When you change from the default resolution on a regular MBP, things on the screen get fuzzy. Can you adjust to a higher res, like 1600x1200 for example, and will everything be sharp and clear? My objective would be to fit more on the screen.
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Different resolutions on rMBPs
- Thread starter darngooddesign
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anything straying from the default 1440 hidpi mode will be blurrier. on a good note, you can't tell THAT much since its still relatively sharp. but yes, quality will go down (as well as performance if you go to higher hidpi modes)
I'm struggling with your question: things don't really get that fuzzy, unless they're not retina-ready...
And 1600x1200 doesn't exist on RMBP.. There's 5 different resolutions you can choose from, all of which use all 2880x1800 pixels. There's two lesser than 1440x900, 1440x1900, and two greater. You can pick whatever one suits your fancy.
Picture: http://puu.sh/1wpBt
The whole point of the retina mbp is the resolution independence. You can set it to any resolution you like and it will still look more or less the same than a native screen of that resolution. Plus, with the build-in super sampling it actually looks better than a native screen.
I'd like to add that it's just texts that look blurrier at higher than "Best For Retina" resolution.
Images remain just as sharp.
It looks to me like Apple is changing sub-pixel rendering for fonts at HiDPI resolutions, so that fonts are still legible but at the expense of sharpness.
I meant both but forgot to add rMBP further in the post. The gist is, on a regular MBP if you choose a non stock resolution everything looks fuzzy. On a rMBP, does the text and UI on all the supported resolutions look equally clear and sharp? I said 1600x1200 for example because I don't know what the higher reses are.
Gotcha, and well the resolution above best for retina is 1680x1050, so you were close. At this resolution, no blurriness. Same with 1920x1200.
For the lower ones, hardly noticeable in the UI. It still looks way better than a non-retina screen even at the lowest one.
^ hence the name.
However, OP, your visual experience will not be lessened by choosing a higher resolution, if you wish to gain more screen real-estate.
I'd recommend just staying with the Best for Retina setting. Everything looks great, an appropriate size.. etc. One thing you can do to free up a bit of space is auto-hide the dock. I would recommend doing that!
In short, and in my experience, no the resolution is not equally clear and sharp across the board. It may well be that the worst on the RMBP is better than your typical screen, but for anything other than best for retina (the default), on my screen, it looks pretty bad compared to the best for retina option. As another poster mentioned, it pretty much only affects the fonts, i.e. its the writing that appears blurry, but since that is pretty much everywhere for the overwhelming majority of tasks, you will notice it.
I respectfully disagree, the higher resolutions do not look bad at all.
But as you said, even on the lowest resolution fonts are still more clear than text on a non-retina screen.