High Res Screens in 15'' Macbook Pro

[Lord Cauldron]

I visited my local (70 miles away!) Apple store in Glasgow to check out the difference between the hi res and standard screens for myself... and of course to have a general drool over the Apple loveliness!

I'm by no means a 'pro' user but enjoy photography and using PhotoShop and will no doubt end up doing some audio work for my job on Logic or Pro Tools once I get the new machine. IMHO the hi res screen on the 17" machine made things a little too small for me to feel comfortable with but I could absolutley see that there was much more 'real estate' available on that screen.

I thought that I was looking at a hi res 15" (its the 15" I'll be getting) but now I'm not so sure as the fonts didnt seem quite so (comparatively) tiny on that screen vs the 17"... but I'm guessing this is down to the hi res 15" being 'less' hi res than the 17"? (is this where I get flamed for knowing nothing?! Be gentle! I'm new to 😛 )

I'll visit the store again before finally parting with my hard earned cash but I have just checked the resolution on the laptop I'm using now (again 15") and its 1280x800 so I'm guessing that even the standard res screen on my new Macbook will be higher resolution that what I'm used to... or have I got that wrong?!

I suppose, when all is said and done, it's like anything else, it comes down to personal preference and how you plan on using the machine?

I know what you mean. Currently I own a 15" 1280x800 laptop and I'm in the market for the new 15" Macbook Pro. The standard res will be a step up compared to my current resolution but I'm also contemplating the high res screen. I've compared the standard res 15" to the 17" (the 17" is comparable to the high res 15") but the text looked very tiny. However, after playing with the 17" for a while and then switching back to the 15" standard res, text looked less sharp and I noticed that I lost a lot of screen real estate. Long story short: I'm still on the fence on which one to get.

 

[tim100]

I know what you mean. Currently I own a 15" 1280x800 laptop and I'm in the market for the new 15" Macbook Pro. The standard res will be a step up compared to my current resolution but I'm also contemplating the high res screen. I've compared the standard res 15" to the 17" (the 17" is comparable to the high res 15") but the text looked very tiny. However, after playing with the 17" for a while and then switching back to the 15" standard res, text looked less sharp and I noticed that I lost a lot of screen real estate. Long story short: I'm still on the fence on which one to get.

I have gone back and forth between owning 17s and 15s. I find the 17 to be sharper and like the extra space to have multiple stuff opened at the same time

 

[a4209797]

Mac people are always good for a laugh. OS X already has HUGE fonts compared to Windows. Mix that in with the awful low resolution of the 15" and you have a disaster.

People on Windows don't whine about font sizes on higher resolution displays, there's no reason to turn down the resolution on a 15" MBP unless you're blind as a bat :

Uh ? what a load of horse manure. High resolution is a fact. The resolution is higher. 1680 is greater than 1440. That's a mathematical fact, not some kind of emotional response.

how about comparing apples to apples and use firefox in both screen shots.

 

[lopoz]

how about comparing apples to apples and use firefox in both screen shots.

They both look like Firefox to me.. On a side-note: text sure does look awful in Windows..

 

[MrCheeto]

Hahaha, yeah. I can't believe THAT'S how I used to surf the web. Look at that conglomerate mess! That window in Windows is like the Bill Cosby Sweater of browser windows. Scroll bars, menus everywhere, wtf?! What's worse is that there are 5-100 different ways to perform the same task. Why would your car need three gas pedals? It just makes a mess and confuses people.

I sure have loved the way the web looks ever since going Apple 😀 It doesn't look so...1995 anymore. XD

 

[dreven79]

Hi guys,

I going to pick up the MBP 15". As with many of you, im quite worried and can't decide if i want high resolution or not because there is no Apple store for me to go down to and do a comparison.

My mate just got the Dell XPS 16 today so i quickly popped over to look at the screen. I must say the high resolution does look gorgeous. Movies looked great. The specs are 15.6" (1920x1080). I surfed the web and this forum for a while. The fonts are definitely smaller but not unreadable.

The Apple in comparison would be 15.4" (1680x1050). So it would be similar i guess. I found it tiring to read the fonts for a while. Maybe you need to get used to it. Or maybe its my eyes going. ha ha..

Now i'm confused . I might go the normal resolution but don't wanna get buyers remorse. Can someone kindly put up more comparison pictures please. Pictures of word or a similar program side by side would be brilliant.

Cheers

 

[entatlrg]

My 2001 laptop was a 1600x1200 15". (Apple wasn't interested in the high-res market back then; cue crowds of fanboys deriding me for imagining that people who wanted higher-res displays mattered to Apple.) My 2007 was a 1920x1200 17" MBP. I had been about to give up and get a PC when that refresh came out. Ordered the Mac almost immediately. My primary carrying-places machine is a 12" 1366x768 eee.

Here's the thing.

You can make text bigger, if you want. And then you discover the true magic of high resolution: It is much more pleasant to read, all else being equal. Larger fonts on a higher-rez screen look cleaner and crisper, and I get a lot fewer headaches working with them.

That all sounds good. But, how do you increase the font size across all applications, the UI in OSX etc.

It's easy to zoom in on a web page or pages doc, constant zooming gets boring too, it's not so easy to do in other app's.

 

[MrCheeto]

....Increasing fonts would increase menu sizes so you might as well use the 1440x900 res setting.

OS X isn't too great with system fonts 😛

 

[stevespa]

I just got my 15" i7 HR glossy today, and through the process of moving everything from my old MBP, I fell in love with the new screen. It is sharp, and it has the perfect resolution for me. Not too small, but just right. Like Goldilocks.

 

[ExcelonGT]

I just got my 15" i7 HR glossy today, and through the process of moving everything from my old MBP, I fell in love with the new screen. It is sharp, and it has the perfect resolution for me. Not too small, but just right. Like Goldilocks.

same here. Got my i7 HR glossy and am loving the new screen. Im coming from a Macbook Air. so I supposed anything more than 1280 x 800 is going to be a big improvement.
Im really liking the 1680 x 1050 because I can run Win 7 at 1440 x 900 in a parallels window and everything looks juust right.

 

[parajba]

Im really liking the 1680 x 1050 because I can run Win 7 at 1440 x 900 in a parallels window and everything looks juust right.

...er..., you could run Win7 at 1440x900 in a parallels window on a standard MBP too, it'd be full screen.

 

[rawd]

The high res screen is incredibly sharp. When I went back to my old 15" Powerbook, it felt like a Fisher Price toy!

 

[ECUpirate44]

The high res screen is incredibly sharp. When I went back to my old 15" Powerbook, it felt like a Fisher Price toy!

Agreed. The high res glossy is a major improvement. Everything looks sharp. I am very happy

 

[rawd]

Agreed. The high res glossy is a major improvement. Everything looks sharp. I am very happy

So am I. And it's so fast even with the old school 7200rpm hard drive. SSD must be ridiculous

Was watching 1080p Youtube trailers last night with the Adobe Gala preview version. Incredible

 

[ECUpirate44]

So am I. And it's so fast even with the old school 7200rpm hard drive. SSD must be ridiculous

Was watching 1080p Youtube trailers last night with the Adobe Gala preview version. Incredible

I cant wait for the price of SDD to go down! Hopefully soon haha. I would have loved to have the 512 GB but an extra 1000 is crazy

 

[MBHockey]

It took me about 48 hours to adjust to the hi-res screen, but I can't go back to anything else now. When I use my parents' 13" MBP everything looks fuzzy and web pages take up the entire screen!

 

[rawd]

I cant wait for the price of SDD to go down! Hopefully soon haha. I would have loved to have the 512 GB but an extra 1000 is crazy

We have the exact same CTO. I def want an SSD but not yet. I'm happy with the current drive in it and it gives me an upgrade in the future to research and look forward to 🙂

 

[numbersyx]

Got my hi res screen about a week ago. It is perfect. Not too big or small and really sharp. Very happy with it...

 

[OnAirNow]

I've compared the standard res 15" to the 17" (the 17" is comparable to the high res 15")

Ahhh!!! I didnt realise that was the case! So if I check out the standard res (only res!) 17" I'll have an approximation of the text size on the hi res 15"?

Now I feel a bit daft for not realising this before now!

😱

 

[Dozerrox]

Ahhh!!! I didnt realise that was the case! So if I check out the standard res (only res!) 17" I'll have an approximation of the text size on the hi res 15"?

Now I feel a bit daft for not realising this before now!

😱

It'll be similar yes.

 

[lyngstad]

LOVE HIGH RES 1680x1050! 😀

You gotta loooove the high-resolution screen! Couldnt look smoother! 😀

 

[andrewfee]

High-res matte screen turned up today—I'm actually surprised that anyone is having trouble reading text on them.

I have no trouble at all here, and that's without putting my glasses on. In fact I would say reading is easier on the eyes than the old 1440x900 screens, because colour-fringing from the sub-pixel font rendering is now much tougher to discern and fonts look smoother because aliasing is also harder to see.

I would still have liked a 1920x1200 option for the workspace, with 1680x1050 being standard, but then you might have had to bump up the font sizes with some web pages/applications.

 

[h00ligan]

Precisely my point. We have 50 million people who have no problem surfing on their dimunitive iPhone and yet they're afraid they're not going to like it on a gianormous 15-inch screen. 😛 😀

DPI would make things sharper.. ui design would negate it.

For example, if you had a 100 dpi display, at 12 pt it may seem like 16 pt on a 160 dpi display (this is just an example).. the point is.. the iphone could have 900 dpi, it wouldn't matter if they scaled the text and graphics for legibility. The density doesn't indicate the size of the font across devices.. though it does on the MBP.

 

[MrCheeto]

Precisely my point. We have 50 million people who have no problem surfing on their dimunitive iPhone and yet they're afraid they're not going to like it on a gianormous 15-inch screen. 😛 😀

Let us not forget, however, that the iOS devices display their applications in full-screen mode, whereas OS X displays applications in windows that divide the screen's realistate. When comes Lion, the integrated support for running applications in full screen will utilize the realistate to the practical maximum, accomplishing the same as the iPhone and your statement as in the preceding quoted text.

Aight?

 

[Benito]

Hi I picked up my high resolution screen 15" MBP on Friday. I too was really worried about being able to read especially when in remote access mode as one cannot alter the font size in remote access. Even with my poor vision (I have progressive lenses) I have quickly become use to the font size, even in remote access. The crispness and clarity of the new screen with the matte finish is awesome. I have just spent 11 hrs on my computer between work and play today and no eye strain. That was without altering the font size.