MacBook Pro Retina Display Tops Panel Cost List

Apple introduced the Retina display MacBook Pro on Monday, with models already available in retail stores and on the company's online store. The price is higher than the regular MacBook Pros, however, starting at $2,199. Digitimes reports that other manufacturers will begin seeking similar high resolution panels, and has laid out the costs for some of the typical panels one might find in notebooks and ultrabooks.

According to Digitimes Research, 13 to 15-inch Full HD panels current cost around $40-45 per unit. As for more premium screens, such as the 1080p IPS displays that are beginning to show up in ASUS' Zenbook Primes, the price jumps to around $90-100 per unit. Digitimes goes on to say that Samsung and LG both supply panels for the new Retina MacBook Pro, and that the price per unit is expected to be above $150.

The Retina display included in the next-gen MacBook Pro measures 15.4-inches diagonally and has a 2880x1800 resolution. Reports have confirmed that it's an IPS panel, with wide viewing angles, high brightness levels, and a reasonable contrast ratio.

OS X has also been updated to take advantage of the increased resolution, with the user interface appearing sharper and crisper. The display does magnify any imperfections in text and images, though: apps that have yet to be updated appear with fuzzy text as OS X attempts to scale the content to the native resolution of the panel.