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15in MBP how many people upgraded screen resolution (worth it)?

wirelessmacuser said:
The real irony is Apples so called "Hi-Res" is not hi-res anywhere except in AppleLand. Likewise it's only the latest & greatest in Apple Speak.

In the PC space, there are three resolutions for 15" displays that have been offered _for years_ on ThinkPads & others.

Stepping out of the Steve Jobs "Reality Distortion Field" the facts are 1680x1050 is medium res, 1920x1200 is high res.

It's "Magical & Revolutionary" ... :)
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Apple may call it whatever they want. 1680x1050, *for me*, is uncomfortable for prolonged use on a 15" screen reading text, specially browsing the web, as almost all websites appear with tiny text in cmd+0. As is 1920x1200 on a 17" screen. Maybe 1680x1050 would be passable on a 17" screen, but for me, not on the 15", for sure.

But as I said, that's my personal experience on the subject. Maybe someone with better eyes could could argue otherwise.
 
The screen res upgrade is the most useful upgrade over my older Penryn 15" MBP. I thought I was going to be completely wow'd by the speed, going from a 2.4ghz C2D to a 2.66ghz i7 w/ 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM. It's faster, but it's not SO much faster. The one thing I notice every time I turn this thing on, though, is the enhanced screen resolution. It's really nice!
 
Look, I'm 32 wear glasses and went with the HS AG screen. I haven't regretted it for a single moment. The extra screen real estate is really handy if you have multiple apps open at once. I play some online poker and can easily open 4 tables next to each other with out it getting to cramped.
In the end it's you who will be staring at the screen. If you find the fonts too small on a 1680x1050 screen then buy the standard screen. It's all about personal preference.
 
rev.b said:
But as I said, that's my personal experience on the subject. Maybe someone with better eyes could could argue otherwise.
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I'm a firm believer in choices and preferences. I'm not suggesting that one is better than the other. The purpose of my response was to share the facts with those who may not realize the difference between true hi-res and what Apple calls hi-res.

Especially since often Apple fluffs up the feature set, or makes a claim like they do with the iPad... "It's Magical & Revolutionary"... oh please. The iPad may be new, it may offer a few new features, but it's certainly not magical or revolutionary. I know I've had one and dumped it after finding that the lack of flash was an even larger problem than I initially thought.

I have a variety of laptops for different purposes, especially since one cannot "adjust" the resolution. Laptops being of fixed resolution, there are times when despite my good vision I like a lower resolution which makes the images on any given web page larger. Especially the images and text that doesn't always scale well when zooming in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. So when I want to relax and just surf the web I pull out my mid 2009 MBP which has the lower res standard display.

At the end of the day there is no "best", there is only what each individual user prefers.

Cheers... :)
 
As you see, no consensus. If you're at all unsure I'd strongly advise having a look at one first (or if you don't have easy access to an Apple store, the dot pitch of the HR is very close to that of the 17" if you know anyone with one of those).

For me (mid 40's, spectacle wearer since late teens) the HR 15" is just right and 1440x900 more appropriate for at 14" monitor. But many people, including those with nominally better eyes, seem to disagree. I personally suspect that a lot of it is what you are used to.
 
I have the standard resolution (1440x900) on my 15" and I love it. I think that 1680x1050 makes all of the OS features and text ultra tiny and hard to use on the 15". However, if I got a 17" MBP I would spring for the 1920x1200 screen because of the added bonus of putting multiple documents side-by-side, it's really worth it, plus being able to watch full 1080p video in full resolution.
 
I went from a 13" to a high res 15", and I love the real estate the high res gives. I can actually fit all the stuff I need to (xCode windows, circuit schematic drawing programs) at the size I want without it taking up the entire screen. I have to wear my glasses more often when using my computer now compared to before, but its so worth it.
 
does anyone know if going to high-resolution lowers the battery life? I was at an Apple store recently, and I unplugged the power adaptor of a high-resolution MBP, and it displayed 3:30 hr left. I did the same for regular resolution MBP, and it displayed 7+ hr. Store employee said the battery life should be about the same, but what I saw is what I saw...

If you got a high-res mbp, can you tell me about the battery life on it?
 
aska said:
does anyone know if going to high-resolution lowers the battery life? I was at an Apple store recently, and I unplugged the power adaptor of a high-resolution MBP, and it displayed 3:30 hr left. I did the same for regular resolution MBP, and it displayed 7+ hr. Store employee said the battery life should be about the same, but what I saw is what I saw...

If you got a high-res mbp, can you tell me about the battery life on it?
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+1

I'm still deciding on the 15 inch standard screen or with hi-res screen. One of the concerns is battery life, since more pixels = more power. :confused:
 
LedCop said:
I have to disagree. The vast majority of Windows notebooks have pixel densities lower than even the 15" standard res. Most of the 15" ones have the resolution of the 13" MacBook (Pro).
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My 6 year old 15" dell runs 1920 resolution...
 
Ries said:
My 6 year old 15" dell runs 1920 resolution...
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I said "vast majority". Yours is one of the few exceptions. Walk into an electronics store, and nine out of 10 Windows laptops will have a pixel density lower than the 15" standard res, and yours will be the one out of 10. I'm not giving an exact statistic but a flavor of what's actually out there.
 
Hello, i have a 5 day old macbook pro i7 with HR screen, and i feel that i have thrown collyrium in my eyes.
For my opinion it worth, the letters are pretty readable and the colours are very bright..
as far as battery life, i have complete 5-6 circles and the autonomy is about 4 hours with airport on, time machine on, bluetooth on, full brightness and with cooling pad in usb port :p
i would personally i vote for high resolution screen
 
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