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Macbook or Macbook Air Which Display is Better?

M

Mike10128

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
5
0
I am trying to decide between the 2.4 Macbook Aluminum and the MBA 1.6 120HD, which in your opinions have the best display to view Itunes movies, I have heard the glare is more prevalent of the Macbook but that they make an anti glare film that helps, I am looking for good colors, lack of glare if possible on a glossy screen and good contrast.

Thnaks for any input you can give
 
macbook air screen is far superior to the macbook. Apple cheaped out on the screen when it came to the unibody macbook.
 
mbcomparison2.jpg


I'll let you be the judge.
 
Mike10128 said:
I am trying to decide between the 2.4 Macbook Aluminum and the MBA 1.6 120HD, which in your opinions have the best display to view Itunes movies, I have heard the glare is more prevalent of the Macbook but that they make an anti glare film that helps, I am looking for good colors, lack of glare if possible on a glossy screen and good contrast.

Thnaks for any input you can give
Click to expand...

Yes, the regular MacBook is alot more glossy as it has a piece of glass over the screen as the MBA doesn't.

But unless you already have a good system, I don't see why you'd get a MacBook Air... seems.... pointless... next to impossible to upgrade, exact same footprint as the regular MacBook, slightly thinner, slightly lighter.... meh. Seems like you'd be paying 1.5x more to get less...
 
InkMaster said:
Yes, the regular MacBook is alot more glossy as it has a piece of glass over the screen as the MBA doesn't.

But unless you already have a good system, I don't see why you'd get a MacBook Air... seems.... pointless... next to impossible to upgrade, exact same footprint as the regular MacBook, slightly thinner, slightly lighter.... meh. Seems like you'd be paying 1.5x more to get less...
Click to expand...
Precisely. You pay a premium to get less bulk. For most people its probably not worth the premium. Nevertheless the Air seems to appeal to enough, otherwise Apple would have canned it.

Back to the screen, it's not just a case of the MacBook being more glossy, the Air clearly has a better panel.
 
InkMaster said:
But unless you already have a good system, I don't see why you'd get a MacBook Air... seems.... pointless... next to impossible to upgrade, exact same footprint as the regular MacBook, slightly thinner, slightly lighter.... meh. Seems like you'd be paying 1.5x more to get less...
Click to expand...

Unless your constantly traveling like me :) then you will notice the weight difference, believe me!

What else are you planning on using it for aside the movies?
 
Macjames said:
Unless your constantly traveling like me :) then you will notice the weight difference, believe me!

What else are you planning on using it for aside the movies?
Click to expand...

Again, as I said, if its your second of third machine, then fine. If its your primary machine - unless all you do is web browsing, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot while simultaneously someone would be stepping on your balls :p
 
I prefer the MB Air display over the MB Pro. Unfortunately I do not prefer the MB Air overall. :(
 
For the extra money you paid for a "MacBook, but thinner", you really do get slightly higher quality components as well, such as the LCD. The screen is excellent on the MBA.

InkMaster said:
Again, as I said, if its your second of third machine, then fine. If its your primary machine - unless all you do is web browsing, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot while simultaneously someone would be stepping on your balls :p
Click to expand...

Not really. If you're OK with 1 USB slot and no (built-in) DVD drive, an MBA is perfectly fine.* They're fast, and with the 9400M in there, both the 1.6 GHz and 1.86 GHz MBA may actually be faster on many tasks than an older 2 GHz C2D MacBook with a Merom processor (not Penryn), and people had no problem recommending that machine 1.5 years ago. Word processing, presentations, iTune, movies, etc, certainly haven't changed much. Also, the fans probably won't go on like they did on older MacBooks (like my 2 GHz Merom MacBook).



*as long as you have the extra cash. ;)
 
Just to echo what others have said here, we have MBAs and MBs in the office, and the MBAs (both Rev A and B) have clearly better screens. It's not even arguable.

Having the choice between lots of different Macs, I use the MBA more than I use anything else. But I don't think it could be my only Mac. And I personally wouldn't recommend it to someone as their only Mac. It is my primary Mac, but it couldn't be my only one.

If I could have just one, it would definitely be the MBP.

For my real work (coding primarily in Java and Python), the MBA is more than powerful enough and is just a great machine. Where I find myself going back to my desk and my MacPro is for running/testing on multiple VMs, and home/family stuff like iMovie and Aperture.
 
The one advantage of the glossy screen on the MB is that its so much easier to clean because its similar to the glass found on an iPhone or iPod Touch. No need to worry about pushing to hard with a cleaning cloth on the screen and killing a pixel.
 
The MBA has a considerably better screen then the MB, but the latter offers better value overall, unless your primary need is extreme portability. I have a MBP, which offers power, performance and an excellent screen, but it is not quite as light as the other two.

Cheers and good luck
 
The MacBook display is good as long as you have a good angle. So unless you watch movies in weird positions :)p) then the MacBook is the better value of the two. I use my MacBook on the plane, in the car and I dunno where else and I have no problems what so ever watching movies.
The only thing that struggles me is, why in the world do you use iTunes for movies? I have found iTunes to give me the worst movie playback. :confused:
 
Would the Anti Glare Film Help?

Allmost everyone seems to think the mAcbook airs screen is better than the Macbook, I am wondering when you use that new antil glare screen cover - like for the iPhone does that help at all, I agree the specs for the Macbook and cost are a better deal, just trying to see if there's a way to get close to the Air display, also what programs do you recommend to vue regular movies instead of Itunes or Quicktime on the MAc Side?

Thanks again for all your input
 
Mike10128 said:
Allmost everyone seems to think the mAcbook airs screen is better than the Macbook, I am wondering when you use that new antil glare screen cover - like for the iPhone does that help at all, I agree the specs for the Macbook and cost are a better deal, just trying to see if there's a way to get close to the Air display, also what programs do you recommend to vue regular movies instead of Itunes or Quicktime on the MAc Side?

Thanks again for all your input
Click to expand...

Well, if you do get the Anti-Glare film, it is going to kinda distort the picture, just like it does on the iphone (I have it on my iphone right now). It isn't a lot of distortion/fuzziness, but it does take away from the clarity of the screen. But that is a sacrifice you are going to have to decide to make if you want less glare. I honestly have no problems whatsoever with the glass screen.

And as for a video player, VLC. Hands down. :D
 
The MacBook's screen isn't as nice as the Air. I'm still satisfied though since I don't watch a whole ton of movies on it. I just watch my movies on blu-ray.
 
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