Macbook

[glorybound]

I just purchased a 13" MACBOOK Air. I bought it to do some Photoshop, but the screen isn't any better than my 14" Chromebook. I tried to edit a render and it looked bad, so I thought the render was bad. I ended up editing it on my desktop, so it wasn't the render. My question is, how much better is the MACBOOK Pro Retina? I know my iPad Air Retina is awesome. The MACBOOK Pro Retina is $300 more, but is it worth it?

[crazy homeless guy]

Never do color correction on laptop. The monitors are inferior to an mid range desktop monitor.

[glorybound]

Images look awesome on the iPad Air, so I am hoping it's just as good on the MABOOK Pro with Retina. I watched a podcast about the wide gamma range that the retina has, which makes if far superior to any other viewing device. Some now have higher resolutions, but the image still isn't as good.

[crazy homeless guy]

In general language wide gamut will usually be used to refer to displays that are roughly equal to 98% of AdobeRGB and up. The MacBook Retinas roughly display the gamut of sRGB, and iPad mini's have an even smaller gamut. IMO there is nothing really wrong with working in sRGB color space but sRGB is not wide gamut. I do a fair amount of work on an older cinema display which is only sRGB.

....but I will stick to my earlier statement. Professional color or Photoshop work should never be done on a laptop display. Never. Plug the laptop into an actual monitor of decent color quality and calibrate that display with spectrometer to do color work.

[crazy homeless guy]

Can you describe why the image looks bad? It may just be a matter of color space and not a wide gamut issue. Typically Apple does a very good job of having their displays tuned to 6500k color space off the bat (maybe even a touch warmer than that.)

[glorybound]

The MacBook Air just looks low resolution, bit it is 1440 x 900 at 128 ppi. The retina is 2560 z 1600 at 227 ppi. I guess the Air is good, but nothing better than others.

Can you describe why the image looks bad? It may just be a matter of color space and not a wide gamut issue. Typically Apple does a very good job of having their displays tuned to 6500k color space off the bat (maybe even a touch warmer than that.)

[crazy homeless guy]

So colors look fine the problem is with how sharp the image looks on the screen.... Not a lot you can do about that until better hardware comes out.

I am curious if you are working solely in OSx or are you running Windows/Max. I have head that Max is a joke on high PPI screens.

The MacBook Air just looks low resolution, bit it is 1440 x 900 at 128 ppi. The retina is 2560 z 1600 at 227 ppi. I guess the Air is good, but nothing better than others.

[glorybound]

So far, I only installed Photoshop. If I go to the Pro, I'll probably install MAX, too. The Pro retina has 8GB of RAM, but it doesn't have a solid state drive, and it has a DVD drive. And, if I remember correct, it's only a 256 GB drive. The non-pro retina has a solid state 128 Gb drive. The non-retina pro is the same cost as the Air.

So colors look fine the problem is with how sharp the image looks on the screen.... Not a lot you can do about that until better hardware comes out.

I am curious if you are working solely in OSx or are you running Windows/Max. I have head that Max is a joke on high PPI screens.

[crazy homeless guy]

I would Google and see if it actually only supports 8gb of RAM. I have 16gb's in my 2011 Pro even though the specs say it only supports 8gb. Mine also came with a mechanical main drive. I bought a 256 solid state to use as the main drive and then removed the DVD and put in a drive caddy to house the mechanical drive it came with.

.....you might want to check to see if you can take the MacBook Retina apart though. The old Pro's had ~12 screws on the bottom so access to its internals were easy.

[Syclone1]

I would Google and see if it actually only supports 8gb of RAM. I have 16gb's in my 2011 Pro even though the specs say it only supports 8gb. Mine also came with a mechanical main drive. I bought a 256 solid state to use as the main drive and then removed the DVD and put in a drive caddy to house the mechanical drive it came with.

.....you might want to check to see if you can take the MacBook Retina apart though. The old Pro's had ~12 screws on the bottom so access to its internals were easy.

I think its with the 2012 onward models the RAM is now soldered into the main board so you have to order it from the factory with the amount of ram you want as after that there is no changing it. That alone is the main reason I'm refusing to get another MB-Pro. I currently have a late 2010 model that I like and it has a 1TB samsung SSD I put in it and it runs great. I have been looking at MSI's new top end laptops, they are coming out with ones that you can upgrade the video chipset if you want and they are thin and light almost as much as the new MB-Pro's and for a bit cheaper.

[crazy homeless guy]

I am hesitant on some of the "desktop" replacement laptops as I believe a laptop should be reasonably lightweight and have refinement to the design so that it looks good. I saw one MSI model last year that didn't look to bad but I can't remember the name of it. If I were going to buy today I might go for the QHD+ Touch version of the laptop at the link below as long as I can change the green backlight color. If not that could be a deal breaker for me. The specs look good to me though I wouldn't mind having more than 16gb of RAM and at least a 15" screen.

It actually looks very similar to my MB-Pro but in a matte black finish.

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

[Syclone1]

I am hesitant on some of the "desktop" replacement laptops as I believe a laptop should be reasonably lightweight and have refinement to the design so that it looks good. I saw one MSI model last year that didn't look to bad but I can't remember the name of it. If I were going to buy today I might go for the QHD+ Touch version of the laptop at the link below as long as I can change the green backlight color. If not that could be a deal breaker for me. The specs look good to me though I wouldn't mind having more than 16gb of RAM and at least a 15" screen.

It actually looks very similar to my MB-Pro but in a matte black finish.

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

Why oh Why did I click that link lol. that thing is pretty sweet and funny enough it does look almost exactly like a black macbook pro. If they had a 15" of the same one Id have a hard time not ordering one

-=edit=- While I dont mind the green back lighting on the KB the one deal breaker after looking closer at it is the only video out is an HDMI which Ive found can have a nasty lag, if it had a display port out then thats a whole different story.

[glorybound]

That does look nice. I purchased one of these a few years ago and it's now a boat anchor; never worked right. It was heavy, ran hot, and crashed often. It was so big it really was a desktop, which defeated the purpose.

[crazy homeless guy]

-=edit=- While I dont mind the green back lighting on the KB the one deal breaker after looking closer at it is the only video out is an HDMI which Ive found can have a nasty lag, if it had a display port out then thats a whole different story.

Lag while gaming or lag in general?

[rivoli]

It actually looks very similar to my MB-Pro but in a matte black finish.

it's a wonder they haven't been sued yet..