rMBPs: How much can you really fit?

[TeaRat]

How much more can you really fit on your rMBP display compared to the old resolutions? And, although you may be able to fit more, how manageable is the viewing situation given that material will be displayed smaller?

I'm specifically interested in whether a 13 inch rMBP can display a comparable--or even greater--amount of information (internet tabs, word documents, pdf files, citation management application windows, etc.) compared to a classic 15 inch MBP.

I want to upgrade from my old 2008 15 inch MBP and as a graduate student am really attracted to the 13 inch rMBP's portability and (if I understand retina correctly) its potential to display more pixels and therefore more windows, information, detail, etc, than my 1400X900 15 incher.

Can the 13 inch actually fit more? Or is the larger number of pixels misleading in this respect?

I would especially love to see if anyone has side by side screenshots or photos of displays of 13 inch rMBPs and classic 15 inchers, with lots of windows and stuff open. Or if anyone knows where such images are posted online.

Thanks!

 

[leman]

How much more can you really fit on your rMBP display compared to the old resolutions? And, although you may be able to fit more, how manageable is the viewing situation given that material will be displayed smaller?

I'm specifically interested in whether a 13 inch rMBP can display a comparable--or even greater--amount of information (internet tabs, word documents, pdf files, citation management application windows, etc.) compared to a classic 15 inch MBP.

I want to upgrade from my old 2008 15 inch MBP and as a graduate student am really attracted to the 13 inch rMBP's portability and (if I understand retina correctly) its potential to display more pixels and therefore more windows, information, detail, etc, than my 1400X900 15 incher.

Can the 13 inch actually fit more? Or is the larger number of pixels misleading in this respect?

I would especially love to see if anyone has side by side screenshots or photos of displays of 13 inch rMBPs and classic 15 inchers, with lots of windows and stuff open. Or if anyone knows where such images are posted online.

Thanks!

Max supported (that is, sub/resampled aka 'retina') resolution on the 13" rMBP is 1680x1050, which puts it on par with the classic hi-res 15" model. The max supported 15" rMBP is 1920x1200. Of course, you can always use the existing hacks to disable the 'retina' mode and use the native resolution, which will give you more content (but also make it very small).

If you are interesed in what these machines can do out of box, you can imagine the 13" as a native 1440x900 or 1680x1050 13" display (depending on the setting). So yes, the 13" is equivalent to the old 15" in this regard — and it can also do additional 'tricks' to show more information with retina-aware software.

 

[12dylan34]

How much more can you really fit on your rMBP display compared to the old resolutions? And, although you may be able to fit more, how manageable is the viewing situation given that material will be displayed smaller?

I'm specifically interested in whether a 13 inch rMBP can display a comparable--or even greater--amount of information (internet tabs, word documents, pdf files, citation management application windows, etc.) compared to a classic 15 inch MBP.

I want to upgrade from my old 2008 15 inch MBP and as a graduate student am really attracted to the 13 inch rMBP's portability and (if I understand retina correctly) its potential to display more pixels and therefore more windows, information, detail, etc, than my 1400X900 15 incher.

Can the 13 inch actually fit more? Or is the larger number of pixels misleading in this respect?

I would especially love to see if anyone has side by side screenshots or photos of displays of 13 inch rMBPs and classic 15 inchers, with lots of windows and stuff open. Or if anyone knows where such images are posted online.

Thanks!

Retina, by default, doesn't make things smaller, or give you more working space, only a sharper image by doubling the number of pixels used to display something in each dimension.

The default "effective" resolution for the 15 inch is the equivalent of 1440x900. You can crank that up to higher effective resolutions, but things get smaller as that happens. There are third party utilities that can allow you to use the display at its native 2880x1800, but things get very, very small.

 

[thundersteele]

I'm comfortably running the 13'' rMBP in 1440x900 mode. This is about the same pixel density than I had before on my high-res 15'' and 17'' MBPs.

I think I could get used to 1680x1050 on the 13'' as well, but so far haven't tried. So in that sense it can provide more work space than a standard 15'' MBP. Of course you have to find out whether you are comfortable with the resulting text and icon sizes.

 

[gtanner00]

How does this work on windows 8.1 in boot camp? Do you get the full resolution and use scaling to increase the size?