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JJHello

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2011
20
0
I've been reading threads with people supposedly saying that the Samsung screen is higher quality than the LG one.

Is there any proof to any of this speculation?

My brother and I just both got the 13' MBAs. We got different screens, but when comparing them side-to-side, I absolutely see no difference..
 

macbook123

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85
When the late 2010 Macbook Air's were released the rumor was that "9CDF" displays had better contrast then "9CF0" ones. This time the rumor is that the Samsung (TCH...) have the better contrast than LG (LP...). Now the funny part is that 9CDF=LP...=LG while 9CF0=TCH...=Samsung, in other words the last generation Macbook Airs had exactly the same two display models in them but people were saying exactly the opposite about them than this time, i.e. they were saying that the LG's are better in terms of contrast and color accuracy than Samsung's. The exact same displays by each company.

So you can clearly see that as long as there is no objective proof (which will likely never exist, since none of the tech blogs like Anandtech that have the tools cared to explore the different displays back in Oct 2010), everything that people say about which display is better should be taken with a rock of salt.
 

Nostromo

macrumors 65816
Dec 26, 2009
1,358
2
Deep Space
I went to the store today and compared the screens and must say the 11" screen appears to be sharper.

It's not the sharpness, though. The 13" is perfectly sharp.

It's the contrast that's better on the 11" and makes reading easier.

You can compare to yourself: but both next to each other and adjust the screen zoom with a gesture so the print is exactly of the same size on both displays.

Everyone should decide this for himself, but for me the difference was clear.
 

clyde2801

macrumors 601
I think you can put me down in the 'prefers samsung screen' camp. When looking at 13" LG and Samsung screens side by side, the LG appeared to have a brighter display, but the Samsung appeared to have better a contrast. In other words, black text on a white screen appeared to be darker than on the LG.

The apple person also could tell a difference (then again, he was an older bespectacled fart like me). I'm going to be doing a whole lot of looking at documents and text on mine in the next couple of years, so the difference was important to me.

If you can't tell a difference between your two screens, good. There's nothing to worry about. Quit reading these threads or they will drive you crazy.

Now, I agree about the screens on the 11's being absolutely stellar in general. But I suspect that may have something to do with them having more pixels per inch than the 13's.

When apple released the aluminum MacBooks in '08 (predecessor to the 13" MBP's), they had two or three different people making the screens that did vary wildly in quality. The difference I could tell between the LG and Samsung were nowhere nearly as bad.

And there's nothing resembling irrefutable proof that one screen is better than another unless and until some reputable folks get out some good cameras and compare the two. There is some evidence that people can see a difference, and there's conflicting testimony that others can't.
 
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OSMac

macrumors 65816
Jun 14, 2010
1,451
6
My brother and I just both got the 13' MBAs. We got different screens, but when comparing them side-to-side, I absolutely see no difference..

Would like to hear more of your comments as you have both...

Compare the max brightness on both, some say the LG is clearly higher.

Here's a quick sample of low contrast text to compare where some say the Samsung does better:
 

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darngooddesign

macrumors P6
Jul 4, 2007
17,989
9,571
Atlanta, GA
I've been reading threads with people supposedly saying that the Samsung screen is higher quality than the LG one.

Is there any proof to any of this speculation?

My brother and I just both got the 13' MBAs. We got different screens, but when comparing them side-to-side, I absolutely see no difference..

Then why does it matter? You're only going to be miserable if you worry about problems you didn't know existed.
 
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