Which option is the 2x scaling resolution? Is that what you mean by one notch down from default? The one to the left of default? I saw a couple of people reference it but not sure exactly what to select for it. I’ve been using the far right option with the highest resolution on the 15
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The 15" Air screen is beautiful.
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It's the middle one. If you read specifications, you'll see that this 1440x932 with 2x scaling is basically 2880x1864, which is the right display resolution for the 15" screen.
It can be adjusted to your preference anyway, if you prefer larger text and on-screen elements you can do that, and will have more room to do it without feeling cramped on the larger display.
Thanks for the info, Bill! And the follow-up Screenshot.
Falhónir, appreciate your comment, too!
I'm glad to know that you can select a setting that makes the text larger, and is still sharp! That's crucial. In my past experience trying different resolutions, text gets a bit fuzzy and GUI elements are thrown off.
By the way, on the topic of pulse-width modulation for brightness, the Notebook Check review is out.
No PWM found on 15” MBA! (Many expected that as it's the same type of panel as the 13”, but one never knows for sure until it's confirmed!)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...eryday-MacBook-now-in-15-inches.726811.0.html
Search for “screen flickering” on that web page to jump quickly to the PWM discussion.
Falhónir, appreciate your comment, too!
I'm glad to know that you can select a setting that makes the text larger, and is still sharp! That's crucial. In my past experience trying different resolutions, text gets a bit fuzzy and GUI elements are thrown off.
By the way, on the topic of pulse-width modulation for brightness, the Notebook Check review is out.
No PWM found on 15” MBA! (Many expected that as it's the same type of panel as the 13”, but one never knows for sure until it's confirmed!)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...eryday-MacBook-now-in-15-inches.726811.0.html
Search for “screen flickering” on that web page to jump quickly to the PWM discussion.
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Got it.
So if I’m understanding correctly, the screen renders at a 2x resolution automatically, and selecting that option essentially gives you bigger assets on screen while maintaining crispness and sharpness.
Is that setting recommended for the MacBook Pro 14 inch as well?
It's slightly confusing now, as the resolutions are all custom for the liquid retina display size/ shape, but effectively if you want the perfect retina scaling where 4 physical pixels act as one 'looks like' one, text and objects on screen will look bigger on both the 15 and 13 inch MacBook Air than they will on the 14 and 16 inch MacBook pro.
This is because they upped the pixel density for the Pros this generation. Effectively, if the MBA and MBP were both the old 15.4" size/ shape, the Air would have a physical resolution of 2880x1800, which is 4x 1440x900, but it could display as if it were 1680x1050, with just a slight loss of sharpness. This is what the 2016-2019 15" Machines did.
Meanwhile, the MacBook Pro would have a physical resolution of 3360x2100, which is 4x 1680x1050, but it could display as if it were 1440x900, if you wanted everything to be larger/ easier to see and read.
I switched to that middle option, and yeah everything looks bigger and just as sharp, its almost making me appreciate this 15 inch air screen even more lol
I have my home office pc with 3 screens for my work, and wanted something light to use for an add on mobile work unit. I have a great 17" windows laptop I used to use pre-Covid, but that was when I had offices at opposite ends of the county and it is heavy and large. But I had to store much data locally (6 drives in my pc).
Recently we changed software vendors for work, so everything is in the cloud, not stored locally.
I wanted something fast and light, and I just wanted to supplement my work equipment. I also do not need the ports, I have most everything I need to plug and play whatever I need.
I ordered the 15" MBA and love it. The screen is beautiful and it is fast. And so light.
I have had it since Monday (5 days) and it is still on first charge after playing with it all week. For me, a winner. I could not do with a smaller screen ( old age) but this works for everything I need. I make my living on computers, and this is a great addition.
I mean, it’s an extremely relevant comparison for me because I currently own the 14” MBP and need to decide if I want to sidegrade over to the 15” MBA. I’d imagine there are a decent number of people (as evidenced by the posts on this forum) that are in a similar situation after having ‘settled’ on the 14”, even though they wanted a larger screen, since they found the 16” MBP to be too large / unwieldy / heavy.
Like you said, the prices aren’t that far off either when comparable RAM / SSD options are chosen. One just has to decide whether that extra 1.1” on the diagonal is worth the trade offs of speaker fidelity, ports, contrast ratio and refresh rate. I’m starting to think it really is, at least for my use cases. I suspect a lot of people will end up cross-shopping these two machines.
The new screen is a lot better in almost every way possible: colors are more vibrant, contrast is higher, max brightness is noticeably higher, less motion blurring, less glare, less reflections, etc...
Honestly, I think the new MacBook screen is probably the best laptop display that's really not XDR or OLED that I have seen. Probably the only way Apple can top this is to go full on OLED in 4 years.
I guess that makes sense in your case if you already own the machine, but I mean most YouTube etc reviews bring up the 14" as an alternative to the 15" Air (a lot of them suggest a lot more features for just a few hundred extra!!!) but I don't personally consider them to be natural alternatives to each other? Either you want a big display to work on - 15" Air or 16" Pro, or a more compact travel machine 13" Air, 13" or 14" Pro. I guess I may just be unusual in that regard, but there's such a big difference between a 14 and 15 inch display to me, in terms of what you can fit on screen at once. Makes working on a document with references open, for example, a lot simpler, as I can do it on one desktop, at a reasonable/ comfortable size, rather than utilising two desktops, or squeezing everything down.
That's good, I always liked that 1440x900 setting on my 2015 15", but the extra room of 1680x1050 was really useful for making the most of the screen space!
I purchased the 15 to give it a test drive and compare it to the 14 I'm working on now. Although the lightness is definitely a draw, it seems the speakers in the 14 are a little better. I also think the form factor of the 14 is more comfortable. It almost feels like the 15 is a little too big and wide. I had a 15 MBP for a long time so I'm used to that size. This just feels a little too big. I'm leaning toward keeping my 14 but I'll keep doing the test drive.
I felt the same way and ended up with the 14" MBP M2. This machine is a joy to use, and just the right size for me.
The speaker are definitely better on the 14 Pro, but not big enough to be a deciding factor alone in my opinion. The 15 inch air speakers really surprised me.
That being said, I currently am leaning towards keeping the 14 Pro as well.
A big part of that is the overall form factor. It just feels better to me in my lap and in general use. But I’m not to a final decision yet either.
Yes, there is a 2x scaling option on the display. If you right click and choose List-view and then click the “show all resolutions” button you can see a lot of different display resolutions. It’s just that 2x is not the default. for most people with displays with such high pixel density, the slight increase in antialiasing is almost unnoticeable and a worthwhile tradeoff for a little more screen space.
Usually you have to have either see them side by side or rapidly switch to really notice, but after a while you start ignoring the differences.
Isn’t the max brightness of the MacBook Pros 500nits (same as the MBAs) unless you are displaying HDR content? You need to be displaying HDR photos and videos to access that 1000-1600 nits max brightness of the MBPs.
I have decided to keep the 15 inch Air and return the 14 inch pro.
I for sure thought that the speakers and better screen technology would make me lean to the MBP, but the 15 inch air is so exceptional in those departments as well that the bigger screen and more comfortable typing / usage made me keep the air.
I’m really surprised but it’s a great machine!
going back to 14?? I was comparing both at costco last night the 14 screen simply seems SMALL
Yea, I've got both in front of me and I have no idea... The 14 does seem smaller and the weight transfer makes the 15 MBA easier to handle. The real issue for me (I think) is battery life. It's also confusing because I'm not comparing M2s. What I've got now is the M1 14 MBP and the M2 15 MBA...going back to 14?? I was comparing both at costco last night the 14 screen simply seems SMALL
I've got to run the 15 for a full day unplugged and see how it does. I got really good battery life on the 14.
It is my understanding that the 15 inch Air should give better battery life than the 14 inch M1 Pro. Might be wrong.
That’s odd I literally haven’t charged my 15 in 3 days. The battery is 🤩