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Retina Hardly Noticeable

here's the deal: for some people a crisper display with wide viewing angles greatly enhances their computing experience, and for others it doesn't really matter that much. some people prefer the warmth of vinyl while others prefer the convenience of digital. some people are font nerds and other people could give two ***** if everything was in comic sans. none of these people are right or wrong. people have differing tastes and priorities.

/thread.

:p
 
stevemiller said:
here's the deal: for some people a crisper display with wide viewing angles greatly enhances their computing experience, and for others it doesn't really matter that much. some people prefer the warmth of vinyl while others prefer the convenience of digital. some people are font nerds and other people could give two ***** if everything was in comic sans. none of these people are right or wrong. people have differing tastes and priorities.

/thread.

:p
Click to expand...

Wow, after 10 pages of posts, this is one of the few good (there have been a few others) replies to approach it from an objective standpoint.
 
I must have gotten lucky.

My 2012 13" MBA is super clear & crisp with good contrast.

Yet my 2013 15" MBP retina is blurry. The genius agrees with me.

What's wrong with this picture?





/ good thing I didn't quit my day job :D
 
Odd, must be something to do with your eyes. I find Retina vs none-Retina quite a harsh contrast almost to the point where I am uncomfortable looking at a none-Retina display because my eyes have been spoilt by the smooth goodness of Retina. One of the biggest ways to tell is to pick it up, right to your eyes and inspect graphical elements such as the Apple logo. Everything is crisp, clear and pixel-less.
 
maxosx said:
I must have gotten lucky.

My 2012 13" MBA is super clear & crisp with good contrast.

Yet my 2013 15" MBP retina is blurry. The genius agrees with me.

What's wrong with this picture?
Click to expand...

Perhaps a configuration problem, what resolutions are you using and which application are you using to display the test screen?

I have both machines and after using the rMBP for awhile and going back to the MBA I'm wondering where did the crap come from and how did I survive all those years without retina.... after an hour I am used to the screen. I go back to work on the rMBP and my eyes are thanking me profusely, I can feel the tension just drain away.

Not saying there could be a medical condition here, but you probably have something amiss with the rMBP. How does the others look in the store to you? Did the genius offer to replace it?

You can make up special test graphics/text that may look better on a lower res MBA screen.
 
Last edited:
maxosx said:
I must have gotten lucky.

My 2012 13" MBA is super clear & crisp with good contrast.

Yet my 2013 15" MBP retina is blurry. The genius agrees with me.

What's wrong with this picture?





/ good thing I didn't quit my day job :D
Click to expand...
Let me tall you what's wrong. What's wrong is that you just commented on an old thread, that was created more than 2 months ago. This is what wrong.
 
Moshe1010 said:
Let me tall you what's wrong. What's wrong is that you just commented on an old thread, that was created more than 2 months ago. This is what wrong.
Click to expand...

So people aren't allowed to comment on two month old threads? What about threads people comment on from 2009? His comment was interesting and relevant. There's nothing wrong with that. Threads don't need to "die" after a certain amount of time.
 
Interesting thread. I really like my retina display but I don't quite get all the hype. It is a great screen but hasn't changed my world. Compared to my '07 MBP it is miles ahead but I suspect the latest model regular MBP would also be too.

I did find at first that reading on the MBP strained my eyes a lot. I think maybe because my eyes were so used to being able to focus on pixels on my old screen and can't on the new one. Now I have the opposite problem and when I go back to an older lower res screen it strains my eyes.
 
It's like going from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4. Before you saw the iPhone 4 screen the concept of "retina" was difficult to image, but after you owned an iPhone 4 for awhile, the iPhone 3GS screen now just seems inadequate and difficult to use without wishing every 5 seconds that you had the retina display. Same applies to the rMBP.

In other words, there is hardly a debate between rMBP and cMBP when comparing the screen alone. In a perfect world, every Mac model would be upgradable to a retina display when you BTO online, but it's Apple we're talking about so... never going to happen (nothing like consistently spending over $1500 for a device in which you always have to sacrifice on certain features).
 
Can't understand why i read this thread.
xShane, you are a very special virtual person. Maybe a specialist can help you.
I am feeling like in the zoo here. But now i close my laptop and return to real live. This nonsense did cost me nearly an hour. I am disappointed about myself.
 
For me, its not noticeable in short term usage, but there is a difference nonetheless. I have watched a 4K video sample on my retina. It makes a difference between my 1680x1050 desktop monitor!

That being said, everyone has their own preferences.
 
Well then if you want to deny how sharp it really is I suggest this... Never use a retina display ever again, cause once you are used to it every thing else just looks ****
 
I sit quite close to my laptops and I can definitely see a difference in the retina display in-store when I peer in as close as I would use my home Mac. It's most noticeable when viewing curves.

Also there is something I dunno if it was mentioned before but if you purchased a 15" Non-Retina you only get a 1440x900 display. So if you play a 1080p video (1920x1080) you're actually not seeing every pixel. You'll lose some definition on that video.

But if you had a Retina model the 1080p video would display accurately due to the way that apple handles Images and Video on a retina display (when an App is updated to support it), so that is something to think about I suppose.
 
xShane said:
Yes, there's a noticeable difference. But nothing spectacular.
Click to expand...
Depends also what you do define as "spectacular"?
I guess part of the perceptible similarity to non-Retina MBP comes from the fact, that with default settings (aka Best for Retina display) OS X runs the Retina display in 1440x900 HiDPI mode (ie UI elements have same size as on normal MBP, albeit with double the detail). As soon as you switch it to native 2880x1800 (You will need SwitchResX to do that!), you will see the real difference of the screen real estate.
Did you try the different scaled resolutons of the display??
I suggest you do, to fully appreciate the capabilities of this display.
Untitled.png

PS the rightmost "More Space" setting runs the display in 1920x1200 HiDPI mode, the native 2880x1800 makes UI so small, it becomes unusable.
The setting I prefer to use renders in 1680x1050 HiDPI which is a good balance between screen area vs text size for me.
 
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