New MacBook retina screen not as sharp as other retina screens?

boddicker

macrumors newbie
I went to the store yesterday and tried the rMB. The screen was definitely far nicer than a MacBook Air, but noticeably grainier than my 2012 rMBP or iPhone 6+. Should this be the case? It was hard to notice at first, but when I went to the NY Times website, and looked closely at the text, it wasn't perectly sharp as it would be on my iPhone. The text was grainier if you looked closely. I adjusted the Display settings in System Preferences and the "fuzziness" (relative to the iPhone 6/rMBP) remained. Are the screen specs for the rMB supposed to be comparable to other retina screens?
 
I went to the store yesterday and tried the rMB. The screen was definitely far nicer than a MacBook Air, but noticeably grainier than my 2012 rMBP or iPhone 6+. Should this be the case? It was hard to notice at first, but when I went to the NY Times website, and looked closely at the text, it wasn't perectly sharp as it would be on my iPhone. The text was grainier if you looked closely. I adjusted the Display settings in System Preferences and the "fuzziness" (relative to the iPhone 6/rMBP) remained. Are the screen specs for the rMB supposed to be comparable to other retina screens?

It's in your head. The screen is phenomenal.
 
Also, just for fun, I looked up the PPI on each of their retina MacBooks:

Retina MacBook 12-inch PPI: 226
Retina MacBook Pro 13-inch PPI: 227
Retina MacBook Pro 15-inch PPI: 220

And according to Ars Technica, the iMac 5k has a PPI of 218.
 
I got to play with it extensively this morning. I thought it was a gorgeous display. Nice colors and bright enough. I never usually think a display is bright enough when you have daylight somewhat behind you but I thought it was great.

I'm currently on a 2012 rMBP 13.
 
New MacBook retina screen not as sharp as other retina screens?

it is not as sharp as your iphone6p (401ppi) and the screen is much larger to watch than a tiny screen. and retina-display is just a marketing term...
 
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The default setting isn't done the same way as the 13" and the 15".

The rMB is set by default to a scaled resolution resembling 1280x800. So instead of there being an exact 2:1 ratio of pixels to points there's some interpolation going on. Now on such a high res screen it won't be all that noticeable but to a sharp eye it will look ever so slightly fuzzier than the 13" and 15" rMBPs where they do have that exact 2:1 ratio.

You can set the rMB to work the same way as the 13" and 15" but the resulting screen real estate would be equivalent to 1152x720 - super crisp and sharp as a tack but very little actual screen space.
 
my own results are these:

i could cut a pie easily with the rMbp, and, with significantly more effort, a Mba. but the rMb sliced just as easily thru the pie as the pro! so it is just as sharp as other retina screens....
 
The default setting isn't done the same way as the 13" and the 15".

The rMB is set by default to a scaled resolution resembling 1280x800. So instead of there being an exact 2:1 ratio of pixels to points there's some interpolation going on. Now on such a high res screen it won't be all that noticeable but to a sharp eye it will look ever so slightly fuzzier than the 13" and 15" rMBPs where they do have that exact 2:1 ratio.

You can set the rMB to work the same way as the 13" and 15" but the resulting screen real estate would be equivalent to 1152x720 - super crisp and sharp as a tack but very little actual screen space.

Exactly. The OP must have been looking at the display very close up to even notice a difference, but for a fair sharpness comparison the rMB must be changed to native resolution in System Preferences > Displays.

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Most people say that the scaled resolutions are barely noticeable.

I often run my 13" rMBP at 1440x900, it looks fine. Up close there is a loss in clarity certainly but it's minor.

If I scale to 1680x1050 or whatever the top one is everything is very small but still clear - however there is the occasional stuttering in animations as the computer is rendering the UI at 3360x2100 and then scaling down so it gets a bit taxing on the processor.

I went from a 1024x768 iBook to a MacBook with 1280x800 which I had for nearly 8 years before this new machine so I'm really comfortable with 1280x800 so I just normally leave it at the native resolution. The higher scaled settings only really come out when there are big spreadsheets to deal with and I need the room.
 
I went to the store yesterday and tried the rMB. The screen was definitely far nicer than a MacBook Air, but noticeably grainier than my 2012 rMBP or iPhone 6+. Should this be the case? It was hard to notice at first, but when I went to the NY Times website, and looked closely at the text, it wasn't perectly sharp as it would be on my iPhone. The text was grainier if you looked closely. I adjusted the Display settings in System Preferences and the "fuzziness" (relative to the iPhone 6/rMBP) remained. Are the screen specs for the rMB supposed to be comparable to other retina screens?

You can't really compare a Retina display on a Mac to that of an iPhone. The iPhone's display is much smaller and therefore has a much higher pixel density since it is intended to be used much closer to someone's face. Also, did you make sure the resolution you changed it to was native as in my post above?

I often run my 13" rMBP at 1440x900, it looks fine. Up close there is a loss in clarity certainly but it's minor.

If I scale to 1680x1050 or whatever the top one is everything is very small but still clear - however there is the occasional stuttering in animations as the computer is rendering the UI at 3360x2100 and then scaling down so it gets a bit taxing on the processor.

I went from a 1024x768 iBook to a MacBook with 1280x800 which I had for nearly 8 years before this new machine so I'm really comfortable with 1280x800 so I just normally leave it at the native resolution. The higher scaled settings only really come out when there are big spreadsheets to deal with and I need the room.

The quality difference is noticeable enough to me that I try to avoid scaled resolutions (both my 13" rMBP and riMac are run at native), but for a consumer-grade machine like the rMB I don't see any problem with it. Compared to a MBA the display is still a lot sharper.
 
Pixels, schmixels. The screen looks great! Really vivid when I played a 4K you-tube video.
 
Then please tell us what you know.

Nice BS condescending comment.:rolleyes:

If he knew anything at all he wouldve offered something up rather than an ignorant blanket statement about all MacBook users when he knows nothing at all about what they know and dont know.

Yea bro. I bet you go to China and get yours straight off the conveyor belt right?

You people should learn to read and get som basic knowledge on how retina displays are working. The answer to why the rMB screen out-of-the-box doesn't look as sharp as the retina MBP is already in post number 5 and repeated several times in other post. What's the point in repeating the same answer, unless you are dumb of course.
 
You people should learn to read and get som basic knowledge on how retina displays are working. The answer to why the rMB screen out-of-the-box doesn't look as sharp as the retina MBP is already in post number 5 and repeated several times in other post. What's the point in repeating the same answer, unless you are dumb of course.

Thank you for enlightening us.
 
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