Deal or no deal? Hi Res MBP..

[Joko]

Just wondering, I've never owned or seen a high res 17'' screen but I hear it can make icons and text too small?

I have been made an offer on a 2nd hand high res (2 months old with guarantee) 17'' MBP. It would cost me the same as a 15'' 2.4 MBP.

I dont move around much at all, maybe once every 3 months.

Is this a good deal? What are your views on the high res displays?

 

[StealthRider]

From some hands-on use, it's a gorgeous display - you won't regret it!

 

[soms]

They look amazing, if you can get it for that price I say do it. You can always re-sell it on ebay and get a regular 17" or 15" MBP if need be.

 

[Xavier]

I have one of these, and yes the text/icons are smaller. That is because the screen size in real time is larger than 17", it is just downscaled to fit on the MBP

Personally, I am very glad I got the high rez. The display is stunning and crisp. The battery life, of course, is not the greatest, but it is suitable for my needs

 

[Joko]

Thanks alot guys, that helps alot. I guess I could sell it again for a pretty good price depending on its condition. To be exact it $100 US more than a 15.4 2.4Ghz model, still a pretty good deal I'm thinking.
I just hope its in as good a condition as advertised!

I have one of these, and yes the text/icons are smaller. That is because the screen size in real time is larger than 17", it is just downscaled to fit on the MBP

Personally, I am very glad I got the high rez. The display is stunning and crisp.

And you easily choose it over the standard MBP resolution if you had the choice again?

 

[darkpaw]

I like the real estate I get with the screen. It's sharp and bright, and I don't have to squint at it to read the text. However, so I don't get sued when you go blind, your mileage may vary. If you can't read properly anyway, or need glasses, you're likely to find it more difficult to read the screen. (Sorry to state the obvious.)

If you can afford it, get it. I have no regrets with mine.

 

[Xavier]

Yes!

I go back to my 20" cinema display and much prefer my MBP

If you can get the high rez, then do it

 

[Joko]

I like the real estate I get with the screen. It's sharp and bright, and I don't have to squint at it to read the text. However, so I don't get sued when you go blind, your mileage may vary. If you can't read properly anyway, or need glasses, you're likely to find it more difficult to read the screen. (Sorry to state the obvious.)

If you can afford it, get it. I have no regrets with mine.

Thanks alot, it's very tempting..and I haven't heard any negatives on the subject yet so think I may go for it.

 

[iToaster]

And you easily choose it over the standard MBP resolution if you had the choice again?

You can switch it to that resolution but it will be a little blurry because the LCD has to fit the standard number of pixels into the actual number. In other words, yes, but it won't look great.

 

[Jasper2k]

Thanks alot, it's very tempting..and I haven't heard any negatives on the subject yet so think I may go for it.

Just to give you one other datapoint - I bought the 17" Matte HD and I regret it every day. Why? Because I'm OLD (50) and I have bifocals. It was a bad choice on my part, nothing to do with the amazing display quality. I HATE running LCD's at anything other than their native rez (1920x1200) due to the fuzzy scaling. So on the 17" the fonts / menus / etc. are too small for my old eyes to read comfortably.

My solution? Use my bad choice as an excuse to splurge on an ACD 30"!

Woo hoo!

 

[chickenninja]

its a great deal, even though text gets smaller you can still turn your resolution down and then you still have the bigger screen. resolution being too high is a ridiculous reason not to buy a computer because you can always adjust the resolution to what you want. and with the 17" screen text will actually be bigger at the same resolution of the 15".

 

[amini1]

I was wondering the same thing Joko. I own a 17" Hi Res Dell and absolutely love the real estate. I don't use it for spreadsheets I just like the additional room for watching a movie on one side, while browsing the internet on the other. My 60 year old father in law can't stand to use my computer because he can't see the icons and words. I'm only 38 and have no vision issues...hopefully that's a few years off. I'm getting a new MBP when/if the update comes out before May and a Hi Res screen was my main question. They never have them on display at the stores so I've never seen one.

 

[Joko]

its a great deal, even though text gets smaller you can still turn your resolution down and then you still have the bigger screen. resolution being too high is a ridiculous reason not to buy a computer because you can always adjust the resolution to what you want. and with the 17" screen text will actually be bigger at the same resolution of the 15".

Thanks alot.

Ok so being fairly new to osx, like on xp, you can change the display res if it does feel text etc is too small? If it's configurable then that answers alot of questions and definitely makes the decision easier.

 

[Jasper2k]

Thanks alot.

Ok so being fairly new to osx, like on xp, you can change the display res if it does feel text etc is too small? If it's configurable then that answers alot of questions and definitely makes the decision easier.

Yup, that's correct. However, you are trading size for sharpness. It's like this - the native rez of the panel is 1920x1200. You can very easily run it at 1600, or even 1080, for huge text. But, the panel will scale and the text gets (IMHO) blurry, blotchy and just plain ugly, since it's grouping pixels on the fly to accomplish the non-native rez.

Go to the Apple store and take a look. Also note - since the HD native rez display is widescreen (actually 16:10, not 16:9), when you choose the more traditional resolutions to make it bigger, it either wants to stretch (even more ugly) or leave you with pillar box (unused side bars).

Can you take the 17" 1920x1200 HD display and make it another resolution? Sure! Will you like how it looks day-in day-out? Only you can judge that by taking a look!

 

[D*I*S_Frontman]

Can't you merely resize your Desktop and Dock icons? Default text sizes?

It is hard for me to see a downside to the HD display. If I were in the market for a new MPB and my budget was big enough, you'd bet I'd get one.

 

[jahala]

Can't you merely resize your Desktop and Dock icons? Default text sizes?

You can resize icons and the icon text, but you cannot change the text size of the menu bar or most program fonts, so pixel density on the screen is an issue if you have vision problems.

 

[Joko]

I pulled the trigger, saved about $900..very happy with it. Plus it has a 7200rpm drive, perfect for the work i'll be doing. Thanks for your help, res is awesome, sometimes + helps for web pages with smaller fonts.

 

[GooglEyes]

I just got the high resolution screen and I absolutely love it!!! The screen real estate is such a vast improvement, and everything is so crisp—I'm in absolute heaven.

Personally, I don't mind having the text and icons small, but you can change that in the view options for the finder. As mentioned previously, text and icons in the menu bar on the left (Leopard) remain small, but hopefully will provide a fix for that eventually. You can also use the track pad's zoom feature to pinch-zoom in and out on a particular item (although this method does make things slightly blurry).

I would absolutely order the high-rez again. If you do not have trouble with small print, you will be incredibly happy, but for those who do, stick with the standard screen.