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Surfing the Web with a MacBook Pro 15" Hi-Res (1680x1050)

F

Fantoni

macrumors member
Original poster
May 23, 2010
37
0
The new resolution option available for the MacBook Pro 15" (1680x1050) looks very interesting for pixel-hungry applications (photo/video editing) but what about ordinary web surfing?

I fear that on a 15.4" display at 1680x1050 (129 ppi) the text of most web sites becomes really hard to read...

So I need your help. If you own a brand new MBP 15" Hi-Res (glossy or matte display), please post some photos of your machine while visiting a few popular web sites such as:

nytimes.com
guardian.co.uk
economist.com
wired.com
newyorker.com
wsj.com
repubblica.it
apple.com/macbookpro
twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA
jasonsantamaria.com
subtraction.com
google.com/search?q=apple
codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Features

Thanks!

P.S. Please keep the web sites at their standard size (Cmd-0). I know that browsers let users resize web sites (enlarging the text) but this continuous zooming is not bearable for me.
 
I'm too busy right now to post any screenshots but I must say web browsing with hi-res is awesome. I have 1.25 astigmatism on both eyes and I can see what is written clearly. maybe matte helps, I don't know.
 
The HiRes is very nice for browsing the web. I barely noticed any difference switching for a standard res 15". I'll see if I can get you some photos once I've got some time later..
 
High resolution web browsing is amazing. The fonts are sized perfectly.

With my new MBP with high res display and my old MBP side by side, you can see a big difference - the old MBP's resolution looks as if it was created for blind people - the font's are oversized.
 
Thanks for your quick replies!

I agree that 1440x900 (110 ppi) makes the fonts a bit too large but I fear that 1680x1050 (129 ppi) could be too extreme, especially if you think that the iMac 21.5 has 102 ppi and the iMac 27 has 109 ppi. In fact Apple has a tradition of medium resolution displays for comfortable reading on screen.

I spend many hours a day reading web pages and fonts too small could be unbearable.

Anyway your words are really encouraging... I'm waiting for the photos of your displays (not screenshot) ;)

Fantoni
 
i got the hi res 15" glossy and honestly i don't see anything outstanding when it comes to web surfing. its probably because i don't have a non high res screen to compare it to. but anyways, the pinch zoom in/out is meant to prevent hard to read text no?
 
dsprimal said:
i got the hi res 15" glossy and honestly i don't see anything outstanding when it comes to web surfing. its probably because i don't have a non high res screen to compare it to. but anyways, the pinch zoom in/out is meant to prevent hard to read text no?
Click to expand...
cant you just go to the display settings and change it to the non high res(1440x900)...that's what i did to see the difference
 
Fantoni said:
Thanks for your quick replies!

I agree that 1440x900 (110 ppi) makes the fonts a bit too large but I fear that 1680x1050 (129 ppi) could be too extreme, especially if you think that the iMac 21.5 has 102 ppi and the iMac 27 has 109 ppi. In fact Apple has a tradition of medium resolution displays for comfortable reading on screen.

I spend many hours a day reading web pages and fonts too small could be unbearable.

Anyway your words are really encouraging... I'm waiting for the photos of your displays (not screenshot) ;)

Fantoni
Click to expand...

Myself and some others here agree the hires screen fonts are too small.

Search for posts by 'kilamite' and myself and you can read peoples different view points.

The conclusion should be that you learn you really need to get to an Apple Store to see for yourself, it's 100% personal preference.

Post back what you end up buying and how you like it.

Good Luck!
 
The mess that web browsing became was one of the reasons I exchanged my 1680x1050 MBP for a 1440x900. Increasing zoom is not the same as having graphics be pixel-perfect - everything looks like a mess. I recommend you spend a lot of quality time with a demo unit in the store if you're concerned.

I found that 1680x1050 wasn't enough screen real-estate to be truly liberating (like 1920x1200 on the 17" is) but made everything small enough that I was constantly bothered.
 
akramer said:
The mess that web browsing became was one of the reasons I exchanged my 1680x1050 MBP for a 1440x900. Increasing zoom is not the same as having graphics be pixel-perfect - everything looks like a mess. I recommend you spend a lot of quality time with a demo unit in the store if you're concerned.

I found that 1680x1050 wasn't enough screen real-estate to be truly liberating (like 1920x1200 on the 17" is) but made everything small enough that I was constantly bothered.
Click to expand...

couldn't u just set it to the 1440x900 in the display settings like eatmyshade stated?
 
No need to adjust display resolution, just zoom the web page to whatever text size you are comfortable with. That way you get the text size that suits you without using non-native resolution - just use the touchpad "pinch" gesture.

It's only UI elements (e.g. menu fonts) where you need to mess with resolution to change sizes.

Edit: Oops, just spotted that you don't like zooming.
 
I'm really don't understand why we see these hi-res threads multiple times a day here. There's a ridiculously simple setting in Safari that solves this problem once and for all if the hi-res fonts are too-small for you, and you don't like the pinch zooming gesture. Here it is. Set this at about 16 if you want the same font sizes as the low-res display. As a bonus, you can override this setting in either direction by pinch-zooming if you wish.
 

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diablo2112 said:
I'm really don't understand why we see these hi-res threads multiple times a day here. There's a ridiculously simple setting in Safari that solves this problem once and for all if the hi-res fonts are too-small for you, and you don't like the pinch zooming gesture. Here it is. Set this at about 16 if you want the same font sizes as the low-res display. As a bonus, you can override this setting in either direction by pinch-zooming if you wish.
Click to expand...

I tried that, and found it works even worse than full-page zooming. There are all sorts of webpages that don't render properly when you force font sizes to be bigger than intended. It also means that you have to use Safari, which is not my first choice of browser.
 
dsprimal said:
couldn't u just set it to the 1440x900 in the display settings like eatmyshade stated?
Click to expand...

Are you really suggesting running an LCD at non-native resolution? That makes *everything* look horrible, unless you use a resolution that's a factor of your native resolution.
 
akramer said:
Are you really suggesting running an LCD at non-native resolution? That makes *everything* look horrible, unless you use a resolution that's a factor of your native resolution.
Click to expand...

meh w/e :rolleyes: just thought i'd throw it out their since it allows u to change resolutions (thought that was the reasoning for even allowing you to change resolutions).
 
I'll never understand how people find that resolution size to be too much. I've been using it for years. It may feel weird when you first change, but you get used to it. It's no different from when people from went up from having itty bitty 800x600 screens. It feels smaller, but you adjust.
 
diablo2112 said:
I'm really don't understand why we see these hi-res threads multiple times a day here. There's a ridiculously simple setting in Safari that solves this problem once and for all if the hi-res fonts are too-small for you, and you don't like the pinch zooming gesture. Here it is. Set this at about 16 if you want the same font sizes as the low-res display. As a bonus, you can override this setting in either direction by pinch-zooming if you wish.
Click to expand...

That's a no brainer ... now what about the 100's of other app's were you need a magnifying glass to read the UI, lol.
 
These threads continue to confuse me, how bad are peoples eyes that they find the high res screen hard to read? Honestly, it's only 1680x1050.
 
eatmyshade said:
cant you just go to the display settings and change it to the non high res(1440x900)...that's what i did to see the difference
Click to expand...

Thats a terrible advice. Everything will just look blurry and messed-up. Its no way like that on screen with 1440 native res.

To really see the difference you need to view both screens in person.
 
eXan said:
Thats a terrible advice. Everything will just look blurry and messed-up. Its no way like that on screen with 1440 native res.

To really see the difference you need to view both screens in person.
Click to expand...

That's what I did to decide. I went to the Apple store an put both machines side by side, played around with them for some time and finally decided for the STD RES.

To be honest fonts on hi-res are not that small, but I don't really need an HR display, and I feel more confortable with the STD one.
 
i have a std res 15" glossy , and web browsing is just right for me. Maybe when they open the Apple Store here , i'll go and see it for myself. For the time being i'm pretty happy with mine.

i dont have much issues with reflection either, as i dont use it in direct sunlight and i dont use flourecent lights at home.


Now to save some dough for that SSD...
 
eXan said:
To really see the difference you need to view both screens in person.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there are not Apple stores/resellers in my area :(

For me the only way to surf the web at 1680x1050 is through your photos/videos. Please, help me ;)
 
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