Samsung to Try to Beat Apple to Market with a "Retina" Display Tablet?

galaxytabThe ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple might get a little more intense come February. BGR reports that Samsung is preparing to launch its own high resolution 11.6" tablet that will carry a 2560 x 1600 resolution screen.

Even though the tablet features a larger display than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, we’re told that the tablet is “barely larger” due to the fact the slate will have a thinner bezel with a whopping 2560 x 1600 resolution, 11.6-inch screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

A resolution of 2560x1600 would beat the 2048x1536 display that the iPad 3 has been rumored to have.

Samsung first introduced a similar 2560x1600 screen back in May at SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium. That screen, however, used the less conventional PenTile technology to achieve its high resolution which has been criticized for some potential drawbacks.

The PenTile display uses a series of local filter operations to convert the underlying image into display intensities, including convolution, thresholding, color curve adjustment, and postprocessing with locally-adaptive filters. In practice, this means the display blurs the red and blue channels by dispersing these color intensities to the nearest subpixel element of the right color, and then also implements subpixel positioning to increase the apparent resolution again. However, subpixel spacing is not constant across the display, making the real apparent resolution complicated to estimate

Apple and Samsung have been in an ongoing legal battle over similarities the Galaxy Tab product line and the iPad.

Apple has been long rumored to be working on a high resolution iPad display that would carry twice vertical and horizontal resolution of the iPad. Apple used a similar technique when it upgraded the iPhone's screen to 960x640 from 480x320. Apple's iPad 3 is expected to carry a resolution of 2048x1536, up from 1024x768 in the current iPad. Rumors have suggested that there have been production holdups on creating these high resolution screens in quantities. The latest reports suggested Apple could also be able to release the iPad 3 as early as February, though other reports have suggested a slightly later release.

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4

Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Available Next Month With These 8 New Features

Tuesday November 11, 2025 9:48 am PST by
Apple released the first iOS 26.2 beta last week. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date....
CarPlay Pinned Messages

iOS 26.2 Adds New CarPlay Setting

Thursday November 13, 2025 6:48 am PST by
iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose. Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages...
homepod mini thumb feature

New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and AirTag Were Expected This Year — Where Are They?

Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen. Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...
ios 26 digital id passport wallet

Apple Announces Launch of U.S. Passport Feature in iPhone's Wallet App

Wednesday November 12, 2025 9:15 am PST by
Apple today announced that iPhone users can now create a Digital ID in the Apple Wallet app based on information from their U.S. passport. To create and present a Digital ID based on a U.S. passport, you need: An iPhone 11 or later running iOS 26.1 or later, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or later running watchOS 26.1 or later Face ID or Touch ID and Bluetooth turned on An Apple Account ...
Tesla Charging

Tesla Working to Add Apple CarPlay Support to Vehicles

Thursday November 13, 2025 8:31 am PST by
Tesla is working to add support for Apple CarPlay in its vehicles, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Tesla vehicles rely on its own infotainment software system, which integrates vehicle functions, navigation, music, web browsing, and more. The automaker has been an outlier in foregoing support for Apple CarPlay, which has otherwise become an industry standard feature, allowing users to...
m1 chip slide

Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
tvOS 26 Profiles

tvOS 26.2 Adds a Useful New Feature to Your Apple TV

Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account. In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...
iOS 26

Everything New in iOS 26.2 Beta 2

Wednesday November 12, 2025 3:29 pm PST by
Apple today provided developers with the second beta of iOS 26.2, which adds a few new features worth knowing about. Measure App Apple's Measure app now features a Liquid Glass design for the level, with two Liquid Glass bubbles instead of white circles. Games App There's now an option to sort games in the Games app Library by size, in addition to Name and Recent. CarPlay The...
apple intelligence erroneous support list

Apple Intelligence Apparently Too Smart for M1 Macs After Listing Error

Wednesday November 12, 2025 2:49 am PST by
Update: It took a day, but Apple has now corrected its Apple Intelligence device compatibility list to show support for the earliest Apple silicon Macs. The original article follows. Apple's website is causing some confusion among Mac owners, and for good reason – its device compatibility listing for Apple Intelligence appears to have dropped support for M1 Macs. The U.S. version...

Top Rated Comments

Marcus-k Avatar
182 months ago
Copying isn't competition.

Apple didn't invent high resolution screens.
Score: 60 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleScruff1 Avatar
182 months ago
I didn't know Apple made their own lcd panels. I thought they bought them from Samsung and other suppliers. How can Samsung copy something that Apple doesn't make?
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rmwebs Avatar
182 months ago
Oh joy, yet another "Samsung sucks - they copy from Apple" thread.

As hard as this may be for some of our lesser educated members to understand, Samsung are not copying apple. For one thing "retina display" is not a technology. It's a term invented by the apple marketing department because they didn't want the same "high resolution display" name that their competitors use.

Now, with a tablet there is only so much you can do. We are at a point in technology where we have to wait a few years for the next gen super cpu's ( I'm talking 3ghz+ quad or oct core arm's). The logical thing to do right now is improve the usability as that's pretty much all that can be done. The screen is a logical upgrade. The tech has only recently become available and was most certainly not an apple innovation. Companies like Samsung and LG are the ones doing that research and development, not apple as they don't make displays.

The assumption here seems to be that if apple's rumour surfaced first then anyone else who is rumoured to be doing the same thing MUST have copied Apple...if that's what you want to believe then more fool you, but Samsung is much more likely to have had access to the tech way before apple. The issue has been getting a CPU that can power it reliably (the A5 should suffice but it will take a performance hit, that's for sure).
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tendenzi Avatar
182 months ago
Most tablets in my area are rectangular with a black bezel. I suppose someone could innovate and invent a new geometric shape since Apple invented the rectangle.

They didn't even invent the tablet, but look at tablets pre-iOS and post-iOS, you'll see a clear influence Apple has had over the market, and how "innovative" the rest quickly became.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pixelpro Avatar
182 months ago
At least someone is trying to compete with Apple.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Marcus-k Avatar
182 months ago
+1.

But even if Samsung beats Apple to market, it's only a matter of weeks/months they'll have the lead. It took this long for Samsung to leap frog?

Samsung needs to stop pretending it innovates. It's always been the affordable to the premium line-ups, at a cost of quality and maturity in their product line ups.

In what way is creating a new screen capable of high resolutions copying Apple? And it's only a rumour so far that Apple is actually going to use a "Retina display" on their next iPad, so again, in what way are they copying Apple?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)