My Analysis of Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

All of this morning I have to stay in San Francisco, but instead go for dinner, I decided to spend all my time with the new cheap MacBook Pro. As always, Apple has done an amazing job, catching people good reasons to go to the Apple Store and buy it. Then there are the display, perfect for those who have to look at it all day, and there are a significant reduction in the thickness and weight for those who want the compactness of the four nuclear "machine", hard to miss, and a significant increase in performance GPU / SSD - especially those who are hungry for performance. Despite the fact that the upcoming Haswell will be an excellent option for a truly next-generation MacBook Pro, all of whom have a lot of travel and work while traveling, choose to upgrade to a new laptop right now and tests for Pro SSD.

Let's talk about how Apple has solved the problem of scaling DPI under Lion. In short, users Retina Display MBP got a slider in the "Display Settings", which lets you set resolution higher than 1440 x 900. At 1440 x 900 you will not get any advantages compared to the conventional 15 'MacBook Pro, but it will become clear to the ridiculous. 

If you will do as I have permission to change the «high-res» 1680 x 1050, it will pass. Fortunately, Apple offers Modes 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200, which at the expense of image quality and performance will add real value. You can see each of the five settings in the images Here. So, even for non-integer value scale 1680 x 1050 Retina looks much better than last year's panel of high resolution. It seems that Apple really render at twice the screen resolution before the "put" it in 2880 x 1800 screen (in other words, at 1920 x 1200 Apple renders all at 3840 x 2400 (!) Before to scale - looks like this, but I'm trying to verify this.) In simple terms - it looks much better. Just can not help but notice that the resolution can be changed very quickly. When I work with a lot of documents and tasks, I prefer the resolution 1920 x 1200, but when the turn to his treatment, switch to 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050.

Less glare, better contrast

In the default (Glossy) MacBook Pro, Apple uses a conventional LCD design of two sheets of glass, plus a third piece of exterior glass, which gives the effect of seamlessness of glass from edge to edge. In MacBook Air and high-res/matovom display is no protective glass and LCD is hidden in the frame. MacBook Pro with Retina uses construction like the MacBook Air and high-res. Instead, the Retina uses two layers of glass of different sizes, as you can see on this slide: Removing the protective glass, Apple reduces the number of glare and reflections, but it is important to remember that this is still a matte screen. Personally, I never bothered glossy screens, so I'm not the right person who should be asking about this.  

Comparing with my matte MacBook Pro, it is certainly more "glossy", but at the same time - not too far away. Most likely, I will be able to make its decision later. As always, Apple decided to fight the glare and reflections, combining high brightness panel with excellent black levels. Retina in MacBook Pro - the first screen, made ​​by IPS panel, which is used in the Apple MacBook. As you can see, the viewing angles are increased several times as well as a level of black brightness is likely an underestimate - compared to last year's model, but the improvement in the level of black make imperceptible loss. But the contrast has made ​​a huge step forward on the old MacBook Pro is still very good screens, but it's - really a new level. Increase the contrast for me is the second - of course, after the increase in resolution.

Retina display support in applications

The huge advantage that results from the fact that the supplier of hardware and software for the Mac platform itself is Apple, obviously, will get access to new opportunities and there, and there. Mail, Safari, iPhoto, iMovie, and of course, OS X - all have been updated to support the new MacBook Pro with a screen Retina. These applications all looks absolutely gorgeous on the new Pro. As almost all third-party applications, they have yet to update. 

Many tormenting question: what happens when you run an application that has no support for Retina? ..Let's look at a comparison of Google Chrome and Safari, the best example of the worst of circumstances: At Google, apparently written by its own mechanism for text output outside the work area - which bypasses the standard API for rendering and scaling from Apple. Render Chrome for areas outside of the screen does not know anything about the Retina, and therefore turns out just what was in the picture above. No crime, but I would prefer to use your position to Safari until Chrome will not correct this assumption. I am, if anything, he, too, like Chrome. As for the rest, most developers just need to double-check that they have put up @ 2x images are used in applications - a situation one to one repeats the same as it was with iOS when a Retina .

Play at 2880 x 1800

Most likely, you will have noticed that the default OS X does not stretch its interface for Retina native resolution (2880 x 1800). In fact, the 1920 x 1200 - the biggest "resolution" screen, you can set up - and it looks like an attempt to "calm down" users of 17-inch MacBook Pro. And what about 3D gaming? But in games Retina MBP and does not try to hide his true identity. Screenshot above is from Diablo III at resolution of 2880 x 1800.  

Settings page shows the full list of permissions: Diablo III is fully playable at 2880 x 1800. On average, I had 20 fps at a resolution of 2880 x 1800 on the most loaded of the scene to which I got (and I was once a little). Obviously, a lower resolution animation smoother.  

Diablo III throws some artifacts on 1920 x 1200, but it works fine on other 16:10 resolutions. However, not all games allow you to do so. Benchmark Unigine Heaven, for example, will not allow you to put the resolution higher than 1920 x 1200. But Portal 2 - easily.  
On the other hand, the text in the console, Portal 2 certainly points to the fact that many of the games will have to upgrade to the normal support Retina: It becomes clear why Apple did not open directly resolution of 2880 x 1800 under OS X. 

When ASUS introduced a 1080p IPS panel in the new Zenbook Prime, I really liked it. Retina but the new MacBook Pro I like even more. Of course, will take a lot of hours to review all the details, but my assessment is unlikely to be lower.I like it even more than the display on the new iPad, because I often have to use it (I have no desire to type articles on 15,000 words in the iPad).

Some interesting things about Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Despite the fact that I want something to reserve for the full review, here are a few comments that have appeared in the course of my tips and tricks of the next-generation MacBook Pro:  

- SD card reader is much better than its predecessor. In my early 2011 15 'MacBook Pro does not read some of the cards without having to insert them-pull again or how to click on them. The new MacBook this problem seems to be solved.  
- It seems that the key travel is at least the keys are not so "springy" as the Sandy Bridge MBP. It's not that bad, just strange. 
- New Pro definitely easier to carry around than the previous unibody-case, but would not say that it feels small. I have a lot to carry a 15 'Pro, so the difference is noticed immediately, but did not expect that it will show me a little more than a MacBook Air, on the other hand, the new Pro feels exactly as it should be felt. 
- Wish for $ 2,199 we get 512GB SSD, and do not get even the possibility to install it,  in either case, I would say close to ideal specifications. Without a standard 2.5'' SSD will not be easy to transfer data to a larger drive. That is all I wanted to say at the moment. You can read for more  news and detailed reviews for Apple Macbook Pro here.