What can you use the Retina display for besides looking at high rez photos?

I don't understand. Almost nobody has movies (example) above 1080p. It's mostly people with RED cams who has content at those resolutions.

What benefit does it give when you have scaling? - you don't get more screen real estate because of that!

You get a larger performance hit when scrolling. because the computer renders a lot more pixels.



If your a photographer im sure it's great. But what can *you* use the Retina display for? Is it just more clarity? if so, does it make a everyday difference?


I can some games can run at those resolutions, though it would have to be taxing on the 650m!?

 

It's all about DPI, not resolution per se. If you have more pixels per character on the screen, that character will appear more crisp and less pixelated.

 

Right now printed paper looks better than most screens. With this, the screen looks better than the printer can put on the paper.

 

As mentioned it's benefit is DPI which for applications that are compatible everything will look very crisp and clear. Negative is that as far as desktop real estate you are really getting 1440 x 900 which isn't much. I would have preferred the same innards and a 1600 x 900/1050 display but then there would be no hype.

 

the pixels are so tiny though... you can run the screen at an actual higher res and get plenty of screen size. You can run a Scaled 1680x1050, or an actual 1680x1050 on the screen. The scaled is a bit harder on the machine but looks great, while running the actual resolution looks pretty good too since the pixels are so tiny anyways. I'm running mine at an actual 2880x1800 at the moment, but I'm thinking of running something lower full time like 2560x1600, or 2048x1280 both of which look great on the display, I can't even tell they aren't native res.

 

Facebook...

No but seriously, it amazes me how many of the people going off to college I know are shelling out the extra cash for the retina version. Especially when all they'll be using it for is MS Word and Facebook. IMO I don't think that's justifiable, but maybe someone can enlighten me.

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Put Windows on it and it is a very svelte and capable gaming laptop, probably the appeal to those going off to college.

 

anorexic you meant to say

 

People who going off to college can afford a macbook pro out of pocket?

 

Should have a better resale value, and they probably want the ligher weight in a 15" screen.

One word.. Parents...

 

Really?

The big win of retina is clear text. Surely this is of interest to people who are going to be doing an awful lot of text processing?

 

Well, I put a Retina MBP side by side with a standard MBP at our local Apple store, and didn't see a big difference when setting both screens to the same res. But the viewing angles are great as with every IPS screen.

 

one word, work

 

college kids going off to college can have decent budgets for a laptop. a lot of them have (had) jobs in high school with little/no expenses. they could also have parental help. depends on the individual circumstance, of course.

 

my first notebook in 2006 was purchased by my father and shared with my sister, since them all my other notebooks have been with my money.

Granted Im the exception not the rule, counting all the years and degrees Im going non stop in college since 2004

 

And there are also those going off to college at the age of 25+

 

As mentioned:
Jobs
Parents
Older students

But not mentioned:
Student loans

I've known a few people to buy laptops with student loans. Not that I agree with the use, but they aren't my loans.

 

Well, doesn't Macbook Pros last a lot longer than PC laptops?


I see the text argument. I need to read A LOT on the laptop. Like ridiculousness, as I am having e-learning courses over the internet. I reckon Ill be ready at minimum 4 hours every day for the next couple of semesters.

 

Thank you, I never wanna hear another college student saying they are poor and then talk about buying a Macbook Pro when any laptop can do as far as school.

 

No, people going off to college who's parents can afford a MBP out of pocket, either that or their parent will be eating light for a few months...

 

dependents are allowed to work and earn their own money. don't even worry about it. there's no point in being presumptuous.

 

Text. OH GOD TEXT.

If you've ever used iPad 3 vs iPad 2, there isn't a huge different in graphical apps, but if you've ever visited websites (that should be everyone...), there is such a huge difference in text quality that it's a matter of gray vs black text.

With the new retina macbooks, I imagine it's going to be a multitasking machine. 4 windows open, and you can actually see the text rendered in each window. That's the biggest plus for me.

 

Why does it even matter whether one can or cannot afford a laptop of their liking? Price is not everything; what the MBPR may bring to one may result in its being a better value than another laptop that is cheaper in monetary value, but does not bring as much personal value.

I for one am a college student going into my second year of engineering. I have my eyes set on the Retina version because:

- Resale value
- Somewhat future-proof
- It's a shiny new feature!
- [Slightly] Smaller, lighter, thinner
- Self-satisfaction that I have something others do not.
- Non Retina with same specs or worse comes out to be more expensive than Retina base model since Apple goes nuts on upgrade pricing.
- $200 student discount, vs. $100, if price is above $2000.
- I watch a LOT of movies and dramas with three+ friends at a time, so the IPS really helps.

 

Haters gonna hate.

 

I am not in the market for a 15-inch MacBook, but if I was, I would go with the retina unit. I don't care much for the retina display, I do not mind having it either... but the 4.5 pounds in weight is a big selling point for me.

Especially if I had to lug in around campus

 

But 4.5 pounds is considered "heavy" now when compared to the Air and the Ultrabooks. So not the best choice for mobility unless of course you also want to game, then the extra 1.5 pounds is more than acceptable. For me being able to game at 4.5 pounds with a reasonable overall foot print is the most compelling reason for buying the MBPR, more so than Retina.

 

Would you say, however, that the MBPR is one of the lightest and thinnest for its specs?

 

Absolutely but if mobility was a priority then I would say the Air or Thinkpad X1 Carbon are better choices. But again if one wants to be able to game, then the MBPR is the way to go if you would like to avoid the heavy beasts that are the norm.

 

Yes, I thought it was a very good balance between mobility and power. I wanted something with dedicated graphics as well as quad core cpu and IPS screeb so I thought MBPR was the best choice. I was looking at the Vaios but the design is definitely not me.

 

Wow, I've not been around here long but you guys get pretty far OT, pretty damn fast!

A couple of OT comments of my own:

1. What business is it of anyone here how someone finances their purchases (all this talk of parents, student loans etc)?

2. Now we're talking about mobility etc?

Come on, surely the OP is after some slightly more insightful commentary on why people would want a stupidly high resolution screen??

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on-topic:

High screen resolution is useful for many tasks. The obvious ones are image editing and video editing.

We've already seen a video of Final Cut (IIRC) running with plenty of time-lines/tool palettes etc while viewing 1080p video at full res. The same would apply to high resolution images, something like Photoshop can display a lot of information, palettes etc and these take up valuable screen space when one may be trying to work with a large image.

Moving on from content editing, though somewhat related we have user interface editing/construction. With high-resolution devices such as smartphones and tablets it's very useful to be able to edit a user interface without having to work zoomed out etc. Again some UI construction tools can be quite cluttered and having a high resolution screen to work with can help tremendously.

What about content/information display? With a screen like the one on the Retina MBP one could have two 1440px wide windows open side by side. I can't explain why this is useful, it just is I guess! I have certain tasks/duties that involve transposing information from one place to another or where I need to cross-reference information between applications. The ability to have two decently sized windows side by side (or even above and below each other) will be ridiculously useful and probably increase my productivity.

What about coding? Be it web-development or programming (C# etc), the 1800px height of the screen will making coding something of a less painful task. Having more lines visible (vertically) will mean you can see more of your code more of the time. Again this is useful because you might want see what you were doing with a specific bit of code or a variable or whatever, the fact that I can see an extra 20-30 (or whatever it might be) lines of code will be very handy.

These are just some of the reasons a high-resolution screen can be useful for any variety of tasks. Scaling may negate some of the gains but that's a personal choice.

 

Maybe the OP was trying to ask the non professional users who surf the web, game, and Word. Honestly I'd probably have no real use either. However, as I have stated before, the Retina model was a much better deal monetarily and personally.

The topic of mobility came up because one mentioned that I might as well get an air or an ultrabook because someone and I said the Retina model was thin and light. That said I replied that for the specs it was thin and light. This in someway is on topic since OP was asking why Retina I think.

 

Yeah maybe, I just found it odd that it descended into a tirade about how people afford their machines. I mean seriously?

I'm going to be very interested to see how I find the RMBP. I hope the screen resolution turns out to be a real boon for certain aspects of my work. It may actually increase my productivity for some tasks quite significantly but only time will tell.

Off hand I think I will spend 60% of the time with the display scaled and the other 40% with it running at the full 2880x1800px.

 

i'm running full 2880x1800 all the time, but I still say turning it down to a scaled res, when reading the text is very very sharp in retina aware apps, it does look impressive... but there just isn't enough room on the screen for me.

 

Doh,

What kind of work do you do on your machine? When unscaled how much text can you get on the there?

 

That's wrong for a number of reasons.

Do you have eyes made of magic and science?

 

I up most of my apps fonts and icon sizes and stuff, so things are much bigger than default, so... they are smaller than on a low res screen, but not ultra tiny.

I do basic every day computer stuff, and software development. With barely readable font sizes... i can fit a TON on the screen, but it strains the eyes, so I blow it up.

 

True. How many colors can the retina screen produce? ~2^24, right? The 30-bit IPS RGBLED can do 1 billion or roughly ~50x times, lol.

Yes, I can barely cope with 1920x1080 on a 15" screen. Anything higher would be impractical at least from a text standpoint. Great for pictures and games though.

 

Brb, preparing myself for excelled progressive myopia.

 

Honestly, after adding all the upgrades 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and the 1680x1050 screen I just said "f it," and went with the retina display. Now after using this laptop for a while I wouldn't trade the display for anything.

 

15" Non Retina:
----------------
2.3GHz CPU
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
Hi-Res screen
=============
$2,529.00


15" Retina
-----------------
2.3GHz CPU
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
Retina IPS display
Thinner, smaller, lighter dimensions
==============
$2,229.00

/thread

 

Erm, the advantage of the regular pro is that you can do the upgrade yourself....Base Pro + HD Screen = 1900. SDD prices have dropped to less than a dollar a GB. RAM can be upgraded to 16 for around 150 -- not to mention that you get to keep the base HDD and RAM.

 

Retina: for the people who are too lazy, unfamiliar with DIY, don't want to compromise Apple's warranty, or are purists.

I certainly fit in this category.

 

so your saying its more like...
15" Non Retina:
----------------
2.3GHz CPU
8GB RAM (aftermarket do it yourself if you can, Crucial $56)
256GB SSD (aftermarket do it yourself if you can, Crucial $216)
built in optical drive, Firewire, Ethernet
Hi-Res screen
a lot of extra work setting it up
=============
~$2171


15" Retina
-----------------
2.3GHz CPU
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
Retina IPS display
Thinner, smaller, lighter dimensions
==============
~$2200

pretty negligible.

 

The difference is, with the retina MBP you are stuck with the RAM and storage you picked from start and if your usage patterns change and you need extra ram and HDD space - you're screwed. The MBP (non-retina) can always be upgraded down the road.

 

i'm not worried about changing my purchase decisions based on an unlikely "what if" scenario.... maybe if its like... airbags in a car since it can be dangerous, but not enough ram in the computer? no big deal... worth the risk for the machine thats still overall better for me now.

 

Same here. It's not like we keep these things for 10 years. Upgradeability is over-rated considering the typical enthusiast's notebook replacement cycle which is more like 1-3 years than 5-10.

 

Absolutely true. By the time you would want more memory, your computer will be outdated enough that you'll also want a new processor, graphics card, etc.

Unless you are running multiple virtual machines, which is a valid thing to do, but is certainly not common and shouldn't be a factor in giving common advice.

 

A lot of times, the kid or spouse is apt to get your lappie after a few years and need the latest and greatest! (And they do not always need what you did.)

 

based on what ive seen looks like mbp with retina has around 70% ntsc color gamut if its around 99% srgb (seriously who uses srgb anymore)

that is not good and id say color gamut > resolution for photo editing

 

Yeah really, its only THE recommended color space for the Internet. Who cares about that?