Envy 14 Radiance vs Macbook Pro 15 HighRes AntiGlare

Envy 14 i7-720QM 1600x900 Radiance ati 5650m
2011 MBP 15 i7-2820QM 1680x1050 AntiGlare ati 6750m

Hate to say it, but the Radiance is noticeably better at movies, especially in dark or shadowy scenes.

Otherwise the MBP is better, as well it should be for ~$1k more.

 

I had the MBP 13, and have used the MBP 15. Both have so so screens. Nothing impressive. Poor viewing angles, that is for sure.

The issue you may be having with the radiance screen when not watching movie is the wide color gamut causing over saturation in non wide gamut applications like most programs used by most people.

 

Actually, the viewing angles on the mbp are much better than the envy.

I'm not having an issue with the radiance, I am pointing out that movies look better than on similar resolution 2011 macbook pros.

 

Interesting. Perhaps the Radiance screen has poor viewing angles but my past laptops have shamed the MBP pretty bad.

 

I'm not sure what radiance screen you all are talking about but mine has awesome viewing angles.

 

The Radiance screen was a wide color gamit high resolution screen that was (and is once parts stock up) offered for the Envy 14. It's specs were 14.5" in size, 1920x1080 resolution, and very bright screen. Downsides were with the wide color gamut showing saturated colors in just about most programs.

 

Yeah i have 2 actually. What does this have to do with viewing angles. there isn't a single angle that i can't see the screen perfectly.

 

"I'm not sure what radiance screen you all are talking about but mine has awesome viewing angles."

Sorry I thought you meant what was the radiance screen, now I understand sorry.


Anyways I am still puzzled how the MBP 15 had better viewing angles, the ones I have handled have had pretty bad viewing angles.

 

The MBP with High Def Anti Glare Matte screen has better viewing angles, to my eye, than the HP envy 14 Radiance.

The Macbook is from the new 2011 refresh of macbooks pro's. So I was giving people here a comparison with the latest from apple.

Radiance has great viewing angles, I'm just saying the High Def, Anti Glare screen on the newest 2011 MacbookPro 15" is noticeably better in that regard. I do, however, notice better whites and darker blacks from the Radiance Screen.

 

Nevermind I see it. Very good decision with the matte, I am most happy they offer a matte option albeit I don't really dig Mac's.
They must be using a different panel for the Matte screens since matte actually worsens viewing angles, otherwise if it was the exact same panel the AG coating would worsen the viewing angles.

 

Ha I was wondering what you were saying. I've never seen the mbp well enough to compare but if it's better than the radiance then it's got some sick viewing angles.

 

The only MBP's i have seen are with the glossy AG and regular glossy so the matte option must be a different panel for it to have better viewing angles. You can check youtube, someone posted a video with a MBP 15" viewing angles iirc.

 

I am virtually positive that the Envy 14 Radiance never had better (or worse) resolution than 1600 X 900. Though that was more than sufficient for the screen size.

As for matte vs. glossy, is it not possible to get a high quality screen protector from Photodon or an equivalent supplier to make the E14 glossy screen into Matte? I did that very successfully with a tablet screen and I don't understand why people obsess so about screens having glossy finishes when it costs less than $20 to retain all of the positive attributes of the screen and lose the undesirable glossy finish.

 

Thanks for the correction, XD my apologies.

No it won't work. The AG coating, is not layed on top but actually inside the LCD assembly. Even with a high quality screen protector you would never get true anti glare on a glossy panel.
You can of course get better Antiglare screen protectors but you loose a ton in luminance, and most if not all of the time considerably worse viewing angles.

People obsess about glossy and matte screens for various reasons. Some prefer glossy because of the higher luminance, others prefer matte because they often work outside or in very high brightness environments which makes most glossy laptops near unusable.

 

Also, one should note the difference between the gloss that comes from the glass screen of an Envy from the gloss that comes from a plastic screen with a glossy finish of other lines. That is, the gloss is much more subdued and natural with a glass screen than the "forced" gloss finish on the other plastic screens.

 

Thanks for clarifying that. I do think it is worth owning a matte protector rigged with velcro or some such approach so that you could, in a pinch, use a Radiance in direct light - without ruining all the positive attributes of the screen by sticking the matte protector on. Sure, you'd lose many of the luminance and viewing angle advantages or the Radiance, but at east you could use the Radiance outdoors when you absolutely had to discern what was on the screen. Call it a "poor man's (or woman's)" alternative to buying an MBP 15 1680X1050 Matte Screen version, app. $2.200, when your $950 (January Sale) Envy 14/Radiance outdoes the MBP the other 95% of the time you are not required to view images in direct sunlight!

BTW, as ineffective as top layer matte screen protectors are, are their better ones - costing more, no doubt - to use when such a product is required?

 

I owned multiple versions of the 2010 15" MBP including two standard resolution glossy models and multiple hi-res matte (AG) displays.

I felt the overall picture even on the standard glossy MBP was a little bit better than the Radiance display but not at the cost of the cramped resolution.

As for the hi-res matte (or anti-glare; whatever you want to call it), I felt it offered a very nice balance of color, saturation, richness and sharpness. Blacks were slightly more grey than the glossy finished displays but this also could be a trick of the eye that has to do with the silver bezel around AG models and black (for added contrast) around the glossy displays.

I'd have to say I felt the 15" hi-res matte display is of slightly higher quality than the Radiance display but you have to understand this:

OSX does NOT support resolution independence.
(But I'll add it's supposed to be a part of OSX Lion's update...)

That means DPI will not readjust like in W7 for readability on webpages and similar. If you use the screen for heavy reading and don't have the best eyes, definitely stay away from the hi-res MBP's. I felt eye strain much more often than I do with my e14 and I have perfect vision.

It's also generally a lie that you're getting "better quality" when going with Apple. Maybe on a grand scale that can be said, but I have 7 exchange/return receipts showing otherwise about their quality being better. I honestly feel my $1000 e14 has better build quality than any of the 6 MBP units I had (which were $2400+ configured). I have a few unhappy buddies who can vouch for multiple logic and video card repairs with their MBP's also...

 

Thanks for your experience, few people can find themselves to say something bad about their $2,000+ Laptops because of silly emotions. The whole repair trend is pretty much the same on my side in terms of my friend's who were dumb enough to get a mac. Logic board replacements on probably 3/7 that I know have MBP's. Out of those 3, 2 of them have had them more then 3 times.