I'm going from 15.6 1366x768 to 13.3 1440x900

[djfunkyboy]

So I'm going from a standard Windows 8 laptop to a macbook air 13.3 inch soon...

My question is, the 15.6inch 1366x768 display of the Win 8 laptop has 100PPI, however the 13.3inch 1440x900 display of the MacBook air has 127PPI, will I see a difference?

I understand that the screen is 27% more pixel-dense so I'm assuming it will help.

My current 15.6 laptop looks fine to me but can look a bit jagged sometimes and fuzzy (especially when I have been using my tablet or iPhone).

Any idea or help would be appreciated

 

[cbautis2]

So I'm going from a standard Windows 8 laptop to a macbook air 13.3 inch soon...

My question is, the 15.6inch 1366x768 display of the Win 8 laptop has 100PPI, however the 13.3inch 1440x900 display of the MacBook air has 127PPI, will I see a difference?

I understand that the screen is 27% more pixel-dense so I'm assuming it will help.

My current 15.6 laptop looks fine to me but can look a bit jagged sometimes and fuzzy (especially when I have been using my tablet or iPhone).

Any idea or help would be appreciated

You'll see a difference but not as dramatic as going retina!


I'd go with 200+ ppi rmbp or rmb. Once you go retina, it's hard to go back to low ppi screens.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

To be honest

So I'm going from a standard Windows 8 laptop to a macbook air 13.3 inch soon...

My question is, the 15.6inch 1366x768 display of the Win 8 laptop has 100PPI, however the 13.3inch 1440x900 display of the MacBook air has 127PPI, will I see a difference?

I understand that the screen is 27% more pixel-dense so I'm assuming it will help.

My current 15.6 laptop looks fine to me but can look a bit jagged sometimes and fuzzy (especially when I have been using my tablet or iPhone).

Any idea or help would be appreciated

depending on the spec you are going for it is often a better buy to get the rMBP and have lovely retina screen in a slightly smaller package that is only 1lb heavier.

 

[Cjshino]

You'll see a difference but not as dramatic as going retina!


I'd go with 200+ ppi rmbp or rmb. Once you go retina, it's hard to go back to low ppi screens.

wrong. I went from a 13' rMBP to an 11' MBA and I'm fine with it

 

[motrek]

So I'm going from a standard Windows 8 laptop to a macbook air 13.3 inch soon...

My question is, the 15.6inch 1366x768 display of the Win 8 laptop has 100PPI, however the 13.3inch 1440x900 display of the MacBook air has 127PPI, will I see a difference?

I understand that the screen is 27% more pixel-dense so I'm assuming it will help.

My current 15.6 laptop looks fine to me but can look a bit jagged sometimes and fuzzy (especially when I have been using my tablet or iPhone).

Any idea or help would be appreciated

You will just be able to see more stuff. All the stuff will be just as jagged, but the jagged edges will be physically smaller.

Sounds like this is already a done deal so no sense in worrying about it now.

 

[buchacho]

I just got a 13" MBA yesterday. My previous machine is a 7 year old 15" MBP with the same resolution. I cannot believe the stink people are making over the screen. It is sharp enough for normal usage. If it had more pixels, it would be very difficult to read text. I think most online commentators just read specs and say something is garbage just based on numbers, but with a screen the numbers are not everything. Yes it would be nice if the screen technology was a bit more current, but the resolution seems fine. Also retina is normally viewed as pixel doubled, so the screen real estate is actually smaller on the MBP unless you scale the resolution.

 

[motrek]

I just got a 13" MBA yesterday. My previous machine is a 7 year old 15" MBP with the same resolution. I cannot believe the stink people are making over the screen. It is sharp enough for normal usage. If it had more pixels, it would be very difficult to read text. I think most online commentators just read specs and say something is garbage just based on numbers, but with a screen the numbers are not everything. Yes it would be nice if the screen technology was a bit more current, but the resolution seems fine. Also retina is normally viewed as pixel doubled, so the screen real estate is actually smaller on the MBP unless you scale the resolution.

Yeah, by any objective standard the MBA screens are still just fine.

Most people on this forum have very little perspective.

I remember when color laptops were just becoming mainstream in the mid 90s. The colors were hopelessly washed out, the viewing angles were so bad that you couldn't see the entire screen clearly from any one angle, and the refresh rates were so godawful that anything moving on the screen would essentially just disappear.

(Fun fact, that's why the "mouse trails" feature was added to Windows. The one that shows all previous locations of the mouse pointer for the last couple seconds. It's because refresh rates were so awful that you might move the mouse and then completely lose track of where the pointer went because it effectively disappeared and reappeared somewhere completely different seconds later.)

Now THOSE were bad screens. The idea that the MBA's screen is bad because you can see tiny little jagged edges on text, or because your friends don't get an optimal picture when watching a movie from an angle, ha. That's sort of like complaining that your Ferrari only has 500 horsepower instead of 600.

 

[desantii]

Its a small but noticeable difefrence

 

[jjhoekstra]

depending on the spec you are going for it is often a better buy to get the rMBP and have lovely retina screen in a slightly smaller package that is only 1lb heavier.

That 1lb is actually quit a lot if portability is important. But a retina screen is indeed rather lovely!

----------

I just got a 13" MBA yesterday. My previous machine is a 7 year old 15" MBP with the same resolution. I cannot believe the stink people are making over the screen. It is sharp enough for normal usage. If it had more pixels, it would be very difficult to read text. I think most online commentators just read specs and say something is garbage just based on numbers, but with a screen the numbers are not everything. Yes it would be nice if the screen technology was a bit more current, but the resolution seems fine. Also retina is normally viewed as pixel doubled, so the screen real estate is actually smaller on the MBP unless you scale the resolution.

Uuh? No! Retina screens are very GOOD for reading. More pixels result in sharper characters resulting in a better reading experience. Characters on a retina screen look like they have been printed on paper with a quality printer.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

They also

That 1lb is actually quit a lot if portability is important. But a retina screen is indeed rather lovely!

----------



Uuh? No! Retina screens are very GOOD for reading. More pixels result in sharper characters resulting in a better reading experience. Characters on a retina screen look like they have been printed on paper with a quality printer.

Have better anti glare, better viewing angles, and fantastic colour reproduction.

Yeah, by any objective standard the MBA screens are still just fine.

Most people on this forum have very little perspective.

I remember when color laptops were just becoming mainstream in the mid 90s. The colors were hopelessly washed out, the viewing angles were so bad that you couldn't see the entire screen clearly from any one angle, and the refresh rates were so godawful that anything moving on the screen would essentially just disappear.

(Fun fact, that's why the "mouse trails" feature was added to Windows. The one that shows all previous locations of the mouse pointer for the last couple seconds. It's because refresh rates were so awful that you might move the mouse and then completely lose track of where the pointer went because it effectively disappeared and reappeared somewhere completely different seconds later.)

Now THOSE were bad screens. The idea that the MBA's screen is bad because you can see tiny little jagged edges on text, or because your friends don't get an optimal picture when watching a movie from an angle, ha. That's sort of like complaining that your Ferrari only has 500 horsepower instead of 600.

It's not that the MBA has a bad screen (it is very good), it is just that once you spec them out with the same RAM and SSD you might as well get the rMBP and have the better screen, CPU and GPU for a very small price bump and very small weight bump in slightly smaller package. If you are looking for best bang for buck it is currently the rMBP simple as that.

 

[Abbara]

Completely agree with people saying the MBA screen is fine. It's really nice.

It's not that the MBA has a bad screen (it is very good), it is just that once you spec them out with the same RAM and SSD you might as well get the rMBP and have the better screen, CPU and GPU for a very small price bump and very small weight bump in slightly smaller package. If you are looking for best bang for buck it is currently the rMBP simple as that.

I agree, but most people who buy a MBA don't buy a maxed out one. Point is that 4gb/128gb at 12h battery life is perfect for millions of people who use it to do blogging, skyping, facebook, netflix, writing marketing plans, taking notes for school etc.

These people rarely use Turbo for more than a few seconds, and just don't need 8gb of mem, an i7 and an additional 128 of storage in a world of streaming entertainment and cloud-based school/work environments.

And so at $900 or $1k, a base model MBA is awesome. Cut that price by $100-200 for a refurb or older 'new' model (like a 2014 sealed in plastic).

Comparing it then with a rMBP gives you more of the things you DON'T need (performance), less of the things you DO need (battery life, weight, thin), plus a nice retina screen which is sweet, but far from necessary.

Sure if you want to do professional photo or video editing, or don't move the laptop around much and keep it plugged in on your desk a lot, then by all means get a rMBP instead of a maxed out Air. I completely agree. But most users are fine with the base model, and for them a MBA is a much better choice than a base model rMBP.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Almost agree

Completely agree with people saying the MBA screen is fine. It's really nice.



I agree, but most people who buy a MBA don't buy a maxed out one. Point is that 4gb/128gb at 12h battery life is perfect for millions of people who use it to do blogging, skyping, facebook, netflix, writing marketing plans, taking notes for school etc.

These people rarely use Turbo for more than a few seconds, and just don't need 8gb of mem, an i7 and an additional 128 of storage in a world of streaming entertainment and cloud-based school/work environments.

And so at $900 or $1k, a base model MBA is awesome. Cut that price by $100-200 for a refurb or older 'new' model (like a 2014 sealed in plastic).

Comparing it then with a rMBP gives you more of the things you DON'T need (performance), less of the things you DO need (battery life, weight, thin), plus a nice retina screen which is sweet, but far from necessary.

Sure if you want to do professional photo or video editing, or don't move the laptop around much and keep it plugged in on your desk a lot, then by all means get a rMBP instead of a maxed out Air. I completely agree. But most users are fine with the base model, and for them a MBA is a much better choice than a base model rMBP.

Everything you say is true but one thing.

The best thing about the retina is the text, it looks brilliant almost like printed material, if youy read a lot of papers and work on the internet a lot it is just so much nicer for your eyes.

 

[SmOgER]

You will just be able to see more stuff. All the stuff will be just as jagged, but the jagged edges will be physically smaller.

I don't get what are you trying to say here..

MBA 13" has a great quality non-retina screen which has more usable estate than rMBP 13", but obviously less DPI. So MBA has great screen, while rMBP has even better, yet it comes at the expense of battery life and iGPU performance, price tag is affected just as well.

 

[motrek]

I don't get what are you trying to say here..

MBA 13" has a great quality non-retina screen which has more usable estate than rMBP 13", but obviously less DPI. So MBA has great screen, while rMBP has even better, yet it comes at the expense of battery life and iGPU performance, price tag is affected just as well.

The OP is asking if he will see a difference between his old Windows laptop and a 13" MBA. Nothing to do with a rMBP.

 

[SmOgER]

What I referring to was, there are none "jagged edges" to speak of. It is both significantly sharper than the 15.6 screen on windows machine, and it has much better white point and contrast than most laptops. And in terms of resolution, it's a much better screen than the one in 2012 MBP. If you can see "jagged edges" on MBA, then I can only imagine what you would say about 2012 MBP, which still has a decent screen as well.

 

[motrek]

What I referring to was, there are none "jagged edges" to speak of. It is both significantly sharper than the 15.6 screen on windows machine, and it has much better white point and contrast than most laptops. And in terms of resolution, it's a much better screen than the one in 2012 MBP. If you can see "jagged edges" on MBA, then I can only imagine what you would say about 2012 MBP, which still has a decent screen as well.

Sorry, I probably communicated this poorly but what I'm saying is that all of the pixels for whatever you look at will be in the same configurations, so any image will have the same exact edges (jagged or not) but they will just be smaller. As opposed to a retina screen where the logical points map to four unique pixels, so the edges of everything are smoother.