Mostly a good article and I agree with his main points, but I have two big disagreements.
- Viewing distances. I only sit about 16-18" away from my 13" MBP screen and only about 24" from my 24" display. This varies obviously as I don't sit in a locked position all day, but I think he's erring a bit too high on estimated view distance, which means his necessary resolution to reach "retina" level is too low.
- Screen size. Right now the 13" MBP I'm staring at has a very significant bezel that I would like to see mostly go away in an upcoming model refresh. The iPad's bezel makes sense since it's meant to be held in the hand. The MBP only needs enough bezel to fit the camera up top and needs none on the sides or bottom of the screen.
But yes, his overall point that Apple does not need to go so far as screen doubling on laptops and desktops to achieve pixels that are indistinguishable to the human eye is correct. I just think the resolution at which that point is reached on laptops and desktops is a bit higher than what he's calculated.
I've had a quite a bit of feedback that I've moved the viewing distances too far out. I measured from my own experiences, but I guess I must be atypical. It might be because I use dual monitors on the desktop (I have a 27" and a 26", so I sit back to reduce head turning) and slump when I have a laptop in my lap.
Anyway, I've expanded the spreadsheet that goes with the post to include some extra settings for closer distances and for your specific distances and devices.
- Viewing distances. I only sit about 16-18" away from my 13" MBP screen and only about 24" from my 24" display. This varies obviously as I don't sit in a locked position all day, but I think he's erring a bit too high on estimated view distance, which means his necessary resolution to reach "retina" level is too low.
- Screen size. Right now the 13" MBP I'm staring at has a very significant bezel that I would like to see mostly go away in an upcoming model refresh. The iPad's bezel makes sense since it's meant to be held in the hand. The MBP only needs enough bezel to fit the camera up top and needs none on the sides or bottom of the screen.
But yes, his overall point that Apple does not need to go so far as screen doubling on laptops and desktops to achieve pixels that are indistinguishable to the human eye is correct. I just think the resolution at which that point is reached on laptops and desktops is a bit higher than what he's calculated.