Trend watch: High-resolution tablets

Nick Thawley 7th January 2013)

One of the biggest emerging trends in the tablet world throughout 2012 was the move of tablet manufacturers towards higher resolution screens. Kicked off by the 4th generation iPad's dazzling 2048 x 1536 (264 ppi) (retina display, the benchmark has well and truly risen for tablet makers.

However - some would argue that it's risen too far - and from 2012's offerings, most manufacturers are reluctant to meet this challenge and have decided that a 1280 x 800 'will do'. Similar full-size tablets such as the Toshiba AT300, Asus EeePad Transformer Prime, and both of Samsung's offerings (the Galaxy Tab 2 and Galaxy Note 10.1)each stick with the 1280 x 800 standard.

The key word there, though, was most. And Google, as we all know, is not most manufacturers. Never to be beaten, in November 2012 the Google Nexus 10 was released, with a staggering 2560 x 1600 (300 ppi) resolution.

Other tablets destroying the 1280 x 800 benchmark include the

However, there is evidence to suggest that there are only diminishing marginal gains to higher resolutions (Economics graduate - sorry).