was an isolated case for the platform however, as all other Symbian-based devices had larger displays with lower resolutions. Some older Symbian smartphones, including the Nokia N80 and N90, featured a 2.1 inch display at 259 ppi, which was one of the sharpest at the time. The first Android smartphones with the same display - Meizu M9 was launched a few months later in beginning of 2011. In October of the same year Galaxy Nexus was announced, which had a display with a better resolution. By 2013 the 300+ ppimark was found on midrange phones such as the Moto G.Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One (M8) had 1080p (FHD) screens around 5-inches for a 400+ PPI which surpassed the Retina density on the iPhone 5. The second major redesign of the iPhone, the iPhone 6, has a 1334 × 750 resolution on a 4.7-inch screen, while rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 have a QHD display of 2560 × 1440 resolution, close to four times the number of pixels found in the iPhone 6, giving the S6 a 577 PPI that is almost twice that of the iPhone 6"s 326 PPI.

The larger iPhone 6 Plus features a "Retina HD display", which is a 5.5-inch 1080p screen with 401 PPI. Aside from resolution, all generations of iPhone Retina displays receive high ratings for other aspects such as brightness and color accuracy, compared to those of contemporary smartphones, while some Android devices such as the LG G3 have sacrificed screen quality and battery life for high resolution. Ars Technica suggested the "superfluousness of so many flagship phone features—the move from 720p to 1080p to 1440p and beyond...things are all nice to have, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue that any of them are essential".

The 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display has an IPS LCD panel supporting a resolution of 2732 by 2048 pixels for a total of 5.6 million pixels with 264 pixels per inch. To achieve Extreme Dynamic Range required an entirely new display architecture on iPad Pro. The all new 2D mini-LED backlighting system with individually controlled local dimming zones was the best choice for delivering the extremely high full-screen brightness and contrast ratio, and off-axis color accuracy, that creative professionals depend on for their workflows.

The Liquid Retina XDR display can support up to 1000 nits of full-screen brightness. It can also support up to 1600 nits for highlights in up to 40 percent of the screen area when the rest of that image is black or at brightness up to 600 nits.

Unlike the previous design that takes light emitting from one edge of the display and evenly distributes it across the entire back, the Liquid Retina XDR display uses over 10,000 custom-designed mini-LEDs spread uniformly across the entire back of the display, delivering higher LED density than any other display of its kind. These mini-LEDs are grouped into an array of over 2,500 individually controlled local dimming zones. This delivers incredibly deep blacks right next to bright image areas, achieving a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

The Liquid Retina XDR display improves upon the trade-offs of typical local dimming systems, where the extreme brightness of LEDs might cause a slight blooming effect because the LED zones are larger than the LCD pixel size. This display is designed to deliver crisp front-of-screen performance with its incredibly small custom mini-LED design, industry leading mini-LED density, large number of individually controlled local dimming zones, and custom optical films that shape the light while maintaining image fidelity and extreme brightness and contrast.

Additionally, custom algorithms run on the advanced display engine of the M1 chip, working at the pixel level to control the mini-LED and LCD layers of the display separately, treating them as two distinct displays. These proprietary algorithms coordinate the mini-LED and LCD layers across transitions to deliver the optimal visual experience. Transitional characteristics of local dimming zones, such as a slight blur or color change while scrolling against black backgrounds, are normal behavior.

The Liquid Retina XDR display delivers P3 wide color. The color gamut afforded by the P3 primaries is larger than sRGB, offering richer and more saturated colors, especially with certain reds, yellows, and greens. The result is rich and vibrant color that’s also used in the digital cinema industry. Every Liquid Retina XDR display is also calibrated at the factory for color, brightness, gamma, and white point for a consistent visual experience.

ProMotion technology automatically adjusts the display refresh rate up to 120 Hz (twice the rate of typical LCD displays) to the optimal rate for the content. The result is ultra-smooth scrolling and incredible responsiveness on the display, whether you’re using your finger or Apple Pencil. True Tone technology subtly adjusts the white balance onscreen to match the color temperature of the light around you, so images on the display look as natural as on a printed page. The cover glass on the Liquid Retina XDR display has an on-axis reflection of 1.8 percent due to a custom antireflective coating. As a result, iPad Pro delivers industry-leading reflectivity for a more comfortable viewing experience indoors and out.

To learn a little more about what it took to build the Liquid Retina XDR screen, Engadget spoke to Vincent Gu, a senior engineering manager for Apple displays, and iPad marketing spokesperson Scott Broderick, who was quick to claim it is "the absolute best display we could put in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro,” Broderick said.

But first, we should break down that name. As I mentioned in our iPad Pro review, the “liquid” bit refers to the fact that this is actually an LCD screen, which — unlike the OLED displays found in newer iPhones and other high-end mobile devices — relies on a bevy of small backlights to actually make the screen visible. “Retina” is a bit of classic Apple marketing fluff, which the company has used to refer to its mobile displays since the days of the iPhone 4. And the “XDR” part isn"t just meant to evoke images of Apple"s expensive, high-end monitors — it refers to the display"s "extreme" dynamic range.

The idea is pretty simple: by making those light sources smaller, Apple could fit more of them behind the rest of the LCD panel"s many layers, allowing for more precise control over what parts of the screen are lit up in any given moment. It’s a pretty standard concept in the TV world, with TCL, Samsung, and LG each with their own confusingly branded version. For what it’s worth, though, Apple insists that its own mini-LED backlighting system was designed completely in-house.

“The mini LEDs we put into Liquid Retina XDR is a truly custom-designed, Apple-proprietary technology,” said Gu, who noted that they were more than a hundred times smaller than those used in last year’s iPad Pro. To no one’s surprise, carefully arranging those thousands of LEDs was a crucial hurdle, one Apple only managed to clear thanks to engineers who custom-designed manufacturing equipment and created their own special solder.

“We had to deliver specific equipment to be able to put these over 10,000 mini LEDs into place with such precision that didn’t exist prior to us,” said iPad spokesperson Broderick. (That said, Apple declined to tell us exactly how small each individual mini LED measures, or how long it takes to produce a single Liquid Retina XDR screen.)

Beyond the lighting system, Gu also said the switch to mini LEDs required Apple to re-engineer core components of its display stack, including the optical films and diffusers that help control the flow of light and distribute it evenly across the entire panel. And then, Apple’s design and manufacturing engineers had to take that new, physically larger screen package and bake it into a kind of device that has been synonymous with portability. In other words, the whole process was... sort of a pain.

It"s a good thing for the company"s engineers, then, that the mini-LED screen is said to remain a key part of the iPad Pro experience for a while. But that"s not to say other changes aren"t in the offing. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested in a recent note that Apple could shift to using OLED displays — which are known for their deep blacks and extremely vivid colors — in the iPad Air as early as next year. (For what it"s worth, Broderick and Gu wouldn"t confirm whether Apple had contemplated using OLED panels in the iPad Pro)

Apple has used Retina Display screens in the iPhone and other devices for years, but it launched the iPhone 11 with a different type of screen: a Liquid Retina Display (LRD), which is a type of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) only Apple uses.

Liquid Retina Display differs from other types of screens in some subtle, background ways; to understand what an LRD is, you first have to understand what a basic Retina Display is.

Essentially, a basic Retina Display is a screen with so many pixels packed tightly next to each other that you can"t see individual pixels or jagged lines on the screen, even when looking very closely. The result is a super-high-resolution screen with a high pixel density, which makes the images and videos appear much more clearly than with other types of displays.

A Liquid Retina Display builds upon that basic retina display by adding a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a standard type of screen found in computer monitors, laptop screens, smartphones, tablets, and other devices for many years. It"s a tried and true technology that"s been around for years.

LRD uses 10,000 LEDs in its pixelated display and combines the haptic effects and contrast ratios from basic retina displays to produce a higher level of pixels per inch (PPI). That can give a screen a paper-like effect with improved brightness and color.

The technologies used to manufacture the screen are the major difference between the Liquid Retina Display screen in, say, a standard iPhone and the Super Retina XDR display of an iPhone Pro.

The Super Retina XDR screens found in some Apple products use Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screens, a more modern screen technology that delivers brighter colors and deeper blacks while using less power than LCDs.

Screen Technology:Liquid Retina Display screens are made using the older LCD technology rather than the newer OLED used in Super Retina XDR and HD displays.

Pixel Density:Liquid Retina Displays have a pixel density of either 326 pixels per inch (ppi) or 264 ppi (on iPads). Both the Super Retina HD and XDR displays sport 458 ppi pixel density.

Contrast Ratio:The contrast ratio on Liquid Retina Displays is 1400:1. A Super Retina HD display has a 1,000,000:1 ratio, while a Super Retina XDR has a 2,000,000:1 ratio. Contrast ratio effects the range of colors the screen can display and the depth of its blacks.

Battery Life:This is less easy to quantify since so many things go into how long batteries last, but OLED screens in the Super Retina HD and XDR screens generally use less power than the LCD screens in the Liquid Retina Display.

An always-on Retina display is a feature of the Apple Watch that means features such as the time, watch face, and most recent active app are always visible.

Apple recommends cleaning your MacBook Retina display (or cleaning any Mac display) with the cloth that came with the device. Or, use any dry, soft, lint-free cloth to wipe away dust. If more cleaning is needed, dampen the cloth with water or a designated screen cleaner and gently wipe the screen. Ensure moisture doesn"t get into any openings.

There are two versions of the new MacBook Pro and we"ve got the 16-inch version, although the 14-inch model"s display is very similar just smaller and with a different resolution. Apple calls this particular display a "Liquid Retina XDR display" which is typical Apple marketing speak. If I translate this into what Apple actually means, they are giving you a high resolution full array local dimming mini-LED LCD with true HDR functionality.

If we dive deeper into the specs, the 16.2-inch panel has a resolution of 3456 x 2234 which continues Apple"s tradition of using non-standard resolutions across their line-up. Apple doesn"t disclose the exact technology used here, but it"s an LCD panel which appears to be IPS-like in design. The backlight has 10,000 mini-LEDs for impressive zone density at this size, allowing for a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and peak brightness up to 1,600 nits in the HDR mode on paper.

As for refresh rate, Apple are offering up to 120Hz with adaptive sync, which they"ve rebranded into "ProMotion" although this sort of functionality has been available for many years now in other laptops and displays. The combination of everything though is a first, and the only rivals to this sort of panel are the latest wave of 4K OLED panels seen in a few high-end Windows laptops.

I don"t want to dwell on the notch too much as in practice using the laptop it"s not that big of a deal. Let"s take a look at how the Liquid Retina XDR display actually performs and I"m going to start here with some color performance results because I think these are most relevant to a creator-focused display like this. I"ll get to talking about response performance later.

This performance also destroys basically any other LCD based monitor I"ve looked at before. On the standalone monitor side, it"s virtually unheard of right now to see LCD zone counts higher than a couple of thousand. This limits worse case contrast to around 12,000:1 in the case of the 2,000-zone Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 with VA technology, or just 4,000:1 in a checkerboard test.

Apple choosing to use 5-10x the zone count massively improves the achievable contrast ratio in tricky situations and I"d say this amount of zones - and the density of zones - is what is required as a minimum for the best HDR experience with an LCD panel. Even Apple"s own ridiculously overpriced Pro Display XDR doesn"t compare as it has a paltry 576-zone backlight and it was criticized at launch for poor blooming compared to professional level HDR mastering displays. The MacBook Pro"s display will be far better for producing HDR content, aside from the small size.

So from one perspective it"s easily one of the best LCD-based HDR experiences I"ve seen, but on the other hand it isn"t a self-lit panel like an OLED which is completely free of blooming and in some situations OLED still delivers better HDR. Of course, OLEDs have other drawbacks such as lower brightness levels and the risk of burn in so I can understand why Apple would opt for LCD instead. Besides this one complaint though the HDR experience is excellent, especially for a laptop.

Unfortunately there is a major drawback to the Liquid Retina XDR display used on the new MacBook Pros, and that"s the motion performance. While it"s nice to see Apple upgrade the refresh rate to 120Hz compared to the 60Hz they were using previously, the display being used here doesn"t have the appropriate level of response times to keep up with that 120Hz refresh rate. The panel is actually very, very slow, which is a disappointment.

This is exacerbated by using a combination of IPS-like LCD technology, and an always-active mini-LED backlight, noting that both the LCD layer and mini-LED need to change to transition fully.

Luckily full transition fall times aren"t as horrific, though still reasonably poor at over 15ms even with our very generous 20% tolerance. The real transition time is more like 35ms, so less than half that of the rise time, but far slower than most other LCDs out there. The best laptop grade OLED panels can perform these transitions in under 2ms with the same test conditions, making them an order of magnitude faster.

I tested a few more transitions of varying degrees and typically the MacBook Pro would fall between 20 and 40ms, though luckily there is no overshoot to speak of. When viewing UFO test results, you can see the product of these horrific response times: a substantial blur trail behind moving objects. Even though the panel can feel somewhat smooth to use because it has a moderate refresh rate of 120Hz, the actual clarity in motion is terrible and this impacts the usefulness of the higher refresh rate.

Right next the MacBook Pro we have the Aero 15 OLED"s panel which has half the refresh rate at just 60Hz, but massively faster response times. You"ll see here that even though the MacBook Pro"s display is twice as fast in refresh rate, the extremely slow response behavior limits motion clarity to more like a 60Hz monitor or worse. The level of smearing is insane and I"m not sure how a modern LCD could end up this slow, Apple really should have experimented with some sort of overdrive.

There is no doubt that the MacBook Pro"s Liquid Retina XDR display is excellent for content creation. It has perfect P3 color gamut coverage and outstanding factory calibration, with particular attention to detail paid to multiple color specifications for mastering.

The Liquid Retina XDR display has impressive HDR specifications and performance. A mini-LED backlight zone count of 10,000 is the star of the show in this respect, significantly reducing blooming compared to other LCD-based HDR monitors, and providing exceptionally high brightness. The level of performance is good enough for both enthusiast level mastering and HDR playback, so the MacBook Pro is a great device for video editing on the go when you also factor in its overall performance.

A few nitpicks aside, the major downside to the display is motion performance. This display is exceptionally slow even for an LCD, despite packing a 120Hz refresh rate. This affects areas including web browsing and any work with text as you scroll through content, and blur trails can be visible across a wide range of use cases, not just gaming. It"s not bad enough to negate the benefits you get elsewhere, but Apple needs to put a lot of work into optimizing how quickly their panels transition. I also feel the lack of HDMI 2.1 on the MacBook Pro is a bit puzzling, going HDMI 2.0 for external monitors (in addition to Thunderbolt) is a bit annoying.

The only real competition right now are OLED panels, which come with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. There are a few other mini-LED laptop options on the Windows side, like the screen you get in the Acer Predator Helios 500, but that display only has 512 zones, not the 10,000 on offer here. So it"s a battle between the MacBook and the OLEDs you see in products like the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED.

The reasons to get an OLED display over this LCD would be in terms of its self-lit pure HDR experience with zero blooming, significantly faster response times for better motion clarity, and wider color gamut allowing for accurate work in the Adobe RGB color space as well as P3 and Rec.709. However, the drawbacks are also significant, including a 60Hz refresh rate limitation with current 4K offerings, the risk of permanent burn in, and significantly lower brightness. Actual implementations we"ve seen also lack the calibration Apple is offering.

On the balance of things, I"d prefer to get the Liquid Retina XDR in the new MacBook Pro than an OLED, especially for color-accurate content creation, and the HDR experience is close enough to OLED that I can forgive very minor blooming on occasion. I wouldn"t say Apple is miles in front with this screen, but it"s certainly very impressive and calling it the best display for production work is justified.

So, naturally, questions arise: Why are we seeing Retina displays in iPads but not in Samsung"s own Galaxy-branded tablets? Why would Samsung allow itself to be trumped by a mere customer?

Example: While Samsung pumps out tens of thousands of high-end LCD panels for Apple, the two companies remain embroiled in longstanding intellectual property litigation, with Apple accusing Samsung of blatantly ripping off the iOS user interface, as well as Apple"s iconic product designs.

Apple uses all sorts of proprietary names for standardized technologies which can make it difficult to compare products. One example is the company’s Liquid Retina XDR display found on the latest iPad and Mac models.

The Liquid Retina XDR display is an evolution of Apple’s existing Liquid Retina panels. It’s an LCD that uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology, with the “Retina” moniker referring to the high pixel density which makes it virtually impossible to identify individual pixels at normal operating distances.

What differs in newer XDR models is the method of lighting. While a standard Liquid Retina display uses a panel of LEDs that remain on regardless of what content is displayed on the screen, the XDR variant uses many more, smaller LEDs which are grouped into zones, and individually dimmed.

This allows the Liquid Retina XDR display to achieve a better contrast ratio than its predecessor. The XDR display can also get brighter than the older models, which enables a more impressive HDR (high dynamic range) video presentation. By switching off groups of LEDs, dark colors and blacks appear deeper increasing the perceived contrast ratio.

The Liquid Retina XDR display is essentially Apple branding for what many refer to as mini LED technology. These displays have improved contrast ratio and peak brightness compared to older backlit and edge-lit LCDs but they are built on the same fundamental technology.

This is in stark contrast to OLED, which uses organic compounds to generate light with no backlighting required. There are some compelling use cases for both technologies, with OLED still being susceptible to burn-in and not hitting the same brightness levels as comparable LCD panels.

By contrast, an LCD panel may exhibit ghosting (a visible glow around the edge of a dimmable LED zone) and inferior contrast ratio to OLED, while being immune to burn-in and far brighter for light-filled viewing environments. Apple’s own version of OLED is known as Super Retina (XDR) and is found on higher-end iOS and iPadOS models.

Apple products are of high quality and favored by many, but try not to pay too much heed to marketing terms. If you’re trying to compare an Apple product to another, cutting through marketing terms like ProMotion and Super Retina can help you make a better decision.

Retina is an Apple marketing term for which there’s no concrete definition: put simply, a Retina display is any screen Apple has decided to call that. There are however, features which set Retina displays apart from non-Retina screens.

Here we’ll tell you what you need to know about each type of Retina screen, list the Apple products which have them, and try to give an idea of whether these screens are worth the premium you pay for them.

When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone 4, and with it the first Retina display, he described it as having a screen with so many pixels packed so closely together (it was rated as 326ppi – pixels per inch) that they were imperceptible to the human eye at a distance of 12 inches. You wouldn’t see individual pixels: you’d just see the image those pixels created.

Since then, Apple has launched many more devices with Retina displays. Some have pixel densities of more than 326ppi, some with less. How can they all be called Retina?

It’s because there are two crucial elements to whether or not pixels are perceptible: density and distance. The further your eyes are from the screen, the lower the pixel density needed to make the pixels ‘disappear’. Generally speaking, the bigger the screen, the further your eyes are likely to be from it and so the lower the pixel density required to ‘qualify’ as a Retina display.

Look at the 13in MacBook Pro, though, and its screen has a density of just 227ppi. But it qualifies as Retina because you sit further from a laptop screen.

So you see that it’s all a bit vague – but the rough idea is that a screen is rated as Retina if it is sharp enough for the human eye not to be able to see individual pixels at a typical usage distance.

In simple terms, Apple ‘converts’ a device’s display to Retina by doubling the number of pixels vertically and horizontal, meaning it has four times as many pixels as its non-Retina counterpart.

If it did that and nothing else, however, there would be a problem. User interface elements like menus and icons would look tiny. To compensate for this, Apple created what it calls HiDPI mode, where each interface element is doubled in size vertically and horizontally and so appears at the same size as it would on a non-Retina display.

The effect of a Retina display is to make everything look crisper. Text in particular benefits from Retina – it looks smoother, with the curves on characters looking like curves instead of jagged steps.

Never one to miss an opportunity for a catchy label, Apple labelled the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus displays Retina HD. It continued to this label up to and including the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in 2017.

But with the arrival of the iPhone X shortly after the 8-generation handsets, Apple took things one step further. With its 5.8in, 2436 x 1125, 458ppi screen, the X was deemed to deserve the latest version of the Retina branding: Super Retina HD.

Note that these enhanced versions of Retina are not necessarily defined by the pixel density/distance equation in the same way as Retina itself: you’ll note that the Retina HD iPhone 6, 7 and 8 all have 326ppi screens, the same as the plain Retina iPhone 5 and 5s. The HD and Super HD labels are earned by having a higher resolution.

There are a few reasons. This is the first all-screen LCD in an iPhone and – unlike most ‘bezel-less’ Android phones – Apple has managed to avoid a thick bottom bezel on the iPhone XR (above, left).

Apple says it’s the most colour-accurate LCD screen on any phone, and it has a high brightness and contrast ratio which allows it to display a wide colour gamut for HDR video and photos.

Also, it has True Tone which ensures accurate colours no matter what the ambient lighting. Add in the pixel masking and sub-pixel antialiasing to help with the curved corners, and we’d say it’s fair enough to give it a name that sets it apart from the usual Retina HD screens.

So when Apple launched a 27in iMac with 5,120 horizontal pixels in 2014, it used the same naming convention and called it Retina 5K. In October 2015, it launched a 21in iMac with a horizontal resolution of 4096 pixels (and a pixel density of 218ppi), and called its display Retina 4K.

No other manufacturer uses the Retina branding – Apple’s lawyers would soon have something to say if they did. But several makers of smartphones and tablets, in particular, have displays with pixel densities which are at least a match for Apple’s devices, and in some cases far exceed it.

A Retina display, then, is not one with the highest resolution available, but may be the optimal balance between image sharpness and the power needed to provide those images.

Sadly, despite having launched a 27in iMac with a Retina display in 2014, Apple has yet to upgrade its Thunderbolt display to Retina. Indeed, the product was discontinued in 2016, although it is expected to

Apple is marketing the iPad Pro’s mini-LED display as a Liquid Retina XDR panel. The Liquid Retina XDR display offers high dynamic range similar to the performance of the Apple Pro Display XDR. The iPad Pro has around 2500 local dimming zones, enabling a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 1600 nits peak brightness.

The 11-inch iPad Pro, which continues to use the same LCD display as previous iPad Pro models, is still readily available for delivery as soon as later this month and into the first week of June. This is a stark contrast compared to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is backordered into late June and early July for most configurations.

Apple first introduced its Liquid Retina Display on its first-generation iPad Pro launched in September 2015. The display soon appeared on the iPhone XR in 2018 and the iPhone 11 in 2019. Nevertheless, this display forms part of the “Retina” brand of displays with higher pixel density.

What exactly is Liquid Retina, and how does it differ from Super Retina? For starters, Super Retina Display is essentially a trademark for display panels based on organic light-emitting diode or OLED while its “Liquid” counterpart is a trademark for LED-backlit in-plane switching liquid crystal displays or IPS LCDs.

• Better LCD Technology: An IPS LCD is technically superior to other older generation LCD technologies such as twisted nematic and virtual alignment LCDs in terms of image quality. It has better color reproduction and wider viewing angles than these two, thus making it an ideal display tech for use in mid-range to high-end consumer electronic devices.

• Edge Over OLED Displays: OLED suffers from two notable drawbacks: poor outdoor visibility because it lacks backlighting and shorter lifespan due to fragility of organic diodes and uneven degradation of blue-emitting diodes from the rest. An IPS LCD can display brighter images while under direct sunlight, and it also has a longer lifespan.

• More Cost-Effective: The manufacturing cost of IPS is lower than OLED. Hence, to drive down manufacturing cost without sacrificing quality, Apple tends to feature Liquid Retina displays on some of its high-end products, including the iPad Air, iPad Pro, and the MacBook line of computers.

The Super Retina Display is currently featured on high-end iPhone products beginning from iPhone X and newer iPhone models, thereby marking an increasing shift to OLED display technology. OLEDs have key advantages of IPS.

• Inferior Contrast Ratio: OLEDs have a higher contrast ratio because they can selectively turn off pixels on dark areas of an image. An IPS LCD can only produce darker shades of grey because its backlighting often leaks out. Hence, when compared side-by-side, an OLED produces deeper and natural blacks than an IPS.

• Pixel Response Time: An IPS has a slower natural response time than OLED. However, as demonstrated by Apple, hardware tweaking can improve the refresh rate of its Liquid Retina Display to up to 120Hz. However, this feature is only reserved for high-end devices such as the iPad Pro 2018.

• Less Power Efficiency: OLEDs consume less energy because it does not require backlighting. On the other hand, an IPS LCD is a transmissive display technology that requires strong backlighting to improve its display clarity, thus consuming more power than non-backlit and self-emissive displays.

Remember that OLED display or Super Retina Display remains the dominant display technology used in the top-tier portable devices of Apple. However, the company announced in 2019 that it is currently beginning to develop its in-house capability to deploy advanced IPS LCD based on mini-LED backlighting.

Technology enthusiasts have noted that the company would soon be using mini-LED IPS LCD on its future models of iPad Pro and MacBook Pro devices. The technology combines the inherent advantages of IPS LCDs with some of the notable characteristics of OLEDs. Thus, it would mark a new addition to the Retina branding of Apple.

American multinational technology company Apple Inc. has introduced two new types of Retina display: The Super Retina display first featured on the iPhone X in 2017 and the Liquid Retina first featured on the iPhone XR and the iPad Pro in 2018.

It is important to highlight the fact that the Super Retina and Liquid Retina display from Apple are part of the overall family of Retina displays marketed by the company. Hence, these two are simply marketing terminologies used as part of the marketing strategy of Apple.

To understand the difference between the two, take note that the former is a specific OLED display technology while the latter is an IPS LCD technology. Hence, a Super Retina is just an OLED panel while a Liquid Retina is simply an IPS LCD panel.

Understanding the difference between the two essentially requires understanding the difference between OLED and IPS LCD technologies. Take note of the following key points:

For starters, Super Retina has been used on more expensive or top-tier Apple devices such as the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max while the Liquid Retina has been used in the less expensive iPhone XR.

Take note that OLED display is a premium type of display that has been used in mid-tier to high-tier smartphone and tablet devices. Using OLED display or more specifically, Super Retina on iPhone XS and XS Max is part of marketing these devices as premium Apple products.

Manufacturing OLED displays is costlier than IPS LCD, thus making Super Retina more expensive than Liquid Retina. This is another reason why less expensive products such as the iPhone XR has used Liquid Retina to drive down its cost and thus, its price.

Another difference between Super Retina and Liquid Retina is display quality. Because it is an OLED display, Super Retina has specific advantages that make it superior to Liquid Retina or other IPS LCD panels

The advantages of Super Retina over Liquid Retina include power efficiency due to the absence of backlighting, thinner profile, better contrast ratio due to deeper natural blacks, wider viewing angle, and faster response time or refresh rate.

However, it is worth noting that Liquid Retina has specific advantages over Super Retina stemming from the pros of IPS LCD and the cons of OLED. These are more accuracy in color reproduction, better outdoor visibility, and longer lifespan.

It is critical to discuss and compare the lifespan of Super Retina and Liquid Retina. As mentioned, IPS LCD has a longer lifespan than OLED. Hence, Liquid Retina has a longer lifespan than Super Retina.

Because it is an OLED display, the Super Retina has two notable disadvantages or vulnerabilities: faster blue-pixel degradation, uneven overall degradation, and susceptibility to damage due to water or moisture. These cons are not as grave as in the case of Liquid Retina.

Between Super Retina and Liquid Retina, the former has more innovative applications as far as form factor is concerned. Remember that OLED is thinner and more flexible than IPS LCD. Hence, the iPhone XS and XS Max have better screen-to-body ratio than the iPhone XR.

The iPhone XS and XS Max are also thinner than the iPhone XR because their Super Retina or OLED display panels have allowed Apple to decrease their physical dimensions.

Developments in OLED technology, including the utilization of plastic OLEDs and the introduction of flexible OLEDs, can one day lead to the introduction of Apple products with rollable, bendable, or foldable Super Retina displays.

The most recent models of iPhone starting from the high-tier iPhone 11s and including the entire iPhone 12 line now feature Super Retina displays, thus marking an increased inclination toward OLED display technology. However, the iPad line of tablet computers, including the high-end iPad Pro, still feature Liquid Retina or an IPS LCD.

It also appears that Apple are developing further its existing LCD technology through mini-LED. Reports revealed that the company has been building its team of engineers to develop its capability in deploying mini-LED displays for use in its next generation of iPad and MacBook computers.

A pivot toward mini-LED-backlit IPS LCDs would mark the need for Apple to discover or utilize technologies that would rival the quality of OLED displays minus the drawbacks, as well as an attempt to keep down manufacturing cost as low as possible.

From significant software upgrades to improvements in camera to aesthetics design, battery life, and right down to displays, Apple’s iPhone has evolved dramatically over the years. But the one aspect where Apple had made significant strides is the display. The iPhone display sizes have increased exponentially over the years, from narrower screens to the plus-size displays to the OLED display in the iPhone X which Apple touted as the ‘Super Retina’ display. It was the biggest shift in design aesthetics of the iPhone since 2007. Then Apple introduced the iPhone XR with the all-new ‘Liquid Retina’ LCD display. We compare the two display technologies to see how impressive they are.

The term ‘Super Retina’ came to life when Apple launched its most modish iPhone ever on Nov. 3, 2017 – the iPhone X, with an all-glass design with a Super Retina display. For the first time, Apple launched an iPhone with a 5.8-inch screen and it was the first smartphone to utilize OLED Multi-Touch screen technology. The iPhone X was the 10-year anniversary edition of the iPhone which marked the biggest shift in the aesthetics design with the Super Retina HD display and a notch that housed the front-facing camera. The term Super Retina was a marketing strategy by Apple to showcase their new OLED screen instead of the conventional LCD screens, which use backlight to illuminate their pixels. However, the Super Retina display uses organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology which emits light through each pixel (with no backlight) to deliver an exceptionally higher contrast ratio and better resolution.

On Oct. 26, 2018, Apple introduced the iPhone XR with the all-new ‘Liquid Retina’ HD screen, the most advanced LCD display in the industry. The iPhone XR features an LCD screen over OLED, which is just as good as the Super Retina, except it gives you a larger screen in a smaller build. It crams up millions of pixels so tightly packed that you cannot see individual pixels with your naked eye, even when you look very closely. It is a super high-resolution display with innovative engineering that allows us to stretch the display into the corners. The result is an all-screen design with the largest LCD display ever in an iPhone which still fits comfortably in your hands. The new iPhone 11 also boasts the Liquid Retina HD display.

– The Liquid Retina display is the most advanced LCD display technology in an iPhone ever. It is the Apple designed liquid crystal display which is just as good as the Super Retina designed to make the older LCD screens found on every iPhone models better for improved color accuracy. Super Retina is a high-density display that uses OLED technology which emits light through each pixel (with no backlight) to deliver an exceptionally higher contrast ratio and better resolution.

– The Liquid Retina is a marketing term for the LCD display on the iPhone XR and the iPad Pro. It is basically the same LCD display found on other iPhones except for the iPhone X, XS and XS Max. The pixel density of Liquid Retina is 326 ppi for iPhones or 264 ppi for iPads. The Super Retina, on the other hand, is even higher pixel density OLED display found on the iPhone X, XS and XS Max. The pixel density of both iPhone XS and XS Max is 458 ppi, which accounts for sharper, more accurate images.

– The Super Retina display in the iPhone X is a huge improvement from the iPhone XR’s Liquid Retina display. It sports a higher resolution at 2436-by-1125-pixel, which means more pixels are spread across the surface, which in turn, results in a higher contrast ratio, from a mere 1400:1 to an exceptionally higher 1,000,000:1. The Super Retina XDR has a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. The Liquid Retina displays have a contrast ratio of 1400:1, which is much lower than of Super Retina displays.

The Liquid Retina display is an Apple designed liquid crystal display which is an updated version of the LCD technology found on the other iPhone models except for the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max. It is a super high-resolution display with innovative engineering that allows us to stretch the display into the corners. The Super Retina display, on the other hand, uses organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology which emits light through each pixel (with no backlight) to deliver an exceptionally higher contrast ratio and deeper blacks and higher pixel density.

Replace a scratched or cracked front panel glass digitizer screen or a malfunctioning "Liquid Retina" LCD display. This part is compatible with an iPhone 11.

A new screen and digitizer assembly will renew the appearance of your front panel, restore touch function, and eliminate the dead pixels or flickering on an aging display.

Replace with this part requires transferring several small parts from your original assembly. It does not include the front camera, earpiece speaker, or LCD shield plate. It also does not include display adhesive.