Apple's new iPad 2 is thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessor. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The iPad 2 doesn’t pack a higher-resolution “retina” display yet, but the quality of the screen is just as good as the iPhone 4’s, according to a display expert.

DisplayMate analyst Raymond Soneira put the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 displays through a series of tests and found that they perform very similarly.

The “iPad 2 delivers almost identical performance to the impressive iPhone 4 Retina Display,” Soneira said in his report.

That’s interesting, because the iPad 2 display has a lower pixel density than the iPhone 4. A lower pixel density makes pixels more apparent.

The iPhone 4 has a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, which Steve Jobs claimed exceeds the limits of the human retina. The iPad 2 has a pixel density of 132 ppi.

Soneira explained that higher ppi is indeed better, but anti-aliasing methods delivered through software updates can reduce noticeable pixelation at lower resolutions and ppi.

And despite the iPhone 4’s higher ppi, the iPad 2’s screen scored very similarly in Soneira’s tests. Both devices earned “Very Good for Mobile” ratings in tests on contrast ratio and black levels, and an “Excellent” rating for their maximum brightness.

“There is no question that a higher ppi is better, but the real question is whether the iPad 2 delivers good display performance when considering its price point and battery-power constraints,” Soneira said.

The overall screen resolution of the 9.7-inch (diagonal) iPad screen is 1,024 x 768 pixels, compared to the iPhone 4’s 3.5-inch display, which has a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels.

Some tech observers claim that Apple has held off on doubling the resolution of the iPad’s display to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels because of cost and manufacturing constraints.

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