Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

TBoneMac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 26, 2017
300
101
CA
I went to bestbuy to look at laptops today and I looked at their screens. How come all the windows laptops, even the expensive surface book pro and the xps screens all have a weird space in between the panel and the glass/plastic screen? It makes the screen look bad on all the PC's I couldn't find a single one that had a good looking screen. Is it because they use plastic instead of glass or what is it? I know this is a completely different topic but maybe MacRumors can answer ? only the macbooks looked right, like there's no space between the screen/pixels and the glass?
 
  • Like
Reactions: haruhiko
I have seen the QHD XPS 13 and the screen is absolutely stunning with Windows 10. I cannot speak for other windows laptops, but I do agree with you that there's a big gap in quality.
 
I went to bestbuy to look at laptops today and I looked at their screens. How come all the windows laptops, even the expensive surface book pro and the xps screens all have a weird space in between the panel and the glass/plastic screen? It makes the screen look bad on all the PC's I couldn't find a single one that had a good looking screen. Is it because they use plastic instead of glass or what is it? I know this is a completely different topic but maybe MacRumors can answer ? only the macbooks looked right, like there's no space between the screen/pixels and the glass?

The vast majority of Best Buy laptops are lower end or lower specced consumer level laptops. They don’t carry the higher specs of some models that often include higher end 4K displays and they don’t carry pro/workstation models from manufacturers such as Dell and Lenovo.

There are better places to shop than Best Buy if you are looking for more Apple to non-Apples comparisons at a similar price point and spec.
 
Computer retailers in Canada are limited to Best Buy, Staples, Microsoft Store, Apple Store, or independent shops. There is no place to view business laptops such as the Dell Latitude, HP ProBook, or Lenovo T-series.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SDColorado
Where would that be in Alberta, Canada?

I am not sure. How is memory express? I don't know, but hopefully, there is another option to Best Buy?

Best Buy just doesn't carry many of the top models from other brands. Some they can order, some they can not. But the limitation remains.

However, the question from the OP was "How come only Apple makes good displays for their laptops?" The answer remains that not only Apple makes good displays for their laptops.

Which isn't to say that Apple laptops don't have excellent displays, of course, they do. They consistently have some of the best displays available, but they aren't the only ones who have a good display. Apple models are at the higher end of the spectrum and much of what Best Buy carries is not.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Best-Notebook-Displays-As-Reviewed-By-Notebookcheck.120541.0.html

https://www.photoworkout.com/best-laptop-displays/

https://www.laptopmag.com/benchmarks/resolution
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tarek and Audit13
I went to bestbuy to look at laptops today and I looked at their screens. How come all the windows laptops, even the expensive surface book pro and the xps screens all have a weird space in between the panel and the glass/plastic screen? It makes the screen look bad on all the PC's I couldn't find a single one that had a good looking screen. Is it because they use plastic instead of glass or what is it? I know this is a completely different topic but maybe MacRumors can answer ? only the macbooks looked right, like there's no space between the screen/pixels and the glass?
I think your a bit mixed up :) like for like high end premium devices all have fine displays and some better than the MBP

If anything on many 2 in 1 the screen is arguably made of better, stronger and more scratch resistance materials because of their multi function

The reflective coating on MBP is suppose to one of the best but some Windows laptops come with options like matt screens

The gap you see on some lower end devices maybe the touch screen is not a laminated one, similar to the current Ipad that has a gap and a hollow sound when tapped, high end devices have laminated screens
 
@cube Haha, you're absolutely right. I cannot believe that slipped my mind, but I know that both Samsung and LG manufacture most displays in Apple computers, or at least laptops.
 
@cube Haha, you're absolutely right. I cannot believe that slipped my mind, but I know that both Samsung and LG manufacture most displays in Apple computers, or at least laptops.

Likely those two manufacturer the displays in most high end laptops as well. There are other manufacturers such as Chi Mei, Au Optronics, Hitachi-Matsushita, Mitsubish & Sharp, but I think you find them more in business, consumer and “off-brand” models.
 
Computer retailers in Canada are limited to Best Buy, Staples, Microsoft Store, Apple Store, or independent shops. There is no place to view business laptops such as the Dell Latitude, HP ProBook, or Lenovo T-series.

Yep...so true.
 
Computer retailers in Canada are limited to Best Buy, Staples, Microsoft Store, Apple Store, or independent shops. There is no place to view business laptops such as the Dell Latitude, HP ProBook, or Lenovo T-series.


That’s kind of a bummer. At least the Microcenter near me carries the Dell, MSI, Lenovo workstation lines and some of the higher end gaming ones such as the Razor Blade Pro, Acer Predator, etc.

But the Best Buy near me doesn’t even carry the Lenovo X1 Carbon, only the Yoga line. I found that surprising, because even the Costco next door to Best Buy has the Carbon
 
Choices and places are a lot more limited in Canada and gas prices are higher, house prices in major cities are very expensive, we pay more taxes but I would never live in any other country :). Two big reasons are health care and safety. Public safety is a bit of a moot point nowadays but universal health care wise, it's still one of the better countries out there. Yes I'm a Canadian.
 
Okay, I know apple doesn't "make displays" if you want to get technical, no one makes anything, we just put things together i.e pieces of sand to form glass/etc...

I am just pointing out that when you go to a store like bestbuy if you're just an average consumer, not looking to go to specialty stores etc.. what the average consumer is going to see is that all laptops even ones that cost more than Apple laptops (microsoft surface book 13.5 inch 3300$ vs 3299$ for 15.4 inch macbook pro) have worse screens than the macbook laptops. And no sorry, but the microsoft surface there was not brighter than the macbooks, I tried to turn the brightness up cause I noticed it wasn't that bright (compared to my 2017 macbook pro) but I was alarmed to see it was already at max brightness, which seems closer to 13-14/16 brightness vs my macbook pro.

The average consumer is going to see that even the expensive laptops at the usual consumer stores aren't nearly as nice as the macbooks as far as the display. The surface book indeed has a big space in between the screen and the pixels/panels and it makes everything look a lot worse, almost like being able to see the pixels but not exactly the same effect. I know that it does because that's the exact model I was looking at, so whoever mentioned that the surface books have better screens, they do not. At least not in where I live.


* side note. Yes the health care is universal but that doesn't make it good. I have a friend who is a young man, in his early 20s and he hurt his shoulder, it took Canada health care over 6 months to get him checked, and when they finally got him in, they appointed him to see a knee doctor by accident, he had to wait another month or two to see the proper doctor for his shoulder. Then it took another year for him to be treated because there's "line ups" in Canada. Since it's universal, it means depending on severity you might be told to wait in line. This meant that he had to wait another 16 months after he finally saw the doctor to be treated. In total he was out of work for over 2 years and he's just now finally recovered but still in the "easily-breakable-danger-zone" so he's still healing and still can't work manual labor.
Why does this suck? Because if he were able to just pay the doctor upfront more like in the United States, then he would have gotten treated much much sooner, almost immediately actually. The reason it's taking him so long to heal even after the surgery is because they waited about 2 years before treating him and it got a lot worse over that time. Just research "Canada has the worst healthcare system in the world" and you'll see many reasons why it's not all that. I love Canada but I really dislike how Canada uses Universal healthcare as a way to say "hey look at us, we're the best" when it's really not all it's chalked up to be. Same goes for Canada saying it's a bilingual country, hell no it isn't. We just say that to pander to everyone in the world, to make us look good. But the reality is most people in Canada speak one language, either english or french and only a small percentage speaks both. The united states is better at this than us because to graduate in the US you need to have english and minimum one other language, Canada has no laws like this and actually Canada has more or less hateful laws that say if you do not have a french parent or a french grandparent then you can not go to a francophone school. Canada is a great country but it's full of lies and pandering to the world. We pretend we're so great but we're not really all that. We brag about things we don't even have like bilingualism and other countries believe in the lie that our healthcare is the best in the world, it's simply not true. That being said, it is still a great country.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: HenryDJP
Surface Book has a better screen than the Macbooks for sure. Brighter, high contrast, and a higher resolution.


Um, no the Surface Book does not have a better screen. I have both here, and the Mac's screen is noticeably brighter and has more accurate colors. Though it does have a higher screen resolution, unfortunately Windows scaling is horrible. While I do like what the Surface Book 2 offers, I would not swap with my wife. Even my brother who is a known hater of Apple products said the same thing watching the same video on both laptops.

Now if Apple would allow us to increase system wide font size WITHOUT scaling that would be awesome!
 
Apple screens are terrible. But so are all the others.

I'd agree with this - Apples screen quality is diabolical. In my case, 3 out of 3 with shoddy screen faults so far on 2018 MBP 15" - Hoping lucky 4th attempt tomorrow :rolleyes:

My Dell XPS 13 4K screen is way better than the MBP.
 
That’s kind of a bummer. At least the Microcenter near me carries the Dell, MSI, Lenovo workstation lines and some of the higher end gaming ones such as the Razor Blade Pro, Acer Predator, etc.

But the Best Buy near me doesn’t even carry the Lenovo X1 Carbon, only the Yoga line. I found that surprising, because even the Costco next door to Best Buy has the Carbon
I travel to Chicago once in a while and visit the two Microcenter stores in the area. I saw some nice laptops but the US/Canadian exchange rates hold me back:(
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.