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Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

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Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#111

Post by xtractinator »

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.

I can hardly use it indoors the glare is so bad. Luckily my workplace also has the much more practical ThinkPad available. When you compare them side by side... I'll just say it's clear what the designers were after.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#112

Post by xtractinator »

achompas wrote: post #105
Tichy wrote: post #47

I'm allergic to the "best product x Apple has ever built" line, it is such an obvious manipulative marketing spin. Of course every new device should be the best they ever built. All the components have been improved - it is just the way computer technology has progressed for a long time now. Also, it is just a slightly slimmer notebook with a higher resolution. It is not "changing computing as we have known it".

Also, it is just a slightly slimmer notebook with a higher resolution. It is not "changing computing as we have known it". Wow. This is like saying "the iPad is just a tablet you can touch." You're completely trivializing the rMBP's benefits. It's not just "slightly slimmer," it's a 15" laptop that weighs 4.6 pounds. I see one laptop in that range (Sony Vaio S series), and it has an i5 and a spinning platter. A "high…

I've used one, it's just a laptop. Granted, I like to toot my own horn too, and my machines are no slouch so the performance benefit of SSD and high resolution was not something that was new to me. I have a new iPad and the 220 ppi is completely wasted on white space and sharp fonts. It offers no usability benefits in my experience. I don't do any media work.

I hate to be that "640k should be enough for anyone" guy but I'm not seeing much benefit to having all these extra pixels. Even if you did do some kind of high-detail image editing, you'd zoom in...

Now if it could run games at this resolution, that would be another story, but it can't. So who cares.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#113

Post by Synaesthesia »

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.

Personally I find the glare from matte displays far more annoying than that from glossy. It diffuses across the whole display and makes contrast much worse

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#114

Post by 0x09 »

Tichy wrote: post #109
rimantas wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But only slightly better You know, with this POV one can dismiss anything. One the other hand that's how we became humans — by getting only slightly better with each generation.

I didn't dismiss the MBP - I'd like to have one myself, if I could afford it. I only challenged the notion that it supposedly changes computing as we know it. My "only slightly better" is a response to the article, not a shrugging off of the new MBP.

For some of us high density displays have been a holy grail for years. Up until now progress has been stuck as an archetypal chicken and egg problem between display manufacturers and the appearance of resolution independent display servers (granted, though not without trying, Apple has resigned itself to a compromised form of the latter). So for those who have been waiting eagerly for this, it really does change things dramatically from here on out. If you don't particularly care about that sort of thing, it certainly is just an incremental improvement. So, at least speaking for myself, this is where the discrepancy in opinion you've been seeing will come up.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#115

Post by DanBC »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #113
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.

Personally I find the glare from matte displays far more annoying than that from glossy. It diffuses across the whole display and makes contrast much worse

It's interesting how people's personal preferences affect these things. I hate the gloss on my MacBookPro because it makes it very hard to watch any movie without being distracted by reflections on the screen.

I accept that it's an excellent screen, and if I was in a better environment (or doing professional work) I'd be grateful for the good screen.

At least we're not still using these things anymore. (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=screen%20filter)

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#116

Post by Tloewald »

sliverstorm wrote: post #99
dhughes wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't understand why Apple offers a glossy display, the screen has to be angled slightly and that's the perfect setup for glare from ambient light. It's like trying to read a glossy magazine and you keep having to shift around to see it avoiding the glare off the page. Whether it makes blacks blacker or colours sharper the end result is it's annoying.

It makes the display 'pop' indoors, some people like shiny things, and it is a popular platform for art-stuff.

And they're cheaper to make.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#117

Post by thoughtsimple »

stephen_g wrote: post #89
albertzeyer wrote: post #40

I didn't realized until now that the Ethernet port is gone. I need that! That might actually be the main and only reason for me to not buy this. How sad, I really like the device otherwise.

I only use wired Ethernet on my laptop at work, so I would look for some kind of Thunderbolt dock if I got one (like the Belkin one coming out in September [1]). They're really pricy at the moment though so I hope we see more competition leading to cheaper devices in the Thunderbolt device area soon. 1. http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/05/belkin-thunderbolt-expres...

A good excuse to get the excellent Thunderbolt display. It has a gigabit ethernet port.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#118

Post by achompas »

Tichy wrote: post #108
achompas wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, it is just a slightly slimmer notebook with a higher resolution. It is not "changing computing as we have known it". Wow. This is like saying "the iPad is just a tablet you can touch." You're completely trivializing the rMBP's benefits. It's not just "slightly slimmer," it's a 15" laptop that weighs 4.6 pounds. I see one laptop in that range (Sony Vaio S series), and it has an i5 and a spinning platter. A "high…

I've had laptops that weigh less than 4 pounds for years. It's nice that we can now have one with a bigger screen, but show me the revolutionary new things you can do with it that you couldn't do before? For what it's worth, I think broad availability of capable netbooks for 300$ was probably more of an evolutionary jump. Or things like the Rhaspberry PI - those things open up new use cases. Like, it makes a differen…

I've had laptops that weigh less than 4 pounds for years. It's nice that we can now have one with a bigger screen, but show me the revolutionary new things you can do with it that you couldn't do before?

You're doing it again. Do any of those machines have a quad-core CPU with SSD, 8GB RAM, a 220 ppi screen, and ~7 hours of battery life?

I'm not arguing that the rMBP is revolutionary or magical or whatever, but give it it's due: this is a uniquely practical and powerful machine. I'm sure you've used sub-4lb laptops before, but I bet none of them posted Geekbench scores over 7000, much less 13000. [0]

[0] http://www.maclife.com/article/features/benchmarking_macbook...

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#119

Post by phamilton »

mwhawkins wrote: post #9
mikelbring wrote: post #7

So how will my code editor look on Retina? All blurry?

That is the issue I am having. Eclipse-based IDEs are not ready for Retina. The text is legible, the IDE is usable, but its noticeably blurry. I've logged a ticket with Aptana Studio and Eclipse, but they have no solution to this issue, just workarounds which don't really work. If you are using Vim or a simple text editor, however, there is no issue with the appearance of the text. Xcode works just fine, too.

Add this to the info.plist file for Eclipse, IDEA, or most java or gtk apps.

NSHighResolutionCapable

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=382972

Works great for text, icons still need updating.

Re: Anandtech: Macbook Pro with Retina Display Review

#120

Post by stephen_g »

thoughtsimple wrote: post #117
stephen_g wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only use wired Ethernet on my laptop at work, so I would look for some kind of Thunderbolt dock if I got one (like the Belkin one coming out in September [1]). They're really pricy at the moment though so I hope we see more competition leading to cheaper devices in the Thunderbolt device area soon. 1. http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/05/belkin-thunderbolt-expres...

A good excuse to get the excellent Thunderbolt display. It has a gigabit ethernet port.

I was thinking of going that route, but now I wonder how long it is going to be before a Retina version comes out... Also, the Thunderbolt display doesn't have an eSATA port so I'd still need a converter and even the standalone ones still almost cost as much as the docking station I linked...
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