New MacBook Pro Offers a Dazzling Display

Resolution Debate

There's been a lot of chatter in various online forums from would-be buyers about whether the hi-rez screen makes text too small to see. The higher the resolution, the more desktop space you have, and the smaller the menus and text get. Indeed, the menus are slightly smaller, and I did bump the default text size in Safari up a couple of points. (I recommend Optima, 16 point, by the way.) But the added pixels also make this the sharpest screen I've used, and that includes the Vaio.

My colleague, Scot Finnie, had doubts about the resolution and was concerned that the smaller menus and text would make it difficult for him to use one of the hi-rez models. So he borrowed the one I have now, tried it out for about 10 minutes and promptly announced that he wanted one. He, too, was blown away by the screen and wondered whether Apple was doing something different with pixel dithering to keep everything so sharp.

A few days after what is now Rev. C of the Intel-based MBPs Apple first rolled out early in 2006, I spoke with Apple's Todd Benjamin, director of portables product marketing, about the new hardware. He notes that the higher resolution offers 30 percent more desktop space in the same trim form factor as its predecessor. As for pixel density, this one checks in at 133 pixels per inch, notably higher than the screens used in the standard 17-incher. Those run around 110 pixels per inch.

"Why would someone want high resolution versus standard resolution?" Benjamin said. "There's a number of specific reasons here. With image editors, photography people--they have been looking for higher-resolution screens for a long time. It's also great for video. It will allow you to look at 1080p video in its native resolution. And in terms of the 3-D space, there are many scientists using higher-resolutions things for a long time. We really did this with a nod to people who are looking for high-resolution, high-quality content."

Given the 16-by-10 aspect ratio of MBPs, and the fact that high resolution is generally considered to be 16-by-9, this isn't exactly a high-definition screen. Technically. But grab one of the streaming 1080p movie trailers from Apple's Web site, and you'll be astonished at the rich colors and sharp video. Still not convinced? Take Benjamin's advice: "We recommend you go in and look at them in the store and compare them side by side."

While offering no specifics, he notes that the new screens are doing well: "There's been a lot of interest in these. They have been very popular."

That was obvious from Week 1, when buyers jumped online to order their own MBPs and found that getting the higher-resolution screen bumped the delivery time from one to three days to as long as six weeks. Let's just say they were not amused. As it turned out, that estimated delay wasn't real. Mine shipped on time (three days after I ordered it), and the current wait time is just two to four days.