I am not the 82 year old man, but I do tutor him once per week on how to use Wordpress. We meet in a coffee shop for an hour, and I bring my laptop so we can go through the lesson together.
Until last week, I had been bringing in either:
a) my own 2007 17" MBP
b) a borrowed 2011 13" MBP
He never noticed these were two different computers, despite the obvious size differential. He's the kind of person who touches a keyboard or mouse gingerly because he thinks that he may destroy the internet with a mis-click. This is a man to whom I had to explain for 20 minutes the difference between a search bar and an address bar.
But then this week I brought in my new computer (RMBP 2.7/16/512) and as soon as I turned it on he points to the screen and says "My goodness, those icons are so bright!" He was absolutely fascinated, and couldn't believe that a screen could look so detailed.
I tell this story because I've heard some folks say that the retina display is a gimmick, and that running it at 1440x900 is a waste on this display. I guarantee you that it is not. If you want screen real estate, I'm sure you know how to scale the display, but if you just want something that looks gorgeous, then this screen really does live up to its hype. If an almost-blind 82 year old technophobe can notice the difference and see its value, I'm sure you can too!
As always, your mileage may vary. Thanks for reading.
PS: Unrelated, but for those interested, I've had great success gaming on this machine so far. D3, Portal 2, Civ5, and Skyrim all run beautifully on near-ultra settings. No hiccups of any kind so far!
Until last week, I had been bringing in either:
a) my own 2007 17" MBP
b) a borrowed 2011 13" MBP
He never noticed these were two different computers, despite the obvious size differential. He's the kind of person who touches a keyboard or mouse gingerly because he thinks that he may destroy the internet with a mis-click. This is a man to whom I had to explain for 20 minutes the difference between a search bar and an address bar.
But then this week I brought in my new computer (RMBP 2.7/16/512) and as soon as I turned it on he points to the screen and says "My goodness, those icons are so bright!" He was absolutely fascinated, and couldn't believe that a screen could look so detailed.
I tell this story because I've heard some folks say that the retina display is a gimmick, and that running it at 1440x900 is a waste on this display. I guarantee you that it is not. If you want screen real estate, I'm sure you know how to scale the display, but if you just want something that looks gorgeous, then this screen really does live up to its hype. If an almost-blind 82 year old technophobe can notice the difference and see its value, I'm sure you can too!
As always, your mileage may vary. Thanks for reading.
PS: Unrelated, but for those interested, I've had great success gaming on this machine so far. D3, Portal 2, Civ5, and Skyrim all run beautifully on near-ultra settings. No hiccups of any kind so far!
