Ask HN: How is the M4 MacBook Pro Nano-texture screen for long coding so far?
19 points
20 days ago
| 6 comments
| HN
Am looking to get into these but have seen conflicting reports about how the nano-texture material interacts with font rendering. Am curious if anyone has empirical experience doing long coding sessions on these just yet.
Logingarrett
9 days ago
[-]
I am really enjoying the nano-texture. After turning down the brightness it appears like an electronic reader. One drawback, the auto adjust brightness is a bit sensitive to light coming directly at it. Sometimes the screen repeatedly dims in the morning when the sun is not causing a problem.
reply
genshii
20 days ago
[-]
Went from a M2 MBP to a M4 MBP with the nano-texture display. I haven't noticed any difference at all in terms of font rendering or anything of that sort. Overall, the nano-texture display looks the same, if not better. IMO, the glare reduction is absolutely worth it, even if you don't think glare is normally an issue for you.
reply
NarcisMirandes
18 days ago
[-]
Does it need any special care?
reply
sgarland
20 days ago
[-]
I went to an Apple Store today to try to see the difference, because I bought an M4 MBP w/ glossy, and have had doubts.

They only had an iMac with it – I assume it’s the same? If so, it’s _mostly_ equivalent, but the glossy screen definitely has deeper contrast, and appears sharper for text, though terminal usage wasn’t quite as pronounced as the browser.

I’m still tempted to buy one to try, and return the one I end up not liking. Most of my usage isn’t in areas prone to glare, but occasionally it is, and it’s annoying. I just don’t want to sacrifice sharpness, because I love how crisp text is on these screens.

reply
sgarland
20 days ago
[-]
OK, I decided to buy one. I’ve been somewhat regretting my choice to not get more RAM (I got the base model M4 Pro), so I went with the next model up, with 1 TB SSD, then added the RAM upgrade and nano-texture.

It’ll be delivered in a couple of weeks. I’ll use both for a while, and reply back to this thread for posterity.

reply
sgarland
9 days ago
[-]
OK, initial impressions. Off-topic, if you value your time, I highly recommend buying a Thunderbolt cable for the transfer. Disable WiFi on both, skip through the new setup, then launch Migration Assistant on both with the cable connecting. It should pick it up and use it. Transfer speeds for TB5 peaked at 1 GBps – that’s bytes, not bits. Stupid fast.

As to the screen, I was immediately pleased. The difference, I think, is that Apple stores have perfect lighting. There are no reflections, so the screens look as good as they possibly can. If you have a photography studio or something, you probably do still want the glossy screen, as it has deeper colors in perfect conditions. But in my house, the opposite was true: since there were nearly always some form of reflections, minimal or otherwise, the nano-texture screen actually appeared to have _more_ contrast, since my eyes didn’t have to fight to concentrate at a certain depth in the screen.

I put some 4K HDR videos on both, and honestly couldn’t tell the difference. I could tell a slight difference in the terminal (Alacritty, Solarized Dark) in that the base blue color appears slightly different, but it doesn’t bother me.

I’ll post again if I notice anything else, but my immediate reaction is that the nano-texture screen is better for most people, and to not rely solely on in-store experiences to determine preference.

reply
bwb
18 days ago
[-]
Thanks, following :)
reply
ftigis
15 days ago
[-]
How does one follow a post in HN?
reply
zackangelo
20 days ago
[-]
Perhaps I don't have such a keen eye for things like font rendering, but the nano texture display has been a pure step forward for me. No negatives at all.
reply
_nvs
20 days ago
[-]
It’s awesome with font rendering — have been using it nonstop for two weeks to code and design and it really shines (no pun intended) when there’s a lot of sunlight/glare. Otherwise it looks identical to the glossy display.

The only caveat is the nano texture is much more difficult to keep clean and maintain.

reply
RulerOf
20 days ago
[-]
That caveat is a huge one for me. "You can only clean it with this special cloth that ships with it" does not fill me with confidence that the display won't hold some fingerprints more or less forever.
reply
throwaway519
19 days ago
[-]
Can it open 180 degrees yet like a ThinkPad?
reply