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How BIG is the problem with Retina Displays?

N

nicklasmp

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 21, 2012
54
0
Denmark
Hi,

I've waited a whole year for the relase of the new MBP - i bought the 256 gigs 2,3ghz one the day after it was released on the online shop. And still have a week or so before it will be dispatched. I've been reading a LOT of posts about the new Retina Display - but after reading so many different opinions it's quite hard to tell whether is a huge problem or not.

My main purpose for buying the new MBP is regular use, browsing, gaming and photoshop/video work. I'm going to study marketing this winter, and will therefore be using photoshop quite a lot.

My question is whether it's still possible to design graphics for "normal" screens?

And is it possible to make any kind of setting on the screen to make it scale like a normal screen?

Is it only a matter of time before software will be updated and the full potential of the screen will be worth it?

Could someone by any chance take a IRL picture of your laptop showing the problem with the images.

Regards
Nicklas
 
Not to simplify it, but from seeing one in person ( a couple of times ) in the Apple Store where I live.. they look awesome.
 
You will get way too many different opinions about this so best bet is wait for yours to be shipped and if you don't like it send it back get a refund and then buy the non-retina version.
 
Can you elaborate on the word "problem", please? I've played with them in the store a lot and tried different things so I don't know what you see as problem. The applications from other developers will get updated and everything else looks amazing especially photos in aperture. What else did you mean, please?

The glare reduction is awesome too. I would never buy glossy MBP as they were before and I always got antiglare but this is the first time I can actually say that I'm ok with the glossy one. Its not perfect like antiglare but the glare is greatly reduced and its no longer a stupid mirror. :)
 
I'm not bitter or jealous since I'm still deciding legacy or Retina. Totally unbiased, I have seen a few problems coming up in the forums.

1) Content not optimized for Retina has been said to look worse than on a normal display.

2) They can get burning hot to the touch.

3) Lack of upgradability. I guess this could be a problem? Makes a few more extra difficult decisions at time of purchase.
 
If you were to choose the new retina MBP, keep in mind that PS is not optimized yet. Adobe only says they will do so 'sometime later this year' and most likely only CS6.
 
In "Retina" mode the screen scales just like a 1440x900 standard screen, unless using a retina app. Retina enabled apps can use the full 2880x1800 grid.

So if you make a 1024x768 jpg web image and view it in Safari it will fill the same area on the retina screen as it would on a standard screen.

When the 1024x768 image is viewed in Preview a retina app, it does not scale larger, it is seen at the pixel level covering exactly 1024x768 pixels on the display.

Sarfari is also an retina app but it's behaviour is to scale as opposed to showing pages at the pixel level, so pages are easier to read.

Photoshop is not yet updated for Retina so it will behave and scale just like it would on a standard screen.

That is what I've noticed hope it helps, others may be able to explain it better.
 
I think the retina issue will slowly fade out as updates as released for software.


every MBP release someone says they get burning hot to touch.

I play WoW/Steam games/D3 on my mid-2010 sat in bed so the laptop is on my quilt and I never think it's too hot. Surely it's warm to touch, but never burning hot.


I think the 16b ram upgrade is a no brainer given you can't do it later down the line. The only reason I didn't upgrade to 8gb at the time of ordering this 2010 was because it was priced very high. I fitted 8gb later down the line bought from Crucial when the prices were more sensible. 4gb to 8gb gave a notable performance increase in my circumstances.
 
nicklasmp said:
How BIG is the problem with Retina Displays?
Click to expand...
There is no problem with the screens per se. It is one of the best, if not the best notebook screen that has ever been produced. The issue is that only a handful of OS X applications have been made Retina capable, and those that haven't look worse on Retina than they do on normal screens. This will change; rapidly in some cases, very very slowly in others (I'm looking at you Adobe and Microsoft). It's the jarring disparate experience between Retina-capable software (which looks many times better than previous), and the non-Retina software (which looks slightly worse than previous).

Where you are looking at a lag of 6 months to a year for all applications to be made Retina capable, how long will you have to wait for the WWW to be converted? MBPs make up a small minority of devices that access the WWW, and rMBPs an even smaller percentage. You'll find that large sites like Amazon, Google, and Ebay probably adapt quite quickly, others will never make the changes.

Short answer: Not as small as some would have you believe, but not as large as others would have you fear. And the problem will reduce over time, if not totally disappear.
 
Dizzie20vt said:
I think the retina issue will slowly fade out as updates as released for software.


every MBP release someone says they get burning hot to touch.

I play WoW/Steam games/D3 on my mid-2010 sat in bed so the laptop is on my quilt and I never think it's too hot. Surely it's warm to touch, but never burning hot.


I think the 16b ram upgrade is a no brainer given you can't do it later down the line. The only reason I didn't upgrade to 8gb at the time of ordering this 2010 was because it was priced very high. I fitted 8gb later down the line bought from Crucial when the prices were more sensible. 4gb to 8gb gave a notable performance increase in my circumstances.
Click to expand...

You can't compare previous unibodies to the Retina. The enclosure is completely different. The cooling design is brand new. Just because your '10 MBP doesn't get burning hot doesn't mean the Retina doesn't.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
There is no problem with the screens per se. It is one of the best, if not the best notebook screen that has ever been produced. The issue is that only a handful of OS X applications have been made Retina capable, and those that haven't look worse on Retina than they do on normal screens. This will change; rapidly in some cases, very very slowly in others (I'm looking at you Adobe and Microsoft). It's the jarring disparate experience between Retina-capable software (which looks many times better than previous), and the non-Retina software (which looks slightly worse than previous).

Where you are looking at a lag of 6 months to a year for all applications to be made Retina capable, how long will you have to wait for the WWW to be converted? MBPs make up a small minority of devices that access the WWW, and rMBPs an even smaller percentage. You'll find that large sites like Amazon, Google, and Ebay probably adapt quite quickly, others will never make the changes.

Short answer: Not as small as some would have you believe, but not as large as others would have you fear. And the problem will reduce over time, if not totally disappear.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that information, however my concern is that is it possible to design graphics on the retina display, while it still will look just as great on the non-retina displays, i think i do not quite understand why the outcome from photoshop will look different on a non-retina display. However i guess that issue will be solved with the Adope update
 
Adidas Addict said:
It's just bitter and jealous people that are putting them down, it's the same everytime something new get's released.
Click to expand...

This would be my guess too. The people who point out all the little issues (of a new design) would shut up pretty quick if they had one. It would suddenly become the greatest thing EVER!!
 
I've used one in the Apple store and everything looked just fine. I compared some photos, high res versus 1440x900 and the extra detail and clarity from the high res was amazing. It was like using a 27" to photo edit but on a 15" laptop!!
 
RMBP Owner

I was starting to debate my purchase decision hearing all the debate on the forums , but after obtaining mine (2.6) from BestBuy, I have no complaints and no reservations on recommending it to anyone.
 
nicklasmp said:
Hi,

I've waited a whole year for the relase of the new MBP - i bought the 256 gigs 2,3ghz one the day after it was released on the online shop. And still have a week or so before it will be dispatched. I've been reading a LOT of posts about the new Retina Display - but after reading so many different opinions it's quite hard to tell whether is a huge problem or not.

My main purpose for buying the new MBP is regular use, browsing, gaming and photoshop/video work. I'm going to study marketing this winter, and will therefore be using photoshop quite a lot.

My question is whether it's still possible to design graphics for "normal" screens?

And is it possible to make any kind of setting on the screen to make it scale like a normal screen?

Is it only a matter of time before software will be updated and the full potential of the screen will be worth it?

Could someone by any chance take a IRL picture of your laptop showing the problem with the images.

Regards
Nicklas
Click to expand...


There is no problem with the New Retina Mac Book Pro's. Most of the arguments or complaints you read are about people who read other post and go along with what they say. People who own these machines have little or no complaints at all. Most of the users are waiting for developers to catch up with the new Retina technology this could be sometimes this year. NO BIGGY it will get updated and you will see everyone jumping the gun to Retina Macbook pros. For those who complain well ask them if they used it more then a day or two...Go with your best judgment because in this world everyone has something to complain about...cheers!!
 
cho26504 said:
I was starting to debate my purchase decision hearing all the debate on the forums , but after obtaining mine (2.6) from BestBuy, I have no complaints and no reservations on recommending it to anyone.
Click to expand...

Me too (except for it being a 2.6 from Best Buy. It's a 2.3 from Apple)
 
thanks for your all your replys, made some sort of comfort to me that i made the best choise - i'll go with the retina one!
 
nicklasmp said:
Hi,

I've waited a whole year for the relase of the new MBP - i bought the 256 gigs 2,3ghz one the day after it was released on the online shop. And still have a week or so before it will be dispatched. I've been reading a LOT of posts about the new Retina Display - but after reading so many different opinions it's quite hard to tell whether is a huge problem or not.

My main purpose for buying the new MBP is regular use, browsing, gaming and photoshop/video work. I'm going to study marketing this winter, and will therefore be using photoshop quite a lot.

My question is whether it's still possible to design graphics for "normal" screens?

And is it possible to make any kind of setting on the screen to make it scale like a normal screen?

Is it only a matter of time before software will be updated and the full potential of the screen will be worth it?

Could someone by any chance take a IRL picture of your laptop showing the problem with the images.

Regards
Nicklas
Click to expand...

i assume you'll have an external monitor to use. if so, you'll be fine. if you don't, i can't imagine doing photoshop/video work strictly on a retina display. are you really going to deploy your work without seeing it how 99.99% of the population will see it?

contrary to what people say on here, this is NOT like how iphone/ipad apps are updated. iOS devices are obviously extremely popular while the retina macbook pro only caters to pros and people who have a LOT of money to spare. you are not going to see the same adoption rate of updated retina applications.
 
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