Monitor with the highest PPI?

Soldato
Joined
4 Jan 2005
Posts
14,879
With all the big deal smartphones and ipads are making, it makes me think about monitors' ppi - I know they tend to be lower than the better phones out there, but there must be something close to them monitor-wise. I would absolutely salivate at the prospect of a 300+ PPI 19" but the resolution would have to be phenomenally high.

What's the closest thing we have to that sort of thing? Having the clarity of something like an iPhone 4s or GSII on a screen would be nothing short of amazing.

edit: from what I can see, the most expensive monitor on OCUK (the dell ultrasharp) is nearly a grand and still only musters a feeble 101PPI or so, three times less than the better phones out there. What's the holdup?
 
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Associate
Joined
27 Aug 2011
Posts
801
Te iPhone (4) and new iPad have a reason for their high PPI count and it's one different from how Apple markets it. iOS apps dont scale very well so the solution apple came up is to simply double the resolution. I think a 4k resolution is the best you're going to get for the PC and the smallest Ive seen announced was the 27.5" at a price equal to that of a decent new car.

If you simply want high DPI take a look at laptop (replacement) parts, there are full HD screens at 13" or so which are somewhat affordable and can be used with some parts that I cannot link to due to the forum policy regarding auctioning sites. Basically a PCB convering the power and the signal to DVI.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Apr 2009
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11,973
Location
Cheshire
Also, bear in mind that the reason smartphones are advertised as "retina" is because at a certain distance the individual pixels can't be seen. For a relatively small viewing distance (ie with a smartphone or tablet) this viewing distance is relatively small. However, PC monitors are made to be viewed at a greater distance - therefore the required PPI to be "retina" is less.

The highest PPI monitors widely available are the 27in 2560x1440 IPS displays which are found on the Apple iMac, Apple cinema display, Dell U2711 and many others. These panels have a PPI of 109.

On the cheaper end 21.5in 1080p monitors offer a PPI of 102.

As Axeia says, if you want considerably higher PPI for a desktop then you either need to re-purpose a small, high res laptop display or pay a lot for a rare super-high res PC monitor.

Supposedly we will be seeing very high resolution displays in the next generation mac book pro's - so hopefully this will drive demand for high resolution displays. But unfortunately, it seems that at the moment the vast majority of consumers are content with 1080p monitors, so the demand for higher resolutions (and higher PPI) isn't currently very strong.
 
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