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Comment by diffeomorphism | Hacker News Reader

For the trackpad I agree, but definitely not for the keyboard. And apple was late(!) to hires screens and to hidpi and now has lower res and density than the competition (e.g. 16:10 better 4k on dell xps or 3:2 screens with MS and others).

Also, apple had TN screens forever when the similarly priced competition had higher res IPS screens.

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Isn't 4k on a laptop a significant power drain? And isn't the point of "stopping" at Retina resolution that the human eye can't tell the difference between Retina and higher resolutions like 4K at typical laptop screen size and viewing distance?

>Also, apple had TN screens forever when the similarly priced competition had higher res IPS screens.

As far as I am aware Apple only used TN screen for their MacBook Air. They were also the first to push Retina / Hi PPI Display on Consumer PC.

Before "retina" apple used TN and lower res displays on their mbp (compare WUXGA dreamcolor for hp or flexview on thinkpads).

They were not the first. That would be Sony Vaio for hidpi and ultrabooks and ibm and hp for hires ips. Apple were the first widely successful ones.

>And apple was late(!) to hires screens and to hidpi

Are you sure about that? It doesn't seem to mesh with my recollection.

Yes.

Who else had high dpi screens in 2012?

Actually, no.

>At 220 pixels per inch it’s easily the highest density consumer notebook panel shipping today.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-...

>"Of course, the real highlight is that new Retina Display. Its resolution is 2,880x1,800 pixels, providing a level of detail never seen on a laptop before. The highest standard Windows laptop screen resolution is 1,920x1,080 pixels, the same as an HDTV."

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/apple-macbook-pro-with-retina-d...

>The signature feature of the new MacBook Pro is the new 15.4-inch (39.11 cm diagonal) Retina display. [...] So far, no notebook screen has topped resolutions of 1900 x 1200 pixels (WUXGA) or 2048x1536 (QXGA in old Thinkpad models).

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-Re...

If you manage to dig up some obscure laptop that had a higher resolution at the time I wouldn't be completely surprised. However, to suggest that Apple was "late(!)" with high DPI screens is provably false and frankly, ridiculous.

Apple's marketing is a powerful machine.

Who else had hi-res screens in 2012?

Nobody in the laptop scene. They were the only ones with an OS that could correctly handle scaling at the time.

I had a 1080p Alienware laptop in 2004. Then for some reason, laptops all went even lower resolution for a long time, and I couldn't find a good one until Apple came out with their Retina displays. Not sure what happened. Manufacturers just became cheap?

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