This really isn’t meant to be a contentious post. It really only came about because I got a new toy, something I’ve been wanting to get for a while – a USB microsope! Here’s the model I got:
The family had great fun playing with it tonight – looking at everyone’s skin and hair and dirty fingernails and bug bites, and paper and money and cloth and salt and sugar, etc. I could barely pry my daughter away from it. The software allows you to capture images and videos and even notate them with actual measurements, etc. based on the level of magnification.
While playing a bit more with it, I held it up to my computer screen and my Nexus One screen and could clearly see the pixels. Neat. Then I wondered what the Kindle’s screen looks like close up. Quite different! I then compared the Kindle’s screen at roughly 26x and 400x with the iPad’s screen at approximately the same resolution. Wow! No wonder the Kindle is so much easier to read!
First at about 26x.
Kindle:
iPad:
And now at about 400x for the Kindle and 375x for the iPad.
Kindle:
iPad:
The Kindle’s screen looks almost organic at high magnification. I need to learn more about eInk now. I will hopefully be getting my Kindle 3 in a couple of weeks (should ship August 27). I’m interested to see how that shows up – supposedly the contrast is much better. And now I need to get my hands on a iPhone 4 with that retina display. I’d love to see what that looks like close up. Not buying one though. Maybe someone at FiTC San Francisco will have one they can lend me for a photo.
[Update 8/13/10]
As requested, here are some additional photos at 26x and 400x, of print media.
First, newsprint, then a magazine, then a paperback book at 26x.
Newsprint:
Magazine:
Book:
And now the same three, in the same order, at 400x:
Newsprint:
Magazine:
Book:
Again, I leave it to you to make your conclusions.
[Edit #2]
I changed the post title to remove the “vs.”, replacing it with “and”. This is not a battle, people. Just some interesting photos.
Relax. It’s all going to be OK.
