Hi, I am thinking of buying a 17" MacBook Pro. If it's possible to spare the extra money needed to add a hi-res screen, is it worth it? Are the menus really small? Thanks.
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MacBook Pro hi-res
- Thread starter jamescwarren
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High Res Screen is Fantastic
I am typing this on a High Res 17" MBP Matte, 2.6ghz, 200gig 7200rpm, unit with 4 gig of RAM and can tell you that this screen is well worth the extra cash if you need a lot of screen space in a portable.
You can display TWO wide broswer pages side-by-side. You can actually do graphics work in a full window with your pallets off to the side, neatly organized. It has the space of a 1920x1200 screen -- basically a 23 or 24 inch packed into a 17" area. The pixel density and contrast make for razor sharp text.
The text is small BUT NOT unreadable. My eyes are a bit hashed at this point in my life after many years in front of monitorsI don't wear glasses. At normal viewing distance I can still read text. I do find myself enlarging word or inDesign docs a bit but I do this on all monitors.
I strongly recommend high res. The Matte versus Glossy issue is another topic. My Matte is really usable in a light conditions and seems to simulate print color gamut very well. The Glossy was tempting but I was too worried about the glare factor when using the MBP under various mobile lighting conditions.
Get the Res.
Dante Orazzi
I am typing this on a High Res 17" MBP Matte, 2.6ghz, 200gig 7200rpm, unit with 4 gig of RAM and can tell you that this screen is well worth the extra cash if you need a lot of screen space in a portable.
You can display TWO wide broswer pages side-by-side. You can actually do graphics work in a full window with your pallets off to the side, neatly organized. It has the space of a 1920x1200 screen -- basically a 23 or 24 inch packed into a 17" area. The pixel density and contrast make for razor sharp text.
The text is small BUT NOT unreadable. My eyes are a bit hashed at this point in my life after many years in front of monitorsI don't wear glasses. At normal viewing distance I can still read text. I do find myself enlarging word or inDesign docs a bit but I do this on all monitors.
I strongly recommend high res. The Matte versus Glossy issue is another topic. My Matte is really usable in a light conditions and seems to simulate print color gamut very well. The Glossy was tempting but I was too worried about the glare factor when using the MBP under various mobile lighting conditions.
Get the Res.
Dante Orazzi
It only costs an extra £60 for the High Resolution screen option, so you're not gonna be saving very much anyway. The only thing is that if you go for the standard resolution model you may spend the rest of your time wondering whether you should've gone with the higher res! 
As other people have said, generally there's no problem reading text and especially not menu bars which look just the right size. It's only certain websites that I have problems with where they've used a really small text size. But this can be fixed by temporarily increasing the text size by using the Command-'+' shortcut or permanently changing the Safari preferences option, "Never use font sizes smaller than".
Personally I wouldn't have bought the 17" model if it didn't have the High Resolution option - it basically feels like you've got a portable desktop where you can do all your work wherever you are!
As other people have said, generally there's no problem reading text and especially not menu bars which look just the right size. It's only certain websites that I have problems with where they've used a really small text size. But this can be fixed by temporarily increasing the text size by using the Command-'+' shortcut or permanently changing the Safari preferences option, "Never use font sizes smaller than".
Personally I wouldn't have bought the 17" model if it didn't have the High Resolution option - it basically feels like you've got a portable desktop where you can do all your work wherever you are!