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But even then i would get a 4K external monitor and save the GPU/CPU cycles and battery life on the laptop. Being hunched over a laptop all day is probably a lo

by kayoone 10y ago

But even then i would get a 4K external monitor and save the GPU/CPU cycles and battery life on the laptop. Being hunched over a laptop all day is probably a lot worse than having a lower res display in the end, so if we are talking ergonomics, better get a external 4K screen.

criddell 10y ago
People probably generally have both. When you are in the office, use the big screen but lots of us do a considerable amount of work from client sites, on airplanes, etc...
msbarnett 10y ago
> Being hunched over a laptop all day is probably a lot worse than having a lower res display in the end, so if we are talking ergonomics, better get a external 4K screen. Weird dichotomy. I use both simultaneously. No reason to confine yourself to one screen when 2 will do. And sometimes I code on the go, too. The hand-wringing over battery life/GPU cycles with a 4K display seems misguided -- I get ~10 hours of battery life on my Retina MacBook Pro. That's no worse than my previous non-Retina version, and the damn thing got thinner, not bulkier. It doesn't even switch over from the cheapo integrated GPU to the Radeon unless it has to drive more than one 4K display simultaneously. The battery impact of driving the integrated display seems negligible and totally dominated by the backlight.
- jjuel 10y ago
  I think the issue is Windows laptops with those displays get much worse battery life than standard HD displays. Apple does a great job of optimizing their software for their hardware. That way you do not see those battery life issues on Macbooks compared to Windows laptops usually. Have you even run Windows on you Mac? Talk about a battery drain.
  - msbarnett 10y ago
    I've done the Windows-on-Mac thing, but I assume half the problem there is Apple's Windows drivers aren't particular good (do the fans still just run full blast all the time?). I'd hope that a dedicated Windows machine would have better drivers, but that's probably putting too much faith in the vast majority of manufacturers.
    - tobz 10y ago
      I ran Windows 7 on a 13" MBP, and then the 13" MBA when it originally came out. Never experienced full-speed fans unless I was playing videos games on it, doing something computationally expensive for an extended amount of time, or sitting with it in my lap, on top of a blanket, depriving it of ambient airflow.

by kayoone 10y ago

criddell 10y ago

People probably generally have both. When you are in the office, use the big screen but lots of us do a considerable amount of work from client sites, on airplanes, etc...

msbarnett 10y ago

> Being hunched over a laptop all day is probably a lot worse than having a lower res display in the end, so if we are talking ergonomics, better get a external 4K screen. Weird dichotomy. I use both simultaneously. No reason to confine yourself to one screen when 2 will do. And sometimes I code on the go, too. The hand-wringing over battery life/GPU cycles with a 4K display seems misguided -- I get ~10 hours of battery life on my Retina MacBook Pro. That's no worse than my previous non-Retina version, and the damn thing got thinner, not bulkier. It doesn't even switch over from the cheapo integrated GPU to the Radeon unless it has to drive more than one 4K display simultaneously. The battery impact of driving the integrated display seems negligible and totally dominated by the backlight.

jjuel 10y ago
I think the issue is Windows laptops with those displays get much worse battery life than standard HD displays. Apple does a great job of optimizing their software for their hardware. That way you do not see those battery life issues on Macbooks compared to Windows laptops usually. Have you even run Windows on you Mac? Talk about a battery drain.
- msbarnett 10y ago
  I've done the Windows-on-Mac thing, but I assume half the problem there is Apple's Windows drivers aren't particular good (do the fans still just run full blast all the time?). I'd hope that a dedicated Windows machine would have better drivers, but that's probably putting too much faith in the vast majority of manufacturers.
  - tobz 10y ago
    I ran Windows 7 on a 13" MBP, and then the 13" MBA when it originally came out. Never experienced full-speed fans unless I was playing videos games on it, doing something computationally expensive for an extended amount of time, or sitting with it in my lap, on top of a blanket, depriving it of ambient airflow.