I've seen some pictures of the new pb HD 17" display compared to the old one; but have yet to see or hear about how the 15" compares to its previous version. I'm mainly wondering if the difference in brightness of the 15", b/w the new and old, is as impressive as the 17"???
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone seen the new 15" powerbook display yet?
- Thread starter NewMacConvertee
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
NewMacConvertee said:
My New 15" Should be here tuesday morning according to FedEx. When it does, I'll take some comparison pics with my old 15" PB and post them for ya's.
Apple.com/powerbook/display.html said:
46% brighter! !! Mmmm....
I'm checkin' them out tomorrow. I'll tell ya how they stand up.
pdpfilms said:
someone called apple and that's what the customer service rep told them. i haven't seen anything in writing from apple stating this. also, nobody has really been able to show us a side by side comparison of the new 15" and last rev 15".
pdpfilms said:
I think I'd better call tech support. I just got picked one up at the Apple store and it only seems to be about 24.3 or 25.2% brighter at best.
P.S. Apple is the worst company ever!!
I was at the Apple store yesterday and they had a new 15 inch PB on display as well as an old one (on the opposite side of the store). Anyway, the new screen is NOT any brighter, IMHO. I compared both at the highest setting and, in terms of brightness, they looked identical to my eyes. The new screen does look better in terms of resolution but the fonts are too small in some circumstances and, as always, YMMV...
Also, the new 17 inch PB looked substantially brighter than the new 15 inch PB that was sitting right next to it.
On another note, I am skeptical of Apple's claims that the 15 inch PB can get "up to 5.5 hours" of battery life. I unplugged the new PB (it was showing 100% on the battery meter) and I waited a few minutes to see what the time remaining meter would say and it never got higher than 3:15 with the brightness set to 75%. When I cranked the brightness up to high, the time remaining went down to 2:45. Then I tried the brightness all the way down, without shutting the backlight off completely, and the time remaining went to 3:40 but, at this brightness level, the screen is barely viewable, especially in a well-lit store like the Apple store.
I just don't see how anyone can get 5.5 hours out of it, especially with the battery being essentially the exact same one that was on the previous generation 15 inch PB.
I hope that helps answer some of the questions in this thread...
Also, the new 17 inch PB looked substantially brighter than the new 15 inch PB that was sitting right next to it.
On another note, I am skeptical of Apple's claims that the 15 inch PB can get "up to 5.5 hours" of battery life. I unplugged the new PB (it was showing 100% on the battery meter) and I waited a few minutes to see what the time remaining meter would say and it never got higher than 3:15 with the brightness set to 75%. When I cranked the brightness up to high, the time remaining went down to 2:45. Then I tried the brightness all the way down, without shutting the backlight off completely, and the time remaining went to 3:40 but, at this brightness level, the screen is barely viewable, especially in a well-lit store like the Apple store.
I just don't see how anyone can get 5.5 hours out of it, especially with the battery being essentially the exact same one that was on the previous generation 15 inch PB.
I hope that helps answer some of the questions in this thread...
Contrast not Brightness...
In the field of visual perception it is understood that our eyes are poorly tuned to absolute brightness, but instead are tuned to contrast. So, its actually really hard to judge the difference in brightness, especially if the two screens aren't adjacent. This is further compounded by a relatively modest brightness difference of 25% (24.3% anyone? 27.2%?).
An example of the phenomena is found here:
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_dynsimcontrast/index.html
Superhob said:
In the field of visual perception it is understood that our eyes are poorly tuned to absolute brightness, but instead are tuned to contrast. So, its actually really hard to judge the difference in brightness, especially if the two screens aren't adjacent. This is further compounded by a relatively modest brightness difference of 25% (24.3% anyone? 27.2%?).
An example of the phenomena is found here:
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_dynsimcontrast/index.html
Apple makes no claims that 15 inch PB has brighter display
Here is the quote from Apple's Powerbook page titled "display": "The 1680-by-1050-pixel display on the new 17-inch PowerBook sports over 1.7 million pixels — 36% more spacious and 46% brighter than the previous generation — giving you a brilliant workspace that rivals many desktop monitors. With a 1.3 million-pixel display at a resolution of 1440 by 960, the new 15-inch PowerBook dazzles quite nicely with 26% more pixels than its predecessor."
Apple does not make any claims that the 15 inch PB is brighther, simply that it has 26% more pixels. This affirms my personal observations that there is no difference, in terms of brightness, between the old and new 15 inch PB's.
Here is the quote from Apple's Powerbook page titled "display": "The 1680-by-1050-pixel display on the new 17-inch PowerBook sports over 1.7 million pixels — 36% more spacious and 46% brighter than the previous generation — giving you a brilliant workspace that rivals many desktop monitors. With a 1.3 million-pixel display at a resolution of 1440 by 960, the new 15-inch PowerBook dazzles quite nicely with 26% more pixels than its predecessor."
Apple does not make any claims that the 15 inch PB is brighther, simply that it has 26% more pixels. This affirms my personal observations that there is no difference, in terms of brightness, between the old and new 15 inch PB's.
chucknorris said:I think I'd better call tech support. I just got picked one up at the Apple store and it only seems to be about 24.3 or 25.2% brighter at best.
P.S. Apple is the worst company ever!!
I'm accepting donations to buy a new Powerbook, because i will break it in the store and film it, donations over $100 will get the video a day early.
