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Pictures of screen lines in Rev. B Macbook Air models?
- Thread starter LinMac
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That screen had it really bad. The problem varies to different degrees on most screens I've seen. Shokunin had the picture which captured it best I think:
Most MBA rev B's I've seen look more like this shot here. Usually it's more like this picture here where it's easier to get distracted by other things like the wavy distortion from the camera or the lights or whatever and you have to mentally block that out to actually see the faint lines (which is the actual problem). Shokunin drew a slanted horizontal line in this picture which matches the slope of the faint horizontal lines he saw. If you can get past the waves, you'll see the lines.
Most MBA rev B's I've seen look more like this shot here. Usually it's more like this picture here where it's easier to get distracted by other things like the wavy distortion from the camera or the lights or whatever and you have to mentally block that out to actually see the faint lines (which is the actual problem). Shokunin drew a slanted horizontal line in this picture which matches the slope of the faint horizontal lines he saw. If you can get past the waves, you'll see the lines.
You can use my own pictures and it would be nice if you give me credit
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Screen model 00009C9A
Production: week 50
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I showed these pictures to a few people, but we weren't directly able to discern where these lines were in the pictures. Can you give us some type of guide to them so we can describe where they are in the pictures?
May I ask, is this writeup going to be for a magazine/website? Would you provide us with the finished version?
BTW, it would help if you send it to SteveJ also
It is primarily targeted at college/corporate IT departments and discusses the latest non-Windows products or solutions. I was asked for Mac content and I thought this might make an interesting topic for a short writeup.
How is talking about an LCD with faint lines an interesting topic in regards to Macs?
Why don't you do a topic about the Macintosh system, that would be something more suited for IT departments to learn about. People are trying to move Macs into the enterprise world but IT departments don't want them because they don't understand them so a topic about the Macintosh Operating System would be a great topic rather than an LCD screen in a Macbook Air.
We did a writeup about the "Core Shutdown Issue" awhile back and it proved to be one of the most popular pieces we had done. This might not be as popular, but it might at least be an interesting filler piece to add a couple of additional pages.
My task here is to find a general interest story about a popular product like the Macbook Air that hasn't been written about so many times it is done to death. The "Core Shutdown Issue" and iMac 20" screen story were both very popular so I hope this turns out the same way.
I'm not out to bash Apple and I will be contacting them for a comment on the story. I always give any company a chance to respond and we will "print" (display on website with story or print onto paper) their response in full with the story if they respond.
LinMac, it might help if you tilt your screen back and forth in order to see the lines on my pictures.
BTW, did you write about how Apple is locking the MBA revA CPU frequency to 800 MHz?
I tried to do a bit of screen tilting on my Macbook Pro, but really I don't see much. Could you crack open a paint type application and circle the lines so we have a frame of reference? Obviously we won't run those, but it would certainly help to have it for when I submit it all to editing.
I always assumed I didn't have these lines but today, I think I finally found them. If I place my chin on the trackpad and tilt the display all the way back, I can barely make out faint horizontal lines. Is this really what all the fuzz is about? If this is all it is, complainers need to get a life. If the problem is more severe on other displays, then I understand. How many people can actually see these lines without looking at the screen from extremely awkward angles?
It's apparent it is there. I can definitely see it right now as I am typing this message in my 1.6/120 gig mba.
Do a solid color background, and just move your head up/down, you'll see it.
To me, it's not a problem at all I don't notice it immensely, but it's definitely there.
Also, I am glad you are writing this article an apple manager said, "It's normal, it's apart of the display"
I didn't care because I love the screen, just not the lines.
Do a solid color background, and just move your head up/down, you'll see it.
To me, it's not a problem at all I don't notice it immensely, but it's definitely there.
Also, I am glad you are writing this article an apple manager said, "It's normal, it's apart of the display"
I didn't care because I love the screen, just not the lines.
I cannot see it with just solid color and moving my head. The only way I can see it is by putting my chin on the trackpad, tilting display all the way back, in a moderately lit room. Even then, the lines are very faint. In a completely dark room, I cannot see it at all (whether at full brightness or dim). Perhaps your case is more severe than mine.
Wow.
I can see it in the white textbox very easily laying down with the computer on my chest and screen is 90 degree angle from the base.
ugh. this isn't good. I didn't know there were variations.
If you hold any machine to such a ridiculous standard, you're going to find flaws. I'm all for wanting a perfect computer, but some things just aren't worth the hassle. In my opinion, time and energy could be better spent elsewhere.
But, if it bothers you that much, I would pursue it.
BTW, did you write about how Apple is locking the MBA revA CPU frequency to 800 MHz?
That's not strictly correct - when the processor gets hot, it'll scale the speed back, so it'll drop to 1.4, then 1.2, then 1.0, and finally down to 800mhz, once it's cooled off it'll scale back up in the same steps.
Here's my quick MS Paint edit of the photos. I couldn't figure out the Mac way to do this as I couldn't find any paint program installed with my OSX. Anyways I made two red lines in each photo that overlay two horizontal lines in each. I was pretty accurate in mhnajjar's picture (pixel width is 1) but in shokunin's picture I had to overwrite his black line with my red line (pixel width 3 to do this) so it's not as accurate.
It's actually a bit amusing that it's this difficult for people to see the lines on the pictures. Maybe one of the reasons this problem is so debated is that most people just have bad vision and can't see the things. It's clear as day to some of us though. Usually I'd suggest people get their eyes checked but with the trouble a few of us have had trying to find a screen without the lines, ignorance is really bliss in this case. I actually don't recommend viewing these pictures if you're happy with your screen. This is one of those things that once you see, it's very hard to unsee.
Obviously between the two pictures there is quite a difference in how bad the lines are. The problem varies from good screens, to ones with very faint lines, to ones with thicker more visible lines, to really bad screens, etc. The slope of the lines is also not constant. Some slope downwards while other screens slope upwards.
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Did you read the rest of my post? I wrote that it wasn't a big deal and unless people were more severe cases, they should forget about it.
LOL, the lines on the first pic is just the pixel structure. It's not sloped upwards, the screen is just tilted. Of course if you zoom into any LCD, there will be "horizontal lines" because there are square pixels. Every MBA will have 800 horizontal lines and 1280 vertical lines.
Not that the problem doesn't exist, it does, but the first pic doesn't have it.
Reading comprehension, maybe? Did I say the first picture has sloping lines? Is anybody actually stupid enough to think the lines in the first picture have a slope? Funny stuff. I have a theory in another thread that the first picture might be a different problem than the second. It's not just the square pixels or else the vertical lines would be as distinct as the horizontal ones (kinda like a picture posted by Ironic in another thread where the grid was very visible).
Anyhow I have actually not seen a rev B yet where the lines fall exactly on the pixel grid like in the first picture. Also I've never seen one where the lines slope downwards. All the ones I've seen slope upwards to the right unlike either of the pictures. So your experiences may vary.
I've tried searching the various threads and still can't find this answer...
Has the screen problem in the MBA Rev B been fixed on the more recently manufactured MBAs?
Has the screen problem in the MBA Rev B been fixed on the more recently manufactured MBAs?