Yellow tint on Haswell rMBP 15"

[david401]

I bought a MacBook Pro 15 with the dGPU 2 weeks ago and returned the first one for another one because the right side of the screen was noticeably more pink than the other. I also had the pinkish Apple logo. I went to the Apple store this morning to bring my iMac in for a fan replacement, and I brought my second MacBook to compare it to the others, just because it still looked kinda pink to me compared to my iMac, it also has the pink logo again. It is however a lot more uniform. I checked with terminal and I have a Samsung screen.

So I brought the computer in and after I was done at the genius bar with my iMac, I set the MacBook next the various models they had set up there. All retinas appeared slightly warm, both 13 and 15 inches, they looked no better than my own MacBook. The glowing Apple's were slightly pink as well. The only computers that looked closer to having pure whites were the iMacs and last years regular 13 inch.

I was thinking about returning mine again but after seeing the display models I think I'll keep it. Sure, these retina displays are a bit warmer but I think that's fine, this issue sounds like it's being blown out of proportion. Just enjoy your computers, no display is perfect. I thought my iMac was pretty perfect but I was editing full screen yesterday on a video with a lot of black in it, and there's some backlight bleeding on the bottom.

I have a feeling a lot of people are returning for no reason. If your display looks fairly uniform to you and it's not burning in, just keep it and enjoy it. These retina displays appear to just be generally warmer than past displays.

 

[Shmanky]

You've been agonizing over this for such a long time, and a properly done calibration could possibly fix your issue.

Why in the world would I even need to calibrate it? How about Apple calibrate it before they sell me a two thousand dollar computer.

 

[Seleur]

I bought MacBook Pro 15 with the dGPU 2 weeks ago and returned the first one for another one because the right side of the screen was noticeably more pink than the other. I also had the pinkish Apple logo. I went to the Apple store this morning to bring my iMac in for a fan replacement, and I brought my second MacBook to compare it to the others, just because it still looked kinda pink to me compared to my iMac, it also has the pink logo again. It is however a lot more uniform. I checked with terminal and I have a Samsung screen.

So I brought the computer in and after I was done at the genius bar with my iMac, I set the MacBook next the various models they had set up there. All retinas appeared slightly warm, both 13 and 15 inches, they looked no better than my own MacBook. The glowing Apple's were slightly pink as well. The only computers that looked closer to having pure whites were the iMacs and last years regular 13 inch.

I was thinking about returning mine again but after seeing the display models I think I'll keep it. Sure, these retina displays are a bit warmer but I think that's fine, this issue sounds like it's being blown out of proportion. Just enjoy your computers, no display is perfect. I thought my iMac was pretty perfect but I was editing full screen yesterday on a video with a lot of black in it, and there's some backlight bleeding on the bottom.

I have a feeling a lot of people are returning for no reason. If your display looks fairly uniform to you and it's not burning in, just keep it and enjoy it. These retina displays appear to just be generally warmer than past displays.

This is consistent with my experience. If you look back a page or two, you'll see the results of my comparison between my RMBP and the display models. The display models were only marginally less warm than my own, and I compared against multiple display models. I think I am just going to keep mine at this point.

 

[laurihoefs]

Why in the world would I even need to calibrate it? How about Apple calibrate it before they sell me a two thousand dollar computer.

You already have both the laptop, and the hardware to calibrate its display, so why not use them?

 

[david401]

This is consistent with my experience. If you look back a page or two, you'll see the results of my comparison between my RMBP and the display models. The display models were only marginally less warm than my own, and I compared against multiple display models. I think I am just going to keep mine at this point.

Exactly. As long as theres not really any noticeable major discolouration with bad uniformity, it's not worth it to keep exchanging. Maybe next gen with IGZO displays we'll get whiter whites but for now these slightly warmer displays aren't a huge issue.

 

[Shmanky]

but for now these slightly warmer displays aren't a huge issue.

You may not see it as an issue but for those who are bothered by their yellow displays it is a big issue. I don't know if you follow the MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in? thread but there have been many stories last year of people replacing their display due to image retention or other issues and finding that their replacement was yellow tinted. Not because they're obsessive like me or that they were comparing their screens to someone else's or they were reading threads like this one but because just by itself the display looked yellow. You can find many such reports on there, including mine. This thread we're in now has 111,560 views and 1,654 replies. The data suggests that this is a huge issue. You may not care about it but others do.

 

[samuelk0814]

I agree with Shmanky completely...david401 you might be able to deal with this yellow tint issue but just because you can doesn't mean we are forced to as well. We all paid top dollar for this machine and the retina display is a main selling point - the fact that it's not consistently uniform is a problem. I recognize that no laptop screen is perfect but I'm not expecting perfection, just no ridiculous color tints that pop out at you on any white background. I can deal with yellow when it's uniform, but don't expect me to deal with a white background that looks like someone spilled paint on it (unevenly I might add).

 

[david401]

You may not see it as an issue but for those who are bothered by their yellow displays it is a big issue. I don't know if you follow the MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in? thread but there have been many stories last year of people replacing their display due to image retention or other issues and finding that their replacement was yellow tinted. Not because they're obsessive like me or that they were comparing their screens to someone else's or they were reading threads like this one but because just by itself the display looked yellow. You can find many such reports on there, including mine. This thread we're in now has 111,560 views and 1,654 replies. The data suggests that this is a huge issue. You may not care about it but others do.

I've looked at that thread, I'm not saying there isn't an issue. It certainly sounds like there is to an extent. Just to me it seems like a lot of people are exchanging even if their displays are good. Like I said, these retina screens do seem to be a bit warmer, and people shouldn't worry too much about having their whites be pure white, unless like you said, weird colouring stands out by itself. But with mine I have to actually compare it to my iMac or an older MacBook to see it, same with all the store displays I looked at today. I'm obsessive too, I'm a video editor so a good display is extremely important to me. I saw your photo post, Shmanky. How many times have you exchanged so far? I would exchange the hell out of that one.

 

[Shmanky]

Like I said, these retina screens do seem to be a bit warmer,

This isn't true. Some of them are yellow and some of them are white. I've had both variety. The displays that Apple uses vary wildly. That's why people come on here asking whether or not they got a good one because they know all the things that could go wrong: image retention, tint, gradients, blotches, muras, exploding pixels, etc.

and people shouldn't worry too much about having their whites be pure white,

Whether or not people should or shouldn't worry isn't the question; the fact is that people do worry about it as evidenced by the threads here on Mac Rumors and on Apple Supports forums. If people didn't worry then they wouldn't be starting threads expressing their worry.

I saw your photo post, Shmanky. How many times have you exchanged so far? I would exchange the hell out of that one.

I don't know which photo you're referring to. Maybe the most recent one. I don't have that display anymore. I've gone through 4 displays over 2 machines with 3 of 4 displays being yellow tinted. I can't exchange anything because I'm far outside the 14-day exchange period. Many people got stuck with a yellow display as a replacement for their image retention display and Apple doesn't consider the yellow tint a defect as I was told at 3 Genius Bar visits so they won't replace it unless they offer you their "one-time replacement" but the replacement is likely to be yellow too as I experienced.

 

[daneoni]

So i have both a Samsung screen ('M' batch) and an LG screen ('R' batch) in my possession. I tested the LG for IR but came back negative. But from what i've read thats probably just a false positive. And last thing i want to be doing is arguing with a genius about who should have their eyes checked because they 'can't see the problem'.

To my eyes the LG screen is biased towards reds in general and the Sammie is biased towards greenish/yellow. Neither display is true white if i'm honest. Both have varying degrees of yellow at default calibration.

The Sammie is also brighter than the LG and seems to possess more contrast. In other words things look less...dull.

Having seen both types of screens i think i'm gonna keep my original Samsung and calling it a day. Its brighter, seems to have more contrast and i'm guaranteed not to have IR in the future.

Neither screen is perfect (neither LG nor Samsung got it right this generation from what i'm reading/seeing) but one is the lesser of two evils. The choice is to find that lesser evil or skip this generation if your workflow/needs permit, or buy something else. Not that Dell's IGZO displays aren't having their own issues either.

 

[abley22]

My 15" rmbp also have a warmer yellow color from about 60% on screen from bottom and up, went to the reseller and get a new one, people in the store say they really can't see the problem but they give me a brand new model, after the machine was set up i see that this new have exactly the same yellow warm color from bottom and up like the first one. See it easy on white pages and in iMessage or spotify.

If i adjust the screen longer back and look from a different angel, then it not easy to see, or if the screen stand in the same height as your eyes then it looks perfect..

 

[Nik]

Maybe this yellowish tint isn't an effect of the screen but of the anti-reflective coating which is applied to the display glass? Or it is a backlight issue, a lot of LED backlit screens use a yellow backlight instead of a white one and using additive color mixing to produce the various colors on screen. Thereby reducing costs. In my oppinion on the bottom, the backlight is a little bit closer to the screen. Compared to the top where the backlight is further away from the actual liquid crystal layer. This could be the reason for the yellow cast. The screen also seems a little bit dimmer near the top which would support my assumption quite a bit.
How could it be an issue of the LCD itself? A gradient yellow cast points to a backlight issue and not a LCD issue. But this does not even matter for us end users.

It really seems like you can not get a perfect screen (or a screen you would expect from such an expensive device!). Some people exchanged their notebooks 8 times and still did not get one without issues. Me personally I need a 15" MacBook for work and I would prefer not to play the exchange game. Therefore I will stick with my current one since there are obviously no perfect screens out there. I've got a Samsung screen with a very slight yellowish bottom and it is already an exchanged unit since the first one had an LG screen with image retention in its early stages.

I am very disappointed! These issues exist for more than 18 months and Apple still ships units with IR and yellowish screens. What the heck?

 

[cbautis2]

You guys are just used to 7500+ K color temperature display of crappy PC laptop panels and out of box (no calibration) TV sets that you perceive them as normal while a more correct white balance like the rMBP seems yellowish to people who have never seen what a properly calibrated display looks like. I don't own the Haswell rMBP, but I've seen it at store and I'm pretty impressed by its out of the box white balance.

 

[Nik]

You guys are just used to 7500+ K color temperature display of crappy PC laptop panels and out of box (no calibration) TV sets that you perceive them as normal while a more correct white balance like the rMBP seems yellowish to people who have never seen what a properly calibrated display looks like. I don't own the Haswell rMBP, but I've seen it at store and I'm pretty impressed by its out of the box white balance.

Well, if the same finder window looks different on different parts of the screen, it is NOT a "You guys are just used to 7500+ K color temperature display" issue! I know for sure that grey has to be grey and not a yellow tinted grey-ish.

 

[samuelk0814]

You guys are just used to 7500+ K color temperature display of crappy PC laptop panels and out of box (no calibration) TV sets that you perceive them as normal while a more correct white balance like the rMBP seems yellowish to people who have never seen what a properly calibrated display looks like. I don't own the Haswell rMBP, but I've seen it at store and I'm pretty impressed by its out of the box white balance.

Under the Apple store's lights none of the screen problems are visible.

 

[Shmanky]

You guys are just used to 7500+ K color temperature display of crappy PC laptop panels and out of box (no calibration) TV sets that you perceive them as normal while a more correct white balance like the rMBP seems yellowish to people who have never seen what a properly calibrated display looks like. I don't own the Haswell rMBP, but I've seen it at store and I'm pretty impressed by its out of the box white balance.

This doesn't explain why two units of Retina MacBook Pro can have very different looking displays as demonstrated in many posted photographs.

 

[thekev]

This doesn't explain why two units of Retina MacBook Pro can have very different looking displays as demonstrated in many posted photographs.

There are a lot of reasons for that. Comparing cMBPs to rMBPs is one of the biggest mistakes. The two use totally different white point temps, so those will never match. Apple moved to LED early, at which time it wasn't possible to achieve a slightly warmer white. I'm still interested in measuring one, because I want to know how well the grey the grey values track according to brightness level. If the greys dipped below 6500K, it would look a bit warmish. Some of the earlier ones were very cold, and did not match sRGB. That's why I say weird comparison.

 

[Shmanky]

There are a lot of reasons for that. Comparing cMBPs to rMBPs is one of the biggest mistakes. The two use totally different white point temps, so those will never match. Apple moved to LED early, at which time it wasn't possible to achieve a slightly warmer white. I'm still interested in measuring one, because I want to know how well the grey the grey values track according to brightness level. If the greys dipped below 6500K, it would look a bit warmish. Some of the earlier ones were very cold, and did not match sRGB. That's why I say weird comparison.

Let me copy and paste what I wrote but with bold emphasis:

This doesn't explain why two units of Retina MacBook Pro can have very different looking displays as demonstrated in many posted photographs.

 

[thekev]

Let me copy and paste what I wrote but with bold emphasis:

This doesn't explain why two units of Retina MacBook Pro can have very different looking displays as demonstrated in many posted photographs.

Aside from weird uniformity, I couldn't find any side by sides in the thread that were so different as to really be outside possible variations. The lack of uniformity stuff would annoy me too though.

 

[laurihoefs]

Well, if the same finder window looks different on different parts of the screen, it is NOT a "You guys are just used to 7500+ K color temperature display" issue! I know for sure that grey has to be grey and not a yellow tinted grey-ish.

You two are discussing two separate issues. cbautis2 refers to white point, you are talking about uniformity.

 

[Nik]

You two are discussing two separate issues. cbautis2 refers to white point, you are talking about uniformity.

I am talking about the two issues being related!

 

[laurihoefs]

I am talking about the two issues being related!

They could be, but could as well not be.

There are multiple possible causes for both issues, and the issues might or might not be related, depending on what specifically causes them in each case. For example bad backlight, bad reflector/diffusor films, impurities/deformation in the glass substrate, uneven AR-coating, improper assembly, or combinations of the aforementioned could all cause either uniformity issues or color cast.

Unfortunately all displays suffer from these issues to some extent. Some more than others.

The reason I'd rather speak of two separate issues is, that a uniform display within manufacturer's spec can usually be calibrated, but if there are clear uniformity issues or a very strong color cast, they can not be fixed.

Which is also why it would be interesting to know what kind of color deviations and white points have been measured from the displays people consider yellow.

 

[Wishbrah]

Production week "X" for 15".

LG display.

Looks amazing without testing.

Dare I open the can of worms?

 

[jesuisdanny]

YMMV obviously, but I tested out a color profile calibrated from another rMBP user with a Samsung display and it has pretty much removed all yellow tinting on my display. Again, it's always better to calibrate based on your own unique display, but if you don't have the tools or facility to do so, at least for mine, this was much better than stock.

 

[Nik]

Every display needs its own calibration, therefore - as nice as your offer is - this profile is pretty much useless.

I calibrated my display and I can not remove the very slight gradient yellow tint from the bottom or blue-ish tint from the top.