That's only part of it, though. You have to have the dog poo on all the window screens in your house to appreciate the full effect. The angry bees you're talking about? Well, they've dipped their stingers in ghost pepper extract before stinging Also, get one of the child carrier backpacks and have a small chimp sit in it and punch you in the back of the head repeatedly while walking around getting stung and trying to look out your windows. Only now are we even beginning to get in the same ballpark of how bad the MBA screen is. Looking at it even makes Chuck Norris weep and plead for mercy immediately. It's reputed he'll say "uncle" preemptively if he hears an MBA is on premises (unless he can verify it's closed and hooked up to an external display).
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How bad is the screen on the MBA 11?
- Thread starter wolfpackfan
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That's only part of it, though. You have to have the dog poo on all the window screens in your house to appreciate the full effect. The angry bees you're talking about? Well, they've dipped their stingers in ghost pepper extract before stinging Also, get one of the child carrier backpacks and have a small chimp sit in it and punch you in the back of the head repeatedly while walking around getting stung and trying to look out your windows. Only now are we even beginning to get in the same ballpark of how bad the MBA screen is. Looking at it even makes Chuck Norris weep and plead for mercy immediately. It's reputed he'll say "uncle" preemptively if he hears an MBA is on premises (unless he can verify it's closed and hooked up to an external display).
How quickly we take things for granted. Just over the past few years your eyes have become so delicate that if text isn't perfectly smooth, you think it's harmful.
LG screen is better than the Samsung screen. I used to think it was just people splitting hairs, but there really is quite a noticeable difference.
it obviously is not good if it causes eye strain.
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actually the samsung screens are regarded as the better of the two.
I guess it has been uncomfortable for you for many years to use all types of monitors before retina.
I have a Samsung LTH116AT01A04 screen on my 11" MBA. My travel only Mac. On my Home MacPro I use an HP 24" IPS Monitor.
I have no issues with my MBA's screen. Though this article is 4 years old, the human eye has not changed during those 4 years.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update
I'm a pretty old guy, and my MBA does not cause eye strain!!!!!!!
Lou
I have no issues with my MBA's screen. Though this article is 4 years old, the human eye has not changed during those 4 years.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update
I'm a pretty old guy, and my MBA does not cause eye strain!!!!!!!
Lou
Why go back to something older if you do not have to? Before OLED I was fine with LCD, but why go back to an inferior product. You know what I mean.
The fuzzy text is noticeable. It bothers me since I have not "had" to deal with it for some years.
The MacBook Air screen has limited viewing angles, only 6 bit per colour plane, lower resolution than your Mac Mini screen and does not come with good colour calibration out of the factory.
But it has good brightness and contrast, acceptable backlight uniformity and the colour calibration issue can be fixed by setting up a new profile. In the end, it is a good quality TN display.
Hope that helps.
But it has good brightness and contrast, acceptable backlight uniformity and the colour calibration issue can be fixed by setting up a new profile. In the end, it is a good quality TN display.
Hope that helps.
Offering TN panels in 2015 is like selling laptops with HDDs.
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Imagine if it had an IPS or a ClearBlack/Amoled display - even low-res, doesn't matter. That would be the best mobile notebook you've ever owned by far
I've never seen a definition of 'washed out' published anywhere.
Washed out to me means: I can't describe why this screen is bad, because on paper I can see specs for other laptops that are better.
I use an IPS display with my Mac mini, and the TN display on my MBA 11" (AU Optronics) is great. For what I do with it, it's sometimes better than my IPS display.
For reading forums, etc, it has better white point, and the brightness on the 11" is great.
As I use the 11" as my travel laptop, the efficiency of the TN display means better battery life and less need to charge it.
People seem to forget that a lot of the articles regarding the LG panel were published back before Mavericks was released. IMO Apple have tweaked the standard colour calibrations since. We put Mavericks on my girlfriend's 2012 MBA 13" with LG panel and the screen looks great compared to before.
When the future Macbook models sort out the performance/battery life balance and I can get one with a real processor and a retina display in 11/12" form factor, I will consider selling my MBA.
For now my MBA 11" is the perfect laptop.
Washed out to me means: I can't describe why this screen is bad, because on paper I can see specs for other laptops that are better.
I use an IPS display with my Mac mini, and the TN display on my MBA 11" (AU Optronics) is great. For what I do with it, it's sometimes better than my IPS display.
For reading forums, etc, it has better white point, and the brightness on the 11" is great.
As I use the 11" as my travel laptop, the efficiency of the TN display means better battery life and less need to charge it.
People seem to forget that a lot of the articles regarding the LG panel were published back before Mavericks was released. IMO Apple have tweaked the standard colour calibrations since. We put Mavericks on my girlfriend's 2012 MBA 13" with LG panel and the screen looks great compared to before.
When the future Macbook models sort out the performance/battery life balance and I can get one with a real processor and a retina display in 11/12" form factor, I will consider selling my MBA.
For now my MBA 11" is the perfect laptop.
I should also add - my wife is finishing her PhD and actually doing her dissertation on her 11" air.
This is with a 15" rMBP with an "amazing retina screen" sitting 10 feet behind her on a desk, going unused.
It's there, she can use it, yet she chooses to do all her reading/writing on her air.
This is with a 15" rMBP with an "amazing retina screen" sitting 10 feet behind her on a desk, going unused.
It's there, she can use it, yet she chooses to do all her reading/writing on her air.
Out of curiosity: Why?
Don't get me wrong, I love my 11" especially for its portability, but at home at a desk I would use the 15" if I had one.
Yes. When sitting right next to each other the difference is striking. My 68 year old mother with cataracts could see the difference.
Nothing
Nothing is wrong with the screen. Compared to retina it's fuzzier on text, but certainly not something people looking for a travel laptop should be super fussy about.
My sole issue with my 2012 11" MBA was that I used it at a desk too often and realized I valued screen size over weight because I wasn't traveling as much as I planned.
Great computer, though.
Nothing is wrong with the screen. Compared to retina it's fuzzier on text, but certainly not something people looking for a travel laptop should be super fussy about.
My sole issue with my 2012 11" MBA was that I used it at a desk too often and realized I valued screen size over weight because I wasn't traveling as much as I planned.
Great computer, though.
Yeah, actually it has been. There just wasn't anything that could be done about it because that was the limits of the technology. Personally, I can't wait for 8K screens.
We get it that you don't appreciate the retina/HiDPI displays, but please understand - you're in a small minority. Most people really appreciate the difference.
It's not about "appreciating the difference" but a matter of how much priority one places on that difference. For some, lack of retina display is a deal breaker, for most it is not.
Shall I repeat my post as you are talking about "difference" and not answering my original question?
It is a misconception. Retina display is a progression, but the fetish of the retina display that embodies complete denial of anything else is a regression.
Huh?
Will never understand why this is an issue. Do a lot of people use laptops at angles that AREN'T staring directly at the screen? Do you sit off to the side a lot? Stand up and type while your computer is at waist level?
Will never understand why this is an issue. Do a lot of people use laptops at angles that AREN'T staring directly at the screen? Do you sit off to the side a lot? Stand up and type while your computer is at waist level?
Washed out means low saturation. The image appears less 'vivid' than it should.
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Indeed. There have been a few rare occasions when I've had multiple people sitting around my laptop to watch a TV show or a movie, e.g., at a bed & breakfast that didn't have a TV. Viewing angle comes into play in those situations. But I don't recall anybody ever complaining about it. While the image isn't optimal off-angle, you can still see it just fine.
This article has some shots of the screen from different angles. Side-to-side viewing angles aren't bad:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4528/the-2011-macbook-air-11-13inch-review/7
What exactly do you think the laptop market is like outside of Apple's products?
Go check out Best Buy. All the laptops they have there for less than $500 still have hard drives and low-res TN displays that are worse than the displays in the MBA. They're also relatively big and heavy and often have processors that are a couple generations behind.
The MBA is competing in this market. People are getting new MBAs on sale these days for under $700.
So for a couple hundred bucks more than a cheap PC laptop, Apple will give you an ultra-small, ultra-light aluminum unibody laptop with an SSD, a current processor, and a superior display.
And yet you still complain.
I answered your question with the first word. Yes, I could see individual pixels. The screen had a definite screen door effect to my eyes. That screen was good enough when it was introduced a half decade ago. Today it is not nearly good enough for a machine that has an MSRP over a grand.
Only in USA and perhaps a few other countries. In USA you have a very large market where people can return a product just because they found it "heavy", "ugly" or didn't like it for whatever reason. Then this returned product is sent to the refurbished market.
In Brazil, for the price of a low-end MBA 13" (around USD 1800,00), I could get a i7 Dell XPS 13" with 256GB SSD, QHD+ IPS display, 8GB of RAM, aluminium/carbon fiber body and so on. It's a far superior product, except for its SATAIII SSD (and not a PCIe one). In daily usage, you'll hardly note any noticeable difference between ~500MB/s and ~1000MB/s transfer speeds.
In Brazil I have 48h to return a product bought in physical stores (7 days if bought online). I only discovered the Dell offer after this period. Dell manufactures some laptop models in Brazil, so their prices are very competitive compared to Apple.
In short, Apple is not offering competitive products all around the globe. An example where Apple IS competitive in Brazil is in the Retina Macbook Pro lineup. You can't find Thinkpads or Precisions with similar specs without spending more than a rMBP.