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StoneJack

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Dec 19, 2009
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I used MBA 11 inch for few years, recently updated to Macbook Pro 2016 NTB. Wife thinks about Macbook. She also used MBA 2013 for few years. Is the new Macbook's screen as good as Macbook Pro?
 
The MB has a good screen, but no it is not as good as the MBP screen.

However, it is about a bazillion times better than the 11.6" MBA's screen.
 
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No
Avoid comparing MB to MBP screens side by side - It's hard to unsee how much worse the MB screen is once you compare them (speaking from experience here)
 
No
Avoid comparing MB to MBP screens side by side - It's hard to unsee how much worse the MB screen is once you compare them (speaking from experience here)

Actually, I've been to an Apple Store today just to compare the screens of the MB and the 13" TB MBP. At least with the pictures in the Photos App I couldn't see any difference between the two. I know that the 13" has the better display, but I really couldn't make out any difference side by side.
 
Actually, I've been to an Apple Store today just to compare the screens of the MB and the 13" TB MBP. At least with the pictures in the Photos App I couldn't see any difference between the two. I know that the 13" has the better display, but I really couldn't make out any difference side by side.

Well - agree to disagree - I've had 2015 and 2016 MB's in the house and used them side by side over long periods of time with many different MBP's of various vintages (oldest being a 2014) and it's definitely noticeable to me.

To each our own I guess.
 
I have both. The MB screen is fine. Sure if I were a photo editor I'd work exclusively on the MBP but as a casual user the MB screen is really nice.
 
Well - agree to disagree - I've had 2015 and 2016 MB's in the house and used them side by side over long periods of time with many different MBP's of various vintages (oldest being a 2014) and it's definitely noticeable to me.

To each our own I guess.

The 2015 and 2016 MacBook displays are great on their own though. If I were a betting man, I'd expect to see Apple bring a 120Hz refresh rate to the MacBook Pro in the next refresh as a distinguishing "Pro" feature.
 
They're ok, sure, I agree with that.
But the OP specifically asked:



To that the simple answer is definitely a "no".

So the Display of the 2017 MBP is brighter and has the wider colour gamut, but you won‘t see the wider colour gamut unless the pictures are shot accordingly.
I really couldn‘t find any difference between the 2017 MB and the 2017 MBP side by side. Really. That said with the pictures available on the machines.

But I again suggest for everybody to find out themselfes at a local store
 
So the Display of the 2017 MBP is brighter and has the wider colour gamut, but you won‘t see the wider colour gamut unless the pictures are shot accordingly.
I really couldn‘t find any difference between the 2017 MB and the 2017 MBP side by side. Really. That said with the pictures available on the machines.

But I again suggest for everybody to find out themselfes at a local store

Again - Agree to disagree as stated above.
I have ample work and home usage with the comparisons in question here and, to my eyes, it was always *always* noticeable, even just with simple viewing angle changes when looking from the side at websites (as one of many examples).

I agree with you. Any who are interested will have to decide for themselves, but for me, it was impossible to not notice after some time with multiple machines.
 
Again - Agree to disagree as stated above.
I have ample work and home usage with the comparisons in question here and, to my eyes, it was always *always* noticeable, even just with simple viewing angle changes when looking from the side at websites (as one of many examples).

I agree with you. Any who are interested will have to decide for themselves, but for me, it was impossible to not notice after some time with multiple machines.

The Display of Retina with two supplier LG and Samsung , which made the display characters slightly variance, the viewing angle properties is highly relative to LCD supplier more that the gamut properties (LG with better view angle but slowly response , Samsung opposite)

The MBP with wider gamut mainly use the LED with wider gamut by additional Red Phosphor, the cost will not increase so much, however it require much more power due to lower efficient LED and LCD filter (require x1.8 power), so I thing Apple not use wider gamut due to battery problem (may drop 1-2 hours usage time in MacBook )

The wide gamut made green and red color much better, even SRGB will get slightly vivid on green and red, however not relative to accuracy, non-wide gamut display much easy for achieve better accuracy that wide gamut display which red phosphor is harder to control with very narrow red spectrum, the graphic may easy to over-vivid even the color manage corrected.
http://www.nichia.co.jp/en/product/led_product_data.html?type='NS2W364G-HG'
 
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I have owned 2 MacBooks with different screens, and one is significantly better than the other at almost everything (black level, color saturation, color gamut, accuracy, etc...) so chalk that up to manufacturing variation, I guess.

But even the MacBook with better screen is not comparable to the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro does have slightly better color gradation, and does look noticeably smoother in transitional areas.

Calibrated, the two displays are pretty close, so I'm guessing what's happening here is that Apple is using the highest quality display panels in their display samples and also they have calibrated all of their display samples. Not very far-fetched.

If you don't calibrate your displays, and you have a "bad" MacBook, the difference is very very very noticeable. The "bad" MacBook to me essentially looks like a MacBook Air display with better viewing angle and sharpness. The "good" MacBook looks overall more vibrant even without calibration.
 
I have owned 2 MacBooks with different screens, and one is significantly better than the other at almost everything (black level, color saturation, color gamut, accuracy, etc...) so chalk that up to manufacturing variation, I guess.

But even the MacBook with better screen is not comparable to the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro does have slightly better color gradation, and does look noticeably smoother in transitional areas.

Calibrated, the two displays are pretty close, so I'm guessing what's happening here is that Apple is using the highest quality display panels in their display samples and also they have calibrated all of their display samples. Not very far-fetched.

If you don't calibrate your displays, and you have a "bad" MacBook, the difference is very very very noticeable. The "bad" MacBook to me essentially looks like a MacBook Air display with better viewing angle and sharpness. The "good" MacBook looks overall more vibrant even without calibration.
How did you calibrate your screens?
 
I have owned 2 MacBooks with different screens, and one is significantly better than the other at almost everything (black level, color saturation, color gamut, accuracy, etc...) so chalk that up to manufacturing variation, I guess.

But even the MacBook with better screen is not comparable to the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro does have slightly better color gradation, and does look noticeably smoother in transitional areas.

Calibrated, the two displays are pretty close, so I'm guessing what's happening here is that Apple is using the highest quality display panels in their display samples and also they have calibrated all of their display samples. Not very far-fetched.

If you don't calibrate your displays, and you have a "bad" MacBook, the difference is very very very noticeable. The "bad" MacBook to me essentially looks like a MacBook Air display with better viewing angle and sharpness. The "good" MacBook looks overall more vibrant even without calibration.

But isn't it the Macbook screen Retina display as compared to MBA?
 
But isn't it the Macbook screen Retina display as compared to MBA?

I think the wording of your OP is throwing us off.

It reads as though you've been on MBA's but are now comparing between the rMB and rMBP's and looking to move to one of those 2 options.

Are you actually contemplating a new MacBook Air?
 
I think the wording of your OP is throwing us off.

It reads as though you've been on MBA's but are now comparing between the rMB and rMBP's and looking to move to one of those 2 options.

Are you actually contemplating a new MacBook Air?


No, my wife and I both had MBAs (11 inch, 2013). Then I upgraded to MBP, 2016 and now she is contemplating either similar MBP or Macbook. For portability issues, I think Macbook will be better.

On a related note, is 12 inch MB screen which has different proportions compared to MBA 11, does it feel larger enough? Sorry for asking, cause I never used MB myself?
 
Well, we bought Macbook 2017, rose gold.
Lovely screen and weight.
The macbook pro screen is bigger and better, but not by much.
Second is the macbook's screen, which is lovely.
MBA screen is not that bad, but not retina and loses to two first. Retina really spoils the eye, I guess.
I remember how we used to calibrate MBA screen, do Macbook users calibrate Macbook screen?
 
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