rMBP Pixel Question

[mattbaar26]

I just ordered a 13 in rMBP. It was between this and the air and I decided to go with the retina for the screen. I have been researching more and am concerned about the difference between the 1600 resolution and the 800 resolution. Does this mean the retina display isn't effectively a retina display? Will using the "best for retina" display give me the same resolution as the cMBP?

Sorry if this question seems naive.

 

[Shmanky]

The 13" cMBP has a resolution of 1280x800 while the 13" rMBP has a resolution of 2560x1600 which means that on the rMBP, it will use 4 pixels to make up the same point as on a cMBP so the dimensions of the objects on both displays will be the same size but on the rMBP it will look much sharper because it's using 4 pixels to draw the same point that a cMBP would use 1 pixel. Web browsers will also report 1280x800 as the resolution on a rMBP because that's the dimensions it uses for layout. It's very much like the difference between the resolution on an iPad 2 and an iPad 3 or the resolution on an iPhone 3GS versus the iPhone 4.