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Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

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Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#71

Post by astrange »

Gring wrote: post #23

The "glare handling" pictures makes me wonder why anybody would buy a portable device (=to sometimes be used outdoors) and be happy with those outrageous reflections. I mean, you can barely see the content! http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-w... With the new decice, Aplle again tries to makes those unusable mirrors the only display you can order. I'll pass.

Glossy displays are exclusively better in controlled lighting, because their black levels are actually good. Controlled lighting is not difficult to achieve and is already a necessity for graphics work.

Actually, it can even be better outside. A screen with reflections on it is not as bad as a screen that you can't see due to low contrast.

(I'm currently using a matte desktop LCD, but wasted tons of time looking for a model with an 8-bit screen and good contrast.)

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#72

Post by lawnchair_larry »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #67
untog wrote: post #8

I'm hoping that we see a 13" Air edition with the Retina Display sometime soon. That I will pull the trigger on.

Considering the 13" Pro doesn't have room for a discrete GPU, I doubt we're going to see a retina Air until a few more revs of Intel's integrated GPUs.

Have you heard of the iPad?

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#73

Post by majormajor »

astrange wrote: post #71
Gring wrote: post #23

The "glare handling" pictures makes me wonder why anybody would buy a portable device (=to sometimes be used outdoors) and be happy with those outrageous reflections. I mean, you can barely see the content! http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-w... With the new decice, Aplle again tries to makes those unusable mirrors the only display you can order. I'll pass.

Glossy displays are exclusively better in controlled lighting, because their black levels are actually good. Controlled lighting is not difficult to achieve and is already a necessity for graphics work. Actually, it can even be better outside. A screen with reflections on it is not as bad as a screen that you can't see due to low contrast. (I'm currently using a matte desktop LCD, but wasted tons of time looking for…

Whatever happened to the matte-ish finish used on some late-90s-and-on CRTs? I had some with way less glare than my MBP, and, being a CRT, about as perfect black levels as you're going to get.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#75

Post by Tichy »

mwhawkins wrote: post #70
pook1e wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My late 2011 model HP DV6t quad sounds like a jet taking off at higher workloads, the trackpad drivers are garbage, and the "full HD" screen looks like crap compared to the MacBook. Sigh, I hate these arguments. You're comparing a laptop with (currently) a starting price of $899 to a laptop with a starting price of $2199. Do you really expect similar quality? Anecdote time: My 2009 HP Elitebook is extremely quiet u…

Sure - non-Retina, yes you could compare. That was precisely my argument in the beginning. But, actually, if you look at the specs, which I went heavy on the updates and mods for the HP, I actually spent closer to $1,600 to get the highest resolution display, fastest SSD, and highest performance CPU (which is still beaten by the MacBooks Ivy Bridge, but not by much I admit). $500 is a fairly negligible difference and…

I'm not denying the MBP might be worth it's price, just that it is an evolutionary jump in computing. Also you compare to a laptop from last year. A year is a lot in technology.

Besides, if the HP is so ugly, why did you buy it in the first place?

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#76

Post by kenrikm »

mtgx wrote: post #17
axxl wrote: post #16

The most interesting section for me was the performance issues of the retina display ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-w... ). I wonder if waiting for a next generation mbp to really be able to push those pixels would be a smart choice. I had noticed a few stutters when playing around with one in the store, though if Mountain Lion will optimize it as claimed then that could fix it.

What I'm surprised about is that people are just realizing that retina uses a lot more processing power. I bet most people still don't realize that a "retina-optimized" game should should have half the performance on iPad 3 compared to the "low-res" version on iPad 2, if everything else is equal, even though the GPU in iPad 3 is twice as strong.

Yes however retina games don't require 4x AA to look great. So you're trading one performance hit for another.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#77

Post by ConstantineXVI »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #72
ConstantineXVI wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the 13" Pro doesn't have room for a discrete GPU, I doubt we're going to see a retina Air until a few more revs of Intel's integrated GPUs.

Have you heard of the iPad?

The iPad needed nearly double the battery to keep up with the larger display+GPU's power requirements. The MBP still had to add 20% to keep up. There's no room in the current Air for extra battery, so even if the current GPU could keep up to Apple standards, running time wouldn't. Which means either becoming less Air-y or waiting for a more efficient part (likely Haswell)

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#78

Post by polshaw »

barrkel wrote: post #68
mwhawkins wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. I work in software engineering and project management and was the anti-fanboy for years. What changed my mind was actually giving the Macbook a thorough test drive. I have all SSDs on all my PCs at home, and the Apple still bests them easily. The Retina display is more than just high-resolution, its crisp and clear like nothing I have seen before. Doing web development work, its definitely a great thing t…

It's interesting that you talk about a PC "at home", but it's actually just a cheap laptop. I only use laptops when travelling; weight and size then are far more important than performance. High-performance laptops, IMO, are for laypeople who can't afford two machines, students and homeless consultants. My PC, on the other hand, is liquid cooled for reduced noise, has SSD, 32GB of RAM, 680 GTX graphics, 2 monitors (l…

FYI almost all synaptics touchpads (ie almost all) have supported 2-finger scrolling for years. Not even specifically multi-touch hardware needed. Update your drivers @ synaptics.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#79

Post by xtractinator »

arihant wrote: post #12
rfrey wrote: post #4

He's unsatisfied with his 'old' MBP 15" (previous gen) because "it always made me feel like the old fogey at tradeshows where everyone else had something 13-inches or smaller". Stuff like that defies parody.

That's signature style of a lot of great, obsessive reviewers. Connecting to what a particular product ultimately "means" to you is something that differentiates reviews from spec-sheets. This reminds me of Jeremy Clarkson on Porsche Boxster - "The only reason you would buy one of these is because you can't afford a 911... so what you're doing as you're driving around is advertising the fact that your life hasn't wor…

Tools are for tooling, not being a tool.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#80

Post by barrkel »

polshaw wrote: post #78
barrkel wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting that you talk about a PC "at home", but it's actually just a cheap laptop. I only use laptops when travelling; weight and size then are far more important than performance. High-performance laptops, IMO, are for laypeople who can't afford two machines, students and homeless consultants. My PC, on the other hand, is liquid cooled for reduced noise, has SSD, 32GB of RAM, 680 GTX graphics, 2 monitors (l…

FYI almost all synaptics touchpads (ie almost all) have supported 2-finger scrolling for years . Not even specifically multi-touch hardware needed. Update your drivers @ synaptics.

The problem isn't in hardware or drivers. It's in Windows and the application ecosystem. Even though Windows WM_MOUSEWHEEL allegedly supports fine-grained control, in practice it isn't implemented anywhere, not by vendors, not by applications.

(That is, I think you missed my point. The reason Apple's support is good is not because it's multi-touch; it's because it's continuous. It's also multi-touch in Windows using the Bootcamp driver - my MacBook Air spends most of its time running Windows - but it is still discrete.)

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