Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

New Higher-resolution Instrument Panel Display

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

pgiralt

Active Member
Supporting Member
Jun 16, 2013
1,522
157
Cary, NC
Was driving a 44XXX VIN loaner for a couple of days and noticed quite a few small changes here and there from my 156XX VIN, but one thing really stood out right away - the instrument panel display has a much higher resolution. Perhaps they made the change at the same time that they changed the bezel to be thin.

Here's a photo from the brand new loaner:

IMG_6398.jpg


And here is the photo from my car once I got it back:

IMG_6406.jpg


It's really obvious when you look at the text for "Rated Range", but overall it just looks nicer. My son even commented from the back seat that it looked better without me even mentioning it.
 
Could it be firmware? I noticed my car's display looks sharper lately also. Didn't know if one of the latest updates sharpened it or if I just hadn't paid as close attention previously.
 
Mine is VIN 429xx (May 2014 production) and it seems to have the new display:
dashboard resolution.jpg


Looks like horizontal resolution has increased by LESS than a factor of 2. Hard to say about vertical resolution, it might've even stayed the same.
 
Just another data point...

Doesn't look like higher resolution to me. Different brightness setting perhaps and maybe some font changes like ClearType / anti-aliasing but I'm not certain I see even that in the pictures.
 
Just another data point...

Doesn't look like higher resolution to me. Different brightness setting perhaps and maybe some font changes like ClearType / anti-aliasing but I'm not certain I see even that in the pictures.

It's definitely a higher resolution. It might be harder to see in the pictures because it's a picture of a screen and not a real screenshot. The higher res display has a lot more aliasing going on because it has more pixels to actually do the aliasing. It's really obvious in the display of "Rated Range". There just aren't enough pixels there to be able to make it as smooth as it shows on the newer display.
 
It's definitely a higher resolution. It might be harder to see in the pictures because it's a picture of a screen and not a real screenshot. The higher res display has a lot more aliasing going on because it has more pixels to actually do the aliasing. It's really obvious in the display of "Rated Range". There just aren't enough pixels there to be able to make it as smooth as it shows on the newer display.
Agree to disagree. I'm looking at the pixel count on each line (row or column) of the letters and still don't see what you're talking about.
 
Agree to disagree. I'm looking at the pixel count on each line (row or column) of the letters and still don't see what you're talking about.

the best place to see the difference is slightly inclined lines representing side edges of the battery bar. The straight part of that line is represented by 6 horizontal pixels on the old screen:
old screen.jpg

Same line takes ~9 horizontal pixels on the new screen:
new screen.jpg
 
Someone get out the macro lens and stick a photo reference scale to the screen.

I agree that it doesn't make much sense that it would be a pixel or two per inch higher res. If the screen is a different physical size and the graphics scaled differently... maybe?

Also-- someone post pics of this bezel difference.
 
the best place to see the difference is slightly inclined lines representing side edges of the battery bar.
Nice - you can see the same difference when comparing the edge of the gradient/highlight from bottom-left to middle-right, too. Count 4 vertical steps on the top pic and 6 vertical steps on the bottom pic. So I'd say that the new screen has 50% higher resolution in all directions.
 
I was thinking it might be same hardware, but with higher resolution graphics in use. I still tend to think that, since you would normally expect a 2x or higher increase in vertical resolution with new HW--1.5x is a strange update. However, with both cars on 5.12, not sure why the cars would use different graphics packages.

O
 
With the car "off", it will display a picture of the Model S in place of the speedometer/power meter. That image is really "jaggedy"/"pixelly" on my screen. Can you get a photo of that screen?

And I second a photo of the thinner bezel.

- - - Updated - - -

I was thinking it might be same hardware, but with higher resolution graphics in use. I still tend to think that, since you would normally expect a 2x or higher increase in vertical resolution with new HW--1.5x is a strange update. However, with both cars on 5.12, not sure why the cars would use different graphics packages.

O

720 -> 1080 is 1.5x
 
With the car "off", it will display a picture of the Model S in place of the speedometer/power meter. That image is really "jaggedy"/"pixelly" on my screen. Can you get a photo of that screen?

I don't have the loaner anymore, so someone with a recent VIN will have to get a shot. I agree that's another good one that shows how much better the new screen is.

- - - Updated - - -

I was thinking it might be same hardware, but with higher resolution graphics in use. I still tend to think that, since you would normally expect a 2x or higher increase in vertical resolution with new HW--1.5x is a strange update. However, with both cars on 5.12, not sure why the cars would use different graphics packages.

O

Pretty sure the old display was 1280 x 480. If they make it 1.5x bigger, that's 1920 x 720 which is a very logical size. My vote is that the new display is 1920 x 720.