[geeks] Integrated video and large displays

[John Lee]

Just to follow up on my own query, and for others who may be interested:

I got my black Macbook (2.2Ghz, 4GB, 160GB) yesterday. So far, I like
it well enough. It hasn't had any problems driving my 24" display (NEC
2470WNX) and, performance-wise, it's quite a step up from my
Powerbook.

I think my Powerbook is still the best computer I've ever had, though.
There are some areas where the Macbook falls down for me:

- The display has horrible viewing angles. There's really bad color
shifting when viewing off angle, and this can sometimes make watching
videos in bed trying. In addition, the display also has something of a
grainy quality to it. There's noticeable banding in some gradients and
some greys look like the display has been dithered.

- The trackpad is unusually large. As a result, I often find bits of
my palm resting on it interfering with tracking.

- The edge of the machine is pretty sharp and can be bothersome when
using the machine for long periods of time.

- It turns out that I actually do miss the backlit keyboard.

Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the machine. Leopard is taking some
getting used to and my favorite monospace font has some rendering
problems in Terminal.app (missing descenders). It's a fine machine,
it's just not what I would consider the best portable Macintosh.

Cheers,
John

On 2/4/08, John Lee <j.benlin.lee at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's about time for me to replace my Powerbook G4. I was initially
>  thinking of getting a Macbook Pro, but to be honest, I never really
>  felt the Powerbook was too lacking in any single department. So, I
>  began thinking about getting a Macbook and a large display (23-24",
>  1920x1200). Can anyone comment on the performance of the Macbook's
>  integrated video when driving a big display? Most of the time I spend
>  my day in emacs and Eclipse writing code, so I don't need ginormous
>  framerates, but I do want screen updates to happen smoothly.
>
>  Cheers,
>
> John