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Display of 2012 13.3" Macbook Air: Samsung, AUO, or LG?

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macbook123

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85
I stopped by the local Apple store today curious to see if I agree with the subjective differences people are reporting between the Samsung, AUO, and LG screens. They had ten 13.3" Macbook Air's on display in various sections of the store. I did the Terminal command all of them and to my great surprise it turned out that each single one of them had an LTH display, which as I understand means they're Samsung. So I couldn't really compare to any of the other monitors.

What surprises me about this is that it seems that people in these forums are getting a fair number of each of the panels, with LG panels maybe slightly outnumbering Samsung numbers and AUO numbers being lowest.

So I decided to start this poll to find out what the true fractions of different display models are. This will answer two questions for me:

1) How likely it is for me to "draw" a Samsung display if I purchase one myself, and

2) How likely it is that the models on display in the Apple store are a random draw, given that 10/10 were LTH models.

I'd also be curious if, in addition to indicating their model in the poll, people could comment on their experience with Apple store display models, i.e. what fraction of different models they've seen there. Thanks.
 
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M

Moshe1010

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2010
874
99
13" i7/8/256 LG Display. With one of the profiles that I've found here, I can't really see any big difference between Samsung and LG displays. Samsung is a little bit more brighter on 100% and that's it in my opinion (maybe people who are involved in graphics should be more concerned about it, but go and get MBP).
 
usmaak

usmaak

macrumors 6502a
Apr 13, 2012
847
647
Base model 13" i5/4/256. Samsung screen and SSD. Very pleased with it.
 
Jobsian

Jobsian

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2009
853
98
I accidentally voted not realising you have restricted your poll to 13" models, why not just say all 2012 Airs?
 
T

tsboy69

macrumors regular
Aug 17, 2010
139
0
BTO 13" i7 / 256 / 8
with LG display.

I have loved my machine since I opened the box. My first Mac.
 
KasperH

KasperH

macrumors regular
May 26, 2011
189
0
BTO 13" i7 /8GB /256

LG panel.

Absolutely love it, came from a Hi-res 2010 MBP 15" and previously sent back 5 iMac's with yellow tint, so i'm usually kind'a picky with these things. I can't find anything wrong or bad about the LG display on mine. max contrast is too much for my taste anyway, maybe that's why i'm not bothered with it. Text looks nice and crisp too.
 
M

MacBird

macrumors 65816
Apr 1, 2010
1,300
1,665
KasperH said:
BTO 13" i7 /8GB /256

LG panel.

Absolutely love it, came from a Hi-res 2010 MBP 15" and previously sent back 5 iMac's with yellow tint, so i'm usually kind'a picky with these things. I can't find anything wrong or bad about the LG display on mine. max contrast is too much for my taste anyway, maybe that's why i'm not bothered with it. Text looks nice and crisp too.
Click to expand...

Have you tried to use calibration hardware with those iMacs? The standard profile tends to be too warm. Even with the MBA 2012 with Samsung display, calibrating made quite a difference in my case. I would not be surprised if it were hard to see differences between Samsung and LG if both were properly calibrated. Since there are variations, it does not make too much sense to me to blame Apple for a standard profile that cannot fully match all displays.

Don't take it personally, but it really surprises me that many people spend $3k and then don't take advantage of the full potential of the thing the stare at all day, aka monitor. :)

In the case of the MBA, if Apple does not do so already, they could just use different profiles for different manufacturers.
 
M

macbook123

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85
OK this is interesting: assuming the stats from this poll are converged, 45% of panels produced are Samsung panels. If I'm doing the quick combinatorics right, this means that the likelihood that my local Apple store *randomly* picked 10 Samsung displays is 0.00034, i.e. such a thing would happen in 3.4 out of ten thousand stores. This would then suggest that they didn't randomly pick the display models. Please somebody check my numbers.
 
B

Blackened Apple

macrumors regular
Jun 15, 2012
116
0
macbook123 said:
OK this is interesting: assuming the stats from this poll are converged, 45% of panels produced are Samsung panels. If I'm doing the quick combinatorics right, this means that the likelihood that my local Apple store *randomly* picked 10 Samsung displays is 0.00034, i.e. such a thing would happen in 3.4 out of ten thousand stores. This would then suggest that they didn't randomly pick the display models. Please somebody check my numbers.
Click to expand...

Your numbers are fine, they are most certainly hand-selecting the products they have displayed.
 
T

TinyBFK

macrumors member
Jun 2, 2012
46
0
Does the Samsung LCD get brighter than the LG? My LG is decently bright on full brightness but not as bright as I've read some people making it out to be. I need it almost at full brightness to be comfortable...
 
mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
TinyBFK said:
Does the Samsung LCD get brighter than the LG? My LG is decently bright on full brightness but not as bright as I've read some people making it out to be. I need it almost at full brightness to be comfortable...
Click to expand...

actually the samsung is even darker
 
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