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Teardown of New MacBook Pro's Retina Display Reveals 'Engineering Marvel'

NStocks said:
As there is no front glass, how is the screen 'protected'? I mean, the previous generations have glass to almost prevent damage from scratches etc. Does it still have a glass element to it or is it more lift a standard LCD 'finish'?
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I had the same question until I went to the Apple store, You kind of have to see it to understand.

The screen has no covering glass so when you press hard enough, the LCD ripples like a traditional desktop LCD monitor. However, it is harder than a traditional unprotected LCD so it kind of feels like there is still glass there and requires more pressure to get that ripple effect. I've never seen anything constructed like it and I'm really interested in how they made an LCD with without glass still look like an edge to edge black surface.

I'm also assuming the lack of cover glass is the reason why it doesn't say "Macbook Pro" on the bezel.

By the way, the screen looks amazing :)
 
pawelthegreat said:
Too bad so many of the owners won't have a clue of this marvel.

Oh well...not that they need to...'it just works' is good enough
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The point you make is spot on. I think this goes for the population in general. Whether it be cars/computers or microwave ovens most people want something that just works and are not the least bit interested in the engineering it takes to get there, and why should they be if they don't want to?
 
adildacoolset said:
Hmm, so when apple try to make a display that actually provides the glare of a matte display and the quality of a glossy display, they have to go to this measure , people say "evil apple make it non-replaceable" and when they make a replaceable one, people say "aah the glare" or "Why pay $50 for anti-glare?" Haters gonna hate.
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My 2006 MacBook Pro says it's possible to make a quality matte replaceable display that doesn't cost $50 extra.

That said, there's no way I can hate on a thinner display with 4x the pixels ;)
 
Another forum member posted in an ongoing MBP-R related thread that he was returning his MBP-R precisely because the display was an integral element and could not be swapped out or replaced.

The poster railed against "locked down" design ... a concern I cannot understand and do not share.

As iFixit noted, the retina display is an elegant marvel. While I don't imagine the Mac mini or iMac will be "locked down" anytime soon, that's clearly the direction the laptop line is taking.

I guess there will always be users who fancy themselves system engineers and cannot resist "screwdriver-ing" new equipment. Unfortunately for them, this particular piece of gear doesn't stand up well to such treatment.
 
I'm interested to see how much glare has reduced by. If it is as good as the Air, which it sounds as it is the case, then that is fine. Still waiting for one at the local Apple reseller to see for myself.

I hope the same reduction in glare is coming to the iMac. The larger screen makes it even harder to avoid reflections.
 
Every time I see those things, it makes my mid-2009 MacBook Pro seem ancient and outdated!

Trying to justify buying one, but just can't do it... damn they're so nice :D
 
bdavis89 said:
Seems like it common sense rather than a marvel...I guess technology just didn't have the capabilities until now?
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Hindsight is 20/20. Most companies don't have the type of power needed to influence their supply chain like this. Dell engineers receive the mounting bracket and panel dimensions from Sharp and get designing. Apple engineers take a step back and pick out the pieces that don't need to be there. I know from my experience as a product designer that most companies don't allow the time or the flexibility to tweak such minute details.
 
They can take apart a highly engineered screen, but they can't remove a battery that is glued. Odd.
 
jmoore5196 said:
Another forum member posted in an ongoing MBP-R related thread that he was returning his MBP-R precisely because the display was an integral element and could not be swapped out or replaced.

The poster railed against "locked down" design ... a concern I cannot understand and do not share.

As iFixit noted, the retina display is an elegant marvel. While I don't imagine the Mac mini or iMac will be "locked down" anytime soon, that's clearly the direction the laptop line is taking.

I guess there will always be users who fancy themselves system engineers and cannot resist "screwdriver-ing" new equipment. Unfortunately for them, this particular piece of gear doesn't stand up well to such treatment.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the level head. These devices are getting down to the scale where even little torx screws have to be accounted for when placing the components. The glue on the batteries is just a testament to the constraints this machine was engineered under. I love tinkering with my own devices, but I'll take a refined product the foregoes user serviceability any day.
 
ghostface147 said:
They can take apart a highly engineered screen, but they can't remove a battery that is glued. Odd.
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might be something to do with the heat to release the glue... although personally I would heat up a battery just to see what happened in a Mythbusters style!
 
I hope the screen proves to be reliable in the long term. It would suck if these things turns out to be fragile.
 
jmoore5196 said:
Another forum member posted in an ongoing MBP-R related thread that he was returning his MBP-R precisely because the display was an integral element and could not be swapped out or replaced.

The poster railed against "locked down" design ... a concern I cannot understand and do not share.

As iFixit noted, the retina display is an elegant marvel. While I don't imagine the Mac mini or iMac will be "locked down" anytime soon, that's clearly the direction the laptop line is taking.

I guess there will always be users who fancy themselves system engineers and cannot resist "screwdriver-ing" new equipment. Unfortunately for them, this particular piece of gear doesn't stand up well to such treatment.
Click to expand...

what are screwdriver heads going to do when the whole computer rolls up in a flexible sheet of clear plastic? complain about the battery life no doubt.

future is coming. This is just a pit stop.
 
MacRumors said:
The teardown documents the full range of features used to keep the display slim and light while delivering crisp images on the ultra-high resolution screen, including routing of cables through hinges, 48 LEDs at the bottom of the screen to light the display, and various diffuser, prism, and polarizing sheets to generate the screen's images.
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As I said many times before, the color gamut on this is going to be terribly disappointing...
 
H2SO4 said:
The point you make is spot on. I think this goes for the population in general. Whether it be cars/computers or microwave ovens most people want something that just works and are not the least bit interested in the engineering it takes to get there, and why should they be if they don't want to?
Click to expand...

To me, good engineering makes itself felt in how well the product works, not how much technical jargon one can spew. So what if the screen has a glass cover or not. I have zero idea whether that is a good thing or not, and I believe at in itself, that it is not indicative of how well a product works either.
 
jmoore5196 said:
Another forum member posted in an ongoing MBP-R related thread that he was returning his MBP-R precisely because the display was an integral element and could not be swapped out or replaced.

The poster railed against "locked down" design ... a concern I cannot understand and do not share.

As iFixit noted, the retina display is an elegant marvel. While I don't imagine the Mac mini or iMac will be "locked down" anytime soon, that's clearly the direction the laptop line is taking.

I guess there will always be users who fancy themselves system engineers and cannot resist "screwdriver-ing" new equipment. Unfortunately for them, this particular piece of gear doesn't stand up well to such treatment.
Click to expand...

LOL! What did he think when he bought the computer. Non replaceable battery or ram, yet he gets upset over not being able to "Swap" or "replace" the LCD?! HAHAHA! Btw, what the heck do you need to "swap" an lcd for. You should only be replacing.
 
Engineering 'marvel'??

I guess I'm just not susceptible to this collective orgasm :confused:

Yes, it's a leap forward in laptop display technology, but seriously, how is it so much more advanced than the MacBook Air screen, besides in pixel density?? Not counting the wafer-thin aluminum front bezel, the display on my Air is barely 2.5mm thick.

I slobber over Jony Ive as much as the next fanboy, but let's call this what it is: a refinement. Tweaking a unibody design is impressive, but omitting glass hardly rises to the level of an 'engineering marvel'. Let's save that hyperbole for when he unveils a single, flexible polymer sheet display, or better yet, a holographic one.
 
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