I have checked out the new 15" MBP and the screen looks great. Up to this point I have been buying the 16" MBP because I wanted the larger screen and don't necessarily NEED the processing power because I have a better machine at home. The 15" MBP is for sure going to be my next machine when its time to retire this one.
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The 15" Air screen is beautiful.
- Thread starter Iron Curtains
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All Apple monitors are great imo, they know it's important to have a nice screen on any machine. I think the reason we're seeing so much comparison between the 14" and 15" is due to the price of refurbs being about the same as the Air line now. If you do any professional work or just watch a ton of movies you can probably see the difference in black levels with ease (or the slight purple tint for some) and it can be something that influences purchasing decisions, but for most its probably not a deal breaker cuz I've never had it bother me for YouTube/Instagram/Twitch/etc casual consumption.
I am curious about long term too, do black levels get slightly worse over years of use? Will the MBPs screen hold up longer than the Air's screen? Almost every LCD monitor I've ever used starts to give a little around the edges eventually, maybe slight but probably a non issue at all on the MBPs. Could be a factor for people as well.
I am curious about long term too, do black levels get slightly worse over years of use? Will the MBPs screen hold up longer than the Air's screen? Almost every LCD monitor I've ever used starts to give a little around the edges eventually, maybe slight but probably a non issue at all on the MBPs. Could be a factor for people as well.
I disagree. Side-by-side the 16" MBP display absolutely kills the 15" MBA display. Not that the MBA is bad (the MBA display is quite good, and is color manageable), but A-B comparison the MBP (brightness for instance) clearly is visually superior.
Also, size matters, and there are no direct size comparisons MBA versus MBP. It seems to me a larger display gets an intangible boost in "feel." Much like speakers played louder get a boost in perceived sound quality.
That comparison badly needs to also include the 16" MBP if screen real estate competence is being considered.
The giant leap forward from 2016 13" MBP already happened with Apple M1 SoC, and even further in the 14" and 16" sizes. Note that Apple may continue to lame the 13" MBP performance in M3 like they did in M1 and M2.
Note comparison of 15" MBA versus 14" MBP shows even more differential advantage to the MBP when compared against the 16" size MBP.
At default scalings, yes. The MBP is 127dpi and the MBA15 is 133dpi. However, when using true 2x scaling on both, the MBA is 112dpi, which I really dig, because it is much more comfortable on my aging eyes.
Apart from mini led and (great) HDR support, the MBP displays basically support every refresh rate necessary to properly match video frame rates (including 120Hz). I often watch stuff on my 16” and having proper framerate matching is great.
My main HT setup also has rate matching (the ATV being the only device which does it correctly in every case) and it’s difficult to unsee for me.
Other than that the display is really nice.
My main HT setup also has rate matching (the ATV being the only device which does it correctly in every case) and it’s difficult to unsee for me.
Other than that the display is really nice.
How do you calculate UI size and how much real estate is shown on the screen?
My 2016 13" Pro has a screen resolution of 2560 x 1600. When at default scaling of 1440 x 900 the text is ever so slightly too small. The next 'size up' of 1280 x 800 sacrifices too much real estate and the UI is too big.
Basically would like to know how to figure this stuff out mathematically for when I'm eventually gonna upgrade my machine but am a little confused.
Edit: or is it just a case of comparing the "looks like" numbers. So for example the 15" Air default scaling is 1710 x 1107 which is most similar to the "more space" 1680 x 1050 on my 13" Pro meaning UI elements are going to be the same size on the 15" Air screen and my 13" Pro screen?
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I own a 13” m2 air and a 16” MBP, AND a 27” studio display, and I can agree that the Air’s display holds its own. Wide colour gamut, bright and sharp. I never feel like I’m downgrading when using my Air instead of my other two.
I saw the 15-inch MacBook Air in person today for the first time. I was surprised to find that the display bezels almost seemed twice as large as on the 2021/2023 16-inch MacBook Pro. Not that this bothers me in the slightest. I just thought it was an interesting design choice. It's a nifty machine. I don't know that I'll necessarily buy one over a MacBook Pro, but I definitely know several people that I'll be recommending it to. Plus, those that need larger than a 14-inch display but don't need any of the extra features in the "Pro" or "Max" SoCs will have a solid choice of machine. I'm glad this machine exists.
You need to compare the "looks like" numbers per screen surface. But since pixels are square (length = height), it's enough to divide pixels/screen_size for just one of the screen dimensions. For example your 13.3" diagonal MBP has a 16/10 aspect ratio, so its length is 11.28". If you divide 1680dots/11.28" you get 148.96dpi. So items on screen will appear much smaller than the 15"MBA on 133dpi.
I suggest you use a site like https://www.sven.de/dpi/ and you get a lot of presets but you can also introduce your own numbers to see how different resolution scalings affect your DPI.
I cannot live with a measy 600nits of the Air😮💨
I can jack up the Macbook 14 Pro to a super bright setting when on the go.
Yeah, that and the lack of ProMotion is why I’m sticking with my 14” Pro, but hopefully by the time I’m ready to upgrade at least one of those features will make it to the Air line.
Edit: Of course by then there’ll likely be another must-have or at least really-nice-to-have display improvement like OLED or Micro LED
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Except, no you can’t. The 1600 nits peak brightness is ONLY used for HDR content. Which means only while watching HDR videos.
When doing anything else on the laptop - surfing, working, etc - the MBP14” is limited to 500 nits, just like the new MBA. So exactly the same brightness.
The higher nits are only for tv and movie watching.
I'm going back and forth on picking up the 15" MBA or 14" MBP and the screen is one of the variables...I have 2 Studio Display's on my desk and the 12.9 iPad Pro.
Do you think my eyes will be so used to the superior displays that going to a 15" MBA will be more noticeable?
Do you think my eyes will be so used to the superior displays that going to a 15" MBA will be more noticeable?
Not in my opinion. I have two studio displays that I use daily as well as the smaller iPad Pro. I also have been using a MBA M1 13 and just bought the 15. When I switch from one to the other I don't notice anything inferior, but that is just me. I got the MBA 15 because I needed more screen real estate for my work. I had originally planned on the MBP 14 until I realized that the 15 has slightly more screen real estate.
Thank you, sounds like we have a similiar taste in Apple products.
I was really leaning toward picking up a 14" MBP on the refurbished store...mostly because of the screen difference and pro motion refresh rate (being used to that on everything else).
Now I'm REALLY considering just getting a MBA 15".
I have a Studio and 2 Studio Displays for heavy work at my desk. This Air really would just be for putzing around and light use. I subscribe to the 2TB option of iCloud storage and have external SSD's, so don't really care about local storage on the device. Only lingering worry is whether 8gb of RAM is going to be sufficient and whether to get Silver or Starlight.
just took mine on a flight (first class) did very well! was a please due to how light it is!
Yep, this is the truth. I placed the MBA 15 and MBP 14 side-by-side in the Apple Store (photos here), both at max brightness, and played the same demo reel. Both laptops are equally bright with non-HDR material, and honestly the 15" was more enjoyable to view than the smaller/cramped 14".
Reminds me of past TV buying decisions -- get the smaller, higher-end TV OR the bigger TV that's one-tier down. I've never regretted getting the larger "less advanced" TV, but have returned a smaller 77" LG C2 OLED before. Even with HDR I just don't see a huge difference that the MBP 14 has over the MBA 15. And, I imagine I can just connect the MBA 15 to a larger external HDR display anyways, right?
Ditto here. In the past two weeks I've returned a M2 Max MBP 16 (because it was too heavy), a MBA 15 (because I mistakenly though it couldn't do 4K editing), and a MBP 14 (because I probably don't need the M2 Max in this form factor).
After realizing I was "using Final Cut Pro wrong", I'm now undecided between buying the MBA 15 again or an M2 Pro MBP 14. I actually like the MBA 15 display better than the 14. The 15" is superb for a non-XDR display, and it's just plain more enjoyable to use and view than the 14". I don't notice the ProMotion benefits of the 14", nor do I notice it on my 12.9" 5th-gen iPad Pro (ProMotion was easily to appreciate on the Phone 13 Pro).
The decision is complicated because I will configure the MBA 15 with 16GB/1TB, which places it at $1759 (edu) vs $2029 for a 16GB/1TB base M2 Pro MBP 14. For $270 I would get the more advanced display, increased performance, and more ports, but I'm still more drawn to the MBA 15's display and I have a dock from my M1 MBA that I can reuse for additional ports. Then there's the Apple refurb M1 Pro MBP 14 options to consider. Now that we have all these options, the choice is that much more difficult to make.
