Retina Display Teardown Reveals Ingenuity and Surprises

Apple managed to cram four times as many pixels in a display no bigger than its predecessor's. Image: iFixit

The Retina display is arguably the pièce de résistance of Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It’s an engineering marvel, bearing a 2880×1800 resolution, which is good for 5,184,000 pixels.

Last week, iFixit tore apart the MacBook Pro with Retina Display and found it was virtually impossible to repair or upgrade after the time of purchase. But the Retina display itself was left un-dissected — until now.

The entire display assembly is slightly thinner than the display of its predecessor, yet manages to pack in four times as many pixels. It’s only a fraction thicker than 7mm at its thickest point, and just over 3mm at its edges. The Retina display is also so delicate and tightly constructed that the experts over at iFixit couldn’t separate its front panel without cracking the glass in two places — and eventually obliterating it completely.

“If you want a world-class laptop screen that doesn’t take up much real estate, don’t expect to be able to pop it out and back in at will,” iFixit writes in the teardown.

Apple told us in its WWDC keynote that it used a new manufacturing method to build the display into the notebook’s unibody aluminum housing, eliminating the extra layer of cover glass normally requisite of displays. Indeed, Apple turned the entire display assembly into the LCD panel, using the aluminum casing as the frame. Normally an LCD panel is sandwiched between a front piece of glass and a back case.

Along the top of the case is the HD FaceTime camera, and the cord runs along the upper and outer edge of the casing.

Inside the bottom edge of the case, iFixit made two interesting findings: a laser-engraved internal use code, and a bunch of round indentations that could be Braille, but didn’t appear to make sense in Braille.

iFixit cracked the Retina display's front panel. Image: iFixit

But back to the LCD. Underneath the top layer is a series of films and polarizers that basically ensure light is spread evenly on the back panel. A sheet of white paper then acts as a uniform background for the LCD’s backlight, an arrangement of 48 LEDs at the bottom of the display.

With such tight construction, it’s not surprising to find out that if any part of the display breaks, you’ll need to replace the entire display assembly. But that’s cheaper than replacing the entire $2,200-plus notebook itself, at least.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/retina-display-teardown/

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