Higher resolution in the 15" is a waste of money in my opinion. Text simply looks as if the viewer has shifted back his viewing position by a couple of feet. Why pay for that dubious "benefit"? Better to put the money towards a size of screen that benefits from the extra resolution, like the 24" Apple Cinema Display. I had a 17" MBP with high resolution and even that made most content look annoyingly small and I was constantly enlarging stuff. The 15" will be even less suited to the high resolution "upgrade", going by my experience.
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High Res Screens in 15'' Macbook Pro
- Thread starter absolutazn87
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i wanted to buy the higher resolution screen. Apple charges $90 more for the upgrade with the university discount (for which I am eligible). But that would mean paying 7% state tax, which i was hoping to avoid.
The only online stores that are offering it as an option seem to be Macmall or onsale.com and they charge $135 for it.
Don't know whether the upgrade is worth $135. Finally bought the base 15" with standard screen online. Am still in a quandary since I can still cancel the order and upgrade to the screen. Been going over it endlessly.
The only online stores that are offering it as an option seem to be Macmall or onsale.com and they charge $135 for it.
Don't know whether the upgrade is worth $135. Finally bought the base 15" with standard screen online. Am still in a quandary since I can still cancel the order and upgrade to the screen. Been going over it endlessly.
i wanted to buy the higher resolution screen. Apple charges $90 more for the upgrade with the university discount (for which I am eligible). But that would mean paying 7% state tax, which i was hoping to avoid.
The only online stores that are offering it as an option seem to be Macmall or onsale.com and they charge $135 for it.
Don't know whether the upgrade is worth $135. Finally bought the base 15" with standard screen online. Am still in a quandary since I can still cancel the order and upgrade to the screen. Been going over it endlessly.
Totally in your boat, man. Even though I know i'll probably be better off with the 1440 screen, I can't help but think "cmon, its an extra 100 but a better display." All that being said, the thing is about to ship and i'd have to return it back to apple and re-buy it just for the HR screen. Dunno if it's worth all that trouble. Beyond what i said with gaming, other points of the font possibly being way too small for a 15" is a valid complaint. In the end, if you are an editor than it seems like a more than must-have for the extra precision in editing. For the real estate space on your screen? I guess, but that just comes down to your own personal preference and how you arrange windows.
It's not a better display any more than one size of shoes is automatically better than another size of shoes - it all depends on what fits you best.
High resolution is an emotive title, wrongly taken as suggesting greater quality, when in fact it is like saying a 300mm lens is always better than a 100mm lens. Some will think "Ooh, its thrice as powerful so I must get it", when for example, a 100mm lens is undoubtedly far preferable for portrait photography than a 300mm.
Don't be fooled by some people here who have no real need for a high res screen but who suggest standard resolution is inferior or old or whatever that's complete nonsense and if they want to kid themselves that it somehow makes their purchase more "deluxe", just smile and let them be happy in their delusion and money-wasting.
But doesn't the HR display have a far higher PPI over the regular screen? Looking at the data posted here, the standard 15" has the lowest PPI of all the laptops in Apple's lineup. I would think that can count for something. Then again, what's the point of having more PPI if the font is the size of an ant.
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.
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.
First you cannot universally scale everything up...some menus and things still stay tiny.
Secondly I do not find a 5yo low resolution screen any less comfortable to read than the newest high res screen so I would caution the assumption that everyone's eyes are the same in that regard. In fact I always turn the res down a notch or two because I find the sharpness on high levels unpleasant.
My dad got a 17" MBP a few years ago, and he always used to complain how the menus were too small for him to read. I went to the Apple store today to look at the 15" screen. It definitely looked less sharp than the 17" (the nearest pixel density computer i could compare with), but not necessary 'crappy' as people put it. Having larger menu's etc can actually be more convenient, and text easier to read at default size levels. I guess both screens have their pros and cons.
Since I don't intend to do any photo-editing etc, i couldn't justify the higher res screen. Honestly, my original budget for the 13". But after waiting almost 6 months for Arrandale, I got tempted by the i5 and bought the 15". I am way overshooting my original budget already. And seeing as the warranty on the 15" is more expensive too, the total difference is about $650. The additional guilt that would come with a further $135 upgrade might just be too much to bear.
Since I don't intend to do any photo-editing etc, i couldn't justify the higher res screen. Honestly, my original budget for the 13". But after waiting almost 6 months for Arrandale, I got tempted by the i5 and bought the 15". I am way overshooting my original budget already. And seeing as the warranty on the 15" is more expensive too, the total difference is about $650. The additional guilt that would come with a further $135 upgrade might just be too much to bear
.I opted for the high-res. I am switching from a 1900x1200 24" iMac, and a 1280x854 15" PBG4. I love having the productivity of the iMac, multiple screens open at once. I do plan on doing some gaming (L4D2, Fallout 3, Dragon Age), but even dropping down to the 1440 res on the bootcamp partition for gaming is going to be a huge upgrade from the Powerbook.
My dad got a 17" MBP a few years ago, and he always used to complain how the menus were too small for him to read. I went to the Apple store today to look at the 15" screen. It definitely looked less sharp than the 17" (the nearest pixel density computer i could compare with), but not necessary 'crappy' as people put it. Having larger menu's etc can actually be more convenient, and text easier to read at default size levels. I guess both screens have their pros and cons.
Since I don't intend to do any photo-editing etc, i couldn't justify the higher res screen. Honestly, my original budget for the 13". But after waiting almost 6 months for Arrandale, I got tempted by the i5 and bought the 15". I am way overshooting my original budget already. And seeing as the warranty on the 15" is more expensive too, the total difference is about $650. The additional guilt that would come with a further $135 upgrade might just be too much to bear
Thanks, a honest opinion like yours is al I needed to decide...
The problem is that despite all the Apple marketing BS, OS X is still worse regarding resolution independence than Windows. Come on Apple - fix it.
(about to order hi-res for the matte option).
Too thick or not too thick? That is the question!
Hey dudes!
Is anyone of you using the HD display to program or to do something similar?
I'm planning to buy the new 15" HD MPB but I'm a bit confused...
Modern IDEs (such as Eclipse, just to name one) use a lot of side and bottom panels, shrinking the editable area a lot... Working on my regular 15" HP is really a pain...
On the other hand, if I consider that the new HD display features the same resolution an my home computer's LCD which is actually a 22"... Will the same area displayed in 7" less make my eyes bleed? I don't care much about care but I'm quite a nerdy myopic!!!
Anyone is willing to share its own opinion/personal experience?
Thanks in advance,
P.
Hey dudes!
Is anyone of you using the HD display to program or to do something similar?
I'm planning to buy the new 15" HD MPB but I'm a bit confused...
Modern IDEs (such as Eclipse, just to name one) use a lot of side and bottom panels, shrinking the editable area a lot... Working on my regular 15" HP is really a pain...
On the other hand, if I consider that the new HD display features the same resolution an my home computer's LCD which is actually a 22"... Will the same area displayed in 7" less make my eyes bleed? I don't care much about care but I'm quite a nerdy myopic!!!
Anyone is willing to share its own opinion/personal experience?
Thanks in advance,
P.
I'm buying the i7 15" High-res display specifically to code on - sure the i7 will help compile times, but the high res sealed the deal. Like u mentioned, IDEs get really cramped (I use Xcode and NetBeans on OS X, and sometimes Visual Studio in VMware), and so the high res will give me more space to see the code.
I'm currently struggling with a 13", and was wanting to buy a second display just because i spent most of my time rearranging windows. I'm sure a second display would still be useful with the 15", but for times when i'm working mobile and that's not an option, i'm sure i'll be really glad I got the high-res option.
The other reason the resolution is important is that i often need two windows side by side for comparison (documentation and code/header and implementation etc), and there's no way to get around this aside from having a higher resolution.
I'm sure the higher PPI will still be usable, and at the end of the day, you will just have smaller toolbars and window chrome, but you can always increase text-size in the editor, which is what matters.
Yes, I'm leaning towards the hi-res 15" because of programming. I use XCode/IB (which similar to eclipse is easier to use with more screen real estate). With the hi-res screen I hope to be able to program on the road, I currently restrict my programming to when I'm home with a bigger 2nd display.
In this case I suggest to use only the larger screen... Using both displays at the same time is IMHO both awkward and painfull: if you want to have on the same line you have to push them far from you requiring both a stand-alone keyboard and a pair of binoculars, moreover, turning your head left and right to the displays always ends up in my neck to hurt...
Anyway it's just my personal opinion...
So true! I had the same feeling the first time I used a 16:9 or 16:10 screen... People often bitch because "seeing movies is not the main concern of many, vertical space is more important than horizontal one" but I solved that problem by simply putting the Windows toolbar on the left side of the screen... Anyway, putting two windows side by side (such as a text editor and a pdf paper) is priceless, as Mastercard says!
By the way, have you ever tried Cinch (http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/)? It mimics Windows 7 behavior of putting Windows side to side, I think I'll buy it as soon as I get my Mac!
Thanks for your precious opinion,
P.
Thanks to you too... This convergence of opinions makes me think the HD display is the right buy for me!
P.
I ordered HiRes and am also concerned the text is going to be too small. I know in windows there is an option called font DPI or something that allows you to increase the size of everything. I'm new to mac and from what I've gathered OSX doesn't have an equivalent option.
That would be true if all you were doing w/ your machine was word processing. But a higher res screen will allow you to put more of a spreadsheet on a screen, view high rez pictures, scan web pages, etc, w/o scrolling as much. It's also the only way to get an antiglare screen. No, not everyone needs a high rez screen, and for some it might be a negative, but lets not call it a "dubious benefit." It is a huge benefit to many.
CHanging that DPI setting in windows tends to break a lot of software (Microsoft software included), and so Apple doesn't have that switch exposed, as it would be an ugly experience for users. It's in the developer tool inside a utility called "Quartz debug", and has been there since 10.4.
Apple were pushing "Resolution Independence" as the next big thing a while ago, essentially saying that screen PPI will get denser, so our software should scale accordingly using vector graphics etc. Some developers put a lot of effort into making this work (e.g Panic's Coda could do it since day 1), and then Apple seemingly put the Mac's Res. Independence effort on the back burner for the last few years.
Not a huge deal as screens haven't got too dense YET, and I'm sure it's still coming. I have a feeling we will see the technology come to fruition on iPhone and iPad before it makes it to the mac.
I was quite satisfied with raising the DPI in windows. I did experience some issues with the way a couple of programs looked but overall things were fine. It was especially helpful on a 1600x1080 15" laptop screen.
I just read about using quartz debug to increase DPI in mac os and the results don't sound very good!
I just read about using quartz debug to increase DPI in mac os and the results don't sound very good!