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Ilhan The Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2016
19
7
Hello,

I've picked up a MacBook Pro 15" (2016) and would like to know if my experience of the display is the same as other owners.

When I use the app Screen Utility (available in the App Store for free) to see a fully black background in a dark room, and turn the brightness up on the display, I can see a noticeable (but uniform) glow of light coming from the entire display. It's far less noticeable when I put the display to 50-60% brightness (and even more less noticeable below that), but ramps up with any movement above the 50-60% level.

I know these displays are not OLED, so I shouldn't expect pitch black blacks, but is it normal that this screen's glow on a full black screen is very noticeable (especially at 75%+ brightness)? I hope I don't have some sort of backlight bleeding that is washing out my colours on this display.

Furthermore, when I take a picture of the display in a dark room, it looks like a rectangle of grey on an otherwise largely black picture (except for the keyboard backlight).

Thanks for your feedback,
Ilhan
 

Ilhan The Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2016
19
7
How about a picture of it?
Looks something like this at 75%. Brighter at 100%, but I think the camera's exposure over-represents that so I'll share this as a more representative picture.
[doublepost=1490538925][/doublepost]Here is 100% brightness. Might as well share that too. Again, the camera is exaggerating it a bit since it doesn't look the same to my eyes as in the picture. Taken on iPhone 6 in a dark room.
 

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Eason85

macrumors 6502
Jan 29, 2017
258
308
Hong Kong
Looks something like this at 75%. Brighter at 100%, but I think the camera's exposure over-represents that so I'll share this as a more representative picture.
[doublepost=1490538925][/doublepost]Here is 100% brightness. Might as well share that too. Again, the camera is exaggerating it a bit since it doesn't look the same to my eyes as in the picture. Taken on iPhone 6 in a dark room.
Is that a black background and a white background? The lighting looks quite even, very good. If the second one is black background... That's weird, I don't know what is up with that
 

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
That looks normal. The new screens are brighter than the old ones. So in a dark room the display looks really lite up. Set it back to 70% and you have max brightness of the older units.
 
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Ilhan The Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2016
19
7
Is that a black background and a white background? The lighting looks quite even, very good. If the second one is black background... That's weird, I don't know what is up with that
Black background with brightness up to 100%. I suppose the best way to tell if yours is the same would be to take a picture of yours with an iPhone 6 in a dark dark room and compare.
[doublepost=1490539511][/doublepost]
That looks normal. The new screens are brighter than the old ones. So in a dark room the display looks really lite up. Set it back to 70% and you have max brightness of the older units.
That's what I was thinking might be the case as well. Do you have the same laptop?
 

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
That's what I was thinking might be the case as well. Do you have the same laptop?

I have a 2015, not a 2016. But I have used a friend's 2016 and immediately notice how bright the screen got.

When you put them side by side, the max brightness difference is quite noticeable. I have never felt the 2015 unit did not get bright enough, but being able to go brighter could help in bright rooms or outside.
 
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