New Macs' ever-higher resolution: what's the end game?

cyberoidcyberoid
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014


Higher resolution without independent font control simply means more difficulty reading ever-smaller type.


 


Nice pictures, but a machine increasingly difficult to work with in non-visual terms. I.e., thinking.  


 


Am I missing something?  Does this new MacBook Pro provide independent font control?  


 


Should I replace my current MBP, assuming Apple provides a way to increase RAM.  


 


Or will it be as uncomfortable to use as my MacBook Air?


 


(As for Mountain Lion, it had better leave my Mac alone.  I didn't pay $1800 for an iPhone.)


 

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cyberoid View Post

    Higher resolution without independent font control simply means more difficulty reading ever-smaller type.


     


    Good thing that isn't the case, then. It's just like on the iPhone/iPad.


     


    Quote:


    Nice pictures, but a machine increasingly difficult to work with in non-visual terms. I.e., thinking.  Am I missing something?



     


    Well, I'm missing what you mean by this.


     


    Quote:


    …assuming Apple provides a way to increase RAM.



     


    Increase it at BTO time. Otherwise it's physically impossible.


     


    Quote:


    Or will it be as uncomfortable to use as my MacBook Air?(As for Mountain Lion, it had better leave my Mac alone.  I didn't pay $1800 for an iPhone.)



     


    Your fears are basically FUD.

  • Reply 2 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,486moderator
    I was surprised to find they were shipping the Retina MBP with Lion but it seems it's a version of Lion (10.7.5?) that has a UI scaling option:

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/5996/how-the-retina-display-macbook-pro-handles-scaling

    The default is pixel-doubled so that you get the same screen space as the old MBP and bitmaps will render at the same size but everything that can be rasterized at run-time like vectors and type will likely be rendered at double the resolution for clarity.

    I noticed that a few of the demos on the retina MBP were running in full-screeen mode so you don't see the tiny max/min/close buttons and menu bar. This scaling feature will benefit more than MBP owners too. Mac owners with poor eyesight should be able to select the lower option to zoom everything up.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    cyberoidcyberoid Posts: 17member


    Tallest Skil wrote:



    Originally Posted by cyberoid View Post

    Higher resolution without independent font control simply means more difficulty reading ever-smaller type.


     


    Good thing that isn't the case, then. It's just like on the iPhone/iPad.


     


    That is totally unpromising.  My Mac isn't an iPhone and I don't care to use it like one.


     


        He also wrote:  




    Your fears are basically FUD.



     


    Fears are what they are.  


     


    Mine aren't yours, clearly.


     


    All I know is that my Air is virtually unusable for certain text-based functions.  The text in a browser navigation bar is so tiny it's unreadable.


     


    And yes, I can increase text size for individual pages.  But that's a hassle and not something I look forward to in a new machine.


     


    The question was, will Retina display make this better or worse?  Fortunately, Marvin has provided an answer.  Thanks.

  • Reply 4 of 6
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cyberoid View Post

    That is totally unpromising.  My Mac isn't an iPhone and I don't care to use it like one.


     


    You don't really seem to get it, either.


     


    Quote:


    All I know is that my Air is virtually unusable for certain text-based functions.  The text in a browser navigation bar is so tiny it's unreadable.



     


    Look, come on, this isn't hard to grasp: text on the retina MacBook Pro is going to look IDENTICAL to the other MacBook Pro, as it will appear to be a 1440x900 screen. It will simply be SHARPER. That's it.

  • Reply 5 of 6
    cyberoidcyberoid Posts: 17member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    You don't really seem to get it, either.


     


    Look, come on, this isn't hard to grasp: text on the retina MacBook Pro is going to look IDENTICAL to the other MacBook Pro, as it will appear to be a 1440x900 screen. It will simply be SHARPER. That's it.



     


    1440 x 900 is tiny.  On my current MacBook Pro, about 6 pt in Arial.  You think that's adequate?


     


    Maybe if your eyesight is 40/20 or something like that.  Otherwise, it sucks.  Tiring to read.


     


    And I do get it, profoundly.  (Been using Apple's since 1980.)  I'm still waiting to hear why this is a good idea, other than for graphics.

  • Reply 6 of 6
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cyberoid View Post


     


    1440 x 900 is tiny.  On my current MacBook Pro, about 6 pt in Arial.  You think that's adequate?


     


    Maybe if your eyesight is 40/20 or something like that.  Otherwise, it sucks.  Tiring to read.


     


    And I do get it, profoundly.  (Been using Apple's since 1980.)  I'm still waiting to hear why this is a good idea, other than for graphics.



     


    Somebody needs to redo their math.  You are all kinds of wrong on every point.   So to go back to your original post, yes you are missing something.  Especially the fact that this makes things better.  


     


    It would be reasonable to withhold judgement until you could see one.  Barring that, just saying it sucks just plain ain't the least bit helpful.

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