Yellow tint on Haswell rMBP 15"

[fpsphil]

whats ur manufacture date?

 

[zI INFINITY Iz]

whats ur manufacture date?

If you're asking Quu: V, is week 50, meaning somewhere between 9-15 December.

 

[Quu]

pic please ty

Guys pictures are not accurate for this. But I will provide one. Keep in mind, this picture is completely inaccurate, what it displays is a brighter centre than the edges which is NOT what I see with my eyes. It also makes it look slightly yellow in the picture which again is not what I see with my eyes. My iPhone 5 is processing the image and making the centre appear brighter than it actually is. The screen is uniform in brightness.

Even just looking at the display through my iPhones screen before I take a picture the colour looks completely different to what I'm seeing with my own eyes. The iPhone just can't take a good picture of a screen with all its image processing that are designed to modify things to make them look better.

whats ur manufacture date?

I don't know, but the 5th letter of my Serial Number is V.

 

[fpsphil]

I don't know, but the 5th letter of my Serial Number is V.

Alright thank you, when i go to get mine replaced this week I'm just going to have them bring a few out so I can compare serial numbers and get the latest production week. Im going with the theory that the newer machines have better panels (production outputs and processes probably becoming better over time). I have a week 44 right now

 

[cipad]

Also production week 50 and screen looks amazing to me - slightly warmer than iPhone 5 and almost identical to iPad Air. But, more importantly, it looks completely even to me - no brighter/darker or otherwise different corners etc.

I like this color (6500K, also the natural white-point) better, but it would be easy to calibrate it differently...

 

[Jerz]

Guys pictures are not accurate for this. But I will provide one. Keep in mind, this picture is completely inaccurate, what it displays is a brighter centre than the edges which is NOT what I see with my eyes. It also makes it look slightly yellow in the picture which again is not what I see with my eyes. My iPhone 5 is processing the image and making the centre appear brighter than it actually is. The screen is uniform in brightness.

Even just looking at the display through my iPhones screen before I take a picture the colour looks completely different to what I'm seeing with my own eyes. The iPhone just can't take a good picture of a screen with all its image processing that are designed to modify things to make them look better.

Image



I don't know, but the 5th letter of my Serial Number is V.

Well, the image looks the same when compared with those who were complaining that their screens were faulty. So maybe seeking perfection or their eyes are just bad, vice versa. Idk what's going on.

 

[skatya]

pictures don't show anything

Guys, pictures don't show anything, every photo has yellow tint on it, btw my macbook arrived today and it had 2 yellow spots and led bleeding in 2 lower corners, so i sent it back. Don't know what to do, give up or try to find a good one, what do u guys think?

 

[samuelk0814]

Emailed Tim Cook and got a call from Executive Relations...they left a voicemail and I figure I'll call them back after Christmas.
Hope they can do something so I get a good screen...current one has terrible yellow blotch on bottom left corner and general uneven backlighting throughout the screen.
Hoping a newer serial number will do me good...seeing good reports of the "V" serial number has my hopes up

 

[Jerz]

Guys, pictures don't show anything, every photo has yellow tint on it, btw my macbook arrived today and it had 2 yellow spots and led bleeding in 2 lower corners, so i sent it back. Don't know what to do, give up or try to find a good one, what do u guys think?

Pictures show more than your own words. I could be so nit picky and say my screen is terrible but it could be fine.
LED bleeding is normal for all side lit panels, just fyi. I have gone through 4 rMBP, 1 Chromebook Pixel, 1 Surface Pro 2, 1 Razer blade, All of these panels are side lit and have led bleeding. And this is the classic case where the consumer doesn't know that this is normal and says it's faulty.

 

[samuelk0814]

Pictures show more than your own words. I could be so nit picky and say my screen is terrible but it could be fine.
LED bleeding is normal for all side lit panels, just fyi. I have gone through 4 rMBP, 1 Chromebook Pixel, 1 Surface Pro 2, 1 Razer blade, All of these panels are side lit and have led bleeding. And this is the classic case where the consumer doesn't know that this is normal and says it's faulty.

Yep I see slight LED bleeding on my Macbook Air as well. However, yellow tints are unacceptable and clearly not within spec, and I think that's the primary gripe people have with the rMBPs.

 

[Jerz]

Yep I see slight LED bleeding on my Macbook Air as well. However, yellow tints are unacceptable and clearly not within spec, and I think that's the primary gripe people have with the rMBPs.

Yeah, I think that has to do with the phosphorous coating on the lighting nodes. Not entirely sure, but it's been a problem ever since the first retina Macbook pros

 

[megatronbomb]

I've been away from Macs for a few years due to education/work requirements. I just got a fully loaded 15" MBP today, though I was hesitant due to this thread and others like it. I'm impressed with the screen. It's pretty uniform, it doesn't appear yellow at all to me, and no dead/stuck pixels.

I don't want to say that there aren't any screen problems out there, but it seems like they've been blown way out of proportion?

 

[skatya]

Pictures show more than your own words. I could be so nit picky and say my screen is terrible but it could be fine.
LED bleeding is normal for all side lit panels, just fyi. I have gone through 4 rMBP, 1 Chromebook Pixel, 1 Surface Pro 2, 1 Razer blade, All of these panels are side lit and have led bleeding. And this is the classic case where the consumer doesn't know that this is normal and says it's faulty.

i guess u don't really understand how phone cameras work
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1678451/

 

[Quu]

Well, the image looks the same when compared with those who were complaining that their screens were faulty. So maybe seeking perfection or their eyes are just bad, vice versa. Idk what's going on.

As I said already when I posted that image it is not what my eyes see. The iPhone 5 applies yellow to the image to make it look more natural. The camera has all kinds of processing in it in an attempt to naturalise images. The screen is completely white in real life. This is why I've said over and over that I don't want to post a picture because they are completely false unless you're using a DSLR.

I don't want to say that there aren't any screen problems out there, but it seems like they've been blown way out of proportion?

No you just got a good one.

 

[Jerz]

i guess u don't really understand how phone cameras work
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1678451/

Phone camera pictures are phone camera pictures, they do not represent pictures as a whole. If your definition of picture is wholly made up of phone cameras, then boy are you wrong.

 

[skatya]

Phone camera pictures are phone camera pictures, they do not represent pictures as a whole. If your definition of picture is wholly made up of phone cameras, then boy are you wrong.

I'm saying phone camera, because every photo in this thread is made by phone, so photos in this thread don't show real representation of what our eyes see.

 

[UBS28]

Pictures show more than your own words. I could be so nit picky and say my screen is terrible but it could be fine.
LED bleeding is normal for all side lit panels, just fyi. I have gone through 4 rMBP, 1 Chromebook Pixel, 1 Surface Pro 2, 1 Razer blade, All of these panels are side lit and have led bleeding. And this is the classic case where the consumer doesn't know that this is normal and says it's faulty.

I must have an amazing iPad 3 then since it has zero backlight bleeding on any sides.

 

[Shmanky]

yellow tints are unacceptable and clearly not within spec, and I think that's the primary gripe people have with the rMBPs.

I've been told by 3 different Geniuses at 3 different Genius Bars that the yellow tint is normal and within Apple's specification. I'm currently on my third yellow-tinted display after replacing my first nice one. In my experience, Apple doesn't care that you got a yellow one. Do you think Apple will do anything about it for you?

 

[umbilical]

hey guys, after all this weeks I receive and open my macbook pro! today and I feel sooooo lucky I see perfect white! no yellow corners at all, wow I feel so lucky but if you check my post I say that I CANT return anything, because I order in USA from amazon, later send to my country, so return it to USA is so expensive and again pay more fees for the replacement... so no issues here (well I hope that in the next weeks dont start to turn yellow)

mine is the base 15inch model, order from amazon, what numbers you need to post here, to help with the history diagnostics?

so happy day

 

[Baadshah]

hey guys, after all this weeks I receive and open my macbook pro! today and I feel sooooo lucky I see perfect white! no yellow corners at all, wow I feel so lucky but if you check my post I say that I CANT return anything, because I order in USA from amazon, later send to my country, so return it to USA is so expensive and again pay more fees for the replacement... so no issues here (well I hope that in the next weeks dont start to turn yellow)

mine is the base 15inch model, order from amazon, what numbers you need to post here, to help with the history diagnostics?

so happy day

Good to hear that, what is the fifth letter of the serial no?

 

[umbilical]

Good to hear that, what is the fifth letter of the serial no?

P

and that means?

 

[samven582]

I believe the reason why some of us are having issues with either yellow blotches, tinge, tint or any thing that's overly yellow where it shouldn't be is due to the yellow phosphor coating.

How LEDs Produce White Light
Conventional Method 2: The Phosphor Method

The Phosphor white method produces white light in a single LED by combining a short wavelength LED such as blue or UV, and a yellow phosphor coating. The blue or UV photons generated in the LED either travels through the phosphor layer without alteration, or they are converted into yellow photons in the phosphor layer. The combinations of the blue and yellow photons combine to generate white light. In some modules, the yellow phosphor is remote.

Phosphor white offers much better color rendering than RGB white, often on a par with florescent sources. Phosphor white light is also much more efficient than RGB white. Because of its superior efficient and color rendering (typically Ra70 to 85), phosphor white is the most commonly used method of producing white light with LED's. Whilst color rendering is good in the pastel shades, the spectral density is not close to daylight and there are problems rendering the more saturated colors such as red (R9). Read more about this in the section on color rendering

In a typical phosphor white manufacturing process, a phosphor coating is deposited on the LED die. The exact shade or color temperature of white light produced by the LED is determined by the dominant wavelength of the blue LED and the composition of the phosphor.

The thickness of the phosphor coating produces variations in the color temperature of the LED. Manufacturers attempt to minimize the color variations by controlling the thickness and composition of the phosphor layer during manufacturing.

Over time, the blue die and the yellow phosphor will degrade. This results in the delivered light shifting in color. It will also produce unexpected colors if the device is operated at a different current or operating temperature.

Image

Image

The 15' retina display is lit by a single strip of leds located at the bottom of the retina display. Image below. Enlarged

Image

MacBook Pro Retina Display Teardown

Just with the phosphor coating in mind in my opinion could be the cause of the two issues below.

Uniform screen but overly yellow - phosphor coating is too thick

Bottom half of screen yellow while the top portion is uniform - Could be caused by many things.

1. Phosphor coating is too thick on a few of the leds, leading to yellow blotches.
   
2. Phosphor coating not covering the entire led.
   
3. Phosphor coating still wet and is introduced to gravity earlier than it should've been.
   
4. Yellow stains on one of the diffuser or prism films.

What I have noticed is that heat temporarily fixes the yellow. Also I noticed this yellow phosphor coating when I turned the display brightness all the way down to the display looking like it is off. Than I used a led flashlight to shine in the display which showed a bronze layer which I believe is the phosphor coating. (my desktop background was set to color solid white) the flashlight is basically acting like a back light.

When trying the same test with the macbook pro retina completely off and using the flashlight all I saw was black.

more info about LEDs and the phosphor layer

Some snippets of info from the above link

Color quality is determined by the amount of phosphor and its distribution over the LED

Phosphor coating and remote phosphor technologies are aiming for less binder and more uniformity by spraying phosphor with minimal binder on die surface or optics surface. The thin phosphor layer thus is formulated on die or optics.

Achieving uniform spray thickness is a key challenge.

In spraying processes the silicone/binder/solvent/phosphor combination is typically a low viscosity (<100 cps) mixture. The chemistry challenge is to keep the phosphor dispersion in suspension and in a uniform mixed. Special conformal coating spray applicators with a combination of process techniques and masks provide the uniform coatings.

Even more info about Light emitting diodes aka LEDs

Thoughts?

I wonder if the iPhone incorporates the same tech?

 

[that1guyy]

This thread seems to be getting less active. Does that mean people are having their issues resolved or people gave up/stopped caring?

I returned by third rmbp a few days ago and am going to order my fourth one probably in the next couple days. I don't know what to do except just hope for a good one but my last one was just noticeably bad and dirty yellow in a large blotch on the bottom center left area.

 

[MD Ilya]

This thread seems to be getting less active. Does that mean people are having their issues resolved or people gave up/stopped caring?

I returned by third rmbp a few days ago and am going to order my fourth one probably in the next couple days. I don't know what to do except just hope for a good one but my last one was just noticeably bad and dirty yellow in a large blotch on the bottom center left area.

i returned 3 also. hoping for mid/end of january 2014 to order one more in new revision/latest batches.

 

[Quu]

I'm returning my 5th one and giving up. It has developed a few different faults. Image retention being one of them, I can actually see my old windows on top of new ones, I've not even done any Image Retention tests this is just in normal usage. It also locks up everytime I try and shutdown or reboot after updating to 10.9.1. I'm not going to hold down the power button for 10 seconds to force it to shut off every time I wanna reboot.

I dunno what is up with Apple anymore but these notebooks are terrible and I'm done, no more replacement no more new purchases.

Good luck everyone else.