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Returning Hi-Res Antiglare

M

mastaofdisasta

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2011
75
0
Hello everyone,

I've been a long time reader of this forum, and this is my first post. I have been keeping track of all the rumors of the new Macbook Pro's for a while now, and I finally bought my first mac last week when they initially came out. I love everything about my new mac. The only thing that I didn't like was the hi-res screen.

I upgraded the monitor to the 1680X1050 Hi-Res Antiglare screen. Ever since I decided to jump to mac was that I wanted the upgraded screen. The only thing I was unsure was whether to go for glossy or anti glare. I've been on the fence for awhile now, but with everyone raving about how awesome the antiglare was on this forum, I decided to go for anti glare. I've been a glossy guy and don't mind it, as my last laptop (HP DV-4) was glossy.

I got my new MacBook Pro a couple of days ago. I love the computer, the build of it, and the Mac OS. But the only thing I couldn't stand personally was the hi-res screen; I would have serious eye strain while using it. Even after prolonged use, my eyes would start to tear up. It's odd because I believe I had good eye sight, and I don't wear glasses. The screen is gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but I could not look at my laptop screen without having eye strain. And since I have been having this problem for the past 2 days, I don't think my eyes are going to get used to the 1680 X 1050 resolution anytime soon. Therefore I am probably going to exchange it for something else.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Has any had to do an return or exchange on their hi-res Macbook Pro because of eye strain issues? If I were to get the Hi-Res Glossy would I still have the same problem? I would like to get different opinions and view points. Thanks in advance for your responses.
 
Can't you just...

Lower the resolution?

(I can't stand "anti glare" it makes my head dizzy and it makes the colour more dull for some odd reason.)
 
Yes I have, but the resolution still does not look right. I don't know exactly how to put it, but lowering the resolution is not as natural as its native resolution. I also tried zooming into the pages, but it still didn't help me either.
 
That's pretty odd. (naturally LCDs don't look that great on anything but native resolutions. So I guess that would make sense.)

Have you tried looking at a glossy 1680x1050?
 
I would like to look into getting the glossy hi res version. The reflections really don't bother me much. What I would like to know if the "glossiness" could possibly reduce the eye strain.

I will say that I am able to tolerate the glossy screen of the 13 inch macbook pro. (I would like to go for the 15 though, as I need the power)
 
mastaofdisasta said:
Has anyone else encountered this issue? Has any had to do an return or exchange on their hi-res Macbook Pro because of eye strain issues? If I were to get the Hi-Res Glossy would I still have the same problem? I would like to get different opinions and view points. Thanks in advance for your responses.
Click to expand...

Different strokes for different folks. Why not go to a store and play with a 1400x900 for a while and draw your conclusions? There is no advice that can beat that.

And btw I don't see how a glossy hi-res would be any difference. It would possibly be worse since you'd have many more reflections on the glass.

And welcome : )
 
Thanks for the responses guys. To be honest, I am a tad bit upset with myself as I have good vision, but not so much when it comes to the screen. Honestly, the anti-glare screen is phenomenal. Even though I've been a glossy guy for the most part, I really do appreciate the matte screen. Especially the no glare part (hence the name). But I might have to switch because my eyes won't let me use it. :p.
 
mastaofdisasta said:
Thanks for the responses guys. To be honest, I am a tad bit upset with myself as I have good vision, but not so much when it comes to the screen. Honestly, the anti-glare screen is phenomenal. Even though I've been a glossy guy for the most part, I really do appreciate the matte screen. Especially the no glare part (hence the name). But I might have to switch because my eyes won't let me use it. :p.
Click to expand...

If you are used to lower res. screens it is usual for some people to have eye strain. I had eye strain with my first hi-res screen. It just took some time to adapt to it.
 
mastaofdisasta said:
Thanks for the responses guys. To be honest, I am a tad bit upset with myself as I have good vision, but not so much when it comes to the screen. Honestly, the anti-glare screen is phenomenal. Even though I've been a glossy guy for the most part, I really do appreciate the matte screen. Especially the no glare part (hence the name). But I might have to switch because my eyes won't let me use it. :p.
Click to expand...

It sucks how there's no anti-glare options for non-hi res MPBs. It doesn't make sense.
 
As a graphic designer I find a noticeable difference between a glossy and anti-glossy screen. The anti-glossy screens are a bit "dull"

"Text is more easy to read due to more vibrant colors, having read both text on the anti-glare and the glossy... I definitely felt i could read much faster on the glossy."

This was posted on another thread by Whitelightning.
 
Tears Apart said:
It sucks how there's no anti-glare options for non-hi res MPBs. It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
In a way it does. When you look at all the Windows consumer notebooks you have hard time finding any matte screen. You need to check out business notebooks which are much more expensive.
Apple is kind of the same glossy for consumer and AG for pros or those that want pro hardware. And they assume that pros probably also prefer more screen real estate which is true for the majority of them. I would never go back to a lower res.
They are not fond of too many options because that makes the assembly more expensive. Also Apple tries (as you can see with the new 15" base models) whenever possible to drive customers to pay for the more expensive stuff with higher margin for them.
They put a crap GPU in the base 15" to make more people buy the expensive version which they wouldn't do if the base model had 6750 512mb. And everybody who wants matte shouldn't only pay 50 bucks extra but more.
It is a smart business model but sucks for customers of course. We loose choice and options to not waste money for stuff we do not want or need.
 
MacBook screen

Yes - this is the stickler of a choice - Gloss or AG?
I went with the 15" AG - (and hi-res, and best cpu, and best graphics: so Apple strategy worked on me :confused: )

I find brightness of the display affects my eye-"stamina" the most. It is a very bright screen, but turning it down, to about half, makes it easier for me.
 
polkunus said:
As a graphic designer I find a noticeable difference between a glossy and anti-glossy screen. The anti-glossy screens are a bit "dull"

"Text is more easy to read due to more vibrant colors, having read both text on the anti-glare and the glossy... I definitely felt i could read much faster on the glossy."

This was posted on another thread by Whitelightning.
Click to expand...

+1 on this. I too am a graphic designer and had a hard time deciding which one to order. I've had anti-glare in the past (not high-res) and my last MacBook was glossy. This time I ordered the high end 15" with the glossy high-res about 15 minutes after the Apple Store opened online when the new MacBook Pros were released.

I went to the local Apple Store 2 days later and checked out the 15 high-res anti-glare. It seemed quite washed out and the type was hard to read. I was doubting my decision to get the high-res screen after checking out that computer.

My CTO MacBook Pro arrived last Wednesday. OMG, I love it. The high res glossy screen is easy for me to read (and I have horrible eye sight) - I actually find I can turn the brightness down a bit more than on my old MacBook. The text is super crisp and the colours are beautiful. Since I do all my design work in doors, the gloss/reflection issue isn't a problem for me.

To the OP - I would strongly suggest you try to check out the high-res glossy.
 
dnlt said:
If you are used to lower res. screens it is usual for some people to have eye strain. I had eye strain with my first hi-res screen. It just took some time to adapt to it.
Click to expand...

For those who bought the hi-res and had eye strain initially at first, how long did it take for you to get used to the screen?
 
I've been using hi-res screen for years so anything less would make font sizes too big for me. I can understand where the OP is coming from though. I get a bit of eye strain only when I'm reading pdf's etc (basically anything with a white background) but have found it alot easier on the eyes when I turn down the unnecessarily high display brightness.

I only crank up the brightness when I need to eg. when working/viewing anything involving images.
 
It can also be caused by using LED backlighting. Did your previous laptop had a display with LED backlight?
 
renaultf1 said:
+1 on this. I too am a graphic designer and had a hard time deciding which one to order. I've had anti-glare in the past (not high-res) and my last MacBook was glossy. This time I ordered the high end 15" with the glossy high-res about 15 minutes after the Apple Store opened online when the new MacBook Pros were released.

I went to the local Apple Store 2 days later and checked out the 15 high-res anti-glare. It seemed quite washed out and the type was hard to read. I was doubting my decision to get the high-res screen after checking out that computer.
Click to expand...

Weird. I too played around with the screen options at the Apple store on the MBP's and the MBA's. LOVED the AG option on the 2011 and could not tell at all if it was any more washed out than the glossy version. In fact, I have a glossy 2008 now and planned on getting a glossy but it was after playing with the AG in the store that convinced me to go AG this time around. I will miss black bezel but it will be nice to have a laptop at the coffee shop that I wouldn't have to adjust based on the Sun.
 
It's not just a consequence of all the menus and so on being too small? That's an issue with Mac OS X on high-res displays, because it doesn't support resolution independence. However, there were rumours of Lion (the upcoming version) supporting this. If it were me, I'd stick with the high-res anti-glare and put my bets on Lion supporting some form of resolution independence. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm thinking of doing myself.
 
mark28 said:
It can also be caused by using LED backlighting. Did your previous laptop had a display with LED backlight?
Click to expand...

Not sure to be honest, but all displays require backlighting. The MBPs might be brighter (at the highest brightness) than my previous laptop but I don't have them to compare. I very rarely (if at all) have my MBP close to full brightness anyway.
 
As people have mentioned, it's the resolution causing your eye-strain, not the anti-glare screen. In fact, the matte screen reduces eye-strain over long periods of time compared to the glossy.
 
Yeah I can imagine... pixels so densely packed in a relatively small space, the no-wonder how there is so much strain in your eyes. I don't see why everyone is complaining that there was no higher resolution on the 13", I mean I am using it right now and it is perfect. Everything fits on the screen nicely, my eyes don't get strained out - it's wonderful. I think it'd be worse with a higher resolution, to be honest.
 
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