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Blown Away

chrisrosemusic1

chrisrosemusic1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 31, 2012
696
21
Northamptonshire, England
I sold my retina 13" 2012 MacBook the other day and headed up to my local Apple store with all intensions of getting an iMac.

After spending a short while in there I kept finding myself increasingly disappointed with the other displays across the board (spoilt with the retina it seemed). I decided not to put quite a lot of money towards an iMac and went for the 2014 Air instead. I've always liked the idea of an Air but never thought it would be powerful enough for me...

However, after a couple of days I am well and truly converted. It's nimble, quick, has amazing battery life and I've completely gotten over the retina screen. TBH, the extra real estate and the fact that all my music stuff runs natively now without fuzziness makes this the perfect laptop for me.

Absolutely love it :D
 
mtneer said:
If that bothered you.. now isn't the whole display "fuzzy" all the time? :D
Click to expand...
The mba display is not fuzzy like the rmbp with unadjusted retina.
I own a rmbp and i love it, but i use a mba from time to time and it is very very impressive.
If you put specs to specs the rmbp wins, but the overall user experience is somewhat better on the mba imo.
 
mtneer said:
If that bothered you.. now isn't the whole display "fuzzy" all the time? :D
Click to expand...

Not the same thing - if you're using the retina at it's intended resolution and say, Ableton doesn't support it, you're left with a seriously downgraded and ugly looking interface overlapping your pixel perfect OS. Isn't a pretty sight.

With the Air running at a supported resolution for all my music tools they all look cleaner and sharper, and with the 'bigger' desktop real estate I get to see more of my applications too. Win win.

The battery life on this thing is ridiculous too.
 
I have both MBA 11" and rMBP 13" that I use daily. I love my rMBP however
I must agree there is something special about the Air.......
 
On my 15" rMBP I can scale the display up to 1920 x 1200. So I expect that the 13" rMBP can also scale the display to higher resolutions. How can the MBA have more screen real estate then?

We got a 2013 13" MBA and the screen quality is a real downgrade from the 15" rMBP imo. The colours are much better on the rMBP imo. (the 2013 13" MBA is more in line with my 2010 15" MBP Anti-glare screen)
 
Last edited:
UBS28 said:
On my 15" rMBP I can scale the display up to 1920 x 1200. So I expect that the 13" rMBP can also scale the display to higher resolutions. How can the MBA have more screen real estate then?

We got a 2013 13" MBA and the screen quality is a real downgrade from the 15" rMBP imo. The colours are much better on the rMBP imo. (the 2013 13" MBA is more in line with my 2010 15" MBP Anti-glare screen)
Click to expand...

The 13-inch retina MacBook Pro can scale the display up to 1680x1050, which is higher than the 1440x900 resolution of the 13-inch MacBook Air. So, I cannot see how the Air offers more real estate.
 
skaertus said:
The 13-inch retina MacBook Pro can scale the display up to 1680x1050, which is higher than the 1440x900 resolution of the 13-inch MacBook Air. So, I cannot see how the Air offers more real estate.
Click to expand...
I do not understand your post.
The retina can be scaled to any desired resolution with an app like switchresx.
The rmbp and mba have the same screensize and therefore the same screen estate.

What the OP means is that in the default resolution the mba has 1440x900
the rmbp has 1200x800 hdpi, therefore the mba has more screen estate by default.

Apps that do not utilize a hdpi resolution on the rmbp will produce a blurry picture.
 
Meister said:
I do not understand your post.
The retina can be scaled to any desired resolution with an app like switchresx.
The rmbp and mba have the same screensize and therefore the same screen estate.

What the OP means is that in the default resolution the mba has 1440x900
the rmbp has 1200x800 hdpi, therefore the mba has more screen estate by default.

Apps that do not utilize a hdpi resolution on the rmbp will produce a blurry picture.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Yes. That ^
 
While I love the MBA , I won't be upgrading to another. The battery life is amazing. The problem is that I can't get enough RAM in it as I would like, I want 16GB. I also dislike the port configuration.

So because the rMBP finally has a 9hrs+ battery life, I'll make the switch after they update them. Unless they redesign the ports on the MBA, I'll be leaving even though I would love a 12hrs battery life. ._.
 
Meister said:
I do not understand your post.
The retina can be scaled to any desired resolution with an app like switchresx.
The rmbp and mba have the same screensize and therefore the same screen estate.

What the OP means is that in the default resolution the mba has 1440x900
the rmbp has 1200x800 hdpi, therefore the mba has more screen estate by default.

Apps that do not utilize a hdpi resolution on the rmbp will produce a blurry picture.
Click to expand...

OS X allows the 13-inch MacBook Pro to be scaled to 1680x1050, 1440x900 and 1024x640 (http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/). Of course, you can install apps and have the resolution you want, and you can even work at a 2560x1600 resolution if you can handle the tiny icons and fonts.

But let me tell you something.

When you choose the "retina" mode, the resolution will be 2560x1600, but the "appearance" will be of 1280x800, as the desktop will be scaled to that "aspect ratio". However, OS X will render the desktop to display a 2560x1600 work area, with the appearance of a 1280x800 work area, as the resolution will still be 2560x1600. The end result is that you will get the same work area of the non-retina MacBook Pro (1280x800 in appearance), but will sharper icons and fonts, as the resolution will be much higher (2560x1600 in the retina model, and 1280x800 in the non-retina).

If you choose 1440x900 in the retina MacBook Pro, the resolution will still be 2560x1600. OS X will produce a 2880x1800 desktop and scale it to fit the 2560x1600 display, so the "appearance" will look like 1440x900. The work area will be the same as in the Air (1440x900), but with sharper icons and fonts, as the resolution will still be 2560x1600 displaying a 2880x1800 image. If you choose 1680x1050, the image will the rendered at 3360x2100 and displayed at the 2560x1600 screen, giving the effect of a very sharp 1680x1050 work area.

So, the retina MacBook Pro provides more real estate than the Air, considering the work area size. Of course both are still 13-inch, but you have more pixels to work with in the Pro, if you want it.
 
skaertus said:
If you choose 1680x1050, the image will the rendered at 3360x2100 and displayed at the 2560x1600 screen, giving the effect of a very sharp 1680x1050 work area.
So, the retina MacBook Pro provides more real estate than the Air, considering the work area size. Of course both are still 13-inch, but you have more pixels to work with in the Pro, if you want it.
Click to expand...
You do indeed have more pixels to work with. The OP just meant the default settings.
 
It's interesting to read these posts on screen scaling etc. I'm tempted to move from my 13" Air to the 13" rMBP, however shifting from 1440x900 to 1280x800 "screen real estate" bothered me. I'd look to run the rMBP mostly in 1440x900 mode.
 
MrGimper said:
It's interesting to read these posts on screen scaling etc. I'm tempted to move from my 13" Air to the 13" rMBP, however shifting from 1440x900 to 1280x800 "screen real estate" bothered me. I'd look to run the rMBP mostly in 1440x900 mode.
Click to expand...
Get the app switchresx.
It lets you decide wether you want hdpi or non-hdpi and also choose every resolution imaginable.

Non-hdpi helps since some webpages will have glitches and lag if the hdpi can't handle it.
 
MrGimper said:
It's interesting to read these posts on screen scaling etc. I'm tempted to move from my 13" Air to the 13" rMBP, however shifting from 1440x900 to 1280x800 "screen real estate" bothered me. I'd look to run the rMBP mostly in 1440x900 mode.
Click to expand...


You can run the 13" rMBP at 1440x900 and it will have the sharpness of the 2560x1600 screen, even better than the 1440x900 on the Air.

I do have a 15" rMBP and I run it at 1920x1200 with the sharpness of the 2880x1800 resolution.

----------
Meister said:
Get the app switchresx.

It lets you decide wether you want hdpi or non-hdpi and also choose every resolution imaginable.



Non-hdpi helps since some webpages will have glitches and lag if the hdpi can't handle it.
Click to expand...


Did you read my post right? I think you did not yet figure out how OS X handle scaling. You do not need switchresx or any other app to do that, OS X will allow you to change resolution (the only thing you need these apps for is to use the 2560x1600 resolution at 1:1 scale).

Said that, the rMBP does not run at 1440x900. It always runs at 2560x1600, but scales to what looks like 1440x900 by rendering images at 2880x1800 and fitting them into the 2560x1600 resolution, so the image is very sharp. You get the 1440x900 work area with 2560x1600 sharpness.
 
skaertus said:
Did you read my post right? I think you did not yet figure out how OS X handle scaling. You do not need switchresx or any other app to do that, OS X will allow you to change resolution (the only thing you need these apps for is to use the 2560x1600 resolution at 1:1 scale).
Click to expand...
OSX only allows hdpi limited to only 4 resolution settings.
Without getting any further into this subject please download switchresx and see for yourself.
 
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