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13'' hard on eyes?

M

M-B-P

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 15, 2010
169
0
Hey everyone,

I am looking to get my very 1st mac- a macbook pro- and i am very excited(I HATE to wait:mad:). I have been doing a lot of research on this site and found some very useful info. As of now I am leaning toward getting a base 13'' and upgrading it with a SSD later on this year(when the new Intel SSDs are released). One thing I am concerned about is the 13'' glossy screen being to hard on my eyes, negatively impacting my eyesight. From your experiences how has the 13'' screen been on your eyes?

I would like to add that I am a college student and I am looking for a laptop that I can use for atleast 4-5 years. I am not a gamer, I rarely do photo editing, and am just going to use it for casual/school purposes. So would upgrading to a 15''(a bigger screen) be MUCH lighter on my eyes, or would a 13'' be fine. The portability and batter life of the 13'' is pretty important to me, so would I be making a significant sacrifice in portability and battery life going from the 13'' to the 15''.

I would appreciate some insightful advice from the experts :)
 
Go to 13.3"" 2.4GHz C2D, 320M nVidia, is't Good, i have my first macbook pro (this model) bought yesterday it's good, (i want 15" with matte but this is't better).

btw: glossy have display in one line, matte 3 lines ... left, display, right ... gut for dust ;)
 
There are definitely certain things you need to do; shrink the dock, get rid of all the stupid status bars in firefox, things like that. Here is my setup.
 
M-B-P said:
Hey everyone,

I am looking to get my very 1st mac- a macbook pro- and i am very excited(I HATE to wait:mad:). I have been doing a lot of research on this site and found some very useful info. As of now I am leaning toward getting a base 13'' and upgrading it with a SSD later on this year(when the new Intel SSDs are released). One thing I am concerned about is the 13'' glossy screen being to hard on my eyes, negatively impacting my eyesight. From your experiences how has the 13'' screen been on your eyes?

I would like to add that I am a college student and I am looking for a laptop that I can use for atleast 4-5 years. I am not a gamer, I rarely do photo editing, and am just going to use it for casual/school purposes. So would upgrading to a 15''(a bigger screen) be MUCH lighter on my eyes, or would a 13'' be fine. The portability and batter life of the 13'' is pretty important to me, so would I be making a significant sacrifice in portability and battery life going from the 13'' to the 15''.

I would appreciate some insightful advice from the experts :)
Click to expand...

The dot-pitch is identical for the 13" and standard 15". I have both MBP's and find no vision problem with either.

If you have excellent near-field vision you might be able to use the hi-rez display on the 15".
 
What I think you'll want to consider is the screen resolution in relationship to the screen size. For any given screen size, the greater the resolution, the smaller the on-screen text will be.

The current 1280 x 800 resolution on the 13-inch MBP is pretty much ideal for the screen size, in my opinion. I've never had to strain to read any type on my 13-inch.

On the other hand, I'm not sure whether your main concern is the glossiness of the screen. The glossy is no problem indoors, for the most part. Sometimes you have to take care about the location of lighting, as the reflections can get annoying, but that's nothing a little planning won't take care of.
 
vty said:
There are definitely certain things you need to do; shrink the dock, get rid of all the stupid status bars in firefox, things like that. Here is my setup.

snip ..........
Click to expand...

Dang............. took me half a minute to find the correct 'reply' button. :p
 
Sorry! I actually originally used imgurs shrink to fit link option, but for some reason that doesn't work with this forum. :(

Edit: There, fixed mine. Now fix yours! haha.
 
My concern is not really about having space on my desktop or viewing multiple windows at the same time, It is just about actual physical strain on my eyes. I just don't want my eyesight to be impacted by the screen b/c it is so small.I find the glossy screen of the macs to be be absolutely beautiful, so that is is not something the draws me away.
 
Well, im not sure if it helps, but about 7 months ago I sold off my 30" Apple Display (2560x1600) and used a 13" for the last 6 months until i got a 27" iMac and i didnt have too hard of a time adjusting.
The loss of screen real estate was a bit of adjustment but none the less I managed and wasnt hard at all on the eyes or productivity.
 
1280 isn't a very hard or small resolution on a 13" screen; on the other hand, staring at the Vaio Z's 1680 would probably induce quite a few headaches in me. Other people might not mind it, though. YMMV.
 
vty said:
1280 isn't a very hard or small resolution on a 13" screen; on the other hand, staring at the Vaio Z's 1680 would probably induce quite a few headaches in me. Other people might not mind it, though. YMMV.
Click to expand...

Thanks vty, I appreciate your input. :)

I am still open to other opinions to see how other people feel about the strain on the eyes.
 
Personally I prefer the 15'' and think the 13'' is too small but the lead designer at work uses a 13'' hooked up to a monitor when he is at a desk. I love size of 13'' in every but the screen. I can see the screen perfectly fine, just not enough real estate for me to work with.
 
johnnymg said:
Dang............. took me half a minute to find the correct 'reply' button. :p
Click to expand...

Uhh, u wonder why ur computer runs slow it's because you have all that crap running in the background. Always funny to see people running tools that constantly update them as to how fast their computer is running... which in itself slows down the computer, haha
 
M-B-P said:
Thanks for the info.

...Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

Why do you want other people to tell you what to do? Size of laptop is personal preference, it's asking "sedan or suv" kinda thing? They both serve the same purpose, but if you want a big laptop with a big screen, get the 15" otherwise get the 13" if you want something more portable. Both are super portable, but if you fly coach a lot you may want the 13"... as it's easier to use in a smaller coach seat without power plugs
 
bella92108 said:
Uhh, u wonder why ur computer runs slow it's because you have all that crap running in the background. Always funny to see people running tools that constantly update them as to how fast their computer is running... which in itself slows down the computer, haha
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? Did you quote the wrong person? He said he couldn't find the right reply button, not it wouldn't load fast enough. wow.
 
It is a lower resolution than the 15", making things bigger than they are on the 15" which makes it perfect on a 13" screen. No worries.
 
With the brightness on full...no problem. I've never said to myself, "damn, I want a matte surface."

You want it to last five years...to do casual stuff and school work? Boy, there are iBooks from 2001 that could fill that bill. Trust me, if you are patient, it will be with you for a looooong time.

It's going to feel like a divorce when it's over :(
 
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