Brother braggin' 'bout 'book!

[Josias]

Well
my brother went here last weekend with his 14" rev. B iBook G4. He advised me not to run a screensaver, but to instead set the screen to slepp. He compared my glossy super bright extreme MB display to his more kinda dull iBook display. He told me, that his iBook was just as bright when he got it, and that it had turned so dull due to running screensavers. For one, I don't belive this. Why would any provider have screensavers, if it degradd the quality of the screen? It is called "screensaver", which should mean it saves the display. Also, since Apple says that the MacBook is 67% brighter than the rev. D iBook G4, I can't believe his rev. B iBook G4 was as bright as my MB.

BTW, he also claimed that the MBP is faster than the iMac at equivalent specs. That is bull right?

Trust me, he's not stupid, but sometimes you gotta do your homework

 

[mrgreen4242]

Well
my brother went here last weekend with his 14" rev. B iBook G4. He advised me not to run a screensaver, but to instead set the screen to slepp. He compared my glossy super bright extreme MB display to his more kinda dull iBook display. He told me, that his iBook was just as bright when he got it, and that it had turned so dull due to running screensavers. For one, I don't belive this. Why would any provider have screensavers, if it degradd the quality of the screen? It is called "screensaver", which should mean it saves the display. Also, since Apple says that the MacBook is 67% brighter than the rev. D iBook G4, I can't believe his rev. B iBook G4 was as bright as my MB.

BTW, he also claimed that the MBP is faster than the iMac at equivalent specs. That is bull right?

Trust me, he's not stupid, but sometimes you gotta do your homework

The iBook wasn't ever as bright as the MB. I'm not 100%, but I don't think that LCDs will fade over time (CRTs definitely will, though). Setting your monitor to sleep rather than a screen saver is a good idea in general, though, as it uses less power (which means either longer battery life or lower energy bills, depending on where you are using your computer). I suppose, in theory, that sleeping would make the display last longer, as the lamps that light up the display have a certain number of hours of use they are rated for and they'll "burn out" sometime around that point... most likely the machine will be so old it would be useless before the lamps give out to fatigue, though.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure that LCDs use a type of flourescent light for backlighting, which doesn't really dim (much or at all) with age. As for the MBP-iMac question, I don't know... go look at barefeats.com for some benchmarks and see for yourself!

 

[Josias]

Allright. It seems as if the iMac and MBP have equivalent benchmarks.

I'm sure there's some hold in what he says about the screen slowly burning down, but I don't believe it will ever go as far down as his iBook, and neither do I believe his iBook ever was even nearly as bright as the MacBook's.

Any other thoughts?

 

[mrgreen4242]

Allright. It seems as if the iMac and MBP have equivalent benchmarks.

I'm sure there's some hold in what he says about the screen slowly burning down, but I don't believe it will ever go as far down as his iBook, and neither do I believe his iBook ever was even nearly as bright as the MacBook's.

Any other thoughts?

Like I said, I'm 90% certain that the backlight on an LCD will have the same brightness one day one as on day 10,000. If there is any drop it's very minimal, and probably caused more by dust accumulating on the panel and the lights than by actual wear on the screen.

OK, I was wrong, but not by much... http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/lcdtv/lcdtv-lifetime.shtml

The bulbs will dim, according to that site, but only "every so slightly".

 

[Super Macho Man]

Allright. It seems as if the iMac and MBP have equivalent benchmarks.

I'm sure there's some hold in what he says about the screen slowly burning down, but I don't believe it will ever go as far down as his iBook, and neither do I believe his iBook ever was even nearly as bright as the MacBook's.

Any other thoughts?

Yes, all LCDs (specifically the fluorescent backlight inside them) will get dimmer over time. It is an effect that happens gradually and takes a few years to notice, but it definitely does happen. (It sure has on my 4 year old TiBook's screen.)

The term "screensaver" is from the CRT days when they actually did "save your screen" by preventing burn-in. But burn-in isn't a concern with LCDs. All a screensaver does on an LCD is make it go dimmer faster, and waste power while the computer is not being used.