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Steel28

macrumors member
Jul 31, 2010
61
2
just purchased 15" rMBP and production week is 39 (October).

I haven't opened it yet but do you think it make sense to return/exchange to a later month? Which month is the most trouble free?:D

cheers
 

Quu

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2007
3,441
6,874
I'll get my rMBP this week after the second REPAIR (not return). If it comes with uneven yellowing they'll have to give me a brand new unit. I'm afraid that a perfectly or roughly decent even display doesn't really exist, so I'll be stuck into an infinite exchange loop. Apple advertising should get rid of any reference to color accuracy. They should only mention "sharpness", "great pixel resolution" or something like.

Are you not able to get your money back at all?

Personally I think these machines are a waste of time and waiting for future major revisions is the best hope we have for getting a fixed display.

One thing that really frustrates me at this point is had they just stuck a 1920x1200 display in the 15" model all this probably wouldn't be an issue but they are pushing too many things at once, the display thinness, resolution, IPS technology. All this in one go has resulted in a really difficult to manufacture display.
 

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,630
313
Brasil
Are you not able to get your money back at all?

Personally I think these machines are a waste of time and waiting for future major revisions is the best hope we have for getting a fixed display.

One thing that really frustrates me at this point is had they just stuck a 1920x1200 display in the 15" model all this probably wouldn't be an issue but they are pushing too many things at once, the display thinness, resolution, IPS technology. All this in one go has resulted in a really difficult to manufacture display.

Not by an easy method. If I can't get a decent display in the next replacement, I'll try to return directly to the AASP since there isn't any Apple Store in Brazil, but Apple accepts returns by mail (at consumer expenses, insurance, etc).

If I can't, maybe I'll try returning by the law. 30 days without solving the problem makes the consumer eligible for a return...
 

Shmanky

macrumors regular
Jul 26, 2005
245
7
Toronto
Personally I think these machines are a waste of time and waiting for future major revisions is the best hope we have for getting a fixed display.

So you haven't tried again, Quu? You stopped after the fifth return?

----------

You have a colorimeter, so why not use that to verify which one has a 6500K white point?

I haven't figured out how to do that in the Spyder4Elite software.

----------

I'm afraid that a perfectly or roughly decent even display doesn't really exist

Even displays do exist. But then they might develop image retention or muras. I wish I had kept my first display with muras. My question is whether there are displays that don't have image retention or muras or stuck pixels and aren't yellow tinted or have yellow regions or colour gradients.
 

jalyst

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2009
274
6
I haven't figured out how to do that in the Spyder4Elite software.

I've looked at all the options from Spyder & X-Rite...
How do people even afford these things, the cheap ones are crap, the good ones that are very capable & "do everything" are way too pricey.

Even displays do exist. But then they might develop image retention or muras. I wish I had kept my first display with muras. My question is whether there are displays that don't have image retention or muras or stuck pixels and aren't yellow tinted or have yellow regions or colour gradients.

I have evenness, in fact I don't really have a yellow tint, it's little on the dark/muddy side though, & I've never been happy with brightness level. Even if I put it right up to max it's "just" bright enough, but I prefer to keep it a few notches below that, just coz I'm a bit paranoid.

Also, what the deal with the F5 & F6 keys? Since day one they've never really done much for the appearance of my display, no matter how much I increase/decrease settings using them!

I have IR, but I've done numerous things to greatly mitigate it, to the point that I rarely notice it, I don't have muras or the other "issues", it's a mid-2012 rMBP & a LG screen (obviously).
 

BJonson

macrumors 6502a
Aug 26, 2010
866
147
I have 4 thinkpad w530s in front of me. One screen is perfect white, one is a little yellow, one is disgusting yellow and one has a red tint to it. So of the 4 only one is perfect with the other being good enough and the last 2 being unusable for me. I took all the screens out and they are ALL the same exact LG part. Don't know why some are yellow and some are white, must be the process or something but man is it a pain in the rear trying to get a good display. So its not just apple BUT on a thinkpad its a couple of screws and a 40pin connector and $52 away from swapping it out. Yes, the screens cost $52. For that money you can keep buying them until you get a good one. LOL. Can't change the screen on a macbook pro unless you want to undergo major surgery.
 

zI INFINITY Iz

macrumors regular
Sep 25, 2013
174
5
Got a new Haswell 15" rMBP base model, tested it out yesterday for almost an hour. Seems solid so far.

Lid is aligned perfectly, no creaking so far, keyboard seems fine. The screen is looking good. Tested for image retention (didn't wait 10 minutes but about 4) and no problems. No yellow to be seen so far, at multiple brightness levels. Brightness itself seems fine.

To be honest I'm going to try to just use it further on and not keep checking it obsessively. I checked it for all the known problems and didn't see any (and I'm a bit OCD about tech). Hopefully it will stay this way, the 15" high end haswell I tried in November started creaking more and more after 1-2 weeks, but didn't at all during the first day. Keeping my eyes and ears open, but in a normal, healthy way :p

It's an "M" again, which means produced end of October/beginning of November. I was kind of scared to open it, but thought what the hell. And in the end it seems perfect :D
 

thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
I've looked at all the options from Spyder & X-Rite...
How do people even afford these things, the cheap ones are crap, the good ones that are very capable & "do everything" are way too pricey.

The one I use cost around $250. Some of the best ones are bundled with certain displays though. By do everything what one did you mean? Were you thinking of a colorimeter or spectrophotometer? Newer colorimeters are perfectly suitable. It's just the old ones that won't work on these.

I brought my late-2013 15" Retina MacBook Pro in to the local Toronto Eaton Centre Apple store to take some photographs with their in-store units to demonstrate the yellowing on my display. Inside the store they have four 15" Retina MacBook Pros on display and I took one photograph with each of them. Then, at a BestBuy, they had a 15" Retina MacBook Pro sitting next to a 15" Classic MacBook Pro so I took a photograph of those also for comparison.

I wanted to do a test on the new ones. It may happen at some point, but I'll point out that my 17" cMBP is much colder than 6500k. i1 profiler and an i1 display pro measures it closer to 8000K. That may also be off slightly, but LED is typically cold. I have an Eizo here calibrated to approximately 6500K. If I become used to the cMBP, then look at the Eizo fully warmed up, the Eizo will look yellow by comparison. The cMBP screens are definitely not in that range. The problem is I think some of the rmbp screens are still probably quite problematic, but I wouldn't want them to look like the cMBP. The cMBP was just that lack of mature backlight technology made them use a different color temperature.
 

Quu

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2007
3,441
6,874
So you haven't tried again, Quu? You stopped after the fifth return?

That's correct yes. After five and all of them having display issues I determined that the chances of me getting a good display were incredibly slim and so I decided to give up.

I'm going to wait until their next major revision, probably in October this year and try my luck again.

Until then I'm still using my 5 year old 17" MacBook Pro. Its 9600GT graphics are totally broken now. System crashes within 5 minutes of running on that GPU. So I'm stuck on the underpowered 9400m where even YouTube videos lag for the time being.

It's almost comical really, I bought the most expensive laptop Apple sell, every part maxed out and I was expecting a great experience but they can't even make something as standard as the Display correctly. A part they've been shipping on their computers for more than 30 years, one of the most important components, I don't get how they can **** it up so badly.

You guys remember the video posted the other day on MacRumors where Steve Jobs showed off the original Macintosh to the Boston Computer Club?

In that video during the Q&A session someone stood up and said "I see that the Macintosh is black and white, can it do Colour?" and Steves reply was something along these lines: "We couldn't get a colour display in a high enough resolution within the $2,495 price tag, we could only afford low-resolution colour or high resolution greyscale. So we went with Greyscale for the resolution, but the Mac does support colour and we may be able to deliver that in the next 24 months".

And I feel like with this product the Retina MacBook Pro they made the wrong decision to make the display so thin, the resolution so high whilst also choosing to use IPS technology. They should have learned from what Steve said 30 years ago and done what was possible within the confines of the technology.
 

Chizzled

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2009
47
0
Hey, I'd like to help some of you guys out if you are worried about buying an rMBP or thinking of returning your new rMBP due to the yellow screen issue.

I am super OCD and was paranoid about buying one. I purchased one the second week of December and couldn't be happier. The screen is a tad bit warmer than my 2007 LCD MacBook Pro, but it is still SUPERIOR in every way. I believe the warm color is because its a more color accurate screen.

I was really thinking about exchanging it for another. I was examining every little detail and wondering if I was seeing a yellow tint here and a yellow tint there. I was looking at the apple logo to see if it was pure white or pink.

Somehow, I managed to put all of that to the side and just started using it as I normally would. The computer is AMAZING, including the screen. It is uniform and no blotchiness. Im sure if I examined it hard enough, I may find a few flaws, but why waste my time? My sanity is not worth the hassle.

If you are thinking about buying one, I say go for it. If you are wondering if your screen is white or yellow, then it obviously must not be very yellow otherwise you would have exchanged it the moment you took it out of the box.

Im not saying that everyone is making stuff up. Im just saying that things can be exaggerated, especially when you are neurotic like me.

Just enjoy your machine.
 

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,630
313
Brasil
My opinion is it's not about being neurotic or not. You WILL get annoyed if you scroll text through uneven areas. Your eyes won't be able to adjust the "auto white balance" that the brain usually does.
 

jalyst

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2009
274
6
The one I use cost around $250. Some of the best ones are bundled with certain displays though. Were you thinking of a colorimeter or spectrophotometer? Newer colorimeters are perfectly suitable.

$250 is prolly my limit, which did you go for & WHY?
I want to optimise my display in every conceivable (practical) way.

& I've never been happy with brightness level. Even if I put it right up to max it's "just" bright enough, but I prefer to keep it a few notches below that, just coz I'm a bit paranoid.

Has anyone else had this issue?

Also, what's the deal with the F5 & F6 keys? Since day 1 they've never really done much for the appearance of my display, no matter how much I increase/decrease settings using them!

And can anyone address this?

Thanks.
 
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tubbymac

macrumors 65816
Nov 6, 2008
1,074
1
Also, what the deal with the F5 & F6 keys? Since day one they've never really done much for the appearance of my display, no matter how much I increase/decrease settings using them!

F5 and F6 adjust the keyboard backlight brightness so they won't affect the appearance of the display. Only the F1 and F2 keys adjust the brightness of the display.
 

thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
$250 is prolly my limit, which did you go for & WHY?
I want to optimise my display in every conceivable (practical) way.

My past experiences with Datacolor Spyders weren't the best, which was why I went for the X-rite. The newer Spyders are supposedly way way better than the older ones I used, but I've had decent results with X-rite overall. It was also supported by Color Navigator. Chromix also seemed to like the X-rite device. The DTP-94 I had was really old, and it wasn't appropriate for an Adobe RGB display. Supposedly their colormunki display uses similar hardware. I do want to point out that you're somewhat limited in terms of calibration on a notebook display. Some higher end displays offer the features of internal LUTs that can be updated independently of the assigned profile. Those offer a little more control whereas with the macbook pro, you are just writing a custom ICC profile. I mention this because the word "calibrate" can be deceiving. I have no idea whether or not you would find it worth it. I had already invested quite a bit in a display for my work, and it was critical for consistency.
 
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brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,630
313
Brasil
That's correct yes. After five and all of them having display issues I determined that the chances of me getting a good display were incredibly slim and so I decided to give up.

Got the following display (2nd replacement):
Color LCD
LP154WT1-SJA2
DCN331400ARFDR3AV

This screen looks even yellow at bottom and decays to magentaish to the top. In short, it is 3/4 yellow at the bottom and 1/4 magenta at the top. I'll try returning and giving up from retina. Better keep my money invested or buy a Dell.
 

zeiter

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2008
384
3
Canada
Got the following display (2nd replacement):
Color LCD
LP154WT1-SJA2
DCN331400ARFDR3AV

This screen looks even yellow at bottom and decays to magentaish to the top. In short, it is 3/4 yellow at the bottom and 1/4 magenta at the top. I'll try returning and giving up from retina. Better keep my money invested or buy a Dell.

I am about the buy a top spec 15 inch and this yellow tint story makes me afraid as hell of having to switch back to windows :(
 

UBS28

macrumors 68030
Oct 2, 2012
2,893
2,340
Just suck it up people. At first I wanted to replace this unit. Then I walked in a few stores and checked out at least 12 rMBP's. My current screen beats them all.
So in my opinion, there doesn't exist a perfect screen. If you do get one, you won the lottery.
 

Quu

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2007
3,441
6,874
Just suck it up people. At first I wanted to replace this unit. Then I walked in a few stores and checked out at least 12 rMBP's. My current screen beats them all.
So in my opinion, there doesn't exist a perfect screen. If you do get one, you won the lottery.

For the price of these computers I refuse to settle for a defective display. I'd rather wait for Apple to fix the problem. I'm not some kinda fanboy that will say "oh well" and get **** on by Apples lack of QC. By the way, there are such things as perfect displays. Every other manufacturer can do it, I'm sitting at three Dells all perfect. Even my older 17" MBP is perfect. The problem isn't us or our quality standards the problem is Apples inability to make a 15" Retina Display without yellow blotches.

Hey, I'd like to help some of you guys out if you are worried about buying an rMBP or thinking of returning your new rMBP due to the yellow screen issue.

I am super OCD and was paranoid about buying one. I purchased one the second week of December and couldn't be happier. The screen is a tad bit warmer than my 2007 LCD MacBook Pro, but it is still SUPERIOR in every way. I believe the warm color is because its a more color accurate screen.

I was really thinking about exchanging it for another. I was examining every little detail and wondering if I was seeing a yellow tint here and a yellow tint there. I was looking at the apple logo to see if it was pure white or pink.

Somehow, I managed to put all of that to the side and just started using it as I normally would. The computer is AMAZING, including the screen. It is uniform and no blotchiness. Im sure if I examined it hard enough, I may find a few flaws, but why waste my time? My sanity is not worth the hassle.

If you are thinking about buying one, I say go for it. If you are wondering if your screen is white or yellow, then it obviously must not be very yellow otherwise you would have exchanged it the moment you took it out of the box.

Im not saying that everyone is making stuff up. Im just saying that things can be exaggerated, especially when you are neurotic like me.

Just enjoy your machine.

No offence to you but I don't think you really understand the problem. The problem is not that the whole screen is yellow, the problem is that only part of the screen is yellow.

If the whole display had a yellow tint my eyes would be able to adjust to that over time and it wouldn't be a bother. But when only part of the screen is yellow and the other parts are white it creates a contrast as your eyes move around the display and that is jarring.

Congratulations to you, you got an even display. Wish I could have got one.
 

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,630
313
Brasil
No offence to you but I don't think you really understand the problem. The problem is not that the whole screen is yellow, the problem is that only part of the screen is yellow.

If the whole display had a yellow tint my eyes would be able to adjust to that over time and it wouldn't be a bother. But when only part of the screen is yellow and the other parts are white it creates a contrast as your eyes move around the display and that is jarring.

Congratulations to you, you got an even display. Wish I could have got one.

Contacted Apple and they assured me they'll keep me in contact with advanced support at the next replacement. Then, if I don't get an even display they'll exchange my machine. Don't know if this is a great deal since I can get a machine with other problems like creaking or the same old display story.

Really don't know what to do next. I'll think about this weekend, but if I know myself well, I won't be satisfied until I get what a rMBP was supposed to be or get my money back.
 

Branskins

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2008
1,235
180
Just for an update:

I received four computers in total:
1) Creaking trackpad (in hindsight I should have just gotten it repaired...) but it had a nice bright white screen
2) Yellow screen
3) Yellow screen
4) White screen...but it had a pink cast on the right side

Because this happened over a long period of time, the idea of a refund got murky.

However, I sent an email to tcook@apple.com (not expecting to hear back really) about my concern over the quality control lately...and I got a call back from Executive Relations.

The person I am dealing with is amazing and got the refund to go through without a hitch. He has been on the ball calling me when he says he will and has done everything in a timely manner (before he called me, I was dealing with AppleCare since before Christmas about trying to do this).

Like Quu, I think I will wait for the next update. Still trucking along on this 2009 13" MBP...hopefully it can make it through the year.

I am very jealous of those who got a 15" they are happy with. It's all I want!!
 

jalyst

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2009
274
6
& I've never been happy with brightness level. Even if I put it right up to max it's "just" bright enough, but I prefer to keep it a few notches below that, just coz I'm a bit paranoid.

Has anyone else had this issue?

F5 and F6 adjust the keyboard backlight brightness so they won't affect the appearance of the display. Only the F1 and F2 keys adjust the brightness of the display.

Heh, well what do ya know, I never noticed that, it does indeed adjust the keyb back-light, thanks for clearing-up a long held point of confusion! Can the brightness of it really affect the appearance of the display? I guess if it was at max it could due to excessive ambient light, I've tried turning mine completely off for a while.
 
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jalyst

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2009
274
6
The newer Spyders are supposedly way way better than the older ones I used, but I've had decent results with X-rite overall.

Yeah, way more folks reference Spyder, seems to have a much higher profile overall, which makes me lean more towards them, at least for my 1st device in this category.

It was also supported by Color Navigator.

I assume you mean this software?
http://www.eizo.com/global/products/coloredge/cn/

Chromix also seemed to like the X-rite device.

I assume you mean this software?
http://www.chromix.com/colorthink/?-session=SessID:3AA1F24B0333a360E7oguHF27BAF

Supposedly their colormunki display uses similar hardware.

Interesting, I didn't realise Spyder sold their own monitors, makes sense though I guess.

I do want to point out that you're somewhat limited in terms of calibration on a notebook display. Some higher end displays offer the features of internal LUTs that can be updated independently of the assigned profile. Those offer a little more control whereas with the macbook pro, you are just writing a custom ICC profile. I mention this because the word "calibrate" can be deceiving. I have no idea whether or not you would find it worth it. I had already invested quite a bit in a display for my work, and it was critical for consistency.

Oh, so it sounds like some of the more sophisticated (expensive) calibrators would be wasted on a 15" mid-2012 rMBP? Do you know of any good forums/communities that discus this subject matter in-depth? I want to get a handle on "all" the options available to my display type, & which are the most optimal (although not too crazy price-wise).
 
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thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
Yeah, way more folks reference Spyder, seems to have a much higher profile overall, which makes me lean more towards them, at least for my 1st device in this category.

Some people seem to like them. I've had decent results from X-rite in the past, and it was the only thing they designed in recent years. I think they designed the DTP-94, but most of the devices that immediately preceded it were from prior acquisitions. They got the prior i1 display from the takeover of Gretag Macbeth.



NEC also has something comparable.



No I was referring to their opinion on the colorimeter. Chromix does develop colorthink, but they also stuff like displays.


Interesting, I didn't realise Spyder sold their own monitors, makes sense though I guess.

What do you mean? The colormunki display is the sort of low cost version of the i1 display pro. Both are colorimeters. Also Spyder is not a company. It's a line of colorimeters made by Datacolor.


Oh, so it sounds like some of the more sophisticated (expensive) calibrators would be wasted on a 15" mid-2012 rMBP? Do you know of any good forums/communities that discus this subject matter in-depth? I want to get a handle on "all" the options available to my display type, & which are the most optimal (although not too crazy price-wise).

Ehhh that doesn't exactly follow. If you're going to use one at all, it should be something worth using. Your two practical choices are probably the X-rite and Datacolor (Spyder) devices. I was pointing out that there's only so much it can do no matter what the device. The real sophistication is usually in the way the display is implemented. In some cases they implement their own colorimeters. Since I used NEC and Eizo for reference, Eizo started to go the route of built in colorimeters. They also build their own lookup tables for any devices they choose to support. NEC typically sells kits that include a colorimeter with custom firmware. These guys mention NEC's OEM units in their review. That site is typically pretty good. I can tell you that in my experience across a couple displays, the i1 display pro works pretty well with wide gamut displays. It was really common to end up with a slight green tint with many of the older colorimeters.

When it comes to the rmbp, your top priority should be that it's uniform. If it's not, there's absolutely nothing you can do about that. If the greys don't feel quite neutral, a colorimeter can sometimes help. I'm just not totally clear on what causes them to feel yellow when it's a uniform yellow. Some of them are probably comparing against the old ones, which is not a good idea. Some of the guys in this thread sound quite well informed though, which makes me doubt they are making such a basic mistake. Ideally the whites would measure around 6500K, and the greyscale values would track pretty close to that. Displays can vary in temperature from white to black, which makes the grey values feel saturated.
 
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