Retina Display questions

[Faux Carnival]

Hello, I am considering a Macbook Pro with Retina Display. However, I have some concerns.

1) How do applications and websites which are not optimized for Retina Display look?
2) Does USB 3.0 ports work under Windows via Boot Camp? (Because as far as I know Boot Camp drivers have not been updated since Retina display Macbook Pros came out)
3) How does 1680x1050 resolution under Windows look on the display? (Because generally LCD displays look like crap under non-native resolutions)

Thanks!

 

[rrm998]

There's a wealth of discussions on these topics -- try searching around the forum. You will find that the answers to these questions are very subjective. Here is my view:

1. This has been a non-issue for me. Plus many apps are now Retina aware. Microsoft surprised us by providing a Retina update for Office about a month ago. So that's one of the big complaints people had taken care of. And Chrome was updated in July. Adobe hasn't updated anything yet I've had no issues with Lightroom and Photoshop.

2. Bootcamp was updated for Retina Mac shortly after the release in June.

3. Due to the extremely small pixel size, you can run this display at non-native resolutions and still have it look very sharp. Actually by default ML only gives you non-native options. Many people run 1680 and like it. Myself I run 1920x1200. I love all the extra screen space.

 

[nontroppo]

1) How do applications and websites which are not optimized for Retina Display look?

They look the same as on a non-retina display in general. Applications are scaled using nearest-neighbour and thus are identical to a non-retina display (which one may feel look "worse" on a rMBP only because one can compare them against retina optimised apps). Browsers scale images using linear interpolation and the can look better or worse than a non-retina display, but that is really only noticeable when you are pixel peeping.