Macbook Pro 15" High-Resolution Display

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

If you look at the post of mine suggesting that people simply get an idea of the text size by looking at a 17" MBP , "andintroducing Chris", you will see that it clearly indicates in its 'header bar" that I was replying to Chris Harbig, not you. (These things can get a bit confusing with some of the different "threading" processes that you can choose on these boards, I know, especially when some people use their names and others don't.)

...you seem to want to assure people that "If you ordered the 15" MacBook pro the 1680x resolution is the only way to go."

I've never said anything of the kind, andintroducing. Building "straw men" is a cheap debating trick at the best of times.

If you are really concerned about people's experiences surely the best solution is just to get people to cast their eyes over a relatively common 17" model so that they can see for themselves what the font size looks like? I find it hard to see why you are so obviously troubled by this suggestion.

Heck, given that the font size on the 17" is actually even a little smaller than on the 15 high res I would have thought that doing so would actually "favour" your own personal, very frequently expressed, and obviously fervently held, opinion about the matter!

Rod

I wonder if Apple cannot make the size of the system typography changeable? If the pixels get smaller and smaller isn't the the logical next step?

I would buy a new MacBook Pro immediately, if they would offer a anti-glare low res display, or if there would be a way to switch the size of the system type, so even people over 35 have a chance to read the words using a native resolution on hi-res displays.

For those of us whose work REQUIRES an anti-glare screen, seeing a 17" for comparable resolution doesn't much matter. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that anyone finds this resolution acceptable. The interface is so tiny that sometimes it is hard just to click on things.

Tell me about it, Kevin!

But yes, some people not only find it acceptable, they find in preferable. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Kevin Watterson wrote:
For those of us whose work REQUIRES an anti-glare screen, seeing a 17" for comparable resolution doesn't much matter. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that anyone finds this resolution acceptable. The interface is so tiny that sometimes it is hard just to click on things.

Clearly, given that 17" MBps have sold like hotcakes despite the even smaller font size, many people DO find it acceptable, Kevin.

But that doesn't help with your own problem, I know.

Have you looked at applications like "Path Finder", which, for example, provides an alternative Finder interface within which you can re-size many UI fonts etc - see http://www.cocoatech.com/ for "Pathfinder" itself and http://forum.cocoatech.com/showthread.php?t=5652&highlight=font+size for some discussion of its strengths and weaknesses in this area.

One word of warning with Pathfinder at present. It currently appears to force the i5 and i7 models into use of the Nvidia card when it is running, rather than using integrated graphics. The developer is aware of this and looking at it, I understand.

Well worth a look. I've just being playing with it myself to see whether it would be likely to help you and I suspect it might in many situations. 30 day free trial available.

Cheers

Rod

Although you can lower the resolution to 1440x900, it ends up looking fuzzy. I've submitted feedback to Apple suggesting that they offer matte displays with 1440x900 resolution. Tying hi-res to the matte option just doesn't make sense. (Having reflective displays as the default display option makes even less sense.)

I bought an i5 with the matte hi-res display, but after a month of use I ended up selling it and taking a $500 loss. I'd rather lose $500 than spend another day squinting at tiny windows with tiny text. It drove me nuts! I replaced my i5 with a refurbished matte Core 2 Duo with native 1440x900 resolution, and couldn't be happier.

Message was edited by: eddychat

I've had the hi-res 15" for a few days now (glossy).

Yes the system menus are pretty small, but I don't spend a lot of time looking at them. In the finder I increased the font size a little. In Safari (like this forum), if I'm going to do any extended reading I bump the font size up. In Pages, Word, Excel and stuff I just use a great zoom value and its fine. In Mail I increase the font for the sidebar and text and its good.

It is the blocks of text that you can't easily enlarge, like flash boxes on websites, that are most annoying. And all the tiny little grey on grey text menus and stuff in apps like Logic Pro.

I'm happy with it though - especially for how much more I can fit on the screen when not hooked up to my 30" external display.

I would buy a new MacBook Pro immediately, if they would offer a anti-glare low res
display, or if there would be a way to switch the size of the system type, so even people
over 35 have a chance to read the words using a native resolution on hi-res displays.

Every type element in the environment is completely configurable, so I don't understand the size problem at all. I am well over 35 (almost 60) and my problem is bifocals!... I want the largest amount of screen real estate in the smallest geography possible. I drives me nuts to be constantly moving my head around looking at a large panel, just to keep the text in the sweet spot of my glasses.

I really appreciate my 15" Hi-res display... I can see everything perfectly clearly without moving my head. Makes computing possible again, hopefully for another 20 or 30 years <grin>

How is "every type" configurable? I don't see it. And I search for the answer and see lots of people asking about it. I first tried out a MBP 15" glossy and found that the glossy caused me to get headaches. Then I got the 15" MBP matte without realizing they uprezzed it (why?). So now I have trouble with fonts. It's ridiculous. I have 20/20 vision. I am a software developer, so I stare at monitors a lot, but otherwise there is no reason this shouldn't work. I've used Linux for years and every system font is configurable. I can't change input box fonts under OS X. I can't change the menu? What can I change exactly?

Preston: Some GUI elements in the Mac OS are not size-adjustable, as you've realized. Apple has reportedly been working for years on resolution independence, but it's not yet available. If Linux offers full resolution independence and you want a nonglare MBP, use Linux. This isn't the answer you want, but there it is.

Well, I'll either return the MBP for a MB and just try to use it sparingly or I'll increase the fonts everywhere and just run Linux within OS X as my main OS (it runs very fast as a VM on the current MBP). Either way, though, I need a portable machine on which to run XCode and do iPhone development.

you could try using a utility called switchresX. this will allow you to create a 1440*900 custom setting for the display...

I fail to understand why anyone would not have an "up-to-date prescription". You have the money for Mac products, but you can't afford Lenscrafters? Sounds like a turkey baster situation without the turkey baster.

Call me slow-witted, but I have to ask: how do turkey basters fit into this conversation?

OK I anguished about this and nearly brought Google's servers down researching. LOVED my 3 yr old C2D plastic Macbook but doing better $wise & wanted to go pro again. Have to say I'm very happy with what I got; primary use is web-browsing, vid watching, video conversion. Pushing 50 and the farsightedness thing is present and super annoying. Could get the standard res much cheaper with free shipping and Amazon pricing but ultimately went with glossy hi-res. Here's the thing, if you're aging, you're going to need computer glasses anyway. Get past denial, time is against you. Customize Safari's toolbar & put the increase/decrease text size thing in there. The issues: Glossy vs. Matte: look at them live. The Matte Screen is less vivid, blacks are gray, and viewing angles not as good. (Don't want to start a religious war, if you love matte, do that.) More important: Hi-Res vs. Lo-Res: wear your **** glasses, increase font size in Safari when too lazy to put them on. You can ALWAYS make things bigger, but you can't get higher resolution from a lo-res screen. I LOVE the sharpness, detail, & vast screen real estate of the hi-res screen. I also often control my MacMini HTPC and MacPro from my MBP via Screen Sharing and the hi-res screen makes them readable without scrolling or turning off scaling. I guess bottom line, my opinion is, all things equal, go for the hi-res either matte or glossy, you can always enlarge things, but you can never get more real estate out of the lo-res screen.