Macbook Pro 15" High-Resolution Display

These new 15" MacBook Pros appear to be excellent machines, so for me it is all the more dismaying that the previous antiglare display option at a 1440 x 900 resolution (that was just reintroduced on the earlier models) has been discontinued.

Thanks for the tip on doing the screen grab. I did that and set the resulting image as my background picture. Then I could compare stuff pretty closely. I've already ordered my new MPB with high res display (since I wanted the matte), so it's not like I could go backwards. But, I'm happy with the result. I used to work on a 15" 1920x1200 display Dell which I thought I would miss when I got my current MBP but I didn't. I'm sure I will quickly get used to having more screen area again.

B!lski wrote: you can always set the antiglare display back to 1440x900


Umm, no you can't. It's not given as an option on the machine. only 12xx by whatever. And all the lower resolutions look fuzzy and bad.

I have the HD and I find it unreadable. And I have extremely good 20/20 eyes. The URL print is so small and not all fonts on the machine can be enlarged or enlarged easily (manually adjusting each Safari tab, really?)

BUYER BEWARE: BY TYING IT TO THEIR HI-RES SCREEN ONLY, APPLE'S MADE ANTI-GLARE PRETTY MUCH A NON-OPTION EXCEPT FOR THE 20 SOMETHING SET THAT REALLY LIKES TO READ FINE PRINT.

Pretty weak!

direwolf8 wrote:
Text and icons will appear smaller on a screen with more pixels the same physical size. But Apple screens tend to be very high quality and extremely readable.

This will only be true for people with good eyesight or up-to-date prescriptions. It will often be more true for young people than those over 35.

This was precisely my apprehension. It appears to be confirmed by the excellent site Diglloyd, in particular the Mac Performance Guide.

The stores are carrying hi-res i7 with matte screens. I bought mine there.

I'm on my hi-res anti-glare MBP that arrived today. The native hi-res resolution made my eyes hurt after five minutes. Unfortunately the 1440 by 900 isn't available, the next closest thing is 1440x852. That, however, looks like total crap. Everything is blurry, as if you're control+zooming in.

Is there a way to increase the size of basic UI features like menu bars, text, etc? If not, I don't know how I'm going to work on this thing. I can't do design work on a setting as crappy as 1440x852, but I can't sit in front of this hi-res setting all day with all this tiny text. And is there any reason they can't offer the 1440x900 resolution? The screens are the same size, no?

Kevin,

That was my experience as well. There are some work arounds, like while in Safari, but the defaults, the System Preferences, Menus and Pop Ups are not changeable.

I'd recommend you call Apple immediately if the work arounds don't help and you're still having trouble. To me too, it's insane Apple doesn't make an anti-glare screen for the 1440x900. I think they're trying to kill it. Is cheaper if they have fewer parts and variables in their production line, but a certain set of consumers get hurt as a result. I too can read the small display but very quickly I start to get a little blurry reading the smaller print that comes up sometimes. Cumulatively it didn't work for me. I spoke with someone in Customer Relations (ask for their number, they're a lot more helpful than the Store or customer service) and they are taking back the machine and not charging me restocking (though I got mine by the Apple Store phone and resolution never came up --not that I'd have fully known the implications just by the phrase high-resolution anyway--not sure if they do that if ordered by other means).

Good luck. Sounds like a number of people love the higher resolution devices, but even though I consider my eyes very good and I can read street signs before most other people in cars with me, I really cannot get behind that level of higher resolution and small print. Good luck.

Give Apple feedback here ( http://www.apple.com/feedback/) requesting a 1440x900 anti-glare screen. There's an specific group of people who would want BOTH larger print and anti-glare: long-standing, older Mac users and probably a number of other people if the hand-wringing we read about in these pages is any indication. Some people want that combo despite Apple's lame decision not to offer those machines. Make your voice heard on the feedback page. If enough people write in, perhaps they will change the policy.

In the meantime, sadly I'm reverting to a 2.4 Ghz Core2Duo with an anti-glare screen. Is nowhere near what I wanted, but oh well, is all they're offering that meets my needs at this time.

Best of luck.

It is worth noting, Chris, that in terms of "dots per inch" the "hi res" 15" screen(128dpi) is actually a little "lower res" than the "standard" screen on the current and previous 17" models (132dpi). In other words, if you found the text size on the 17" in its native and maximum resolution to be OK, you won't have any trouble with the 15" model.

Cheers

Rod

But based on my earlier responses and Kevin's, Rod, clearly the 15" does cause me and some other people trouble. Not sure knowing the 17" is worse helps much, unless we already have one or have easy access to one.

Knowing that is kind of cool, but not sure it changes much. Thanks, though.

It means simply, andintroducing, that if you want to get an idea of the text size on a 15" with a high resolution display (which can be hard to find in the shops) all you have to do is take a look at the 17" display. The text size etc on the 15" high resolution model will be a little larger than it is on the standard 17" model, which is much easier to find on show.

Cheers

Rod

That's great, but as you know I already have the 15" high-res and strongly dislike it. Perhaps others can benefit from the info but clearly, that time has passed for me.

andintroducing, you have already made it very clear in this thread, repeatedly, as well as in various others, that YOU dislike it. Very few others with experience of it have agreed with you and many have said quite reverse - that they wouldn't want to use anything else.

My suggestion that people take a look at the easy to find standard 17" model if they want to see what the text size on the harder to find high res 15" will look like is simply intended to let them make up their own minds about it. To be sure, the text size on the standard 17" will be a little smaller again than it is on the high res 15", but obviously if they see it and are not troubled by it they will know that they don't fit into your little camp of people who find the text too small, but into the apparently significantly larger camp of people who like it.

It is as simple as that. It provides Chris with an easy way of making up his own mind about which way to go. After all, he has already seen the 17" display, so he can use his own experience of using it to inform his own decision about the matter. It doesn't matter to me personally one iota which way he, or anyone else, decides to go. It is just a question of them making the decision on the basis of the best information available to them.

Rod

My name's Chris too. Thought you were speaking to me. My bad. The last guy posting was Kevin, not a Chris.

Kevin, JoeinAV and a few others, including Diglloyd, agreed that the print is quite small and/or gave some of them headaches using the machine. For me, it's more important that people know there COULD be a serious problem with the size of the print on their expensive new high-res machines, rather than trying to assure everyone as Court Kizer and you seem to want to assure people that "If you ordered the 15" MacBook pro the 1680x resolution is the only way to go."

Obviously that's not the case. Nor is it as clear cut and as good for all as you make it sound.