After using the Air for 3 days....thoughts on the screen

[jayo123456]

I think the color is very dull. The mbp screen probably spoiled me.

after a few days of doing normal activity I usually do, it's become apparent that the colors don't look nearly as good as the mbp.

If the mbp is a 10/10 overall for the screen, I'm giving the Air a 7/10.

This is really the only thing I miss coming from a pretty specd' out MBP.

 

[bcaslis]

If you color calibrate the display I think you will see a big improvement. Check out the X-rite i2Display or the Spyder3Pro products.

 

[kdoug]

I think the color is very dull. The mbp screen probably spoiled me.

after a few days of doing normal activity I usually do, it's become apparent that the colors don't look nearly as good as the mbp.

If the mbp is a 10/10 overall for the screen, I'm giving the Air a 7/10.

This is really the only thing I miss coming from a pretty specd' out MBP.

Have you calibrated the display? They really don't look that great out of the box. I downloaded a profile that somebody posted here and now it looks as good as my MBP.

 

[aristobrat]

Have you calibrated the display? They really don't look that great out of the box. I downloaded a profile that somebody posted here and now it looks as good as my MBP.

Oooh, if you remember the thread/link, post it here!

 

[Marconelly]

I too was surprised with how badly calibrated screens were out of the box, on both the 11" and 13". Particularly on 11 one. Way too much red/blue push, and every model I saw on display in Apple stores and local Best buy was exactly the same way. Apple's calibration tool is a complete pain in the butt to use to calibrate anything manually when you want to make small corrections like reducing blue push, but I eventually got it right, and now things are much better.

This is such a bad user experience and such a huge contrast with Rev A MBA which had perfectly calibrated screen to begin with, and still looks like slightly higher quality screen too when I compare the two (minus the resolution, of course)

 

[jayo123456]

Have you calibrated the display? They really don't look that great out of the box. I downloaded a profile that somebody posted here and now it looks as good as my MBP.

yea I got a bunch of profiles from that thread, the color still isn't good. The whites all seem a little blue, but if I turn the blueness down (recalibrating it) then the overall colors are even more dull.

 

[kdoug]

Oooh, if you remember the thread/link, post it here!

Make sure you read through the entire thread. You'll need to find the model number of your screen to match it up.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1039142/

 

[neteng101]

Which screen model did you get on your MBA?

 

[jayo123456]

9cdf

 

[bcaslis]

Just a comment, you guys are never going to get a good calibration using Apple's tool. You need a hardware / software combination to get a good calibration. These tools (i2Display or Spyder3Pro) are good enough they are worth the money. And you can use them on every Mac you get. If you are picky about colors it's the best investment you can make.

 

[neteng101]

I have the same screen - didn't have any calibration tool so I used ton's profile and it looks really good for me, but I think everyone's noticed the color gamut is a bit lacking on the MBA displays. That's probably what you're seeing?

 

[kdoug]

This one is for the 13" 9CF0 profile. bcaslis posted it using ColorEyesDisplay Pro and an X-Rite i1 color meter. I think it looks great.

 

[aristobrat]

This one is for the 13" 9CF0 profile. bcaslis posted it using ColorEyesDisplay Pro and an X-Rite i1 color meter. I think it looks great.

Love it. Thanks so much for re-posting it here!

 

[wirelessmacuser]

Just a comment, you guys are never going to get a good calibration using Apple's tool. You need a hardware / software combination to get a good calibration. These tools (i2Display or Spyder3Pro) are good enough they are worth the money. And you can use them on every Mac you get. If you are picky about colors it's the best investment you can make.

You are so right. It's the best investment I've made. One that delivers immediate results that are very satisfying.

 

[BENJMNS]

This one is for the 13" 9CF0 profile. bcaslis posted it using ColorEyesDisplay Pro and an X-Rite i1 color meter. I think it looks great.

i find this setting too yellowish though i do appreciate the contribution.

 

[tmoerel]

Yellowish is quite normal!

i find this setting too yellowish though i do appreciate the contribution.

On all the Macs i have calibrated (20+) i always ended up with a yellowish feel. The photos i have processed on the calibrated machines though always came out perfect. If your goal is to calibrate for photography, accept the yellow!

 

[yegon]

I have a 9CF3, very happy with it, but if anyone with a calibrated profile wants to share I'll happily experiment.