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Is there a valid reason for Retina or 4K computer displays?

NobleSavage

NobleSavage

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Other than using more electricity or draining a battery faster? I'm using a Mac Book Air right now and hell if my eyes would notice anything better. I was checking out the specs on the new Mac Book (they are no longer calling it the Air) and it seems like they put all their effort into the display. My desktop display is big enough and I really don't know why I'd need more pixels for that either. I'm not impressed. I can understand a TV if it's big enough and you sit far enough away, but why put this shit in laptops and portable devices?
 
basically... no.
the simple fact is that the hardware side of display technology always develops way faster than the broadcast side.
thus, having a 4k screen right now (or a 3D screen or hell in many cases an HD screen) is mostly pointless because none of the output signals are utilizing that format.
 
My iPad has a screen resolution of ~300ppi and my desktop has a resolution of ~110ppi and the difference to me is very noticeable when reading text on screen. It's just that much sharper and cleaner on the higher resolution device.
 
Archimedes said:
My iPad has a screen resolution of ~300ppi and my desktop has a resolution of ~110ppi and the difference to me is very noticeable when reading text on screen. It's just that much sharper and cleaner on the higher resolution device.
Click to expand...
and neither one of those PPI are in an order of magnitude within approaching being remotely close to 4k, so that's kind of like if the OP asked if there's any reason to get a V8 engine, and you replied that you can tell the difference between your volvo and a lawn mower engine.
 
prideandfall said:
Archimedes said:
My iPad has a screen resolution of ~300ppi and my desktop has a resolution of ~110ppi and the difference to me is very noticeable when reading text on screen. It's just that much sharper and cleaner on the higher resolution device.
Click to expand...
and neither one of those PPI are in an order of magnitude within approaching being remotely close to 4k, so that's kind of like if the OP asked if there's any reason to get a V8 engine, and you replied that you can tell the difference between your volvo and a lawn mower engine.
Click to expand...

Try again. 300ppi on a 4k monitor is around 13" x 6". In other words, below many laptop screens.
 
prideandfall said:
basically... no.
the simple fact is that the hardware side of display technology always develops way faster than the broadcast side.
thus, having a 4k screen right now (or a 3D screen or hell in many cases an HD screen) is mostly pointless because none of the output signals are utilizing that format.
Click to expand...

Interesting that people has so short memory. Crt screens had better resolution long time ago.
 
4k = 4,000 pixels by 2,000 pixels, more or less.
that means roughly 8,000,000 pixels, crammed into whatever size you make your screen - a bigger screen at 4k resolution is going to have bigger pixels, a smaller screen will have smaller pixels.

PPI = pixels per inch, which as a unit of comparison really only matters relative to the same physical size (or quite vaguely if you're just comparing something that has decent PPI to something that doesn't)

if you're using a mac, as per the OP, that means you're not gaming.
if you're not gaming that means you're probably just net surfing and/or watching movies.
if you're just net surfing and watching movies, almost no videos are being projected to your display in a 4k resolution, so what you're really looking at is having more pixels to project the same image.
if you're comparing 4k to 1080p for example on a standard laptop screen that's a visual quality difference that only the unbelievably snooty or the legally blind could tell apart enough to spend an extra thousand dollars on it.
 
prideandfall said:
4k = 4,000 pixels by 2,000 pixels, more or less.
that means roughly 8,000,000 pixels, crammed into whatever size you make your screen - a bigger screen at 4k resolution is going to have bigger pixels, a smaller screen will have smaller pixels.

PPI = pixels per inch, which as a unit of comparison really only matters relative to the same physical size (or quite vaguely if you're just comparing something that has decent PPI to something that doesn't)

if you're using a mac, as per the OP, that means you're not gaming.
if you're not gaming that means you're probably just net surfing and/or watching movies.
if you're just net surfing and watching movies, almost no videos are being projected to your display in a 4k resolution, so what you're really looking at is having more pixels to project the same image.
if you're comparing 4k to 1080p for example on a standard laptop screen that's a visual quality difference that only the unbelievably snooty or the legally blind could tell apart enough to spend an extra thousand dollars on it.
Click to expand...

Same reason as there are 20Mpixel chips in cameras with bad optics. Marketing.
 
NobleSavage said:
I can understand a TV if it's big enough and you sit far enough away, but why put this shit in laptops and portable devices?
Click to expand...

That's a bit backwards. The farther the viewing distance, the less important fine resolution becomes. Apple devices (of the current generation) typically have higher ppi on smaller screened devices and slightly lower on large. In most cases larger screens still have more pixels making up the display due to larger surface area, but the resolution is not as fine per inch. Apple's claim for retina displays is that at the appropriate viewing distance, this is the resolution at which your eyes should no longer be discerning individual pixels making up the image on your display, but rather should see a smooth image.
 
krypton iodine sulfur said:
NobleSavage said:
I can understand a TV if it's big enough and you sit far enough away, but why put this shit in laptops and portable devices?
Click to expand...

That's a bit backwards. The farther the viewing distance, the less important fine resolution becomes. Apple devices (of the current generation) typically have higher ppi on smaller screened devices and slightly lower on large. In most cases larger screens still have more pixels making up the display due to larger surface area, but the resolution is not as fine per inch. Apple's claim for retina displays is that at the appropriate viewing distance, this is the resolution at which your eyes should no longer be discerning individual pixels making up the image on your display, but rather should see a smooth image.
Click to expand...

Yep. I wonder how I got that idea in my head.

resolution_chart.jpg
 
prideandfall said:
Archimedes said:
My iPad has a screen resolution of ~300ppi and my desktop has a resolution of ~110ppi and the difference to me is very noticeable when reading text on screen. It's just that much sharper and cleaner on the higher resolution device.
Click to expand...
and neither one of those PPI are in an order of magnitude within approaching being remotely close to 4k, so that's kind of like if the OP asked if there's any reason to get a V8 engine, and you replied that you can tell the difference between your volvo and a lawn mower engine.
Click to expand...
Not really. The OP asked about both Retina displays and 4k displays, so I answered with my opinion regarding retina displays (that's just an Apple marketing term for displays with pixel density of c. 300ppi regardless of the screen size and overall pixel count).

So my answer was perfectly relevant to what he asked.
 
All I can say is that when I switched from my regular screen iPod to a retina display iPhone it was very noticeable. The photos just seemed brighter and better than they looked on the iPod. Photos that I thought weren't even that great somehow just looked better on the retina display.
 
Shadowy Man said:
All I can say is that when I switched from my regular screen iPod to a retina display iPhone it was very noticeable. The photos just seemed brighter and better than they looked on the iPod. Photos that I thought weren't even that great somehow just looked better on the retina display.
Click to expand...

And my girlfriend can totally tell that her $100 bottles of Aveda shampoo are "way better". ;)
 
One odd thing, I was at a register at Best Buy and I saw a tv showing Toy Story 3. I assumed it had to be a 4k display because I could see a ton more detail to surfaces, but the only problem was, I was probably 25 to 50 feet from the screen. So either I have super awesome vision, I really do, or I just didn't remember the detail on the blu-ray... or the blu-ray has that level of detail in 1080p, but not 720p?

A laptop monitor, will need to have a decent size to be worth the premium of 4k. Hand held devices are probably held close enough where True HD is great, but 4k is wasted.
Shadowy Man said:
All I can say is that when I switched from my regular screen iPod to a retina display iPhone it was very noticeable. The photos just seemed brighter and better than they looked on the iPod. Photos that I thought weren't even that great somehow just looked better on the retina display.
Click to expand...
But how much of that is the color reproduction, not the number of pixels. Is it like DTS v DD, where DTS is "better" because it has more bass.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Shadowy Man said:
All I can say is that when I switched from my regular screen iPod to a retina display iPhone it was very noticeable. The photos just seemed brighter and better than they looked on the iPod. Photos that I thought weren't even that great somehow just looked better on the retina display.
Click to expand...
But how much of that is the color reproduction, not the number of pixels. Is it like DTS v DD, where DTS is "better" because it has more bass.
Click to expand...

It certainly could be that -- I don't know all the technical specifications of the retina display. The number of pixels comes in that I can never see the pixelization. Everything always looks smooth.
 
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