MacBook Air 15" display resolution

[giopiar]

I recently switched from a 27" 2019 iMac to a 15" MacBook Air. My needs changed over these years, so I chose to switch back to a notebook.
I noticed that text on the MBA looks way smaller than it appeared on the iMac, and that default "looks like" resolution is set to 1710 x 1107. Switching to 1440 x 932 solved the problem, giving me a similar perceived size of text and graphical elements.

I'm not asking about technical details about how MacOs manages scaling (I already know about it), I'm just wondering why Apple chose to set such a high resolution for a 15" screen and asking to other users their preferences on this matter

 

[Shirasaki]

My guess is everyone in Apple is 30 years or younger? minus executives and Tim Cook of course. Or at least they all have amazing eyesights. Anyone with glass, immediately the issue is quite apparent.

 

[turbineseaplane]

No clue .. It doesn't work for me.

Thankfully the default 2x on my 2015 15" MBP is still 1440 x 900

My first PowerBook G4 17" also ran 1440 x 900! (non retina, obv)

They keep making things physically smaller on screen (at defaults)

It's so much less taxing on my eyes to have things of a comfortable and easily legible size.

 

[Cliff3]

I'm not asking about technical details about how MacOs manages scaling (I already know about it), I'm just wondering why Apple chose to set such a high resolution for a 15" screen and asking to other users their preferences on this matter

I assume Apple UX designers have worked with focus groups to determine how best to configure the display settings. Since there is an option available to you that you like, then I don't see what the problem is. My 69 year old eyeglass-wearing eyes are fine with the default resolution.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I assume Apple UX designers have worked with focus groups to determine how best to configure the display settings.

I see absolutely zero indication at all that modern apple is working with focus groups, on anything.

 

[giopiar]

I assume Apple UX designers have worked with focus groups to determine how best to configure the display settings. Since there is an option available to you that you like, then I don't see what the problem is. My 69 year old eyeglass-wearing eyes are fine with the default resolution.

No real problem at all, I’m not blaming Apple -i’d call myself a ‘fanboy’-, I’d just like to share opinions since my 41 years-old eyeglass-wearing eyes work perfectly during my job (I’m an hip and hand surgeon so I’m used to watch small details) but after a copule of hours with that resolution they feel strained.
Maybe I just need to see an ophthalmologist 😅

 

[SmOgER]

I recently switched from a 27" 2019 iMac to a 15" MacBook Air. My needs changed over these years, so I chose to switch back to a notebook.
I noticed that text on the MBA looks way smaller than it appeared on the iMac, and that default "looks like" resolution is set to 1710 x 1107. Switching to 1440 x 932 solved the problem, giving me a similar perceived size of text and graphical elements.

I'm not asking about technical details about how MacOs manages scaling (I already know about it), I'm just wondering why Apple chose to set such a high resolution for a 15" screen and asking to other users their preferences on this matter

I'm with you on this. Recent 13" and 15" have similar 224PPI and scaling towards the smaller text. For me the font is not necessarily too small per se, I can read it perfectly fine. It's more of it not being crisp enough compared to their previous implementations of Retina display. What I did instead is left the scaling as it was (you do lose a lot of screen estate if you change it and the new OS was not really optimized for that), and then these font size settings:

as well as Safari default zoom at 102% (through TinkerTool), minimum font size at 12pt (through Safari settings), in MacOS settings: large menu bar size and text size 14; disabled font smoothing entirely system wide (terminal command). I think those things have fixed my complaints pretty much entirely and I still have plenty of screen estate.

 

[Christopher Kim]

Ditto - this started with Apple's laptops I *think* starting in the 2016 MBP generation (the switch to the Touchbar / 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports), where the default resolution on their laptops was no longer the exact pixel-doubled retina resolution, but 1 notch towards the "More Space" line.

Since then, I think Apple has done this with all of their laptops. The Default display setting is always 1 notch towards the "More Space" line.

Why did they do this? Maybe as someone suggested, more people who use it are younger, and they think their user base would rather have the slightly more useable space available, than the slightly bigger text / icon size.

As I'm now >40 years old, I've basically always felt more comfortable going back to the true pixel-doubled resolution. I have a 15" M4 MBA, which on its 2880 x 1864, is as you say, "Looks like 1440 x 932". It's fine for me and my eyes!

 

[giopiar]

After lot of tests I chose to stay with 1440x932. Considering my workflow, the wasted space is not worth the eye strain. It is quite obvious that macOS, especially Tahoe, is designed with the "more space" resolution in mind -the size of some graphical elements makes it look like a "toyOS"-, but I'll get over it.

I'm just still wondering why 1710x1107 caused me so much eye strain. Maybe I was particularly sensitive to the small artifacts introduced by non-integer scaling...