I spotted the issue yesterday, a different glare on the whole right border near to the bezel, checked with iPhone torch, and yes, pretty wide smudge areas // nor reflecting any light, I started to panic, this morning under sunlight it was even more noticeable, a two-color shade, one black and the smudgy tending to blue, so I really started to be afraid.
Reserved an appointment at Genius Bar and told him the problem, he sees it and asks the obvious: "did you clean it or wipe it any way?" and of course my response was: "I wouldn't dare, ordered the official cloth the next day I got the laptop cause Apple advises (more on this later) to clean it just with that one, I didn't, that's why I came here first", so guys (special mention to
@J.Gallardo here), reality really stands over fiction, the "I ordered it just for the laughs" and "I'll go to the Genius Bar to make them clean it" joke posts I made some days ago turns to be mandatory IMHO, here's why.
I continue "maybe there's some grease or some residue and no real problem, but as I told you, I'm not gonna risk to ruin it by not following official guidelines", right after, he grabs an ordinary micro-fiber cloth (not the glasses type, but the cleaning one though “softer” and I just literally freak out but he is a Genius right?) and wipes the affected part of the screen, torch again and seems to remove some residue, but leaves marks on the same spots, tried a second and third time and while clearly the residue was leaving, some parts were refusing to shine again, even more than the ones originally affected (he wrote that at the official, smudgy/matte marks on the right side of the screen which cleaning them didn't help to solve the problem)
In that moment, I ask politely for solutions, cause I'm within the exchange period and clearly I'm not satisfied with this scenario, it’s not just purely cosmetic, it affects visibility on certain light conditions, and possibly, if this is a coating issue, it will continue and get worse, and the laptop is too pricey for this, Genius agrees with me. Tells me that replacing/repairing the screen given I'm in this period is absurd, so he tells me to try to exchange it with this "replacement program" given my one is non a BTO model, and as mentioned before, it is on motion.
And now more on the "cleaning" methods, when he's over I told to him that he didn't do what Apple recommends to do in a 100%, cause XDR displays according to its official page must be just cleaned with the cloth included and no other, what's funny is this page just mentions "Pro Retina XDR Display" and "iMac Pro", the Macbook Pro 14 & 16 is not referred in any way (maybe cause it doesn't includes cloth by default) In another section of official Apple cleaning guidelines though, regarding Displays on MBPs, just stands for "Dampen a soft, lint-free cloth with water only, then use it to clean the computer's screen" which is confusing and contradictory information, and of course, I can guess it's an XDR display, but it should be mentioned cause if not, this can be really dangerous to users that don't read as intense as I do. I told him all of that too.
Why I am even mentioning this? Cause the Apple Genius did a thing that made me freak out, not following Apple Specific Guidelines, and more than possibly, my unit was already with some kind of coating problem, but also, maybe, just maybe, he made it worst by cleaning it with this kind of cloth … so really beware with these kind of screens, they really seem very fragile, or maybe it was just a bad experience, but I kinda read some similar situations regarding this issue. I’ll tell you more about it when the new one arrives, hope the official cloth has also arrived by that time …
PS: Should I wrote a post regarding this? Thanks if you have read till here
