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I wouldn't worry about the aspect ratio due to the height (similar to iMac 27) and sufficient vertical resolution 1440.

Tough call between the two...

Ok mmm it makes me think now I have the 4k Asus with 5k iMac coming this Thursday I could order this LG and make a test with the three of them together for a final judgement, it is a lot of money and I'll hate to make a bad call.
 
Went to a Apple Store todya, i dont't now about you, but i can differciate the riMac from the non-retina one at the first glance, without any help from the information material
 
The only thing that bums me out about the retina imac is that you cannot use it as a monitor like you can the non retina imac. Down the road when my imac cannot keep up with the software, it'd be nice to be able to use it as a monitor with the latest MacBook. But you can't with the retina imac. This is the only thing making me think about getting the non retina instead.
 
The only thing that bums me out about the retina imac is that you cannot use it as a monitor like you can the non retina imac. Down the road when my imac cannot keep up with the software, it'd be nice to be able to use it as a monitor with the latest MacBook. But you can't with the retina imac. This is the only thing making me think about getting the non retina instead.

Yes and I also got acustomed to drag windows between the rMBP and monitor, it could take a while to realize that now there will be two different computers :)
 
or you are sitting at a comfortable distance to a 27" monitor...

i think the people who say there is a massive difference check out the display by getting really close to it like on a small phone (where it makes sense).

No chance. It's so easy to tell the difference (for me). It's simple really. When typing on your iPhone or iPad, can you tell the difference between the text on your phone and text on your iMac at normal usage distances for both. If yes, buy the 5K. If no, don't bother.

I can easily. So me buy!
 
I checked one out in store yesterday and am very impressed with the screen. The extra detail looks great compared to the old one that was next to it.

I'm short sighted but have good close-to vision and sit 1-2 feet from my computer so I'll benifit from the resolution. I just need to save up a few months for one (dang just over minimum wage job).
 
Currently have my trusty old 27" cinema display connected to an r-imac I got today and the difference is there, and its profound.

The text and icons are smooth and very detailed, the pictures are more accurate with deep color. No hint of jagged text anywhere and if you work with word/text editing or photoshop then its a no brainer to purchase this!

If you've compared the retina macbook pros with the non retinas then that will give you a good idea of the difference.

Moving browser windows across back and forward between the two displays, its apparent that my cinema display which I love so much is now dated.:confused:
 
Since the screen is not matte, this whole thread is moot.

I have spoken!

Matte screen.... Meh.

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I orderred a maxed out retina Imac on day one. It gets here Wednesday.

I read this thread this morning and immediately went down to the apple store to check it out for myself.

I immediately noticed a difference and left the store happy about my purchase!
 
I can see immediately the difference between Retina and non Retina displays. This is for me the only reason to the the Retina iMac and I am not into photography or video. I just love to have sharp screens that make text reading great.
Having said that though, I have some friends of mine who cannot really see the difference, or they can only if the pay attention very carefully. I think it must be sth with their eyes, but for these people a Retina screen isn't a necessity.
 
Matte screen.... Meh.

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I orderred a maxed out retina Imac on day one. It gets here Wednesday.

I read this thread this morning and immediately went down to the apple store to check it out for myself.

I immediately noticed a difference and left the store happy about my purchase!

Good for you, but that's not my beef. I didn't want a shiny mirror, and I don't want an even shinier one.
 
I think a lot of it comes down to what's on screen too.

I mean - if you compare the retina and non retina and they both have the same content on screen - and that content is just 1 finder window, the dock, menu and the wallpaper, you may not notice an immediate huge jump in fidelity.

HOWEVER, when I opened up iPhoto demo libraries on both in-store machines and looked at them side by side, the retina screen blew the other one away. Of course the details were finer, but also the colour.

I will also note that to truly get the sharpest image on that screen, you need a photograph shot at around 20 mega pixels or so... downsample a 20MP image to 14.7MP and you should get a really nice, sharp image where strands of hair almost hit 1 retina pixel :)

You need to appreciate that this is a 14.7MP display - there just aren't that many quality images around that will truly showcase it's capability short of having a library of Red 5K video or Hasselblad RAW photos.

Scott
 
I impulse ordered one and was going to cancel it because I assumed due to my poor vision these days it just was not worth the money.

It shipped early and came anyway. I plugged it in and used it for a day or two and went back to my non retina 27''


No difference.......cough.....


My old iMac looked like someone smeared vaseline all over the screen as well as the fact the screen appears to sit right on the glass and the old one has a recessed look as well.

No contest, I couldn't go back to my old one now.

Haha thats exactly what i thought when i got my retina mbp
 
I was wondering about this but according to this from Apple when you change the scaled resolution to allow for larger text...

I know that article is talking about the rMBP but wouldn't the same theory carry over to the 27" Retina? I'm getting confused. Is setting the screen to "best" diffident than scaling it?
Anybody want to comment on the part in bold?
 
When I was looking at it, I thought everything looked too small. Then I checked the settings and noticed someone had it set to "More Space".

Changing it to Best for Retina made it immediately obvious to me. Everything looked smoother and less "muddier". Sharp and clear is a good description.

I ordered mine first and THEN went to the store. A little backward, but it made me even more excited!

Thanks for posting this, I'm glad to hear there's an easy way to fix that. This was the thing that bugged me the most when I was testing one on Thursday.
 
I've been debating getting this thing since it was announced. I have a 2010 27' iMac that runs fine for what I do. So I'd be mainly getting the unit just for the screen. I've always kinda had issues on the iMac with my eyes, it never seemed that crisp. The question is, is the screen alone with the price tag of upgrading? I can get it for around $2250 after tax, using discount and discover cutback. I have a retina iPad but have never used a retina macbook pro and have only seen one briefly 2x.
 
I've been debating getting this thing since it was announced. I have a 2010 27' iMac that runs fine for what I do. So I'd be mainly getting the unit just for the screen. I've always kinda had issues on the iMac with my eyes, it never seemed that crisp. The question is, is the screen alone with the price tag of upgrading? I can get it for around $2250 after tax, using discount and discover cutback. I have a retina iPad but have never used a retina macbook pro and have only seen one briefly 2x.

I think it is, imagine your iPad retina blown up to 27", I got that impression when checking it out at the store. I'm waiting for a newer than a 2 year old GPU to be put it in it before I lay down the serious cash for it.
 
I have the rMBP with Samsung display, the iPad Air, and the 5k iMac.

The 5k iMac and iPad Air are the most similar in display quality (but the ppi is higher on the iPad)
 
I have the rMBP with Samsung display, the iPad Air, and the 5k iMac.

The 5k iMac and iPad Air are the most similar in display quality (but the ppi is higher on the iPad)

What Samsung display do you have and if it is 4k do you notice a huge difference with the iMac?
 
I'm sorry, that was mega-confusing of me.

We were talking about screen quality so I just wanted to be specific about the Samsung *panel* in my rMBP, which is a little different than the LG variant.
 
You need to appreciate that this is a 14.7MP display - there just aren't that many quality images around that will truly showcase it's capability short of having a library of Red 5K video or Hasselblad RAW photos.

Scott,

I agree with the premise of your entire post and am with you my friend. However, I do want to point out (in a fun way) that I have an entire library full of images that I can truly appreciate on a 5K iMac and they were all created with my Canon 5D Mark III, which produces images slightly larger then what the 5K display can show. It's not just the medium camera folks that need this screen! :)

Bryan
 
I work in the print industry too, as a matter of fact. To say it's not a huge improvement is simply technically wrong, there is no way around it. Here's a printing scenario you should be familiar with:

Text on a 5k retina screen = perfect vector characters imageset at 1200 dpi

Text on standard display = bitmap text output with 150 line screen cause some dufus sent over a jpeg for final artwork.

Don't be the dufus sending text jpegs to print, use retina screens. :)

Im guessing you work in prepress aswell? :) Anyway i never said there was no difference, i just said the difference is not as big as i would have expected. At the distance i sit away from my 27" iMac there such a small increase in sharpness that it not worth it for me. If you sit very close to the screen the retina iMac may be a more significant upgrade.

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I vehemently disagree with you. :) The difference is massive. If you can't see the difference, that doesn't make you wrong, of course. It just means *you* can't see the difference. :p

If your sitting close enough to a 27" screen to see the a "massive" difference then you are probably sitting way to close to it. ;)
 
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