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gwsat

macrumors 68000
Apr 12, 2008
1,920
0
Tulsa
The semi glossy coating that's been applied on MBA's could be the reason why they look a bit dimmer and lower in contrast than MBP's. I catch myself pressing brightness button on the keyboard all the time when on MBA.
I have seen no indication that either the antireflective coating on the MBAs' screens or the matte screens on MBPs have any negative impact on brightness and contrast. I have seen the claim that glass covered glossy screens somehow have better brightness and contrast but I haven't seen it. Part of that is no doubt owed to my admitted hostility toward the highly reflective nature of glass covered displays. If a display with an antireflective coating does have slightly reduced brightness and contrast, it seems to me that it is a small price to pay to avoid the highly distracting reflections caused by all glass covered displays.
 

milan03

macrumors 6502
Jul 16, 2002
440
13
New York City
I have seen no indication that either the antireflective coating on the MBAs' screens or the matte screens on MBPs have any negative impact on brightness and contrast. I have seen the claim that glass covered glossy screens somehow have better brightness and contrast but I haven't seen it.
Well I'm looking at them all everyday.
 

GDOX316

macrumors newbie
Jul 12, 2010
27
0
funny. I took my air in to the apple store today. End of story... im getting a new replacement since my 13" had 3 pressure points on the screen. Hopefully i can get a speed bump or ssd bump for my problem.
supposedly i was the first one to bring in a new air at my apple store.
 

iRun26.2

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2010
2,123
344
Unfortunately without data on which display models their MBA's had!

Yes, it's too much to ask.:mad:

I did look for the answer prior to posting, and I somehow missed it. I guess I was skimming too fast. I beg your forgiveness. After I posted my question, I saw the answer and I tried to delete my post unsuccessfully. I really do try to be careful with my questions, but there's always someone ready to pounce if you mess up.

But it is also nice to know (have read) that there is at least one nice person who simply gave you the answer without the insult. :)

(thanks to gwsat!)
 

gwsat

macrumors 68000
Apr 12, 2008
1,920
0
Tulsa
But it is also nice to know (have read) that there is at least one nice person who simply gave you the answer without the insult. :)

(thanks to gwsat!)
You are welcome! I decided a long tome ago to do what I could to help the recipient of a gratuitous "Gotcha!" post take the sting out of it. In fairness to the "Gotcha!" poster, I should remind everybody that once he saw he had offended Pipper99, he posted a gracious apology. Thus, all's well that ends well, so we are all once again one big happy family.:)
 

iRun26.2

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2010
2,123
344
You are welcome! I decided a long tome ago to do what I could to help the recipient of a gratuitous "Gotcha!" post take the sting out of it. In fairness to the "Gotcha!" poster, I should remind everybody that once he saw he had offended Pipper99, he posted a gracious apology. Thus, all's well that ends well, so we are all once again one big happy family.:)

I saw the apology and I thought that was great!
 

macbook123

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85

johnnymg

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2008
1,318
7
To me, contrast and black/white levels are the most important and the thing most noticeable to casual viewers. Color gamut, on the other hand, is imperceptible to an untrained eye and only noticeable when viewing colorful images.

Out of all the MacBooks, the new 13" MBA has the highest contrast and the lowest black level.



I disagree. The MacBook Air (both first and second generation) has a far more superior screen than the white MacBook, to the point where it's not even comparable.

We have one white MB and it's display is absolutely horrid! It will be bye-bye as soon as the MBA arrives. :)

Where do you find the display # on the new MBA?


JohnG
 

LouieSamman

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2008
909
9
Orlando, Florida
I'm loving the sharpness of the MacBook Air screen.

Truly better looking than the MBP because of more screen resolution and the small screen.

The text is condensed with the high resolution on a small screen so everything looks amazing!
 

macbook123

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85

Where do you find the display # on the new MBA?


JohnG

Was answered just a few posts before yours:

Open Display Preferences. Click on Color, highlight the top Display Profile, Color LCD, and click Open Profile. Scroll to the last item on the list, Apple display make and model information. Look at the information displayed below the list and you will see the model number of your display.
 

aberrero

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2010
857
249
I thought it was good, until I went back to my iPad. The MBA display just totally sucks in comparison. Putting it up next to the iPad or my IPS desktop it just sucks. The colors are not as saturated nor as accurate as the other displays, and the difference side by side is pretty startling.

It does the job, and it is pretty nice in that it isn't overly glossy and has good contrast and pixel density, but I would never use it for photo editing. It just isn't anywhere near as good as an IPS display, or the MBP displays.
 

Pipper99

macrumors 68040
Aug 14, 2010
3,823
3,772
Fort Worth, TX
I apologize for coming across bitchy...:eek:

Did it work out for you, i.e. did you get the information you wanted (hope I didn't miss your post telling us your model...:rolleyes:)

Thank you so much! That's very gracious of you. My apologies for getting so miffed. :) I'll try to read the posts more carefully before I rush a question. I did find the model: 9CF0. I went to the Apple store and looked at every MBA 13", and it seemed to be an even split between the two models. I couldn't detect a color or quality difference between either model, but that's not saying much considering my tired eyes. At least, I won't notice. :)
 

BENJMNS

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2005
449
0
I thought it was good, until I went back to my iPad. The MBA display just totally sucks in comparison. Putting it up next to the iPad or my IPS desktop it just sucks. The colors are not as saturated nor as accurate as the other displays, and the difference side by side is pretty startling.

It does the job, and it is pretty nice in that it isn't overly glossy and has good contrast and pixel density, but I would never use it for photo editing. It just isn't anywhere near as good as an IPS display, or the MBP displays.

ipad? are u joking?

the mba 13 screen is the best laptop screen i've ever seen. it's strikes that perfect balance between glossy and matte. it's a semi-glossy or hyper-matte. :D

i had the mbp 13 new... pales in comparison to the tightness of the mba 13.

unreal. but hey it's your opinion.
 

iViking

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2006
293
0
I do not agree with this at all.

RELATIVE to the rest of the notebook industry, ALL Apple screens from 2010 onward are in the top 1%. The white macbook which is ranked last here actually had as good if not better specs than the macbook air's (2nd generation). Actually it may be the same screen.

The 11.6" mba's screen is actually the "worst". But that's not saying much, b/c it's like being the dumbest kid at Stanford. Still a pretty smart kid relative to everyone else.

I like the high-gamut screens, so I'd knock down the macbook air's screens now since they are not high-gamut.

The only notebook screen in mass production that can compare currently are the high-end Sonys, but only in their highest end ($2000) models. There are a few 15.6" dell xps high-res models and lenovo models that have a good screen...but my point is that you can now buy any Apple laptop and know that you're getting a screen that is in the top 1%. In case anyone cares, Lenovo uses the worst screens of any manufacturer (I give them the nod b/c their thinkpads use worse screens than many netbooks, yet they still charge exorbitantly high prices). Use a bad screen, fine. But make the price commensurate. You incur my wrath when you dare pass of a premium notebook with a bottom-of-the-barrel screen.

All in all, for a discriminating buyer who values: screen, ergonomics, and battery life, and is willing to pay a bit more for it, I don't see how anyone could conclude anything other than Apple's laptops as the right choice. When you throw in weight, thinness, and aesthetics, the gap widens considerably.

I think that it's more true that once you get used to a mac, going back to a different laptop is harder. As long as you don't taste what you're missing, you're fine.

I would say my MBP 13" screen is like a genius at a state school.

But seriously, I prefer my MBP 13" screen over my MBA 11.6" screen. The MBP screen seems crisper, (sorry this is not technical, rather, just an opinion).
 

BENJMNS

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2005
449
0
how do i find out what type of screen i have? is one better than the other?
 

bfc

macrumors member
Jan 28, 2009
44
0
I'm taking my 13" MBA into Apple tommorow to have the display looked at.

The display appears to have a gradient, the top half of the display has nice warm colours, while the colours appear washed out on the bottom half of the display. The difference is subtle, but definately annoying. Especially with skin tones, on the top part of the display, skin tones appear slightly warmer (reddish), while on the bottom part, skin tones appear yellow.

I guess I'll see what Apple has to say tommorow.
 

fyrefly

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2004
624
67
how do i find out what type of screen i have? is one better than the other?

This has seriously been answered like 5 times in this thread alone:

gwsat said:
Open Display Preferences. Click on Color, highlight the top Display Profile, Color LCD, and click Open Profile. Scroll to the last item on the list, Apple display make and model information. Look at the information displayed below the list and you will see the model number of your display.

It's also been said a bunch of times in the thread that the 9CF0 model doesn't seem to be as good as the 9CDF models.
 

BENJMNS

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2005
449
0
This has seriously been answered like 5 times in this thread alone:



It's also been said a bunch of times in the thread that the 9CF0 model doesn't seem to be as good as the 9CDF models.

my bad man and thx, though i'm not reading where i'm reading the bunch of times that the 9cf0 isn't as good as the 9cdf in this thread. in fact, i read none?

what's the diff?
 

aberrero

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2010
857
249
ipad? are u joking?

the mba 13 screen is the best laptop screen i've ever seen. it's strikes that perfect balance between glossy and matte. it's a semi-glossy or hyper-matte. :D

i had the mbp 13 new... pales in comparison to the tightness of the mba 13.

unreal. but hey it's your opinion.

It's not just my opinion, I actually know what I'm talking about. The iPad looks very similar to my desktop monitor, which is an IPS display with excellent color accuracy and 100% color gamut. The MBA 13 looks noticeably worse than both of them.

It actually looks pretty decent when just using it, but put the MBA up next to a good display and it really seems horrible. Also, there is a significant amount of backlight bleed coming from the bottom of the panel, so I have to keep the dock on the bottom to hide it.

The MBA display is one of the better laptop displays out there, but it is pretty disappointing that Steve Jobs couldn't have learned One More Thing from the iPad: put an amazing display on it.

Also, the MBA displays glossiness is about the same as what I used to have with my Dell Inspiron 9300 It isn't anything particularly special, it only seems that way when you compare it to trash from companies like Asus and Toshiba, as well as the really nice but also super reflective MBP displays.
 

BeachChair

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2008
590
5
Copenhagen, Denmark
I've really scrutinized the 13 inch 9CF0 screen, and it sure triumphs the MBP 13 in terms of brightness, sharpness and glare, but the colors are not as good.
Considering the MBA is a secondary laptop for road warriors, they made a good tradeoff. I'm sure the extra brigthness, work space and less glare will be super useful for people sitting in airports and other bright places.

Personally, I prefer richer colors because I take alot of pictures. I hope they find screens for the next MBPs that improve on all fronts - time for IPS?
 
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