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Macbook Air 2012 - LG vs Samsung LCD

It would be helpful if folks indicated when saying one screen is better than the other out of the box if they are using the stock color profile or not when giving their opinion.

I have had an 11-inch LG and Samsung side by side at home for a week or so, and yes, the Samsung looks "better" (whatever that means) with the stock color profiles on both machines. However, once I apply one of the better profiles for the LG posted in this thread (MBA 280 or the OSX Daily) the LG looks better than the Samsung with its stock color profile.
 
jblock said:
However, once I apply one of the better profiles for the LG posted in this thread (MBA 280 or the OSX Daily) the LG looks better than the Samsung with its stock color profile.
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This is blasphemy! in this thread anyway.
 
jblock said:
It would be helpful if folks indicated when saying one screen is better than the other out of the box if they are using the stock color profile or not when giving their opinion.

I have had an 11-inch LG and Samsung side by side at home for a week or so, and yes, the Samsung looks "better" (whatever that means) with the stock color profiles on both machines. However, once I apply one of the better profiles for the LG posted in this thread (MBA 280 or the OSX Daily) the LG looks better than the Samsung with its stock color profile.
Click to expand...

Is this the one you are talking about?

http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/30/how-...lay-in-a-macbook-air-and-make-it-look-better/

I'll try it out tonight and hopefully that will improve my buyers remorse....
 
jblock said:
It would be helpful if folks indicated when saying one screen is better than the other out of the box if they are using the stock color profile or not when giving their opinion.

I have had an 11-inch LG and Samsung side by side at home for a week or so, and yes, the Samsung looks "better" (whatever that means) with the stock color profiles on both machines. However, once I apply one of the better profiles for the LG posted in this thread (MBA 280 or the OSX Daily) the LG looks better than the Samsung with its stock color profile.
Click to expand...

But what about LG vs samsung both with non-stock profiles?
 
nottooshabby said:
Text seems darker, but this profile seems to darken the whole display to improve the black color.
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I noticed that too.

My 2nd MBA arrives on Friday the 13th. I'm feeling lucky. :D

I also have a Spyder 4 Pro arriving tomorrow. I'm determined to make this work.
 
I dont think I will play the iMac game many have, whereas you send it back and forth until you have a perfect screen. I can only keep my fingers crossed it is a SAM panel and the drive... who cares. Toshiba would be fine. Just PLEASE let it be a SAMSUNG!!!!
 
Coffee Minutes said:
I dont think I will play the iMac game many have, whereas you send it back and forth until you have a perfect screen. I can only keep my fingers crossed it is a SAM panel and the drive... who cares. Toshiba would be fine. Just PLEASE let it be a SAMSUNG!!!!
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Regarding the drive I think it's always a toshiba for the 128GB models and samsung for the 256/512GB models. There's nothing wrong with the toshiba, it performs very well for a 128GB SSD. And the samsung ones are really fast as well.
 
Has anyone purchased a base Air from BestBuy (128GB drive) and received a Samsung display? I purchased two of them from two different locations at different times and both are the LG display... Can anyone confirm??
 
Just registered specifically to share my thoughts on the LG vs Samsung story:

- I owned a 2011 MBA and later on discovered the LG vs Samsung debate, discovered I owned a LG, spent a lot of time reading threads on it and went to Apple store to compare screens, did see a slight difference but couldn't exchange mine anymore, became slightly unhappy as a result. Spent a lot of time reading this thread for the 2012 model as well as I really wanted the Samsung screen.

- This month I sold my 2011 MBA and got a 2012 MBA together with a friend, he got the 13" base model with 4GB and I got the 13" base model with 8GB. His was LG, mine Samsung. Both ordered at Apple online. At first I was super happy I got a Samsung this time!

- Out of the box, the Samsung panel does look brighter with colors and appears to have more 'depth' than the LG panel. The default Lion star field desktop on the LG just looks more dull and also yellowish. With other bright colored photos, and bright colored icons in the dock (Photo Booth, iTunes) the difference is also definitely noticable.

- After applying some of the custom profiles posted in this & other threads, the LG really looked a lot better, less yellowish etc, really almost or just as nice as the Samsung !

- Now I've been using my 2012 Samsung panel MBA for a few days I noticed the following: when I look at the screen and slightly slouch, the top side of the screen changes color and seems to become slightly darker, greenish, less gray. AKA in my opinion the viewing angles of the LG seem to be better than the Samsung... I wonder whether this is just me or my imagination, but I really never noticed this with my LG panel 2011 MBA. Regardless, I'm happy that I got the Samsung (but now I am wondering whether that's because I really prefer this panel or because I spent so much time reading these threads and got brainwashed into thinking that the Samsung is 'better')

- Conclusion of this story: don't spend too much time reading these threads or sulking when you have the LG, both panels are really good ! Absolutely recommended to calibrate your screen or apply a custom downloaded profile just to see if you can improve the colors/contrast of your screen.
All this had been said before, and now I found out it's really true. Next time I get a new Mac I won't even bother figuring out which panel it has, I'll just calibrate and spend the time enjoying the screen instead of overanalyzing it! :)
 
vacay said:
Has anyone purchased a base Air from BestBuy (128GB drive) and received a Samsung display? I purchased two of them from two different locations at different times and both are the LG display... Can anyone confirm??
Click to expand...

Maybe Apple sends the ones with LG to Best Buy after they filter out the Samsung ones as display models for their own stores...
 
second MB air came today (i5/8gb/128). had to return my first one due to a recessed trackpad on one side which did have a samsung display. my second one has a samsung display as well (I'm very lucky). This one is a small blemish on the lid that isn't rubbing off but i don't want to return it and play the lottery again. it's not something i notice when using so i guess i am ok with it.
 
I received my Spyder4 Pro today and just ran the first calibration on my LG. It's much different than stock and that osxdaily one. Going to run with it tonight before I give my opinion.
 
mpaquette said:
I received my Spyder4 Pro today and just ran the first calibration on my LG. It's much different than stock and that osxdaily one. Going to run with it tonight before I give my opinion.
Click to expand...

Great! Could you share your custom profile with us? 11 or 13?
 
mpaquette said:
I received my Spyder4 Pro today and just ran the first calibration on my LG. It's much different than stock and that osxdaily one. Going to run with it tonight before I give my opinion.
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I got my Spyder 4 Pro today and calibrated my 17 MBP a few times. The best looking ones are just barely discernible from the default profile. Perhaps a waste of money, but I'll wait to see when my MBA gets here on Friday.
 
I'm calling my Spyder profile a winner. Everything seems to have more contrast and there is less blue compared to the default profile. It's really noticeable when viewing photos.

I'll post it on here once I have a chance to copy it someplace I can link to.
 
mpaquette said:
I'm calling my Spyder profile a winner. Everything seems to have more contrast and there is less blue compared to the default profile. It's really noticeable when viewing photos.

I'll post it on here once I have a chance to copy it someplace I can link to.
Click to expand...

Great! Thank you so much!
 
No, you guys have it backwards. The LG is the better one. That's what everyone decided in the hundreds of threads over the last 8 years.

One needs to just look.

note: Many other threads are also in error as people get confused. I know I was, it's confusing.

Trust me :)
 
OK, here's my completely unscientific comparison...

I got two Airs (one is for a friend), same configuration, same order. They shipped from the same place and arrived at the same time. The serial numbers have one different character. They are identical down to the geekbench score, except that one has a Samsung panel, and the other has an LG. Go figure.

I took a bunch of photos, with and without calibration by eye (on both of them at the same time). Everything was done side by side. Don't ask which shots are calibrated... I don't know anymore, but I included the system preferences app in some to make it clear.

They were taken with an iPhone 4 in a dimly lit room. Deal with it. ;)

See the photos here (edit: oh yeah, Samsung is on the right): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9qxinbz1bpfsp39/hWP6K-5Tcq

My observations:

Yes. the Samsung screen has more contrast, but IMO, a bit too much by default. The LG shows a bit more detail in the darks, but less pop in general. The LG's white is *ever so slightly* darker when side by side, but not noticeably otherwise. Calibrated, they are very close, but the Samsung seems to have more trouble with very smooth gradients (such as window shadows) in either case. For example, the login screen with a solid gray background shows some extreme banding on the Samsung (not so much on the LG). That bugs me a bit. The Samsung is not "sharper" as some have said (I assume that's just a misunderstanding of the terms contrast vs. sharpness).

The Samsung has darker blacks, as you can see with the black screen when the lights are out, but the LG seems more even overall as you can see in many shots, but mostly on the gray login screen and dashboard background. Blues seem a bit richer on the Samsung, but as with contrast, almost too much.

My opinion:

They are both very nice, and I seriously can't decide which one I will take for myself just yet. If I were to use it mostly for watching movies and stuff, I might prefer the Samsung just because of the slightly darker blacks, but possibly the LG since along with smoother gradients, compression artifacts don't seem to stand out as much. For black on white text, the Samsung also seems a bit better when side by side with the LG, but it wouldn't bug me if I couldn't compare, and neither is amazing after seeing a Retina MBP. If this is at all a companion for photo or graphics work, I think the LG may have an edge, since it doesn't lose as much detail in dark areas, seems to be able to handle gradients better, and is more consistent across the screen.

I will be sleeping on it and comparing again in daylight tomorrow, but honestly, I kind of wish I didn't get to compare the two. As picky as I am, I would have been plenty happy with either.
 
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Cool, but almost none of your pictures show much color. Which did you find displays a better color experience?

So far I gather, and I would agree with:
Samsung > LG - Text
Samsung > LG - Contrast
Samsung > LG - Blacks
LG > Samsung - Sharpness
 
I am uploading bunch of icc files that I saw on this site and put it in zip format..
 

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I just threw in some shots with colors (not my photos), but the iPhone doesn't do a great job of capturing it.

With the default profile, the Samsung is definitely more vibrant, but as with contrast, it's almost pushing it too far. Quickly calibrated, they are very similar, but I still think the Samsung is losing a bit in the dark areas, and blues can still be too saturated by comparison.

As for your conclusions...

Yes the Samsung has more contrast but I don't think that's always better, especially if it means a loss of detail.

Text does stand out, but in either case, it's far more than the text in this post (on a light gray background).

Blacks are definitely better on the Samsung.

Sharpness, I can't show in these photos, but I think they are basically the same.
 
Yeah, it's too hard to discern much from those pictures, but they are interesting to look at. Did you switch the Airs around? In some the left Air looks better. Particularly the green book picture.

I can tell you this much, I'm very much used to a wide gamut display and my returned MBA was pitiful next to a Samsung display. 2 Apple employees agreed with me.
 
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