Display on refurbished models

giveway said:

I'm considering buying a refurbished 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro from Apple. Given the widespread problem with the yellow tint, there is a good chance the one I get will be one of those returned because of it. My question is, do you think Apple replaces the display before putting it up for sale again or treats it as a non-issue?

Thanks in advance for your input!

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I think the reason you got no response is because, and this is just my opinion, many times regulars on these boards see the same topics over and over and they tire from typing the same responses to the same issues. I can't blame them either, I can understand how it may get boring to respond to the same issues constantly.

ON TO YOUR QUESTION

I would guess that they will only replace the display if there is an issue with it. Refurbs can come from either, customer returns or a defective mac. Either way, they test them, and replace what is necessary to get it up and running.

Remember that Apple's return policy is generous and if you get one with a yellow screen you could try bringing it in to the genius bar and asking them to replace the screen.

If for some reason they did not want to do that for you, you could always return it and order another one. Just keep playing the lottery till you're happy.

I would love to know the answer to this as well. I have a late 2013 rmbp which I purchased as new and had to go through many exchanges to find a decent display.

On my last exchange I talked to a nice woman from Applecare's (tier3) Executive customer relations department whom contacted the Apple engineers about the yellow display issues. She told me the engineers said they were aware of the issue and she would grant me another exchange. I asked her if there was anyway someone could inspect the display to make sure I did not receive another rmbp with yellow issues. She said, "unfortunately no, that they have no control in the quality of the product sent from the factory to their customers.

It would be interesting to know if refurbished Apple products are returned more or less than ones sent from the factories in china.

giveway said:

Thank you both for your replies and sorry if this is a recurring issue; I should have used the search function a bit more I guess.

The question is if buying refurbished would be a safer bet for getting a good display (if they do replace it and test for this specific issue) or not.

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Safer bet compared to what?

matty1551 said:

Safer bet compared to what?

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My guess is refurbished vs new. Refurbished was in Apples hands meaning someone from Apple inspected it vs New from factory "Lottery" no direct inspection by Apple.

I can say that two of the new late 2013 rmbps I exchanged showed 4 power cycles, which means they were tested at the factory. Both still had yellow tinge issues though.

I searched the internet for days trying to find out if anyone knew what the cause of the yellow tinge issue(s) were. I did not find anything so I investigated the issue on my own and found the answer. The retina displays in our rmbps produce the color white using Blue LEDs. These blue LEDs are coated with a yellow phosphor layer over the individual LEDs which produces white.

In a typical phosphor white manufacturing process, a phosphor coating is deposited on the LED die. The exact shade or color temperature of white light produced by the LED is determined by the dominant wavelength of the blue LED and the composition of the phosphor.

The thickness of the phosphor coating produces variations in the color temperature of the LED. Manufacturers attempt to minimize the color variations by controlling the thickness and composition of the phosphor layer during manufacturing.

Color quality is determined by the amount of phosphor and its distribution over the LED



Link to my original post which explains the issue in more detail