The Difference Between 7″ and 7.85″ is Everything ⇥

Odi Kosmatos (emphasis mine):

Here’s why I think there will be a tablet from Apple that’s optimized for reading and has a 7″ retina display that runs iPhone apps unmodified, not a tablet with a 7.85″ display that runs iPad apps unmodified.

Kosmatos, later in his post:

A 7″ diagonal screen (7.08″ to be exact) just happens to be the exact size of two by two iPod touch retina displays. That’s a 4″ x 6″ display surface. An iPod touch screen has 326 PPI. The 7″ screen would also have 326 PPI just like iPhones and iPods. This would yield a resolution of 1920 x 1280. This resolution would be able to run current retina iPhone applications pixel perfect using the traditional 4:1 pixel scaling, like retina displays do with non-retina apps.

Notice how bad non-retina apps look on a retina display? This would essentially be an “@4x” display, which would force developers to modify their retina apps to be double-sized again.

I think Kosmatos has an interesting idea here, but I think a 7.85″ non-retina iPad is far more likely, partially because of the reasoning I’ve presented, and partially because it’s more logical to market a small iPad than a big iPod touch. Via Jim Dalrymple.