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daneoni

macrumors G4
Original poster
Mar 24, 2006
11,844
1,578
Note that daneoni's photos look to have been taken by a fairly wide-angle lens, whereas I used a long lens to reduce barrel distortion, and so every part of the screen is viewed from virtually the same angle to the viewer.

This is on a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with a glossy screen. The background in this shot is pure white.

Now thats a screen i want. Looks like glossy keeps coming back to slap me sillyfor getting a matte
 

jericho878

macrumors member
Sep 7, 2006
82
0
Boston, MA
Note that daneoni's photos look to have been taken by a fairly wide-angle lens, whereas I used a long lens to reduce barrel distortion, and so every part of the screen is viewed from virtually the same angle to the viewer.

This is on a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with a glossy screen. The background in this shot is pure white.

Thanks, mate! :)
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
Now thats a screen i want. Looks like glossy keeps coming back to slap me sillyfor getting a matte

I still don't see a reason to be disappointed with the matte, really. I've been loving the matte so far, and am impressed that the blacks are still quite black, colors still look quite vibrant, etc. The only thing it lacks is that extra "shininess", but I'm really not missing much without the glossy (and I'll admit it is nice to be able to sit in front of a window or below some fluorescent lights and not see the reflections so obviously while I am writing).

EDIT: Sorry, forgot about the earlier posts. Yes, I would be disappointed based on the screens you posted of your display. But I don't think every matte is like that (mine isn't nearly so bad, it looks much closer to hqsbud's shot). But I think this is a flaw in the display, not necessarily a difference in matte or glossy (I have seen glossy screened MacBooks at the Apple Store as well that seemed to have just as significant a variation in the backlighting when viewing a solid image).
 

hqsbud

macrumors member
Nov 10, 2003
84
0
and matte = true colors
a musthave for photograpers,web-printdesigner

I keep hearing this, but I haven't seen anyone present data to back it up, nor what it actually means to say that a screen has true colors while another does not. Any modern screen can be color calibrated easily, so if matte has "true colors" while glossy does not, then the glossy gamut must be significantly smaller or misshapen perhaps. I color calibrated both my glossy MacBook Pro screen as well as the external matte screen that I hook it to. Both display beautiful images in very similar ways, though the different black points are noticeable right away. The colors on the glossy screen aren't any more saturated; they couldn't be, because the calibrated profile takes care of that.

I posted my Spyder2-calibrated glossy screen color profile to this thread in the hope that someone will compare it with a Spyder2-calibrated color profile for a matte-screen Merom-based MacBook Pro with the ColorSync utility or something similar.
 

deadpixels

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2006
913
0
Isn't uneven backlighting caused by inconsistencies on the reflective foil they use inside the LCD? How would glossy surfaces prevent this?
i dont know but on mine previous alu pbook 1.25 ,apple change the 'inverter board' to fix the uneven brightness, go figure!
 

brikeh

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2006
845
1
This worries me but Im not gonna go crazy over it unless its suuuper annoying, but really. All LCDs have some of this. To everyone with a new C2D notebook...dont start looking for flaws...just enjoy your machine!
 

speekez

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2003
350
2
Perhaps the big question will be: do the new MacBook Pro 17" matte screens suffer from this uneven lighting dilema?

Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until folks start receiving their 17" models to compare.
 

Bongolo

macrumors regular
Aug 18, 2006
206
0
Darker right side on 15" Glossy!! :(

Hi Guys,

I have a 15" 2.33 (160) C2D Glossy and the left side is brighter than the right! :(

/Bongolo
 

hqsbud

macrumors member
Nov 10, 2003
84
0
Perhaps the big question will be: do the new MacBook Pro 17" matte screens suffer from this uneven lighting dilema?

Do the MacBook Pro 15" matte screens suffer from this uneven lighting dilemma? I've seen no evidence this problem is widespread. In fact, I've only seen two demonstrated cases in these forums.
 

iW00t

macrumors 68040
Nov 7, 2006
3,286
0
Defenders of Apple Guild
i dont know but on mine previous alu pbook 1.25 ,apple change the 'inverter board' to fix the uneven brightness, go figure!

Does anyone reading this thread have a old CD MBP? Try looking at the menu bar and sway your head from side to side, does the colours of the menu bar shift?

Just wondering if the rumours on the Apple support forum about Apple using cheap TN panels now instead of MVA ones are true.
 

brikeh

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2006
845
1
This is ridiculous, I just got mine and I "think" its fine but now Im looking for uneven lighting and yeah maybe its a little brighter on the left side. Me and colleague see it but the rest of the guys I work with dont...if I change the background to anything else but pure white then no I dont see it. Also the thing is dead silent so far...then again I havent really taxed it yet. The lid closes nicely and everything looks good.

MBP 2.16 Matte Screen(uneven? Dont know...)
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
I don't see how these people are concluding that all MBP displays have this problem, when it is clear that many MBP owners (including myself) have displays with either no unevenness, or at least only very minor unevenness.

It seems to me like the ones that do have problems are clearly problematic (the photos people have posted show much darker areas than my own display), but it seems like there are displays out there that don't suffer nearly so much from this.

-Zadillo
 

raf1005

macrumors newbie
Oct 29, 2006
26
0
I don't see how these people are concluding that all MBP displays have this problem, when it is clear that many MBP owners (including myself) have displays with either no unevenness, or at least only very minor unevenness.

It seems to me like the ones that do have problems are clearly problematic (the photos people have posted show much darker areas than my own display), but it seems like there are displays out there that don't suffer nearly so much from this.

-Zadillo

The funny thing is, you even admitted you have an uneven screen.
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
The funny thing is, you even admitted you have an uneven screen.

Why is that funny and why the "thumbs down"?

I said that I only have very slight unevenness..... basically, in the lower left hand corner of the screen it is a shade darker than the rest, and this is only really noticeable if I really focus on it. The difference in brightness is so slight that it is barely noticeable. But overall it's very even - when I display a full black image, the entire screen is even, which I can't say for my dell 2005fpw, which has blotches of bright spots all over the place.

My point was that not everyone has an unevenness problem to the severe degree as some of these reports. I was pointing out that although my screen is not perfectly evenly lit, it is only slightly uneven in one small portion of the screen.

So again, I don't see what is "funny' about my post.

-Zadillo
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
Btw, I am also surprised that people are acting like Apple is somehow unique here. Lots of laptop LCD's suffer from problems like this, and most are worse than what I have seen posted here.

usually the big problem I've seen on other notebooks is backlight bleeding, most noticeable with dark colors on the screen. I returned a Toshiba P105-S9722 because it had a set of big bright circles in the center of the screen that were clearly visible when watching a movie or playing a game with a dark scene.

The matte screen on my C2D MBP is significantly better looking overall, and it displays even dark colors without any bright spots, which is a big plus to me (even my Samsung 23" LCD HDTV has some annoying bright spots in the corners when showing dark or black screens).

-Zadillo
 

speekez

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2003
350
2
I think the problem is complicated.

I don't think anyone is saying every MDP Core 2 is shipping with a bad display. But there does seem to be enough of a problem (as evidenced in the photos folks posted in that Apple thread, and on MacRumors) that there's no harm in raising a red flag. Even more unsettling is that many of these consumers are returning to the Apple store only to discover that most, if not all, of the display models (at this point limited to 15" models) exhibit similar uneven display lighting. Sad, sad.

I think the other issue is how subjectivity and expectations play into this. In that Apple thread, there were some who posted that they looked at the pictures and saw no problem with the display. My off the cuff response is those folks need their eyes checked. But thinking it over, some consumers are completely oblivious to this, they just don't care, or they have other things to worry about. That's fine. But to me -- as someone who works in the design field -- an uneven display like that would be a dealbreaker, and I've used Apple all my life. As Apple moves into a broader market -- gobbling up PC users -- I think it's losing sight of it's initial (and perhaps more demanding) core community, the design market.

Sadly, I think this is indicative of most manufacturing today -- it's cheaper to make an average product because the majority of buyers don't have the time or gumption to pursue a replacement.

And that's my soapbox for the day.

PS -- check out this thread as well and take a peek at the image link near the bottom of the thread.

PPS -- I still plan to stick with Apple and buy Apple. I love it. But no harm in educating oneself about the possible issues with one's purchase

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=723534&tstart=0
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
I agree, the photos those people posted did seem noticeably bad. If Apple won't fix them or replace them with something that works, and it bothers them, they should return it and get a PC notebook with a perfectly uneven screen with no uneven lighting or backlight bleeding. Personally I have never found a PC notebook display that didn't have some degree or other of this problem....
 

speekez

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2003
350
2
"Love it or leave it" ?

Evenly lit laptops screens exists. I had a Powerbook with a consistently lit screen. My officemate is using an HP PC laptop with an evenly lit screen. I'm sure a nice handful of the new Macbooks are also consistently lit. Evenly lit screens can be had and there's no reason someone's new Macbook Pro shouldn't have one.

If not happy with your purchase, return it until you are. I don't think it's wrong for a consumer to ask the most of the product he's buying, that's all.
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
Evenly lit laptops screens exists. I had a Powerbook with a consistently lit screen. My officemate is using an HP PC laptop with an evenly lit screen. I'm sure a nice handful of the new Macbooks are also consistently lit. Evenly lit screens can be had and there's no reason someone's new Macbook Pro shouldn't have one.

If not happy with your purchase, return it until you are. I don't think it's wrong for a consumer to ask the most of the product he's buying, that's all.

Agreed. So these people complaining about not being able to find a perfectly evenly lit MBP screen should clearly go buy one of those HP's then (although I have to say, all the consumer grade HP laptops I've seen at Best Buy and CompUSA have had uneven lighting). My Sony Vaio S360 also had uneven lightning (very bright at the bottom, and blotches throughout the screen when displaying dark images).
 

iW00t

macrumors 68040
Nov 7, 2006
3,286
0
Defenders of Apple Guild
Evenly lit laptops screens exists. I had a Powerbook with a consistently lit screen. My officemate is using an HP PC laptop with an evenly lit screen. I'm sure a nice handful of the new Macbooks are also consistently lit. Evenly lit screens can be had and there's no reason someone's new Macbook Pro shouldn't have one.

If not happy with your purchase, return it until you are. I don't think it's wrong for a consumer to ask the most of the product he's buying, that's all.

If you feel that an unevenly lit screen does SO MUCH for your productivity then feel free to just buy that HP, or cheery pick one of those Macbooks. You got lucky with your previous Powerbook but you should also realise that's the exception rather than the norm, my previous PB had patchy backlighting, I still lived with it rather than return to Windows.

If you can't accept Apple's products go buy a Dell! At least with Apple I know I am paying a lot more for high quality features, like the X1600 Pro GPU and OSX. Can't say the same for the Dell space heater.

It is fine to ask the most out of your products, but are you paying the most you can for it? Macbook Pros are cheap compared to the competition, why expect so much more from Apple?
 

Chrispy

macrumors 68020
Dec 27, 2004
2,270
524
Indiana
One thing I have noticed is that Apple computers show the backlighting issue more than PCs becuase of the way OSX looks. I have noticed on LCDs at work that seemed perfect with a PC showed their faults with OSX was running on them. I think the OS has such a bright and crisp feel to it that it shows imperfections more. However, the people with the issues on the C2D MBP do have the problem pretty badly. I had two like that but macconnection was more than happy to refund my money :) I now have a C2D MacBook with a beautiful and evenly backlit display!
 
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