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2011 MBP brighter than Retina?

D

Drecca

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 30, 2010
264
116
I just received my RMBP and I'm pretty surprised... my 2011 MBP is brighter. I'm not a video or photo guy, so I'm normally not picky, but the difference is very visible, even to me.

To the left is the retina, on its brightest setting, and to the right is the 2011 MBP on the brightest setting.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this how it should be, or did I get a dud?
 

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I've heard on this forum as well as a few reviews that the new display is about 20% darker than the previous generation.
 
Drecca said:
I just received my RMBP and I'm pretty surprised... my 2011 MBP is brighter. I'm not a video or photo guy, so I'm normally not picky, but the difference is very visible, even to me.

To the left is the retina, on its brightest setting, and to the right is the 2011 MBP on the brightest setting.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this how it should be, or did I get a dud?
Click to expand...

yours is fine. retina has a bit lower brightness than older MBPs, even this year's MBPs.

i'll take the trade of being a bit darker but amazing in all other aspects
 
Yeah, I just got my retina today and thought I noticed a difference from my Air and 17in MacBook Pro. Not too, too bad though.
 
I'm not sure if it's brighter exactly. I believe the colors are different because of the IPS display. The technology leads to certain overall tints.
 
Rizzn said:
I'm not sure if it's brighter exactly. I believe the colors are different because of the IPS display. The technology leads to certain overall tints.
Click to expand...

I would agree. I still have my hi res anti glare 2011 model to compare it to and it seems the older model is brighter but when I look more closely it does seem to be a difference in color more than anything
 
We don't know the entire details of how these are set up. I will say that brighter is not necessarily better. It's just a stupid spec war that leads you to believe that. One of the things that pushed them toward ever brighter backlights was the half life tendency of such things, but at the same time I'd suggest that the best brightness is one that is comfortable, holds contrast well, and can be maintained with a fair degree of consistency for several years even if it starts off as 50% on the brightness control and eventually makes it to 100% as the display ages. You also don't know the capabilities of the backlight compared to what Apple presents. It's possible that it could physically go brighter, but that they've set this level to correspond with the maximum brightness setting to maintain acceptable battery life with a more power hungry panel. In the end you should worry more about a stable display than one that can reach the highest brightness levels the day you take it out of the box. If it's dimmer, the attempt to maintain battery life is a highly probable cause. If you look at the tech specs page, battery life is calculated at an assumed 50% brightness level.
 
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Mr. Retrofire said:
It is a Rev. A product. Give the engineers time to select brighter LEDs.
Click to expand...

Or keep the same (or fewer) LEDs and switch to a Sharp IGZO panel next year as production ramps up. They let you have high pixel densities without needing such a powerful backlight.

On traditional LCDs, higher pixel densities mean less overall room for light to pass through. The iPad 3 needed a bigger backlight and a bigger battery for the same reason.
 
It's definitely not that yellow. I think it's because of the white balance on the camera the person was using.
 
Tritons said:
Brightness is ok but why the heck is retina yellowish? :confused:
Click to expand...

Color differences can be shown with any side by side comparison like this when photographed. D65 is the closest white target to a standard that exists in computing, although Apple has never really stuck to this. They've bounced between 6-7k assuming you're taking the measurement of the whites. While 6000 or 7000 kelvins represents a full range of colors, I wanted to make that part clear as it's possible for it to drift when you look down the greyscale. I'm referring to measurements at the white level.
 
IPS panels are slightly dimmer than comparable TN panels. This is due to differences in the layout of the conductors and transistors in the LCD array. Basically, there's more material to block the transmission of light from the backlight diffusor. An IPS display has two column conductors for every pixel, vs one for TN displays. The benefit is that this structure permits wider angle viewing of an IPS display without color or contrast degradation.

Another contributor to a dimmer screen is that as resolutions increase for a same sized screen, the percentage of area occupied by the matrix grid relative to the LCD cells becomes greater. Also, each pixel has three independently driven sub-pixels.
 
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