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So, how's the 17" HD display?

A

Alloye

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 11, 2007
657
0
Rocklin, CA
I'm now on my second 15.4" with a defective display. As bright and crisp as the new LED-backlit panels are, I'm reluctant to try a thrid based on the problems reported by others combined with my own negative experience.

So, those of you who have purchased the 17" HD, how do you feel about it? Any noteable defects? The 15.4" is really the ideal size for me, but I'll gladly give up a small bit of portability to get a MBP with a nice screen.
 
I'm looking at my 17" HD screen right now (just arrived from apple) it is incredible no noticeable defects of any kind this its just incredible. But if ur looking for portability you might want to go to the store and test it out first see if its for you.
 
17" HiRes looks great here, 1900 x 1200 ftw!

No problems, screen space is great, couldn't imagine going with the non HiRes option in 17".

As above, would check out 17" in the flesh for portability, mine stays at home 95% of the time.
 
I was in the exact same boat as you. Had 2 15" LED's, bad displays. Returned them and ended up with a 17" HiRes display.

It's great. It's not perfect, but it's great. Love the resolution. No weird yellowing. The backlight isn't as evenly lit, not as bright, but still plenty bright where I usually use it on half brightness (granted half brightness on the 17" CCFL backlit display is brighter than half brightness on the LED macbooks). I do have the issue with the 'dark line' on the bottom of the screen, a few mm above the bottom of the screen. I also have dark corners. Only slightly dark but you can see them.

Either way, with those problems, the display is still much better than the Macbook 15" LED. I couldn't stare at that all day. The colors were driving me nuts. The 2nd one I had also had a flickering problem, worse than any of the displays at the store had. That was driving me batty too.

Anyway, those are my issues. The 17" HiRes, even with those problems, is worlds better than the 15" LED, in my opinion.
 
Lucky You !?

Hi,

People try to investigate on Apple-Displays and the "grainy" issue ...

Among some LCD-Displays in MBP's (none Santa Rosa) are built-in 6-bit-panels that dither the colors... thats what the 'grain' coms from.

As 17"-MBPs with Santa Rosa still have the 'old' displays, this could have been happening to you too.

Maybe the HD-Display Users here could visit http://colorblindmac.com and test their MacBook please?

This would be great for others and could help yourself ...

Thanks.
dennis
 
fluffy-flawless said:
Among some LCD-Displays in MBP's (none Santa Rosa) are built-in 6-bit-panels that dither the colors... thats what the 'grain' coms from.
Click to expand...

All current laptop displays are 6-bit TN panels, though. Why would some have grain and not others?

In any case, thanks everyone for your replies. I've got the rest of the week to consider my options.
 
I have a 17" high-res. Some pictures can be found here. (you have to scroll down a little) and I have to say that I really really love it. The best screen I ever had - by far the best computer I ever had - and I had many already. Before the 17" I was basically ok with all my other screens - now I think they have a very bad resolution. I use a 20" iMac, 14" iBook, 12" iBook, 14" Dell, 17" Dell display and now my new 17". Really love the 17". Best screen ever even so - and it has to be said - things get really small on this screen. Like text.
 
CmdrLaForge said:
I have a 17" high-res ..... and it has to be said - things get really small on this screen. Like text.
Click to expand...

This was my main fear of the 17" high-res, but when I went to the store and played around with it for a little while, it seemed perfectly normal and easy to read. Hopefully that doesn't change as you use it all day? This is coming from someone who uses 1024x768 14/15" screens at home and work right now.. :)
 
I am also finding the 17 MBP to be as portable as any other laptop I have had. Sure it takes up a little more space in my bag and weighs a little bit more, but when I crack it out and open it up, I tend to forget about that stuff.
 
just want to chime in and say that my 17" with hi-res is great, too. i also have the faint band along the bottom but it's only really visible on a solid light background. i have the dark corners, too, but that is negligible as well. the hi-res is simply awesome, i would never go back to anything less. i had a 15" before this and the 17" is pretty comparable in portability. i carry it to work everyday in the same laptop bag for my 15" and it's fine.
 
The Display:

Absolutely beautiful. The resolution and screen size are a perfect match. The crispness of the colors and text make reading even the smaller font sizes easy on the eyes. No dead or stuck pixels, nothing to complain about really. It's definitely the best laptop display I've seen recently. My dads Vaio and my wife's Acer are both 17" screen, but not as hires and no where near as nice looking.

Portability:

To everyone thinking 17" laptops aren't portable, you need to stop thinking about PC laptops. My wife's Acer and dad's Vaio are definitely not as portable as my old 15" PowerBook, but I feel that the new 17" MBP is at least as portable as the old PowerBook, if not moreso. While being slightly larger in surface area and a little heavier, it's also noticeably thinner.
 
It's an amazing screen. It's made me realize just how much resolution can make a difference. I have a 19" screen on my G5 and since it's resolution is lower it actualy looks clunkier and smaller.

I've been watching lots of movies on it lately, and man do those ever look good. I thought because of the high resolution they'd be more pixilated and ful l of artifacts...but no...the vids just look brilliant.
 
fongyuen said:
i also have the faint band along the bottom but it's only really visible on a solid light background. i have the dark corners, too, but that is negligible as well.
Click to expand...

This is typical of many CCFL displays, though; sometimes you have to look harder. All of my CCFL displays, including my 20" iMac at home and my Dell flat-panel at work, have these issues to some varying degree.

Since hardly anyone runs their desktop with a solid, light background---and since these "defects" are invisible on any wallpaper background---they truly are negligible.

I agree with the posts above. My 17" high-res has the nicest laptop screen I've ever seen.
 
A Mac fan friend of mine just got one today. It looks really cool - it was the glossy version. Contrast is great, but unfortunately, as others pointed out, it had that "banding" (bleeding) at the bottom of the screen. But I was worried that the high resolution on 17" would make everything tiny, but it really is OK, and not too small.
 
fluffy-flawless said:
Hi,

People try to investigate on Apple-Displays and the "grainy" issue ...

Among some LCD-Displays in MBP's (none Santa Rosa) are built-in 6-bit-panels that dither the colors... thats what the 'grain' coms from.

As 17"-MBPs with Santa Rosa still have the 'old' displays, this could have been happening to you too.

Maybe the HD-Display Users here could visit http://colorblindmac.com and test their MacBook please?

This would be great for others and could help yourself ...

Thanks.
dennis
Click to expand...

Hey Dennis,

The first 'discovery' that all macbooks and MBPs are 6-bit happened on this forum. There has been extensive discussions and research on this and ALLL notebook displays today, include SR MBPs, are 6-bit. The grain issue is something different as it relates NOT to the color depth, but to the inferior coating on the previous generation MBP displays. The current don't have the problem, but they're also from a different manufacturer than previous 15" LCDs used on the MBP series.

In any case, why can't you just listen to what others are saying here, instead of preaching your 6-bit = grain thing. Again, all notebook monitors are 6 bit at this point - go check on the sites of the major manufacturers to see for yourself.
 
a co-worker of mine just got a 17" non Hi-Res and it still looks very good. It's also not that heavy at all.

I'm very tempted to get one and I'll be moving mine around a lot.
 
I travel the world with mine. For me, the slight difference in weight matters little compared with the bigger screen.

Yeah, as others have pointed out, Apple's laptop screens suck nowadays on the quality front with bleeding, banding, and other backlight issues.

I hate the sloppiness of it, but overall, I love this Mac. It's a very fast, very good laptop.

I strongly recommend this as a purchase...
 
Thanks for all the replies. I decided to give the 15.4" one more try. It really is the perfect form factor for me. Also, I have less than stellar vision. Since I find 1920x1200 on my 23" ACD to be just about right, I think it might have been a bit too small for my eyes on a 17" display.

(SIDEBAR: There are actually a couple of people in my office with 15.4" Dells running at 1920x1200. It's quite entertaining to watch them subconsciously bury their nose in the screen!)

The good news is that my third 15.4" seems to be perfect. I'm finally happy with my MBP purchase.
 
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