is the macbook screen horrible?

not for me the 13.3 but now just 13 glossy screen is great i love it its soo clear i think im one of the lucky ones tho becaause i hear of everyones macbooks being stupid but mine being the 1st gen 1st low end model and nothing wrong but i think you should get a mb there great i just dont like the intel im a ppc person

Compared to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the screen isn't that great. However, those two use LED technology which is much more advanced than what the MacBook uses, and you pay the price as well.

However, compared to my 17" Dell and 19" Dell the MacBook screen is much brighter with richer colors. The 17" dates back to 2005, and the 19" is only year and half old. I'm sure the MacBook screen will be an upgrade over your HP unit.

compared to every other apple laptop or desktop?

yes.

compared to older laptops?

it's okay.

When I place my MBP and BlackBook side by side. the colors are very comparable. They are both bright and crisp and very sharp. The only difference that I see is the MBP is a bit brighter. I purchased my MBP last July and my BlackBook is a week old.

The screen is great! I hate glossy screens, but the MacBook's is small enough that glare is not an issue at all. The color is great, and I have no complaints!

i agree i love the screen. the only thing the mbp has over the mb is viewing angle.

The LED vs. LCD makes some difference. The MacBook screen is above average. The MacBook Pro's screen is excellent as far as laptops go.

Yes, the Macbook screen is horrible compared to something like a Lenovo T60.

The MacBook screen is the worst screen Apple is selling now.

When you place it side by side with MBP (15) its like day and night.

MBP has better colors, brighter, significantly better viewing angles, more even backlighting, instant 100% brightness after cold turning on (one of my favorite LED features), its matte and it feels much larger due to smaller bezel around the screen and bigger screen itself.

Also a point to consider is no matter how you position your head towards MB's monitor, the top of the screen would still be lighter than normal and bottom would be darker. Piss-poor viewing angle

I currently own a Black MacBook. To be honest, I don't think the Macbook screens are horrible. Now is the screens on a MacBook Pro better looking? Sure. But you also get what you pay for.

I'm waiting on Apple to re-design the MacBook Pros this summer so I can purchase a MBP...but I do think the MacBook screens are very great looking--certainly no where close to horrible.

Good luck!

jesusplay said:

I've read alot about it and its keeping me from buying a macbook...

is the macbook screen bad?

im use to a 4:3 15 inch hp monitor from 2004. will the macbook lok bad compared to somthing made 3-4 years ago?

only reason why im considering a MBP if the scrren on the MB suxs... screen size inst my problem.

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My primary work machine for roughly the last 4 years has been the 12" PowerBook in my signature. Recently, a friend was travelling overseas for a week and I had the opportunity to borrow his 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo white MacBook. While I didn't particularly like the keyboard or the sharp edges on the case, the screen is fantastic in comparison to the 12" PowerBook. It looks at least twice as bright, the glossy finish makes colours look richer, and the extra screen resolution was noticeable and came in handy. When I handed the MacBook back and returned to my 12" PowerBook, I literally checked that I didn't have the brightness turned down to halfway...it turns out it was at 100%. So no complaints from here regarding the MacBook screen.

Just my opinion...

I had the black macbook for a few days. Coming from an MBA, I was spoiled. I could not stand the faded out look and positioning my head just right to get the best angle. Now I'm using the MBP and loving it. To be honest though, if it wasn't for the MBA, I probably would've been happy with the macbook.

That being said, I've read numerous posts that say the screen needs to be calibrated. I know that there is a MBP thread where people post their optimal color profiles for you to try. I don't know if there is one for the macbook.

hotsauce said:

That being said, I've read numerous posts that say the screen needs to be calibrated. I know that there is a MBP thread where people post their optimal color profiles for you to try. I don't know if there is one for the macbook.

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Oh yea I forgot... I had to calibrate the screen to make it look less washed-out. At default setting its terrible!

eXan said:

Oh yea I forgot... I had to calibrate the screen to make it look less washed-out. At default setting its terrible!

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That's the fix. Many people don't know about calibrating and how it can improve the screen a great deal.

I was using my MBP since July and still wanted a MacBook which I got last week. Even after using the MBP and calibrating the screen on my MacBook, about the only difference I can see in the two is the MBP has a slightly brighter screen. That's it, both are sharp, crisp clean screens.

hexonxonx said:

That's the fix. Many people don't know about calibrating and how it can improve the screen a great deal.

I was using my MBP since July and still wanted a MacBook which I got last week. Even after using the MBP and calibrating the screen on my MacBook, about the only difference I can see in the two is the MBP has a slightly brighter screen. That's it, both are sharp, crisp clean screens.

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Unfortunately it just fixes (kind of) the washed-out colors, but there still a lot of parameters that make it a terrible display...

eXan said:

Unfortunately it just fixes (kind of) the washed-out colors, but there still a lot of parameters that make it a terrible display...

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If that's the case, then the same thing could be said about the MBP. I was not pleased with the display on my MBP till I used a different color profile. And the same could be said about the iMac and the MacBook Air and so on and so on....

hexonxonx said:

If that's the case, then the same thing could be said about the MBP. I was not pleased with the display on my MBP till I used a different color profile. And the same could be said about the iMac and the MacBook Air and so on and so on....

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You misunderstood.

When I said "terrible" I ment terrible compared to the rest of displays Apple sells nowadays. And MacBook has the worst one.

Well it's not bad if you are viewing the screen at precisely the right viewing angle. Shift your head just a little bit and the screen sucks. For example, if you are standing and have the computer on a desk, it's almost impossible to avoid looking at a washed out screen because you can't rotate the screen far enough back to get the right viewing angle.

I'm going to wear the hinges out on mine from moving the screen back and forth so much

I've had my BlackBook for 16 months now and I will say in all honesty that it is not the best LCD monitor and it is not the worse. With that said I love my MacBook and it does EXACTLY what I bought it for; to be a lightweight, portable, powerful notebook computer running OS X.

Below are my opinions of the LCD monitor based on 16 months of use of MY BlackBook...

PROS:

• Bright
• Clear
• Fairly good color if you look at it straight at on (calibrated).

CONS:

• If you don't look at it straight on, the color changes quite a bit (calibrated).
• 13.3" at 1280x800 can be a little tight sometimes, but that is the trade-off for increased portability. At home I have a 19" desktop LCD I use.

As someone else mentioned above, compared to my previous PowerBook 12" LCD, my BlackBook's LCD is much better. So I guess in the end it is all relative to what you are used to using and what you expect.

I actually quite like the MacBook screen, probably too saturated for serious graphics or photography but I kinda like saturated colours. Glare isn't so much of an issue unless your in direct sunlight.