According to the latest reports, Apple released a new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro equipped with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. One of the highlights is the new Liquid Retina XDR display. In addition to the larger physical size and smaller frame, mini LED high contrast ratio and 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, the screen also has a higher pixel density, increasing the native resolution.
This brings up a new proportional screen resolution option selection in system preferences. It is worth noting that the high-end MacBook Pro once again uses native 2x resolution as the standard configuration.
The Retina MacBook Pro was first introduced in 2012 with a display resolution of 2800 x 1800. Like all previous Retina displays, Apple renders the interface at a 2x scale, which means that the available screen space in macOS is the same as the 1400 x 900 display, but everything has twice the clarity. However, many customers want to be able to display more content on the screen at the same time. In order to imitate a denser display, Apple provides a simulated software zoom mode.
To do this, the operating system renders at a higher resolution and then shrinks the rendered content to fit the original pixel grid of the display. This provides more space for the user’s screen window, but the zoom is not perfect (because it is not an integer zoom like 2x), so it will produce resizing artifacts, such as slightly blurred text.
For pixel purists, this zoom method is far from ideal. To make matters worse, Apple set the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro to a proportional resolution by default; in the system preferences, 2x native resolution can be used as an option, but it is not the default.
The default 16-inch MacBook Pro zoom mode simulates a 1792 x 1120 display. This trade-off between panel resolution and user interface density feels awkward for professional equipment. (After the launch, future versions of macOS will change the 15-inch display setting from “Retina Best” to a proportional resolution).
However, Apple has completely eliminated these complaints in the 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro. The native display resolution is now 3456 x 2234, which is equivalent to an increase in PPI from ~220 PPI to 250 PPI. By default, macOS Monterey will render the operating system at a resolution of 1728 x 1117-perfect 2x Retina zoom. In addition, this perfect 2x resolution is actually the same as the analog zoom resolution of the previous generation, so now users get a higher density UI, but with actual pixel support instead of skill zooming.
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The high-density panel on the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has a native resolution of 3024 x 1964. It will be presented to users in the form of 1512 x 982@2x, which is another option for this size of the screen. A reasonable choice of space. Therefore, the new default value is what most users should use in practical terms, and they will also get the best Retina-crisp display quality. As always, Apple also provides proportional screen resolution options for users who want more or less space.
According to Monterey RC’s code discovery, we can see that the available resolution options for the new MacBook Pro models seem to include:
16-inch MacBook Pro
- 2056 x 1329
- Default value: 1728 x 1117
- 1496 x 967
- 1312 x 848
- 1168 x 755
14-inch MacBook Pro
- 1800 x 1169
- Default value: 1512 x 982
- 1352 x 878
- 1147 x 745
- 1024 x 665
Just like the current lineup of laptops, MacBook Pro supports five different virtual resolutions, one of which provides more space than the 2x default value, and the other increases the user interface and text size, making it easier to read.
Of course, the screen resolution is only one of the new features of the new MacBook Pro screen; customers will also benefit from a wider range of color performance, smooth 120Hz ProMotion, extreme dynamic range brought by the mini LED backlight system, and so on.