In a post on Twitter/X this week, iFixit discussed this aspect of the teardown. The site used an Evident DSX2000 microscope at increasing magnifications to examine the Duo’s nanotexture display, along with two other matte surfaces: the screen of an e-ink reader and “a popular matte screen protective film.”
“At low magnification,” reports iFixit, “the difference is clear. The e-ink texture blurs everything underneath. The matte protector softens the pixels. The nanotexture lets in a lot more detail.”
As the site notes, sharp detail is not as much of a priority for an e-ink reader as it is for a smartphone, which may explain why the respective manufacturers would be happy with this functional difference. But it does not explain what physical qualities make the difference. This is explained by a higher increase.
“The nanotexture pattern is much smaller and more defined than that of the protector,” the tweet reports, backing this up with photographic evidence. The e-ink reader, on the other hand, has a “pillow-like texture” that is “huge in comparison.”
The photos are clear. The Duo’s screen features a tight pattern of what look like cells or small bubbles, while the screen protector has a swampy, uneven pattern and the e-ink reader features massive polygons.
There is a real difference here. “Is the nanotexture on the iPhone Duo just a matte screen protector with fancy Apple marketing?” iFixit asks, before concluding: “Verdict: not just marketing.”
