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Touch Bar pixel density
- Thread starter ccglows
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Took this with my iPhone 7Plus. Best I could do for you.
pretty disappointing pixel density, though from where you sit I suppose it's not too bad
I honestly barely even see the touch bar because I sit so low. Wasn't a selling feature for me. If I could buy the computer without it and save $300+, I'd do it (I have the 15").
Try Command + Shift + 6 for taking a screen shot of just the touch bar.
It's obvious Apple will "upgrade" this in the next MBP next year, and probably even add the taptic engine to it (similar to the track pad)...
I can see that happening - most likely they had the ability to put it in the 2016 one but held off to have something to upgrade next refresh :\
The point was to see the pixel density of the actual physical OLED strip though..That works a lot better than using your phone.
[doublepost=1480436160][/doublepost]https://www.sven.de/dpi/
According to this, assuming it's valid, the PPI is about 205 (I haphazardly measured my function keys to be around 10.6 inches diagonally, can anyone verify? Don't have the TB obviously), whereas the 15" screen has 220.
Isn't it about the same pixel density as on the Watch?
It looks more pixelated mostly because of the frosted finish of the cover glass. Ever get one of those "anti-glare" screen protectors for your tablet or phone? Same deal.
It looks more pixelated mostly because of the frosted finish of the cover glass. Ever get one of those "anti-glare" screen protectors for your tablet or phone? Same deal.
I think the pixel density of the touch bar is the same as the screen. OLED always looks more pixelated compared to LCD screens. I'm not sure why it is like that.
Next year there will be a Retina Touch Bar
I think I'm going to hold off until then. Non-retina touchbars just aren't good enough for professional use.
I'm pretty sure it has similar or the same pixel density as the screen. The res is something like ~2000x60
I think I'm going to hold off until then. Non-retina touchbars just aren't good enough for professional use.
Nice trolling, B+ for the effort.
Cue the violins and bring in the “MacBook pro is not pro anymore” crowd.
Sounds about right. It has been a while but I once did the measurements (measuring width of Touch Bar and comparing it to the one of the screen, then taking their respective horizontal resolutions into account) and I think I arrived at a number in the 210-215 ppi range, slightly lower than the screen resolution of 220 ppi but barely noticeably so. Taking a certain margin of error into account, it's about the same as what you arrive at.
The takeaway is that, while having a just so slightly lower pixel density than the screen itself, the difference shouldn't be anywhere near large enough to make one look pixelated and the other one not. If anything, it might have more to do with the Touch Bar being driven by an OLED screen – I remember reading somewhere that the individual pixels in OLED panels are slightly more distinguishable by the naked eye compared to classical LCD panels of the same pixel density due to how each pixel in an OLED panel is individually blacklit, instead of having a single backlight for all pixels, and I think this is what is at play here. Now take it with a grain of salt but I think this is much more likely to be the reason for why some people perceive the Touch Bar as more pixelated than the MBP screen itself, as opposed to the tiny difference in actual pixel density. The Touch Bar is a Retina screen in every sense of the word, and Apple advertises it as such.
That said, I wouldn't worry too much about it. In my experience, the Touch Bar looks really fine, sharpness- and color-wise; I personally don't really find it more pixelated than the screen itself. If you're gonna get really close, then you are going to be able to spot the individual pixels on both of them, but from a normal viewing distance, it looks good. While I'm not opposed to it getting a higher resolution at some point, there are much more important matters IMO where the Touch Bar should see some improvements.
[doublepost=1535918561][/doublepost]
Definitely not. The Apple Watch has a pixel density of 326ppi, whereas the Touch Bar has "about the same" pixel density as the screen of the MBP itself which sits at 220ppi (or slightly lower to be precise, from the above measurements). So the Apple Watch screen should look significantly sharper than the Touch Bar (which it does, in my experience); this is not just due to the finish of the screen.
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I'm not trolling and never would, just anticipating posts from the 'pro is not pro anymore' camp.
Is it pentile? PPI being equivalent a pentile will look worse than a RGB strip display, at least up to about 500ppi
Thread is old and this complaint is hardly an issue.
Even two years after the post started, Aplle thinks it is good enough . . . So do I!
Even two years after the post started, Aplle thinks it is good enough . . . So do I!
Agreed. I think we can expect the Touch Bar to get a higher resolution in the same iteration where the display itself gets a higher resolution, whenever that might be (probably at one of the bigger redesigns, if we're lucky at the next one in ~2020 already). Both of them are Retina screens with about the same pixel density and average distance from our eye; there is no feasible reason why one of them should get a much higher pixel density when the other one does not.
No, it's RGB. Pentile displays aren't suited to displaying computer graphics dur to inherent issues with moiré patterns and whatnot, so Apple thankfully isn't using them in any of their products...