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How bad is the screen on the MBA 11?
- Thread starter wolfpackfan
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I have no problem with the non retina display. The quality is fine for me. I don't get close enough to the screen for it to be a problem.
Less vivid is a dictionary definition, but I see this term being thrown around freely by everyone with an opinion on this laptop.
Vertical viewing angles seem to be the only gripe I have with my MBA 11".
There aren't many laptops out there, especially in 11", with professional grade colour gamut.
I can't see how people find it washed out.
I think I read that the color gamut is 44% of Adobe SRGB, which put it towards the high end of typical PC laptops with TN displays but significantly lower than IPS/retina displays.
Compared to the IPS monitor on my desktop, the reds on my MBA look noticeably washed out, the blues look a little less saturated, and the greens look very similar. If anything, the greens on my MBA are somewhat more saturated.
Of course it's easy to go to an Apple Store, look at the laptops side by side, and see that the retina screens are WAY better.
But outside of the scenario of comparing the screens side-by-side at a store, once you start actually using a MBA to do actual work, I can't imagine that the screen would really bother anybody. Unless they are a graphic designer or photographer and need super accurate colors.
I am debating between getting the 11" or the 13: right now I've got the 15" MBP and I can't wait to get rid of it since it's so big and bulky!! I'm leaning more towards the 13 since it is a little bigger and I'm visually impaired and use the zoom feature.
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I certainly dont. Not with the 11". Most of my off-angle viewing is done laying in bed. I can just adjust the angle of the display and its fine.
I think it just depends. I have a co-worker with a 13" retina. I can tell it's sharper, but not enough that it made a big deal for me. I could definitely tell the difference with the iPhone when it went retina. I could hardly tell the difference when I saw the iPad with retina. Maybe I just have really crappy eyesight (I do).
Vertical viewing angles
Certainly for range of viewing angles rMB is better than 11 or 13 MBA
Certainly for range of viewing angles rMB is better than 11 or 13 MBA
The 11" s display if average for a TN panel. If your used to HiDPI IPS display`s then you will see the 11"`s display as a downgrade. The bigger advantage of the Retina display is the ability to flip resolutions on the fly and increase the workspace.
In general there`s nothing wrong with the 11" display given the price of the base systems, however if your going to up the specification there are better options.
Q-6
In general there`s nothing wrong with the 11" display given the price of the base systems, however if your going to up the specification there are better options.
Q-6
I find the display great, personally. It's just the lack of resolution that bites rather than any complaints regarding colour / clarity!
I have lived with the 2011 11" Air as my orimary work machine for 4 years now, and have set up 10's of both 11" and 13" MBA's for clients over the years.
The screen on the 11" mathematically has a higher PPI, and appears sharper and marginally smaller, but suffers from the limited real estate that comes with a small 16x9 aspect ratio panel. If I'm honest, I would have wished the 11" had been 16x10 from the beginning, but I see why it was not from a design perspective.
Since I value size and portability above screen quality since I am on the move constantly from office to office, client to client, there was never any other Macbook I was going to get at the time I got it.
The screen is good for a TN, and even though it is objectively not up to par with any of its non-Apple competitors, most of which offer at least 1080p IPS screens standard, it is certainly serviceable, and it is not something you will notice directly of you aren't coming from one of its retina Apple siblings, or a non-Apple lower resolution screen.
If you're on a tighter budget and value portability over screen resolution, I would easily be able to recommend this machine to you, it will serve you very, very well. Now in the last days of my own 11" MBA's service (I have a new rMB on order, should be here this coming week) I am finding myself getting a little nostalgic about it already, its been that good to me during the years.
If you get a brand new one, it should get you to 2020 no problem as long as you are happy with the screen.
The screen on the 11" mathematically has a higher PPI, and appears sharper and marginally smaller, but suffers from the limited real estate that comes with a small 16x9 aspect ratio panel. If I'm honest, I would have wished the 11" had been 16x10 from the beginning, but I see why it was not from a design perspective.
Since I value size and portability above screen quality since I am on the move constantly from office to office, client to client, there was never any other Macbook I was going to get at the time I got it.
The screen is good for a TN, and even though it is objectively not up to par with any of its non-Apple competitors, most of which offer at least 1080p IPS screens standard, it is certainly serviceable, and it is not something you will notice directly of you aren't coming from one of its retina Apple siblings, or a non-Apple lower resolution screen.
If you're on a tighter budget and value portability over screen resolution, I would easily be able to recommend this machine to you, it will serve you very, very well. Now in the last days of my own 11" MBA's service (I have a new rMB on order, should be here this coming week) I am finding myself getting a little nostalgic about it already, its been that good to me during the years.
If you get a brand new one, it should get you to 2020 no problem as long as you are happy with the screen.
To be fair, at those price levels a couple hundred bucks is like a 40-50% price increase over the competition, and people shopping for sub $500 machines aren't going to be willing to take that price hike for higher/more recent specs. Both the 11" and 13" MBA's compete more directly with the higher end ultraportables out there, all sporting a minimum of 1080p IPS displays, fast SSD's and equivalent processors. The designs aren't as pretty or timeless as a Mac's but they do pack some decent kit in them.
The display is still better than standard HD, and like I said in my other post, I have had one for four years now, it has been a wonderful machine for me. But the screen wasn't even a selling point when I bought mine in 2011, let alone now. It is perfectly "fine" but not more than that.
I did the screen calibration file which helped for me, and experimented with the plist resolution settings file to get more real estate by enabling 1600x900 on it, but it was all really trying to compensate for the compromise I made when I made the conscious choice to value extreme portability over screen charactaristics. Luckily for me, I don't have to make that choice anymore.
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Good point, Q-6. At the base model prices people are getting now, it is a value option, but start upgrading the RAM and storage and you suddenly are bumping right up against rMB prices for the same RAM and storage levels.
Objectively, the 11" MBA only really makes sense as a value proposition for the base model only. It offers entry level RAM and storage options not available on the rMB.