iMac with Retina Display: Yea or Nay?

[Ombligo]

Buzz wrote:
I'll sit on the sidelines and drool jealously over those folks that get them... not over the retina iMac; over their eyesight that allows them to see what they have.
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I'm with Buzz.. if your eyesight isn't good enough to see a significant difference then who cares.

[Grateful11]

Buzz wrote:
Seems like you need to be under 40, or maybe 30, to appreciate the awesomeness of the retina display. On paper it specs great, but as an old fart that can't tell the laptops and tablets w/ the retina screens as noticeably better than the non-retina wares, I'll sit on the sidelines and drool jealously over those folks that get them... not over the retina iMac; over their eyesight that allows them to see what they have. A non-ret 27" iMac w/ fusion drive and amped up CPU and video is still a $2550 dent in the wallet, which is where my iMac dollars would be targeted. The fully loaded last rev 21.5" iMac I oversee is more than ample in performance, and really only lacks in size. The Retina 5K is probably gonna do pretty well.
==

:agree:

[datbeme]

The first time I saw the iPhone 4, I knew I would never again own a non-retina iOS device. But as much as I loved (and demanded) that ultra-sharp text on my portable devices, I was never sold on the idea for desktops. Yes, I could see the difference on the retina MacBooks at the Apple Store, but I was perfectly content with the displays on my Macs at home. When sitting back a little further, it didn't seem so important—especially when pushing all those pixels uses up extra resources.

But I was long overdue for a new Mac, and a few months ago I decided that a high end 15" MBPr would best meet my needs. Love it, love it, love it...but it only took a week or two for it to spoil me. My wife's Macbook Air looks like an iPhone 3GS in comparison. The two aging iMacs we have at home just don't look as good as they used to. Sometimes, I catch myself just staring and admiring the text and layout of some random website on the MacBook's screen.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. I just don't think you'll ever want to go back. If you have to spend a significant amount of time on any other screen, you may not want to have the basis of comparison. The retina iMac is going to be unbelievable.

[Speedy]

datbeme wrote:
The first time I saw the iPhone 4, I knew I would never again own a non-retina iOS device. But as much as I loved (and demanded) that ultra-sharp text on my portable devices, I was never sold on the idea for desktops. Yes, I could see the difference on the retina MacBooks at the Apple Store, but I was perfectly content with the displays on my Macs at home. When sitting back a little further, it didn't seem so important—especially when pushing all those pixels uses up extra resources.

But I was long overdue for a new Mac, and a few months ago I decided that a high end 15" MBPr would best meet my needs. Love it, love it, love it...but it only took a week or two for it to spoil me. My wife's Macbook Air looks like an iPhone 3GS in comparison. The two aging iMacs we have at home just don't look as good as they used to. Sometimes, I catch myself just staring and admiring the text and layout of some random website on the MacBook's screen.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. I just don't think you'll ever want to go back. If you have to spend a significant amount of time on any other screen, you may not want to have the basis of comparison. The retina iMac is going to be unbelievable.

This mirrors my experience (with my 64 year old eyes.)

[freeradical]

I think it would be useful for photo editing.