Gadgetory

would you look at that hot new piece of technology on the table right there that's that that's the latest iPhone right that's the iPhone 10 are okay fine no it's the iPhone 4 but it does have something in common with the brand new iPhone 10 are some of you probably already know what that is for those of you that don't it has the same number of pixels per inch as the eventual upcoming iPhone 10 are the 2018 iPhone 10 are and as you can tell I'm a little bit upset about it because the iPhone 10 ours is seven hundred and fifty dollar device in 2018 and I'm sitting here looking at some screen resolution that's identical on a device that came out many years ago when well when did the iPhone 4 come out June 24 2010 that's when Apple was capable of putting a 326 PPI display into a smartphone all the way back then and they're still doing it to this day and I can't figure out the reason I know some of you out there in the audience are gonna say but Lou on a smart phone can you really see the difference can you tell the difference so what about this PPI well here's the thing in an environment where we have plenty of choices and plenty of options especially at low price points all kinds of applications have started to take screen resolution into consideration like YouTube Netflix and so on where you may want to trigger that HD functionality to be able to watch a full resolution video on your smartphone now not a lot of people are talking about this but if you picked up this brand new iPhone 10 are at 750 dollars you're not gonna be able to watch 1080p YouTube you can't toggle that setting because the device is not capable of it now I'm gonna bring another phone into the mix here this is the Samsung Galaxy s4 when did this come out well 2013 this device came out it's got a 5-inch 1080p display for a PPI of 441 that's still four years ago and of course every single galaxy s device since then has maintained at least that resolution at least 1080p of course there's ones now with even higher resolution and you can toggle it to your own taste now there is a debate regarding what the human eye can actually see and at which distance so at this distance here I shouldn't be able to discern pixels possibly here I start to pick them up on this display on the iPhone 4 if I look closely at a close range yes I can see individual pixels is it horrendous does it completely ruin the experience no I'm not suggesting that the phone is completely ruined by the fact that it doesn't have at least a 1080p display the reason I'm angry about this is because there's not much reason for it except to distance the premium product from the discounted one in my opinion to try to convince people to step up and spend more money on the more premium 10s and 10's max but the reason it's irritating is because the material cost of stepping up to a few extra pixels when the scale is there when so many other smartphone manufacturers are already using those 1080p displays some even with a notch like on the polka phone right here there's an example there's a 1080p display on a device that costs $300 how are these aggressive Android price points being serviced by 1080p resolution because the material cost on those displays is not that much that part is ubiquitous it's everywhere so Apple probably could have given it to you they just didn't want to they didn't think they had to and so they did it and now they're trying to compel people much like with the the charge brick that's not in the box for super charge they're trying to compel people to spend a little more while still stating hey at least we have a budget option now to be completely fair I think a lot of people are gonna walk into the Apple Store look at the 10r and be like hey that's fine for me for me that's non-negotiable that's just kind of a jerk move now I know there's gonna be Apple fans out there you're gonna disagree with me you're gonna sit there and say loo Apple knows best Apple knows how much resolution we need you're gonna say 326 PPI is the perfect resolution it's fine but if was the case then why does Apple sell premium devices with more resolution why does the 10s and ten xmax have a higher PPI for what reason well because it's not true if you hold those two displays next to each other you should be able to discern the difference if you know what you're looking for now at this point I sound like an aggravated nerd and possibly I am and many people out there gonna be like but I can get the bright colors on the 10r for 750 and that's really what I'm in this for and look if you're one of those people more power to you these are your dollars but in my opinion in an era with polka phones and 1080 screens everywhere on devices under 500 under 400 under 300 this one for me is the biggest mess up on this particular device otherwise the spec list looks pretty good but see the problem with this as a tech fan is that we count on the market leaders to push the better technology forward we count on them to show us sort of what's happening and what's important and what's possible and when you have a leader like Apple intentionally holding products back to create these price discrepancies so they can play in these different marketplaces without cannibalizing their premium stuff you have confusion in the consumer marketplace or at least a lack of understanding yes the PPI of this guy this ancient-looking iPhone 4 is equivalent to the PPI of the new iPhone 10 arm there are way more pixel dense displays out there for less money and you should know about it