DS Future speculation
I thought it might be fun to save some of my speculation on what's next, to look back and compare to the reality in the future; or even as the speculation changes over the years. I've certainly done such things in the past, but as they're not saved on the wiki they're either lost to time or horribly buried in old directories. For what it's worth, I think my favorite speculated screen resolution for a post-DS machine was something like 384x240 or 384x256. Did not see the 3D or mismatched screen ratios coming.
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Post-3DS screen resolution speculation, 2012-02-19. Ignoring whatever the norms of displays are in ~2017, what if we just take the DS->3DS shift and extrapolate an additional step?
Extrapolating individually:
Bottom screen went from 256x192 to 320x240, a 25% increase in both dimensions. Another increase of that size would lead to 400x300.
Top screen went from 256x192 to 400x240x2, a 290% increase. Assuming it remains 3D and sees a similar increase, perhaps 768x480x2? That would be slightly narrower (1.6:1). Or perhaps they wouldn't go with a screen that's twice as dense horizontally as vertically, in which case maybe something like 576x640x2, which would filter aside be an 1152x640 screen, which would be even wider (1.8:1).
Extrapolating together:
From DS to 3DS was a total jump from 98,304 pixels to 268,800 pixels; an increase of about 173%.
For bottom screen, this might mean something like 512x384. For top screen, it could mean something like 640x384x2 (1.67:1), or if not going with a vertically doubled pixel layout, maybe 480x576x2 (1.67:1).
Overall the Bottom: 512x384 and Top: 640x384x2 seems like the best extrapolation, I think. Maintains 3DS aspect ratio for both top and bottom screen and keeps both screens using the same vertical resolution. Just a simple 60% increase in all X and Y values. This would be a 156% pixel increase, smaller than that seen from DS to 3DS. It would be exactly the increase seen from GBA to DS, though. The PPI of these screens, ignoring the 3D element and assuming the same physical size as 3DS, would be about 213. For comparison, DS: 107, 3DS: 133, PSP: 140, iPhone: 163, Vita: 220, iPhone 4: 326.
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