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Almost decided on a matte screen because of an Idiot, er Genius...

majordude

majordude

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 28, 2007
2,443
75
Hootersville
I went to the Apple store today.

I went to one of the rMBP and frankly, it didn't look as good as I expected. I went to the matte finish HD screen and it looked GREAT (like my old 2007 17" matte). I went back to the Retina display.

It really didn't look that good at all.

I went back to the matte screen and a Genius walked up and asked if he could help. I said, "This screen looks BETTER than that Retina display!" He said that it's personal preference... some like one better than the other.

He walked away and I went back to the Retina but the one I was playing with was taken so I went to the next open computer.

IT WAS AMAZING!

WTF?!

My first thought was that the first one had a bad screen or it was a cheaper computer configuration. The Genius came back. I asked, "Are all these Retinas displays the same because this one looks a million times better than that one!" He walked over to the first rMBP and played with it. "Yep, it's the same. It takes getting used to."

He left again and I sat there scratching my head. Then I started poking around on the resolution settings on the "good" retina screen and went over to the "bad" screen.

Idiots.

The display model was set to scale and not for optimal settings! I clicked the button and BAM! Amazing screen on the "bad" one too!

And the "Genius" had PLAYED with it and didn't notice that his display model was set to low def.

If I had never seen the second rMBP I would have ordered an HD matte screen and would have been PISSED the first time I saw a "good" rMBP in action!

Grrr!
 
Apple hire the most useless staff in the industry. Anyone with basic knowledge of any operating system is overqualified to be a genius.
 
Worth considering - you were the 400th person that day to ask him about screens, and they just didn't even pay attention.

Honestly, people walk a lot, yet still trip on things and stub their toes - not sure that qualifies one as an idiot. So to miss something while at work - should not be a huge surprise.

Also, you didn't buy that machine, so problem is?
 
Well, yeah, the Apple retail employees don't know too much about their products. My new hobby is to go to the Apple store and ask them tricky questions, its great fun :)
 
majordude said:
If I had never seen the second rMBP I would have ordered an HD matte screen and would have been PISSED the first time I saw a "good" rMBP in action!

Grrr!
Click to expand...

Wait what? You did order it? Or are my reading comprehension skills really that bad?

Also - why so angry, it's not like you couldn't have exchanged it for the "good one".
 
The employees with the "Genius" job title work behind the Genius Bar (helping customers with broken products) as well as in the back of house, doing repairs on the broken Macs that were left at the bar. They do not work on the sales floor asking customers if they need any help.

Chances are you spoke to a "Specialist". Those are the employees that work on the sales floor answering general product questions about every product that the store sells. Unfortunately, their job title doesn't lend to making as much fun of when they're not at their best.
 
Durious said:
How exciting for you...
Click to expand...

You should try it too, sometimes.

Anyway, my previous post was ironic of course. What I mean is that retail people can't answer technical questions which go beyond basic knowledge. Apple should make them read MAcRumors forums 30 minutes every day, this would dramatically increase their knowledge.
 
leman said:
Well, yeah, the Apple retail employees don't know too much about their products. My new hobby is to go to the Apple store and ask them tricky questions, its great fun :)
Click to expand...

You realize that's pointless, right? I'm all about having fun, but they're there to actually help people with actual questions and/or problems...
 
do they really go through every day and move the lids to the correct angles, look for glaring flaws (perhaps restore from TM every night or reset to factory settings??).
 
aristobrat said:
Chances are you spoke to a "Specialist". Those are the employees that work on the sales floor answering general product questions about every product that the store sells.
Click to expand...

I felt like I was in Best Buy! LOL :D

Seriously, if you've seen a Retina optimized and it running scaled, you'd know IMMEDIATELY that the scaled screen isn't displaying optimally. And since it was sitting on the home screen, it would be obvious (well, I guess not) that something was wrong with the settings. :p
 
majordude said:
I felt like I was in Best Buy! LOL :D

Seriously, if you've seen a Retina optimized and it running scaled, you'd know IMMEDIATELY that the scaled screen isn't displaying optimally. And since it was sitting on the home screen, it would be obvious (well, I guess not) that something was wrong with the settings. :p
Click to expand...

Perhaps it was set to scale because someone else who did not have 20/20 or better vision was using it. Maybe the employee was this person?

And for the record, if you were in Best Buy, there would have been no "idiots" available to help you.
 
Jeff3f said:
do they really go through every day and move the lids to the correct angles, look for glaring flaws (perhaps restore from TM every night or reset to factory settings??).
Click to expand...
Kind of. The sales floor Macs run special images, created by Apple. That way when you open Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, etc ... the all have content in them, so you can play around with the apps.

When a sales floor Mac is rebooted, any changes made (i.e. a customer changing a display setting) are undone. :)
 
majordude said:
I felt like I was in Best Buy! LOL :D

Seriously, if you've seen a Retina optimized and it running scaled, you'd know IMMEDIATELY that the scaled screen isn't displaying optimally. And since it was sitting on the home screen, it would be obvious (well, I guess not) that something was wrong with the settings. :p
Click to expand...

"optimal settings" is just the size of the damn objects on the screen. you can't magically change the pixel density of a display in software.
 
phyrexia said:
"optimal settings" is just the size of the damn objects on the screen. you can't magically change the pixel density of a display in software.
Click to expand...

There is some resolution scaling involved, so the "Best for Retina" mode really will be the sharpest and clearest. I guess if it was set to the "Looks like 1024x640" mode it wouldn't look very good by comparison :p
 
glitternarwhal said:
You realize that's pointless, right? I'm all about having fun, but they're there to actually help people with actual questions and/or problems...
Click to expand...

Give them a medal or something... :rolleyes:

As for me, I at least expect them to understand how HiDPI rendering works or to know that the RMBP suffered from UI lag problem. I mean, the last part is obvious to anyone who tries to use Mission Control on the thing. The guy I talked to was totally surprised when he saw me launching System Preferences from Spotlight - he didn't know that was actually possible.
 
Stetrain said:
There is some resolution scaling involved, so the "Best for Retina" mode really will be the sharpest and clearest. I guess if it was set to the "Looks like 1024x640" mode it wouldn't look very good by comparison :p
Click to expand...

I suppose so. There's scaling involved in "best for retina" as well, since it renders at 3840x2400, but it's a doubling ratio there.
 
Stetrain said:
There is some resolution scaling involved, so the "Best for Retina" mode really will be the sharpest and clearest.
Click to expand...

With pixels being so small even non-pixel perfect scaled modes (1680x1050 etc.) look really good. It also helps that OS X does supersampling+downscaling. Personally, I was unable to see any scaling blur when I was trying the machine out.

----------
phyrexia said:
I suppose so. There's scaling involved in "best for retina" as well, since it renders at 3840x2400, but it's a doubling ratio there.
Click to expand...

I am rather sure best for retina was rendered at 2880x1800 (HiDPI 1440x900), i.e. the native resolution. The 3840x2400 is HiDPI 1920x1200
 
phyrexia said:
I suppose so. There's scaling involved in "best for retina" as well, since it renders at 3840x2400, but it's a doubling ratio there.
Click to expand...

"Best for Retina" aka "Looks like 1440x900" renders at 2880x1800. The "More Space" aka "Looks like 1920x1200" option renders at 3840x2400.

It does make me wonder which mode the RMBP was on that looked so bad, since most people who have compared them in person say that the scaled modes look pretty good.
 
majordude said:
I went to the Apple store today.

I went to one of the rMBP and frankly, it didn't look as good as I expected. I went to the matte finish HD screen and it looked GREAT (like my old 2007 17" matte). I went back to the Retina display.

It really didn't look that good at all.

I went back to the matte screen and a Genius walked up and asked if he could help. I said, "This screen looks BETTER than that Retina display!" He said that it's personal preference... some like one better than the other.

He walked away and I went back to the Retina but the one I was playing with was taken so I went to the next open computer.

IT WAS AMAZING!

WTF?!

My first thought was that the first one had a bad screen or it was a cheaper computer configuration. The Genius came back. I asked, "Are all these Retinas displays the same because this one looks a million times better than that one!" He walked over to the first rMBP and played with it. "Yep, it's the same. It takes getting used to."

He left again and I sat there scratching my head. Then I started poking around on the resolution settings on the "good" retina screen and went over to the "bad" screen.

Idiots.

The display model was set to scale and not for optimal settings! I clicked the button and BAM! Amazing screen on the "bad" one too!

And the "Genius" had PLAYED with it and didn't notice that his display model was set to low def.

If I had never seen the second rMBP I would have ordered an HD matte screen and would have been PISSED the first time I saw a "good" rMBP in action!

Grrr!
Click to expand...

Its not just apple, EVERY store you go nowadays, Apple store, or the real apples store, the staff is ALWAYS dumb. If they were that good, they probably would be CEOs and not Geniuses lol :D

And about apple, i dont know why but here in india too, the 'premium resellers' have the dumbest staff and the normal multi branded resellers have much more knoledgeble ones.

A few days ago i went to a premium reseller to ask about the new ivy bridge MBA, guess what he said? 'there is no new mba sir', i told him there are and to ask his senior, he did, and he confirmed that there arent any.

They should rather keep any random fanboys on the jobs :p
 
golu14 said:
Its not just apple, EVERY store you go nowadays, Apple store, or the real apples store, the staff is ALWAYS dumb. If they were that good, they probably would be CEOs and not Geniuses lol :D

And about apple, i dont know why but here in india too, the 'premium resellers' have the dumbest staff and the normal multi branded resellers have much more knoledgeble ones.

A few days ago i went to a premium reseller to ask about the new ivy bridge MBA, guess what he said? 'there is no new mba sir', i told him there are and to ask his senior, he did, and he confirmed that there arent any.

They should rather keep any random fanboys on the jobs :p
Click to expand...

No they are not dumb! Not everyone at least I encounter with. The stress of customer asking them same question again and
again everyday. Is like you guys posting same question on the thread without doing your research. Sometimes they just act dumb so your stupid mouth stop asking silly question.
 
Labeling those guys/girls a Genius was setting Apple up for ridicule, and Jobs knew it. That said, some are really great at addressing then fixing issues.

Sorry if this doesn't add much to your original post, but it's true. And I agree, there's every bit a chance they will be an idiot instead of a "genius."
 
You pretty much have to do all your research online now. If you walk into a store having done all your own homework then you won't be let down when the person who tries to help you is clueless.

I would expect a little more at an Apple retail store though, so maybe you just ask the rep to send a more experienced rep over to help you? If you're about to drop $2200+ on a laptop I wouldn't worry too much about hurting the poor guy's feelings by implying he can't do his job.
 
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