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Macbook pro 13 inch late 2009 losing brightness?

Soulstorm

Soulstorm

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 1, 2005
1,887
1
I have a MBP late 2009. At work, I use a spring 2010 macbook pro 15 inch, the one with dual core i5 inside it.

I have noticed that the brightness of my MBP is significantly lower than the one I have at work when using maximum settings on both. When put side by side, not only the 15 inch outperforms the 13 inch in brightness, but in color, too (my MBP screen is way hotter than the 15 inch, no matter how mush I tackle with the color settings).

Just wanted to ask, if anyone has experienced any such problem with his/her macbook pro. Or it's just that the Spring 2010 models are supposed to be much brighter and clearer than the previews models? I also may be wrong, since I don't use the 13 inch a lot.

I have Applecare, but I don't know if it will cover this problem, if it's actually is the problem.
 
I believe the 2009 models use LED for back lighting and one feature is that don't dim as they age unlike CCFL which does. My point is perhaps there is something else going on.

by the way, my 2010 is as bright as the day I got it.
 
Last edited:
Whackintosh said:
Pretty sure that all unibody MBP's (from end-of-2008 onwards) featured LED backlighting, no?
Click to expand...

Correct.

Might be a really stupid suggestion, but are you sure that you haven't accidentally selected a colour profile, or checked automatic brightness adjustment? Just a suggestion, that's all.
 
lamboman said:
Correct.

Might be a really stupid suggestion, but are you sure that you haven't accidentally selected a colour profile, or checked automatic brightness adjustment? Just a suggestion, that's all.
Click to expand...

In order to be sure, I compared it to other computers with the same color profile. Namely, my iMac early 2011 21.5 inch, and a MacBook pro late 2010 15 inch.

The Macbook pro is certainly a bit brighter, and the iMac does not compare at all with my 13 inch macbook pro late 2009 (it's extremely bright).

You think I should go to Apple for this? I have AppleCare until October.
 
If you are 100% sure that the display is starting to dim, then I'd take it to your Apple Store and have a chat with them. They'll be able to help you better than anyone on here.

This might be a pain also, but have you tried a fresh install? It could be that the brightness settings are borked (through some weird occurrences), maybe create a new partition and install on that just to see? I doubt it, but it's worth a shot.
 
My Rev 1.1 started becoming "dimmer" after about 4 years, so it can happen, but have no idea about a solution (I was out of warranty for almost 2 years at that point and it wasn't a huge deal).
 
Interstella5555 said:
My Rev 1.1 started becoming "dimmer" after about 4 years, so it can happen, but have no idea about a solution (I was out of warranty for almost 2 years at that point and it wasn't a huge deal).
Click to expand...

Those used CCFL backlighting though, whereas the unibody models use LEDs. The latter should be less susceptible to unsusceptible to dimming.
 
lamboman said:
Those used CCFL backlighting though, whereas the unibody models use LEDs. The latter should be less susceptible to unsusceptible to dimming.
Click to expand...

Sorry to bring back this necro-thread, but I have a MBA2011 and have noticed that it's been getting dimmer over the past year of (heavy) use.

Confirmed with my Spyder3Pro, where peak brightness is now only 250cd/m2 compared to 350cd/m2 when it was new.

Further research has shown that LED backlights do suffer from dimming with age. But their advantage, compared to CCFL, is that the dimming is gradual rather than gradual followed by "catastrophic".
 
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