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Pixel walk and yellow tint on 2019 MacBook Pro

emraha06

emraha06

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 1, 2017
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Do you feel a visual problem that little vibrations/flickering on some pixels of screen. Not always same area but somewhere of screen and like these pixels refresh rate different from others for miliseconds and return to normal (especially the peripheral visual zone, around the point your eyes focused)

Does your mbp has yellowish screen compared to others like on stands in Apple stores (image is attached below)


note: i believe i could not define the flickering correctly. for example when you look at screen, you can not focus whole screen at the same time and some areas get out of focused area (peripheral vision area) and flickering, shaking,trembling or vibrating (how do you define that) of some areas happens especially these peripheral areas. but in this action there is no deformation on images or there are no pathological lines on anywhere. there are only very very tiny vibrates in a very short time like miliseconds and this gets back normal suddenly. This perception is also like little brightness changes in some local areas in a very very short time and get backs normal. May be it is about my eyes or biological sensibility about refresh rate (hertz) or pulse with modilation (pmw)
 

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I have a 2019 2.4Ghz 13". No issues with display flickering or yellowish screen.
 
emraha06 said:
Do you feel a visual problem that little vibrations/flickering on some pixels of screen. Not always same area but somewhere of screen and like these pixels refresh rate different from others for miliseconds and return to normal (especially the peripheral visual zone, around the point your eyes focused)

Does your mbp has yellowish screen compared to others like on stands in Apple stores
Click to expand...

I have a huge issue with this "pixel walk" in my peripheral vision in the 2018 / 2019 MBP panels on the 13 & 15 (A03E panel and A040) and have tried at least 10 examples in total. My 2017 is absolutely fine (A034 panel). I did notice that on the 15" I just returned it was improved by using gfxcardstatus to permanently enable the Radeon GPU leading me to believe that it's a more aggressive dither rather than backlight PWM. It was still affecting my ability to use the machine for more than 20 minutes. I use my 2017 all day long with no issue.

Symptoms are difficulty focussing and soreness after 20 mins. If it is dither then I would expect it to affect external monitors connected the machine
See this thread for more details:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pwm-on-new-baseline-2019-mbp.2189621/#post-27566107

Also seems I'm not alone:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8526582
 
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i could not find an 2019 open i9 15" model on stands which can we check over so when i compare my i9 15" amd 560x display with i7 15" amd 555x models on stands in stores all of them have whiteish screen than mine. mine has yellowish colors. (true tone, night shift and autobrightness are disabled in both)

i guess that like yellow tint issues on iphones, this is about glue used on manufacturing and it has to get dry. the models on stands in stores are enabled for hours and hours all days. Their glue has to be got dry in time.

on the other hand i believe i could not define the flickering correctly. for example when you look at screen, you can not focus whole screen at the same time and some areas get out of focused area (peripheral vision area) and flickering, shaking,trembling or vibrating of some areas happens especially these peripheral areas. but in this action there is no deformation on images or there are no pathological lines on anywhere. there are only very very tiny vibrates in a very short time like miliseconds and this gets back normal suddenly. This perception is also like little brightness changes in some local areas in a very very short time and get backs normal. May be it is about my eyes or biological sensibility about refresh rate (hertz) or pulse with modilation (pmw)

@chabig @sennomulo @CRoebuck @VineRider
 

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emraha06 said:
example when you look at screen, you can not focus whole screen at the same time and some areas get out of focused area (peripheral vision area) and flickering, shaking,trembling or vibrating of some areas happens especially these peripheral areas. but in this action there is no deformation on images or there are no pathological lines on anywhere. there are only very very tiny vibrates in a very short time like miliseconds and this gets back normal suddenly. This perception is also like little brightness changes in some local areas in a very very short time and get backs normal. May be it is about my eyes or biological sensibility about refresh rate (hertz) or pulse with modilation (pmw)

@chabig @sennomulo @CRoebuck @VineRider
Click to expand...

This describes exactly what I'm seeing too (and you did a much better job of explaining). I'm tempted to check out the new Base 13-inch model as it appears to have a different panel to the 18/19 13-inch and 15-inch

I suspect we're susceptible to temporal dither or PWM and the only fix is to buy a laptop with neither.
 
CRoebuck said:
This describes exactly what I'm seeing too (and you did a much better job of explaining). I'm tempted to check out the new Base 13-inch model as it appears to have a different panel to the 18/19 13-inch and 15-inch

I suspect we're susceptible to temporal dither or PWM and the only fix is to buy a laptop with neither.
Click to expand...

At this point i have chance to compare my screen with 2018 i7 555x 15 inch models and the pixel vibration was less in them. I could not understand this. Did you noticed all 2018/2019 series same thing or were there exceptions
 
emraha06 said:
At this point i have chance to compare my screen with 2018 i7 555x 15 inch models and the pixel vibration was less in them. I could not understand this. Did you noticed all 2018/2019 series same thing or were there exceptions
Click to expand...

It's been there in ALL the 2018 / 2019 models I've tried. It's hard to say if it was the same or less but enough to annoy me and make me consider switching to something else. My 2017 is doing ok but I could use more power as I run multiple VMs
 
CRoebuck said:
It's been there in ALL the 2018 / 2019 models I've tried. It's hard to say if it was the same or less but enough to annoy me and make me consider switching to something else. My 2017 is doing ok but I could use more power as I run multiple VMs
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply at this point i want to ask 3 things, is the panel type/model same across 2018/2019 models? I heard pmw enables in decreased brightness but i have noticed this problem in full brightness is it normal? And final question monitors with pmw mean less quality in general and especially about refresh rate?
 
emraha06 said:
Thanks for your reply at this point i want to ask 3 things, is the panel type/model same across 2018/2019 models? I heard pmw enables in decreased brightness but i have noticed this problem in full brightness is it normal? And final question monitors with pmw mean less quality in general and especially about refresh rate?
Click to expand...

Yes, 2018 and 2019 panels are as follows

13-inch A03E
15-inch A040

My 2017 13 inch is A034 and I've seen other models also. It looks like Apple now only has single panel for each size this year (and last)

I also see the "vibration" at max brightness so likely to be dithering not PWM.

PWM doesn't equal bad quality, it's just a cheaper way of controlling brightness. At least the PWM frequency on MacBook is high (120KHz). On Lenovo 330S it was measured as 200Hz, that's awful.
 
2019 i9 MBPr15. No pixel wiggle or yellowing.
I code 16+ hrs / day on this thing. I would definitely be distracted by wiggling pixels.
I do have Preferences > Displays > Night Shift > Sunset to Sunrise ( which does cause a reddening/yellowing of display as the sun goes down ).
 
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No such issues here on a 2018 MBP and nada as well for my previous 2016 MBP, but I have had one external monitor in the past that appeared to be in perfectly normal working order except for that it gave me eye strain. I just couldn't use it for long before my eyes started to hurt and it was only that specific monitor.

If you're within your return window, don't dilly around. Return your MBP and get another one.
 
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emraha06 said:
Do you feel a visual problem that little vibrations/flickering on some pixels of screen. Not always same area but somewhere of screen and like these pixels refresh rate different from others for miliseconds and return to normal (especially the peripheral visual zone, around the point your eyes focused)

Does your mbp has yellowish screen compared to others like on stands in Apple stores (image is attached below)


note: i believe i could not define the flickering correctly. for example when you look at screen, you can not focus whole screen at the same time and some areas get out of focused area (peripheral vision area) and flickering, shaking,trembling or vibrating (how do you define that) of some areas happens especially these peripheral areas. but in this action there is no deformation on images or there are no pathological lines on anywhere. there are only very very tiny vibrates in a very short time like miliseconds and this gets back normal suddenly. This perception is also like little brightness changes in some local areas in a very very short time and get backs normal. May be it is about my eyes or biological sensibility about refresh rate (hertz) or pulse with
Click to expand...
I have a 2019 13” macbook pro and i feel my screen is not white at all .... it has a yellowish color when i open white background apps .... i tried calibration but it does not seem to work ... i will check with the store soon
 
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