Blooming Effect on MacBook Pro 16" (Nanotexture) – Normal or Defect?

[ruudboon]

Hey everyone,

I’ve noticed a blooming effect on my MacBook Pro 16" with the nanotexture display, especially in dark environments. Bright areas seem to "glow" significantly against dark backgrounds, and it’s particularly noticeable when using the laptop in low-light conditions.

I know mini-LED displays can have some blooming, but this seems more pronounced than I expected. That said, the photos I’ve attached make it look a bit worse than it appears in reality. Still, I wanted to see if this is within the normal range or something I should be concerned about.

Has anyone else experienced this, especially with the nanotexture version? Would appreciate any feedback before I consider taking it in for a check.

Thanks!

 

[Honey_crisp]

It’s the nature of the display, unfortunately.

 

[turbineseaplane]

A good example of why some of us would like an OLED option

The blooming on Mini-LED sucks

 

[vanc]

Hey everyone,

I’ve noticed a blooming effect on my MacBook Pro 16" with the nanotexture display, especially in dark environments. Bright areas seem to "glow" significantly against dark backgrounds, and it’s particularly noticeable when using the laptop in low-light conditions.

I know mini-LED displays can have some blooming, but this seems more pronounced than I expected. That said, the photos I’ve attached make it look a bit worse than it appears in reality. Still, I wanted to see if this is within the normal range or something I should be concerned about.

Has anyone else experienced this, especially with the nanotexture version? Would appreciate any feedback before I consider taking it in for a check.

Thanks!

It should be caused by the mini-LED backlight. The blooming effect applies to early MBP models as well. A screen shot from the link:

But I'm curious, did you also use an all black background? That would make the blooming much more noticiable.

 

[Royksöpp]

It does not look that bad in person, I think that fact has been proven multiple times.

 

[ruudboon]

It does not look that bad in person, I think that fact has been proven multiple times.

I work a lot in events, often in dark environments, and I think the blooming is bad enough that I’m considering looking for a different solution. I’m wondering if the nanotexture is making the effect worse. I had the M1 MacBook Pro with a mini-LED display before, and while there was some blooming, it was still workable.

 

[ruudboon]

It should be caused by the mini-LED backlight. The blooming effect applies to early MBP models as well. A screen shot from the link:

View attachment 2485978

But I'm curious, did you also use an all black background? That would make the blooming much more noticiable.

Yes, I'm using a black background for the photo. But mainly the taskbar on top is already bugging me when working in applications.

 

[NeonNights]

Does it actually look like that in person or is the camera exaggerating the blooming?

I haven't noticed any issues on my M4 Pro 14" with nano-texture display. If anything, I wholeheartedly prefer the new nano-texture over my previous glossy MacBooks. I am sure I'd notice blooming on mine if it was that bad.

 

[ruudboon]

Does it actually look like that in person or is the camera exaggerating the blooming?

I haven't noticed any issues on my M4 Pro 14" with nano-texture display. If anything, I wholeheartedly prefer the new nano-texture over my previous glossy MacBooks. I am sure I'd notice blooming on mine if it was that bad.

As said in my first post the camera is exaggerating this. I'm hoping somebody can A-B this with a non nano texture to see if there is any difference.

 

[adamjackson]

It should be caused by the mini-LED backlight. The blooming effect applies to early MBP models as well. A screen shot from the link:

View attachment 2485978

But I'm curious, did you also use an all black background? That would make the blooming much more noticiable.

That's my blog and the photo is not doctored. It's Reeder.app for Mac in "complete black" mode which is true black everywhere but the UI elements and at anything above 80% brightness, the blooming in dark-mode or on black UIs, it's unusable. Lightroom (one of my most commonly used applications) is a grey UI so blooming is less severe. Reeder is one of the few apps that allows for true black. My iPad Pro M1 was the same. I LOVE the M4 Pro iPad with OLED and Nano-texture because it doesn't have these issues. I can't wait for a MacBook Pro with OLED because I will be replacing my 16" M1 Max MBP with that model.

I still own the Mac featured and just run Reeder in Grey UI now which made the issue less pronounced.

 

[Ramandeepsingh]

Yup we were all warned that this would be a thing. I get blooming on my televisions worse than this so I’ll take it.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

its the nature of mini-LED display. I don't see it as much it looked okay/doable to me. Ive been using 300nit IPS panels for decades so this MBP mini LED display is a leap for me.

Although I do have an iPad Pro M4 to compare it against next to me, tandem oled is much more crisp [I don't have nano cbb doing 1tb lol on a tablet] but not in a way where I can say M4 Max MBP Mini LED sucks w/ nanotexture.