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Something strange with my MBA display - or am I just being obsessive?
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That's exactly what it does: makes us feel normal. Cheers to making the abnormal normal through positive reinforcement! I was ready for a struggle but all I got was professional cooperation and apologies for the inconvenience. They seemed very eager to capture and document all mbas with problems and handled everything perfectly. I have to say that besides the display issue, the macbook air is by far the best designed and best built notebook (the two often don't go together) apple has made. People may not agree with the choice apple made in terms of leaving things out, but everything that was included feels great with no obvious glitches such as I've experienced with other Apple laptops I've bought. I was just in a coffee shop and a group of people came over and wanted to touch it, lift and check it out - doesn't happen often in NYC. It really is an inspiring piece of technology, at least for my needs right now.
Hmm, after using the new macbook air for a while I've noticed that it too has a slightly brighter strip in almost the same place. It's more subtle than the other one though so I think I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't have something to do with the design so that it will get worse over time. I'll call Apple and register it just in case. Don't know what to say, but it's a little disappointing. To me it looks more like an issue with the LCD coating than the backlight. It seems like it's not really that it's brighter there, but rather that the (darker/grainier) coating around what looks like a strip gives the illusion of there being a brighter strip. Hmmm, not very happy.
Cool. The lighting there makes it really hard to see, but maybe try with a grey desktop or something - or just a browser window with lots of white. It's roughly in the same place as the pictures show...if you're looking from too much of an angle downward it isn't visible, but if you're at normal usage distance and angle it should be clear.
I guess what I'm wondering is whether this is more common. I'm very particular with my displays and notice little stuff, but I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't really think about it. It's easy enough to see if there is a lot of white on the left side of your screen - or you can just put the desktop to solid grey. Anybody else see it?
I've been working on it now for a while and think it's just ordinary, "normal" uneven illumination. You'd think that it would be relatively easy to get the illumination totally even on such a small screen, but I guess not. As a whole, the display is really nice and I doubt most people would even notice what I'm noticing - I'm very sensitive after having struggled trying to find a macbook pro with even illumination and no grain. I'm thinking that I'm going to go check out several macbook airs at the store and unless they're very different, I'll keep this one.
This is by far the most enjoyable laptop I've used, even with its obvious limitations, so I'm staying with the Air as my main computer for now.
This is by far the most enjoyable laptop I've used, even with its obvious limitations, so I'm staying with the Air as my main computer for now.
you paid premium !!!!
you paid premium for the MBA and if you think your screen is bent apple should replace it or get insurance to cover it !!!!!
you paid premium for the MBA and if you think your screen is bent apple should replace it or get insurance to cover it !!!!!
I went there, and was expecting more than 4 macbook airs on display ! needless to say - there were huge crowds around the airs so i could not look at all of them, but the one i looked at (closest to the entrance) certainly did not have the "illumination streak" on the screen.
I would go to the store (if i were you) during off-hours if possible, bring the mba - and compared side by side to each on the floor.
-alf
ps: mine doesnt have it - but i would have of course said something to you
Thanks for the update. Actually I had made peace with this and was enjoying my MBA this morning when I noticed that the frame around the display was warped and coming off at the bottom - there was something underneath (a screw or something, could feel it through the aluminum) that caused it to buckle and bend. So I took it in and they immediately replaced it again. And, as a bonus, this new one doesn't have the LCD issue at all - and I looked carefully. I hope nothing else pops up, but I guess with the way products are produced these days there are no guarantees.