Didn't like the screen on 2013 11 inch

palpatine said:

The screen on the MBA sucks. It always has, even before the advent of retina. It was washed out and blurry when it came out, and it still is. No surprises here. I still bought it

The trade off is obvious: long battery life and a crappy screen or short battery life (maybe more weight) and retina. I'm happy either way, because there are benefits to both. I have no interest in touch screens on my laptop (thanks to the brilliant Apple trackpad + gesture system), so I guess that is one point in Apple's favor no matter which way it would have gone.

Just having spent the entire day without an outlet (I haven't taken the charger out of the house since I got the MBA) I am currently liking the choice that Apple made. This is great, and if I want to read a novel or something, I'll just use my iPad. Now that has one heck of a beautiful display.

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Before we jump further into whining about how awesome retina is - google retina screen fatigue

falconeight said:

Ya but what do you actually get? Plus I think the current macbook air student discount is only $49 off of the regular price. Give that 11 inch a 13 inch screen, 8gb of memory, the more powerful cpu, and its $100 less than a rMBP. Plus the rMBP has a $100 student discount instead of a $50.

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The Best Buy discount is $100. I just purchased the MBA for $899. You have to go online, sign up for the email, and then bring them the coupon code. They'll tell you in the store it is only $49, but trust me, when you show them the email, they immediately know what you are talking about

What do I get for $899. An awesome computer. It does everything I need, just like my 2012 one did, but with longer battery life. It all depends on what you want. If you are going to splurge for i7/8GB RAM/256 GB storage, and you aren't terribly invested in the small form factor (it doesn't matter to you about the size), then the rMBP is the way to go.

But, the base model is a better deal (assuming it fits your use case). You'll lose less money on resale next year (assuming you have that in mind). It "costs" about $20 dollars a month to "rent" the computer (that is how I think of it). It will take three or four years / upgrades for me to "lose" $1000, and because I wouldn't keep a computer for longer than that anyhow, it's a wash.

Except, of course, for the fact that I get to use a brand new computer for 4 years. In my experience, the further you get from the base model, the more it will cost you in the end. Again, if the base model fits your needs, it is a steal, even with the (admittedly) sub-par screen.

Dumb question maybe, but if they can put a retina display on an iPad and make it look great on inferior hardware (like the iPad 3), then why can't they add a retina screen to the 11" MBA with far superior hardware? In fact, the iPad screen and the 11" MBA screen are similar in height, the MBA screen is just wider.

jread said:

Dumb question maybe, but if they can put a retina display on an iPad and make it look great on inferior hardware (like the iPad 3), then why can't they add a retina screen to the 11" MBA with far superior hardware? In fact, the iPad screen and the 11" MBA screen are similar in height, the MBA screen is just wider.

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Battery life.

jread said:

Dumb question maybe, but if they can put a retina display on an iPad and make it look great on inferior hardware (like the iPad 3), then why can't they add a retina screen to the 11" MBA with far superior hardware? In fact, the iPad screen and the 11" MBA screen are similar in height, the MBA screen is just wider.

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What don't people understand about Apple's design criteria for the Macbook AIR? AIR. Light. Portable. Long battery life.

The screens are garbage on these machines. Never ever look at a retina and you probably won't realize. Don't expect retina on the air anytime soon. The pro is as thin as you can make a retina at the moment. If they could make it thinner they would. There will be no retina air. The retina is the air in retina form. So if you want an air with retina there already is one. It's by far the best machine Apple has ever made.

philosopherdog said:

The screens are garbage on these machines. Never ever look at a retina and you probably won't realize. Don't expect retina on the air anytime soon. The pro is as thin as you can make a retina at the moment. If they could make it thinner they would. There will be no retina air. The retina is the air in retina form. So if you want an air with retina there already is one. It's by far the best machine Apple has ever made.

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Mac Pro would have something to say about that.

This is a great thread. Personally, I've I'm keeping my 2010 13' Air until Apple upgrades the screen to IPS or IGZO. Go look at an ASUS IPS screen, the colors jump out. I have the Samsung screen, and it's good enough for text, but I wouldn't mind richer colors.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that having 20/20 or better vision has no bearing on your eye's ability to focus at close to medium range. To the person thinking that the difference at arms length is in our head, buy a $15 pair of reading glasses and you might just see what you have been missing.

I'm in my mid 40's and I still have better than 20/20, but without reading glasses I can't read most of what is on my iPhone. If you are wearing reading glasses or young enough not to need them there is most defiantly a marked difference between the MBA and rMBP screens. And another thing, why use your computer at arms length unless the screen is so bad you have to hold it so far out?