New Macbook help - liquid retina vs. mini-LED display

[tenniscanada]

Hello. I have a mid 2018 macbook pro and I decided to upgrade.

I ordered the new m3 Macbook air (Apple M3 chip with 8‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 16GB unified memory, 1TB SSD storage).

However afterwards I discovered that there is a difference in screen quality between the new airs and pros - liquid retina vs. mini-LED.

My question is how big is the difference to the naked eye? I don't do any video editing but I do enjoy watching shows. I use my computer for basic browsing so I figured the air would be fine this time around but I also don't want to spend a ton of money on an upgrade only to have an inferior screen. The Pro with equivalent specs would be roughly $600 more so I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons.

Thanks for your time to review.

 

[Beau10]

There are 4 main differences:

1) Contrast ratio of mini-LED is far superior as it can go to full off... caveat is you can get blooming due to the fairly low number of regions in Apple's implementation. So for instance, a bright white subtitle in a dark scene will very obviously halo.

2) The current Micro-LED get an extra 100 nits for SDR content at 600 vs. 500, and can boost way up to 1600 for HDR movies. There are also aftermarket tools that can boost SDR up to 1000 nits... which of course will nuke your battery, but handy if you ever work outside in a pinch.

3) Screen is 120hz vs 60hz. This is one of those things you probably get use to after a few days and don't notice so much going back and forth.

4) Pixel density. The PPI on the Pro screens is quite a bit higher... ~220 vs ~250. Doesn't sound like a lot, but if you use the screen at higher HiDPI resolutions the extra sharpness certainly helps and is noticeable to my eyes even at normal viewing distance of about 18".

Nothing by itself is a dealbreaker, but taken altogether it's a pretty compelling reason to look at one of the base model 14" Pros over an Air if portability isn't a top concern. Esp. #1 and #2 for movie watching, in addition to the speaker upgrades, makes it a much better for viewing content.

All that said, I may end up picking up a 13" Air for a portable option/backup. My 16" Max is a beast!

 

[Beau10]

The Pro with equivalent specs would be roughly $600 more so I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons.

It's $300 in the US if both are specced w/ the same M3 chip.

 

[magamo]

How things look on a display is inevitably subjective, but I think those differences @Beau10 mentioned are noticeable to the majority of people. My M1 MBP has a much better display than any laptop I've ever used, and I'm pretty impressed with the quality.

Whether those differences are meaningful to you is another story, though. Display quality is just display quality. For example, although things look clearly better on my MBP's display than on my Studio Display, I use the latter as my main display due to its obvious size advantage. If you find portability very important, for example, MBA may be the better choice, too. I would say, unless you have a clear need and use cases of the better display quality, it's unlikely for MBA's display to be the deal breaker.

 

[iStorm]

It's also worth noting that the display on the MBA is basically the same as the display on the 2018 MBP (same technology and resolution/PPI). So while the newer MBPs do have a better display (that you may or may not even notice), the MBA's display isn't any worse than what you have now.

 

[vanc]

One thing you may want to know if that the MBP's mini-led screen is using PWM to control screen bightness. Quite a few people complained about eye strain or headaches. If you have senstive eyes, the regular LCD screen on MBA might be better for you.

I'm owning both a 15" MBA with M2 and a 16" MBP Pro with M1 Pro. From my experience, the MBP screen is indeed looking more vibrant and finer. I don't have eye strain or headache even with prolonged use. But your milage may vary.