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MBA vs MBP, brightness comparison

WindowsLaptop

WindowsLaptop

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 12, 2020
18
16
Hi Guys,

I received my MBP and MBA a few days ago. Here is a quick comparison of the max brightness. Both have True Tone disabled.

From what I see, the MBA is a little whiter, but brightness is not that different, if different at all.

Edit: Left is MBA, right is MBP 8th

85425649-2F7E-4CF2-8C4C-9078951461BD.jpeg
 
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WindowsLaptop said:
Hi Guys,

I received my MBP and MBA a few days ago.
Click to expand...

Great news about the brightness on the MBA. For normal browsing, reading and watching videos, how do the colours compare between the MBA v MBP screens? What do your eyes see as a visible (if any) difference between the displays? Are the colours faded on the MBA?
 
Thank you for the post. The MBA does look better from the picture. It could be the panel lottery has a role in this as well.
 
Blueberry123 said:
Great news about the brightness on the MBA. compare between the MBA v MBP screens? What do your eyes see as a visible (if any) difference between the displays? Are the colours faded on the MBA?
Click to expand...

I was surprised by the colour difference too. I don't know why that is, the settings are the same and as I wrote True Tone was turned off for both.

I personally can't really see a big difference other than the Air seeming to be more white and the Pro having better contrast + being slightly brighter. But I never edit photos so Im not the best person to ask. I tried to make more pictures, but wasn't able to produce something meaningful with my iPad camera.

The differences doesn't mean anything for someone who isn't doing any photediting. If you can't read the MBAs Display because of the ambient light, you won't be able to read on the MBP too I think. That was the main reason for me to buy the MBP (besides the heat problem of the MBA, which I didn't experience).

Now Im really thinking about just buying the cheapest MBA for 999€. That would save me 460€. But I don't know if 8GB are enough for me. Im normally using 11-12 GB of RAM, so 16GB seems appropriate.

IngerMan said:
Thank you for the post. The MBA does look better from the picture. It could be the panel lottery has a role in this as well.
Click to expand...
Could be. Its a i7/16/256 MBA, probably that matters, but it shouldn't.
 
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IngerMan said:
Good specs on the MBA, I only say that because I got The same thing coming this week 😬
Click to expand...
You should be looking forward to it. It is such a gorgeous device. I didn't experience any noise or heat problems. Im not a power user, but only heard the fans once as I was syncing my goodnotes, still the Pro turned on much louder in the same process. Actually it seems to be quieter than the MBP (Im not sure yet).
 
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WindowsLaptop said:
You should be looking forward to it. It is such a gorgeous device. I didn't experience any noise or heat problems. Im not a power user, but only heard the fans once as I was syncing my goodnotes, still the Pro turned on much louder in the same process. Actually it seems to be quieter than the MBP (Im not sure yet).
Click to expand...

I meant to ask is the MBA silver and the MBP SG from your picture? If so it’s surprising seeing how little difference there is?
 
Why are taking the picture with a bright background?
By doing that you’re masking the difference between the MBP/MBA
Assuming the use of the iphone’s camera, you’re getting the sensor to expose for the bright background and then the software artificially boosts the exposure of the dark areas which includes the screen.

I’ve had both machines, the MBP screen is superior, but not a deal breaker even for photography. The performance of the machine is what me return it, not the screen quality
 
WindowsLaptop said:
I personally can't really see a big difference other than the Air seeming to be more white and the Pro having better contrast + being slightly brighter.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. Excited to see the new 2020 MBA in an Apple store, hopefully soon! I'm considering buying the base MBA as the i3 seems to have less heat and noise complaints. If I personally decided to upgrade the ram to 16gb, this would push me towards the base MBP (better for thermals, chrome use and youtube in high resolution). I am used to using chrome with 15 tabs on an old 2013 8gb air, and it works fine, but I may need to switch to safari for future ram management, if I do buy an 8gb air again.
 
Here’s a better comparison
 

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sorry. Mbp on left mba on right. Both 2020 models on max brightness. True Tone off
 
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