I just got off the phone with someone at Apple. I was curious what the viewing angles were on what I thought was a far inferior screen. The lady said the new MBAs (at least the 13 inch) have an IPS display with a 180 degree viewing angle. I didn't believe her, and she put me on hold and double checked. Curious if anyone else has been told the same thing? If the MBA truly does have an IPS display I have no reason to wait for a Haswell MBP.
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IPS Display?
- Thread starter yeroc3103
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Lady? Who's that lady? I believe the MBA has the same TN panel with its predecessors. Hoping to be wrong though.
She is wrong. My tipoff was her saying that it has a 180 degree viewing angle. IPS displays are only 178 degrees.
Well it looks like they have added glossy display options to the Airs so maybe they are adding the higher quality displays seen in Classic Pro series...
The site is a bit ambiguous about the displays in general so maybe it is best to check them out in store first.
The site is a bit ambiguous about the displays in general so maybe it is best to check them out in store first.
I do not see the "glossy display options" of which you speak. The display is described as "glossy". Is this what you meant? Was the word "glossy" also used in the previous MBA iteration's description?
It is all wishful thinking, imo. The display is not even mentioned in the promo material on the website.
Maybe she was rounding up. Also, I think that the last two degrees are subtracted because you can't even see the screen when you're looking at it from the side (screen is visible if you move up to 89 degrees to the left or up to 89 degrees to the right).
I think it's more likely that the new Air has the same display as the previous Air. However, I think that my 20 inch aluminum cinema display has IPS, but Apple never mentioned it in the tech specs.
IPS is something to brag about for Apple. They mention it in the iMac and rMBP design pages. It is possible that they just started using IPS,so the older 20"model doesnt hve it.
Sorry, by options, I meant within the technical specs - not within the store checkout workflow.
Following this link: http://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs.html
An example of the terminology used for the 13 inch variant:
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors
Supported resolutions:
1440 by 900 (native), 1280 by 800, 1152 by 720, and 1024 by 640 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio and 1024 by 768 and 800 by 600 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio
As far as I know the 2012 Macbook Air only came in matte screen options? I wouldn't think Apple would describe their matte screens as 'glossy'
I don't remember the previous Airs saying "glossy" although what does that necessarily mean for a display?
As I said in my original post, it is a bit ambiguous as to what it means. However, it may herald an introduction to similar display technology currently seen in the Class Macbook Pro, as opposed to the previous Macbook Air displays which used a version of TN displays with narrower viewing angles.
Again, I'm just assuming things. It's best to check it out and compare in store.
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Ah yea, my mistake on the matte display comment. Macbook Air screens have been glossy all along. The specs don't state TFT LED display though so maybe there is still hope!
I think I'm still associating silver bordered laptops with matte screens, hehe...used to own one of those.
My girlfriend has a 2012 Air and I think the display is fine. The viewing angles aren't great but then again we rarely see the situation where we would be watching something on the laptop at the same time. At a desk, it only takes a couple seconds to adjust the tilt of the screen to match your view.
I have a 2010 MBP with the high res option and am fine switching between displays.
No, its not super pixelated at all - It just looks like a normal screen. Obviously it's not in the same realm as rMBP or a retina iOS device.
I think you should definitely go check them out in store first to put your mind at ease about the screen. Plus looking at the new PCI read/write benchmarks for the storage...oh myyyy