Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

tachillon

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 20, 2018
25
47
Lille, France
Since the new iPhone 11 Pro has a screen labeled as "XDR" and the new XDR monitor is just around the corner, I was hoping the new 16" MacBook Pro would have kind of the same very high end screen... But guess it is going to be for (I hope) 2020...
 
ive been looking for screen specs since it was annouced, but ive yet to see any hard specs other than 'same brightness as the early 2019 15.4"' and only a 1/2" bigger screen physical size.
 
jonathan morrison's video with phil schiller addressed this.
It seems theyve reached the tech limit of portable LCD panels. I can see the next 'jump' being the adoption MicroLED, which would be quite a few years away.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hakiroto
jonathan morrison's video with phil schiller addressed this.
It seems theyve reached the tech limit of portable LCD panels. I can see the next 'jump' being the adoption MicroLED, which would be quite a few years away.

This. The fact that Apple is releasing the XDR Display in December in volume quantities for the 1st time, it kinda proves that this tech is still in its infancy and isn't ready to be mass-produced in various sizes yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nismo73
Since the new iPhone 11 Pro has a screen labeled as "XDR" and the new XDR monitor is just around the corner, I was hoping the new 16" MacBook Pro would have kind of the same very high end screen... But guess it is going to be for (I hope) 2020...

Your upset the MacBook Pro doesn't have an XDR display? Are you serious? How about coming back down to earth and rethinking your statement as that's actually just not possible with tech right now, not to mention the battery life/and or thermals it must take to drive a display like that. Clearly you just no clue.
 
I was feeling the same... Obviously XDR level brightness would be hard to do with todays technology (and would probably generate a lot of heat and kill the battery) but it would have at least been nice to see some upgrades to the screen besides just the half inch size increase.

IMO Apple should have at least added:

1. 600-700 nit screen brightness (would really help those times when you have sun light coming onto the screen.

2. HDR video support! I'm very surprised this didn't make it in... The iPad Pro and every current iPhone can do HDR. Plus Apple just launched their TV plus program which all feature HDR. They have Dolby Atmos support so why wasn't Dolby Vision added as well...? We already have 10bit P3 color. Why not add support for HDR highlights too?

3. Better antiglare filter (this may already be in there but just not talked about).

Either way though, what they did do for this upgrade was pretty darn good. For me, the extra 256gb of storage, the Navi GPU and the better air filtration is worth the upgrade from my still very new 2019 15" (which gets insanely hot).
 
XDR tech it self, it can't be shrunk down to MBP size yet. That's probably years away. Apple probably could have done HDR/high refresh rate though and slight screen brightness nits bump. But the 16" MBP not having it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me unless i knew with relative certainty another spec bump 16" MBP was coming very soon after this one.
 
I think this is where Apple's marketing confuses people. They do promote the iPhone with "It’s like having a Pro Display XDR on your iPhone" and even call it an XDR display.

I understand the difference, but I can't fault someone for asking why the tech can't be shrunk to MBP size. Especially when Apple is telling you the iPhone is like having a Pro XDR display in your pocket.
 
Since the new iPhone 11 Pro has a screen labeled as "XDR" and the new XDR monitor is just around the corner, I was hoping the new 16" MacBook Pro would have kind of the same very high end screen... But guess it is going to be for (I hope) 2020...
No, next question...
 
I’m somewhat disappointed in a sense that the new 16” MBP should have come out in 2016.
And it feels like an old model somewhat because of that. But well I don’t mind abit.

Finally, a decent computer I can buy from Apple.
 
Despite not having various fancy certifications, the screens on these MacBook Pros (15 and 16), weighted for pros and cons, are as high end as it gets, in my opinion. You get fantastic battery life, high DPI, very uniform backlighting, very good view angles, and very good colors. It's an anomaly in the laptop market; this is the only 15-16 inch laptop with a high DPI screen that can achieve a battery life over 6 hours.


Who cares if it's not XDR. Put the MacBook Pro, even the 15 inch, next to whatever other laptop you want and it will most likely look better. And if it doesn't, the other laptop probably has some other kind of showstopper, like a power brick the size of an anvil, or perhaps it weighs 10 lbs.
 
As others have mentioned, 2021 is the rumored year for miniLED tech to be introduced in the MBPs. Should be more power efficient with higher peak brightness to enable HDR. Not quite at the OLED level, though.

microLED is the dream screen tech that will replace OLED with better power efficiency and brightness all without the long-term image retention issues. I don't imagine that it'll be available on computers/monitors until late-2020s; TVs (already prototyped by Samsung this year) always get the new tech sooner due to economies of scale with their standard aspect ratio (16:9) and resolution (4K). But even then we're nowhere near mass-market there.
 
Your upset the MacBook Pro doesn't have an XDR display? Are you serious? How about coming back down to earth and rethinking your statement as that's actually just not possible with tech right now, not to mention the battery life/and or thermals it must take to drive a display like that. Clearly you just no clue.
but.. but.. iPhone's 'XDR' is only a marketing term for their OLED, what stops us from getting OLED panels? Or slightly better HDR LCD panels?
 
*Deep breath*

Ok with the 16 inch we got pretty much the best screen available on a laptop. If it’s not the absolute best, it’s close, it’s up there.

And we got this without them bumping the price.

But that’s not good enough? You want them to miniaturise the thick active cooling lighting and filtering system from the $6000 unreleased XDR monitor that transcends fundamental problems with LCD technology (contrast and dynamic range)? The idea of fitting this into a laptop is not science fiction, but it is currently far from being realistic.
 
but.. but.. iPhone's 'XDR' is only a marketing term for their OLED, what stops us from getting OLED panels? Or slightly better HDR LCD panels?

Apple doesn't want to do OLED on their laptops because they're worried about image retention/screen burn in after long term use if people have the screen on high brightness and going OLED means having to rely on Samsung to provide the panels and Apple wants to start cutting back on their reliance on Samsung for parts. The only LCD panels that can do HDR are ones with local dimming and very high contrast ratios. The latter, Apple technically could do, but it wouldn't really be worth it. That R&D money is better spent just getting Micro/Mini LED screens ready since Mini LED is right around the corner in the grand scheme of things. Doing an LCD with HDR to Apple is like when HD was new and bothering with 720p video when they could just wait a little longer and jump to 1080p. Like yes the 720p is better than SD, but it just makes more sense to wait the extra year or two and get a much bigger improvement from the bigger jump.
 
Last edited:
Apple doesn't want to do OLED on their laptops because they're worried about image retention/screen burn in after long term use if people have the screen on high brightness and going OLED means having to rely on Samsung to provide the panels and Apple wants to start cutting back on their reliance on Samsung for parts. The only LCD panels that can do HDR are ones with local dimming and very high contrast ratios. The latter, Apple technically could do, but it wouldn't really be worth it. That R&D money is better spent just getting Micro/Mini LED screens ready since Mini LED is right around the corner in the grand scheme of things. Doing an LCD with HDR to Apple is like when HD was new and bothering with 720p video when they could just wait a little longer and jump to 1080p. Like yes the 720p is better than SD, but it just makes more sense to wait the extra year or two and get a much bigger improvement from the bigger jump.
I agree with what you've said, but there are some points I want to make.
Apple would never bring OLED to laptops and desktops because of screen burn, but isn't it a joke that the LG ultrafine had the same non-permanent screen burn back then? Yes, they are not apple's display, but with cinema displays removed, and ultrafine being officially recommended, I see them as apple's display.
And I think the iPad pro is providing both pro-motion and HDR600 with its 600-nits display. Pro-motion is less likely to happen due to HD620 iGPU, HDR600 could happen if Apple raise 100 nits for the 16'. The display haven't improved a lot for mbp in the past 2 years. I only recall them adding p3 in 2016, bumping 100 nits in 2017, and true tone some time. The 100 nits with HDR could come handy for watching TV+ or other content.
Correct me if I am wrong, I think mac os cannot output hdr to an external monitor. It's kind of strange given them pushing xdr so hard on iPhone pro (even it's just normal OLED) and Pro Display XDR which is an external monitor. Having an HDR display could bring HDR external monitor compatibility.
Apple was always quite ahead in the display segment, the display could be better on the 16' this year.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.