Macbook air 2018 screen brightness

[DVD9]

For those interested, Dave2D has a 12” MacBook and the new MBA side by side in his review - it appears it’s not just dimmer than the Pro, but the MB too.

The new Air has the dimmest screen ever. The old Air is brighter by almost 100 nits.

The new Air should have been priced at $799- as Bloomberg rumored it to be.
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I would argue $100 for the lifetime use of a laptop is a no brainer expense to pay for a better screen. Assuming all other things are equal of course.

I'm going by Apple retail pricing by the way. B&H currently has the base model MBP for $1250. Don't you think a much better screen is worth $50, again, if all other things are equal in your mind?

The issue isn't whether the MBA screen is good or not. It's just that they are charging you a lot at retail for something that is noticeably worse than another laptop that is very, very close in pricing. If the new MBA started at $1000 it would make a lot more sense. At $1200, it doesn't.

They're ripping you off. BestBuy has it for $1,149.

Buy the new Air with an inferior screen for $50 more? I just watched a video comparison between the two and the 2017 Pro screen is obviously superior in both brightness and detail.

The new Air isn't worth more than $799-

 

[stevefo]

Went to Best Buy to check out the new rMBA. I agree with some of the people here. I have a 2105 rMBP, and the screen seems so much sharper on my 2015. I also likes the screen on the 2017 13" rMBP better. If the screen on the rMBA was the same as the '17 rMBP, I'd jump on it. Keeping my perfectly fine 2015 rMBP.

 

[blairh]

The new Air has the dimmest screen ever. The old Air is brighter by almost 100 nits.

The new Air should have been priced at $799- as Bloomberg rumored it to be.
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They're ripping you off. BestBuy has it for $1,149.

Buy the new Air with an inferior screen for $50 more? I just watched a video comparison between the two and the 2017 Pro screen is obviously superior in both brightness and detail.

The new Air isn't worth more than $799-

Dude chill. It depends what state you live in with respect to tax. BB will charge taxes in most states whereas B&H won't. So you have to consider that. Also I've been very vocal on this forum criticizing the new MBA. I think $1000 retail would be fair considering the MBP starts at $1300. I think it's ridiculous at $1200. I also think Apple had no intention of making the MBA and it's a bizarre product alongside the MBP.

 

[raqball]

I think $1000 retail would be fair considering the MBP starts at $1300.

Agree... The base Air should be $999.....

 

[DVD9]

Dude chill. It depends what state you live in with respect to tax. BB will charge taxes in most states whereas B&H won't. So you have to consider that. Also I've been very vocal on this forum criticizing the new MBA. I think $1000 retail would be fair considering the MBP starts at $1300. I think it's ridiculous at $1200. I also think Apple had no intention of making the MBA and it's a bizarre product alongside the MBP.

That money goes into B&H bank account. I want the same price as BestBuy offers from a site that does not collect taxes.

BestBuy pays taxes, they don't pocket the money.

As for the MBP without the touch bar, that was not updated with the T2 chip, which suggests to me that it and the 12" Macbook will soon be discontinued.

The new lineup will be this Air with a total crap screen at $1,299 followed by the 13" Pro at $1,799-

 

[torana355]

Agree... The base Air should be $999.....

That's true but i think Apples endgame is to discontinue the nTB MBP. So you will have the Base MBA for 1200, the 256gb MBA for 1400 and the base MBP with touch bar for 1800. I say get your hands on the nTB MBP why you can lol

 

[madKIR]

I stopped by an Apple store to check the new Air yesterday. The screen is very disappointing! It’s dim even under the Apple store lights. I can’t imagine how it’s gonna look like outside in the sun. Next to the Pro laptops the difference is very apparent! Even the older Air is brighter! I can’t believe they released such an expensive update with such an underwhelming screen. Let alone, those battery life specs are not entirely sincere then: if it had a decent retina screen with the brightness of the other laptops, it would not have had 12 hours of battery life.

 

[blairh]

That money goes into B&H bank account. I want the same price as BestBuy offers from a site that does not collect taxes.

BestBuy pays taxes, they don't pocket the money.

As for the MBP without the touch bar, that was not updated with the T2 chip, which suggests to me that it and the 12" Macbook will soon be discontinued.

The new lineup will be this Air with a total crap screen at $1,299 followed by the 13" Pro at $1,799-

And I want the cheapest price available to me.

I hope you are wrong about the lineup. That would be a disaster.

 

[lambertjohn]

Agree... The base Air should be $999.....

I just picked up the 2018 256GB Air at Micro Center for $1199, and I think that's a fair price. They also have the base Air going for $999 right now. Again, a fair price. Anything more and it's priced way more than it's worth. But I imagine there's going to be tons of sales on the new Air through Christmas and the coming year.

 

[DanUC6]

Actual use...brightness not an issue.

 

[manhattanmania]

I stopped by an Apple store to check the new Air yesterday. The screen is very disappointing! It’s dim even under the Apple store lights. I can’t imagine how it’s gonna look like outside in the sun. Next to the Pro laptops the difference is very apparent! Even the older Air is brighter! I can’t believe they released such an expensive update with such an underwhelming screen. Let alone, those battery life specs are not entirely sincere then: if it had a decent retina screen with the brightness of the other laptops, it would not have had 12 hours of battery life.

Man, idk. I went to a Best Buy and under those bright lights the Air on max brightness was too bright. I took it down 4 notches and it was good. This is why I feel these forums can be so misleading. It’s like everyone wants to jump on a complaining bandwagon. If you have first hand experience you can weed out what’s true or not.

 

[torana355]

Man, idk. I went to a Best Buy and under those bright lights the Air on max brightness was too bright. I took it down 4 notches and it was good. This is why I feel these forums can be so misleading. It’s like everyone wants to jump on a complaining bandwagon. If you have first hand experience you can weed out what’s true or not.

No way, 4 notches down was almost not even visible on the units i checked. It basically had to be full brightness to be usable under the store lights.

 

[EugW]

No way, 4 notches down was almost not even visible on the units i checked. It basically had to be full brightness to be usable under the store lights.

Depends on the local store. Were you in an Apple Store? Around here, in my experience the Apple Stores are generally brighter than the Best Buys. So, I can understand why the screen was fine 4 steps down from max in Best Buy, and not in your store.

 

[torana355]

Depends on the local store. Were you in an Apple Store? Around here, in my experience the Apple Stores are generally brighter than the Best Buys. So, I can understand why the screen was fine 4 steps down from max in Best Buy, and not in your store.

Good point, yeah i was in an Apple store. No doubt the new MBA will be adequate in most lighting situations but its the fact they are charging near MBP prices for a screen that is not as good.

 

[0014]

If you really want to see how bright the screen goes then make sure the MBA is set to auto brightness, use the torch on your phone at max brightness, and shine it on the light sensor by the FaceTime camera. You have to have the MBA on Auto Brightness to get the max screen brightness.

 

[stevefo]

Man, idk. I went to a Best Buy and under those bright lights the Air on max brightness was too bright. I took it down 4 notches and it was good. This is why I feel these forums can be so misleading. It’s like everyone wants to jump on a complaining bandwagon. If you have first hand experience you can weed out what’s true or not.

I was ready to buy one until I went to Best Buy and put the 2107 rMBP next to the 2018 Air. The brightness on the Air was less but was willing to look past it. The crispness of the text looked a little bit fuzzy, and that’s what put me off. I’ll wait til next year and see what happens or if the price comes down on the ‘17 rMBP.

 

[Ma2k5]

Depends on the local store. Were you in an Apple Store? Around here, in my experience the Apple Stores are generally brighter than the Best Buys. So, I can understand why the screen was fine 4 steps down from max in Best Buy, and not in your store.

I was just in a popular electronics retail store today around 30 minutes ago. Pretty much all laptops are set to max brightness for obvious reasons (attract customers).

As I lower the brightness notch on the MB/MBA, it very quickly becomes very dark, even at 50% I would say it was too dark, as I got lower it looked unusable. What was more interesting was, I also tested the XPS 13 screen, and I would say that screen even at 0% brightness was more usable than the MB/MBA at far higher brightness levels. This was the non-matte option (I know matte usually works very well under light) so I don't know if it is more that the MB/MBA are just really dim, or if it's just that the XPS 13 has a really bright screen in comparison.

 

[EugW]

I was just in a popular electronics retail store today around 30 minutes ago. Pretty much all laptops are set to max brightness for obvious reasons (attract customers).

As I lower the brightness notch on the MB/MBA, it very quickly becomes very dark, even at 50% I would say it was too dark, as I got lower it looked unusable. What was more interesting was, I also tested the XPS 13 screen, and I would say that screen even at 0% brightness was more usable than the MB/MBA at far higher brightness levels. This was the non-matte option (I know matte usually works very well under light) so I don't know if it is more that the MB/MBA are just really dim, or if it's just that the XPS 13 has a really bright screen in comparison.

That is actually a bad thing for the XPS. If it really is that bright at minimum brightness, then it would likely be unusable in a completely dark room. Way too bright.

One of the best features of my iPad Air 2 over my older model is how dim it could get when necessary.

 

[Ma2k5]

That is actually a bad thing for the XPS. If it really is that bright at minimum brightness, then it would likely be unusable in a completely dark room. Way too bright.

One of the best features of my iPad Air 2 over older models is how dim it could get when necessary.

I don't know if it is too bright for a dark room or if it was that the contrast etc just was better so things appeared a lot clearer. I do think however using a laptop in a very dark room probably isn't ideal or common so the use case for that is pretty small.

Ipads I can somewhat understand (a bit like Kindles - reading books in bed), but I think computers are probably not that interested in becoming super dim.

 

[EugW]

I don't know if it is too bright for a dark room or if it was that the contrast etc just was better so things appeared a lot clearer. I do think however using a laptop in a very dark room probably isn't ideal or common so the use case for that is pretty small.

Ipads I can somewhat understand (a bit like Kindles - reading books in bed), but I think computers are probably not that interested in becoming super dim.

I used my 2009 MacBook Pro sometimes in the dark. Noticeably lower minimum brightness than my white 2008 MacBook and it made a real world difference.

If you can understand it for an iPad, you can understand it for a laptop.

 

[macnmac]

I choose this as the winner of the 'strange post of the day' contest....

Screen brightness is not only about someone's eyes.... There are people with 20/20 perfect vision who need a very bright screen.....

i guess i've been using brightness wrong my entire life... better go get my ears checked...

 

[raqball]

i guess i've been using brightness wrong my entire life... better go get my ears checked...

Might be a good idea if you've ever used a screen (computer, phone, tablet) outdoors in bright sunlight and still think brightness, or lack thereof, does not matter...

 

[macnmac]

Might be a good idea if you've ever used a screen (computer, phone, tablet) outdoors in bright sunlight and still think brightness, or lack thereof, does not matter...

understood, but the level of brightness that is being debated here is not that... people act as if they were working on the sun or something...

 

[raqball]

understood, but the level of brightness that is being debated here is not that... people act as if they were working on the sun or something...

The screen is dim and washed out when compared or other Apple laptops. Will that cause issues for some? Yes. Will others not care? Yes

Apple skimped on the screen, skimped on the CPU and skimped on the GPU... I could have dealt with the CPU and GPU skimping but not the screen...

If you are happy with the machine then that is awesome, enjoy your new machine.. I really wanted the Air as it was exactly what I've been waiting for. touchID without the TB and the iconic Air wedge design...

The screen and the screen alone is why mine went back to the mothership....

 

[macnmac]

The screen is dim and washed out when compared or other Apple laptops. Will that cause issues for some? Yes. Will others not care? Yes

Apple skimped on the screen, skimped on the CPU and skimped on the GPU... I could have dealt with the CPU and GPU skimping but not the screen...

If you are happy with the machine then that is awesome, enjoy your new machine.. I really wanted the Air as it was exactly what I've been waiting for. touchID without the TB and the iconic Air wedge design...

The screen and the screen alone is why mine went back to the mothership....

lets be fair here... what you and the other people are asking for is a mbp at the mba price point...