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My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

michael.stapelberg.ch

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Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#141

Post by christophilus »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #113
LeoPanthera wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, traditional matte screen finishes exhibited poor optical qualities by scattering ambient light, which tended to wash out colors. This scattering process also affected the light from individual pixels, causing it to refract into neighboring pixels. This reduced overall image quality and caused pixel-fine details, such as small text, to appear smeary on high-density LCDs. In contrast, well-designed glossy…

> High-quality glass glossy displays are often easy to use even in full daylight… Not my experience in lit environments. Looking at a mirror-like surface trying to distinguish content from reflections is exhausting. Unless I blast my eyes at full brightness which is more exhausting.

To each their own. Matte screens always have a massive smudge in bright light and look terrible and grainy in the dark. I can’t stand them.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#142

Post by 542458 »

bitwize wrote: post #43
arbirk wrote: post #2

You won't notice 8ms difference in input lag

Musicians can feel latencies as low as 1ms. Apple is designing pro gear for its target audience.

Do you have a source for that? I saw a study a short while ago showing the “just noticeable difference” for audio latency was best case around 26ms.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3678299.3678331

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#143

Post by denysvitali »

mastax wrote: post #75
dr_pardee wrote: post #42

> I still don’t like macOS and would prefer to run Linux on this laptop. But Asahi Linux still needs some work before it’s usable for me (I need external display output, and M4 support). This doesn’t bother me too much, though, as I don’t use this computer for serious work. “I don’t use this computer for serious work.” Dropped $3K on MBP to play around with. Definitely should have gotten MBA

He lives in Switzerland. $3K barely pays for a lunch and an espresso.

Jokes aside, electronics is way cheaper here (also thanks to a relatively low VAT) than in most countries - although Apple keeps their prices pretty much the same across the world.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#144

Post by benoau »

dontlaugh wrote: post #103
PlunderBunny wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The thing that mostly irks me about Apple these days is soldered in RAM and non-upgradeable storage. Isn't the 'soldered-in' RAM and storage fundamental to the M-series architecture? It's not like there's a board with individual chips sitting in it for the RAM and storage, that could potentially have been 'popped out' if they weren't soldered in. It's all one giant 'chip' now.

There are separate chips. But just like Strix Halo, they have to be soldered. There’s no way to reach the signal integrity required with connectors.

I've heard many people saying CAMM2 solves this.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#145

Post by christophilus »

accrual wrote: post #10

> My ideal MacBook would probably be a MacBook Air, but with the nano-texture display! :) I agree on the nano-texture display having used one in person for a little bit. It's sort of like an ultra fine matte texture that isn't noticable while using it, but is noticable compared to other devices in the same room. I hope it becomes a more standard option on future devices. That said, I've used Thinkpads with matte disp…

I’d love an air with a high density display.

My mom has an M1 air, and its resolution is not great. Everything looks a bit blurry compared with my 4K Dell XPS my wife’s MacBook Pro m4 display. I guess the air’s native resolution means it has to do fractional scaling.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#146

Post by acjohnson55 »

embedding-shape wrote: post #131
asdff wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell at all when my mbp is in 120hz or 60hz. I tried to set up a good test too by scrolling really fast while plugging and unplugging the power adapter (which kicks it into high power 120hz or low power 60hz).

One of those things that some people notice, some people don't. I'm definitely in the camp where I feel differences between 120hz and 60hz, but I don't feel 60hz as choppy, and beyond 120hz I can't notice any difference, but others seemingly can. Maybe it's our biology?

I would bet most people would fail a blind test.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#147

Post by seemaze »

seemaze wrote: post #58
LeoPanthera wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, traditional matte screen finishes exhibited poor optical qualities by scattering ambient light, which tended to wash out colors. This scattering process also affected the light from individual pixels, causing it to refract into neighboring pixels. This reduced overall image quality and caused pixel-fine details, such as small text, to appear smeary on high-density LCDs. In contrast, well-designed glossy…

Do you prefer glossy paper work? glossy book pages? glossy construction documents? The preference for a non-reflective surface for the relaying of dense information has been established for decades. You know what's glossy? Movie posters and postcards.

ooh, my feathers were a bit ruffled (for reasons unrelated) when I wrote the above.

I still say for comfortable all day viewing and productivity, there is no comparison. Glossy does have more pop on a phone or watching movies in the dark, but I'd go blind doing that all day every day..

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#148

Post by e12e »

dr_pardee wrote: post #42

> I still don’t like macOS and would prefer to run Linux on this laptop. But Asahi Linux still needs some work before it’s usable for me (I need external display output, and M4 support). This doesn’t bother me too much, though, as I don’t use this computer for serious work. “I don’t use this computer for serious work.” Dropped $3K on MBP to play around with. Definitely should have gotten MBA

This is funny because MBA could mean two things.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#149

Post by acjohnson55 »

asdff wrote: post #71
LeoPanthera wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, traditional matte screen finishes exhibited poor optical qualities by scattering ambient light, which tended to wash out colors. This scattering process also affected the light from individual pixels, causing it to refract into neighboring pixels. This reduced overall image quality and caused pixel-fine details, such as small text, to appear smeary on high-density LCDs. In contrast, well-designed glossy…

I used to have a 2006 macbook pro with the matte screen. It was glorious. None of these issues were present or really noticeable. Maybe you'd notice it in lab setting but not irl. Kind of like 120hz and 4k; just useless to most peoples eyes at the distances people actually use these devices. I've only owned matte external monitors as well and again, no issues there. The glossy era macbooks otoh have been a disaster i…

The 2006 would probably have had 1080ish resolution. I think the GP's point is that at higher resolutions, matte has tended to have the issues they cited.

I am with you in preferring matte. For me, mostly because of reflections on glossy screens.

Re: My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

#150

Post by acjohnson55 »

deaddodo wrote: post #51
whycome wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many base features that are inexplicably relegated to 3rd party apps. Like a better finder experience. Or keeping screen on. Or NTFS writing.

Finder is the number one reason it boggles my mind that people claim macOS as head and shoulders above other OSes "for professionals". Finder is a badly designed child's toy that does nothing at all intuitively and, in fact, actively does things in the most backwards ways possible. It's like taking the worst of Explorer (from Windows XP), and smashing it into the worst of Dolphin or Nautilus; and, to top it off, then…

Finder has become fine, but when I first switched to Mac, it was hard to believe Finder was so bad compared to XP-era Windows Explorer.
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