Apple released the 3rd iPad generation with 4x the resolution of the prior generation, despite the GPU being absolutely miserable. The net result was that many

Apple released the 3rd iPad generation with 4x the resolution of the prior generation, despite the GPU being absolutely miserable. The net result was that many graphical operations were much slower. It was a few more generations before the responsiveness caught up with the lower resolution 2nd generation. We know that they've done the same with Macbooks, going to dramatically higher resolutions while often relying upon the the iGPU that has only marginally improved. There has never been a hard and fast criteria, beyond that ostensibly the benefits outweighed the detriments. I had a 3rd gen and enjoyed that super crisp display, so it was an okay compromise. Add that recent software iterations have put dramatically more emphasis on power savings/efficiency, and are much more proactive about frequency scaling, etc. As an aside, this post will be autodead, and that's cool. Love ya HN.