09-04-2014, 06:42 AM
richorlin wrote:
I have a 13" MBA and I think the screen is great, even with my 67-year old eyes. When I bought it, I wasn't expecting it to be equal to a retina screen, even though it was a lot more than $900. I will agree that the 11" MBA screen leaves a lot to be desired, but that is only because of the size, not the quality of the screen.
It's not about the pixels in this case, it's about color, viewing angles, etc. I'm not a designer, but if I plunk down $1000+ for a laptop, I don't want an entry level TN display. Seems fair to expect more when you pay more, right?
richorlin wrote: You can't flatly say that the screen is awful. It may be awful for YOU (and others), but many others find it to be quite acceptable.
Nah, it is objectively poorer than other displays on similar Apple devices. While not the worst display in the world, it is not the right panel for that price point. Probably good for keeping fat margins intact. If nothing else the poor viewing angles should be immediately apparent.
From the MacWorld UK MacBook Air 2014 review:
We used a Datacolor Spyder4Elite display calibrator to test and measured just 63 percent of the sRGB colour gamut. That’s a particularly disappointing result, which was borne out subjectively by off-key screens colours visible to the eye. The wider Adobe RGB gamut was measured with only 48 percent coverage.
We found that viewing angles for this twisted-nematic (TN) glossy panel were limited, with marked colour inversion effects evident as we tried to view the screen from the sides and above/below.
Contrast ratio was measured using the Datacolor calibrator, to gain an idea of the display’s contrast quality. We recorded at the display’s highest peak output of 308 cd/m2 and discoverd contrast ratio was 600:1, rising to 680:1 at its nominal 75 percent brightness setting (corresponding to 143 cd/m2).
Delta E from 48 spot tones averaged a poor 8.39, with the highest deviation of 13.75 coming from the test’s ‘3E’ swatch (lilac tone).
This is all quite disappointing, but while a Retina display for the MacBook Air would be nice, it's probably not essential for the majority of users. Anyone who would benefit from the extra pixels can upgrade to the MacBook Pro with Retina display but beware that there will be a sacrifice in battery life. Read our Retina MacBook Pro reviews here. "