Love it, except the display…., June 18, 2012

I bought this (my first mac) along with the summer back to school promo and applecare. I’m a techie who has always built desktops and I’m very comfortable making all kinds of hardware and software modifications to my computers. However, with this Ivy Bridge release I was ready to drink the Apple koolaid.

I’ve been trying to love this computer, and I do, but the display just doesn’t cut it in 2012. Not even as a secondary computer.

I intended to use it for viewing multiple documents and lots of note taking and writing in grad school. I would be looking at the screen A LOT. Unfortunately the glossy finish and lower res display on this product, at least compared to the competition, isn’t up to par. Here are some of my gripes:

-Ghosting and color changes while scrolling.
-I always see my reflection. This is not fun under bright lecture room lights. There is also a weird purple tint to the screen gloss.
-Viewing angle sucks. I am constantly adjusting the angle of the display. the iPad 3 has a better resolution. If ASUS can throw in a 1080p IPS panel in their MBA clone why can’t apple?
-The resolution is underwhelming. Yes it is still a good display, yes I can view text in a smallish font, but I honestly expect more from a premium consumer product and a company like Apple.

CONCLUSION: Everything about this product rocks except the display. I’ll likely be returning it to Apple and buying myself an ultrabook that runs the craptastic windows 8. I wish I could justify keeping it but trivial things like the quality of a visual interface are important to me.

Could someone please convince me to keep the MBA and use it for grad school? If this thing had a better resolution screen with a matte coating I’d be raving about it.

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