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Could you go back to non-Retina?

QuarterSwede said:
You may as well be asking if you could go back to VGA. It's clearly the future.
Click to expand...

I have had a MacBook Air for 3 years now, and have tried many Retina MacBooks during that period.
Ever since I laid my eyes on a Retina screen, I knew I'll get one.
However I'm still using my MacBook Air and haven't crossed the line yet, I was waiting for a 4K compatible (60 Hz) 13" MacBook Pro, which is finally out. In the meantime I've tried the MacBook 12", and think I'll wait for the MacBook Pro redesign before pulling the trigger. (I'm hoping for a lighter 13" rMBP)

It's a big step ahead regarding text quality, which is very interesting when you read/write a lot of text and when you're a programmer. Contrast and saturation are also way better than on my MacBook Air.

I'm not that satisfied with web image quality though, most of the time a picture or video looks crispier on the Air's non Retina screen, which doesn't interpolate pixels to fit the big resolution.

All in all, Retina is not perfect yet and I can live without it, but I know that I'll make the switch for my next major purchase and will not look back after that.
My external screen will also have to be at least 4K, not to suffer the transition from crispiness to blurriness that goes with a Retina laptop/non Retina external monitor setup.
 
Niarlatop said:
I have had a MacBook Air for 3 years now, and have tried many Retina MacBooks during that period.
Ever since I laid my eyes on a Retina screen, I knew I'll get one.
However I'm still using my MacBook Air and haven't crossed the line yet, I was waiting for a 4K compatible (60 Hz) 13" MacBook Pro, which is finally out. In the meantime I've tried the MacBook 12", and think I'll wait for the MacBook Pro redesign before pulling the trigger. (I'm hoping for a lighter 13" rMBP)

It's a big step ahead regarding text quality, which is very interesting when you read/write a lot of text and when you're a programmer. Contrast and saturation are also way better than on my MacBook Air.

I'm not that satisfied with web image quality though, most of the time a picture or video looks crispier on the Air's non Retina screen, which doesn't interpolate pixels to fit the big resolution.

All in all, Retina is not perfect yet and I can live without it, but I know that I'll make the switch for my next major purchase and will not look back after that.
My external screen will also have to be at least 4K, not to suffer the transition from crispiness to blurriness that goes with a Retina laptop/non Retina external monitor setup.
Click to expand...
It's not that the screens aren't ready yet it's that web assets are extremely low res and the high DPI screen is betraying that.

"This VGA screen is awesome but this game is still in green and black." It's the content, not the display.
 
QuarterSwede said:
It's not that the screens aren't ready yet it's that web assets are extremely low res and the high DPI screen is betraying that.

"This VGA screen is awesome but this game is still in green and black." It's the content, not the display.
Click to expand...
Of course it's content related, however the fact is that we'll still have "normal-DPI" assets for a long while and it's important to acknowledge this fact when choosing to go Retina.

To have a web with high-DPI only images and assets we would need everyone to have a fast Internet access, and way larger backbones to deal with the traffic increase. It's not going to happen anytime soon, this will take years.
Hence the shortcut I make, saying "Retina is not perfect (for every usage) yet".
 
Not going back. Have Retina on my iPad and on my MBP 13" (2013) and my MBP 13" (2015) and am waiting for the next generation of iMacs to be released with a 21" that has retina screen and also SD (preferably as already installed but if not, offered as good upgrade choices).
 
I only had a MacBook Air before, now I own an iPad Air 2 and have little to no eye strain after using it.

I read a lot, and would get bad eye strain using the MacBook Air. I thought it was just typical of using an LED display, but it is much better with the iPad.

Now I look at text on the MacBook and I notice the blurriness of the text more than I used to. It's so weird. I have to do all my reading on the iPad now.

I wish I had a retina MacBook.
 
I could go back, would I notice a difference? Sure, for a little while then my eyes/brain would adjust to what I'm looking at and eventually I'd not even notice.
 
I traded a rMBP for a cMBP a month ago, admittedly I didn't actually use the rMBP, but anyway. I've used a lot of retina displays and never felt the need to switch. I have an iPad 2 and an iPad Mini 2 and i still use the iPad 2 as my main iPad. I also went from an iPod Touch 4 to a 3GS back in 2012...
 
I know this thread is a few days old, but I've been struggling with a related problem for some time now. I have a mid-2012 rMBP and I'd like to hook it up to a larger external monitor, but I can't get over the loss of text detail whenever I've tried it. I'm a developer and staring at the screen reading lines of code all day long is a significantly better experience with a retina resolution. For me, it has gone from a "nice to have" to the "most important" feature of a computer. I would choose a computer with slower processing power but a higher resolution screen vs the opposite all day everyday. I don't know if it's the eye strain or just my slightly OCD nature, but I just can't not notice and be bothered by how fuzzy everything looks on a non-Retina screen. That said, I haven't been able to bring myself to shell out the money for a larger iMac Retina 5k because the difference in the performance between even the most loaded version of that computer and my original mid-2012 Retina Macbook Pro is about 30%. I just can't justify ~$2500-$3500 for the larger monitor and the 10-30% performance boost. Or can I? Haha. The dilemma continues.
 
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I have the same set up as you except 15 inch rMBP. I would just stick with the TBD. Or maybe get a 4k display. Why would you get an entire computer just for retina display? I get it, Apple monitors are sexy, but I don't really use my TBD for retina display - I use it for screen real estate and multi tasking when I'm using my Macbook as a desktop at home.
 
I am about to switch out a 24" Cinema display at 1920x1200 for a Benq BL3201PH 4K IPS monitor. I too love the retina display and although it might not be "as retina" on my new monitor, I'm hoping it will be okay. Main issue might be that true pixel doubling would lead in my case to having an effective resolution of 1920x1080, a net reduction in vertical height. I'll probably try running at one of the scaled resolutions however and see how I get on. I'll also miss the handy charging cable and tidiness of hooking up to the MBP.
 
I did go back. Or, sideways - that would be a better description. Even though I've used my mid-12 rMBP heavily for three years now (the lettering on some of the keys is wearing away), I always lusted for the wonder that is the very last of the 17-inch MBP's. I got one on eBay recently for under $750. And it works! I upgraded to 10.10.4 (and today upgraded to 10.10.5), swapped out the old 5400rpm HD for a terabyte SSD, and stuffed it with 16GB RAM. It goes just as fast as my rMBP for all that I do, and since I adjust font sizes on each machine to be about the same visual size, the 17" non-Retina MBP is every bit as pleasant to use as the rMBP, and it gives me a significant increase in screen size.

I still use the rMBP, but right now it's sitting on the kitchen table for use while eating, and the 17" has become my work machine.
 
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