Hi Anders:
Your wrote:
Hi
Was initially looking at upgrading to a Lenovo W500... but... reading up on Mac... both the just announced MacBook Pro 17 unibody and MacOS indeed seem very interesting, and better specs than W500 for photography...
Thus much appreciate recommendations on MacBook Pro 17":
1. Display - Glossy vs. Anti-Glare
I am also in the market for a MacBookPro and went to MacWorld for the express purpose of checking out Apple's new Laptop. Before commenting, I would call your attention to some -- IMO -- very bold statements which Apple has made about the color monitor as follows:
2.3 million pixels of perfection.
With the high-resolution LED-backlit widescreen display on the 17-inch MacBook Pro, you get desktop-quality color in an Apple notebook for the first time. The moment you open your MacBook Pro, you’re greeted instantly by full, corner-to-corner screen brightness. The 1920-by-1200-pixel resolution (133 pixels per inch) means you can view more palettes and windows or watch HD video in its native 1920-by-1080 resolution. Perfect whether you’re working in the studio or out in the field, the display offers a 60 percent greater color gamut than previous generations for richer, more vibrant colors and a 700:1 contrast ratio that makes whites brighter and blacks blacker.
Here is the URL to the full statement:
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/features-17inch.htmlI went to MacWorld on Tuesday and you could not get within 20 feet of the four 17 inchers on display. So I went back on Friday since I was very interested in understanding just exactly what this "60 percent greater color gamut" really meant. I ask several employees and one person would take me to another to another until I ended up talking to an Apple manager who was introducted to me as the "17 inch Product Manager".
My first question was "is the color gamut on the 17" screen different that the 15.4" MacBookPro?" The answer was yes.
My second question was "what percent of the Adobe 98 color gamut can the monitor display?" He did not know. But went on to say, "that Apple engineers had done considerable work and it monitor had been throughly tested to ICC standards. So let's compare the 17 and the 15 inch monitors."
He turned and opened a photograph of a woman face in the 17" and then pulled a 15" over and opened the same image. The skin tones gradiations were clearly much improved on the 17". That said, I have no reason to believe that either of the monitors have been color calibrated. And since there were only four 17" laptops at the show, you can believe that they had a years worth of handling.
I then raised the question of whether there was a matt screen laptop at the show. The answer was yes, down at the other end of the 20" foot long display table. Before I left, he ask me to come back and tell him what I though of the two and which I would buy. I went down and spent about 30 minutes with the matt screen version. While there, I wasy surprised how may photographers came by, looked at it and discussed the screen. It would appear to me that it was about three to one favored the matt version. I perferred the matt version myself, but I feel that you definately give up some resolution but probably come back closer to what you will see in the print. And on this I could be wrong.
I next went down and took my third or fourth look a the NEC 26" and 30" monitors. Without a doubt NEC does an much superior job with their matt finish than the Mac 17" that I saw. At the same time these were preproduction units. So will they improve? I do not know.
A few minutes later, I came across "TechRestore" a Concord, CA based repair and upgrade shop that specializes in converting Apple laptops screens from a glossy to matt finish for the price of $200.00. I was very impressed with what I saw and considered their result superior to what I saw at the Mac booth. SO, I went back and talked to the Apple product manager and suggested he take the time to go by the NEC booth and talk to Will and then on to TechRestore.
I have no idea whether he followed up or not.
Hope this helps,
Bob West