How are the MBPr screens these days?

jediDev said:

I'm thinking about bumping my original MBPr (longest I have owned a computer in 15 years! it's that good!) up to a new 2.3/512. I currently have 256/8 and 256 is getting too constraining. (I might just get a new drive.)

My main hesitation is this: I'm a huge nitpicker on screens. I *love* my current screen. I went through 5 of these beasts, 3 of them had the annoying ghosting issues. All of them had color uniformity issues, but the one I have now had least uniformity problems.

Anyway, my question is (a) whether the ghosting stuff has been completely resolved and (b) whether uniformity has improved.

I'm guessing the answers are YES and NO. But without starting some big ol' pie fight, I'm curious whether I'm asking for trouble if I reenter the panel lottery once again.

Click to expand...

I have a 13 inch model and my screen is perfect. I've only had it a month or two. I have read about 2012 models developing the IR or ghosting issue 12-14 months after purchase. I am kind of nervous about that but hoping the issue is resolved for the newer models.

When I bought my 13" last year, it took three to find one that wasn't weirdly yellow on one side. The one I have now is very nice.

I'm sure most people don't notice.

I'm not looking forward to my next purchase, for just this reason.

Just bought my 13" about two months ago and the screen is absolutely perfect.

I have that exact model, about 4 months old and its fine apart from an issue with the trackpad which is minor and I will get fixed when I next go away on holiday.
Great machine though.

jediDev said:

Haha fellow travelers. Seriously, I've put up with constantly deleting files for a long time now since I love my screen. Maybe I should just get a new SSD blade and call it a day.

Either that, or prepare for a lot of trips to the apple store.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure whether the mechanism would be appropriate for what you do - but don't forget that Yosemite is supposed to have a Cloud Drive thing. Now, if that allows you to store data remotely and you don't have to have a local copy (can someone please confirm / deny?), then maybe throwing Apple a few bucks a year for cloud storage might resolve things for now?

The only reason I want a new Macbook is to switch to a 15" for writing code. I had no problem with the 13" when my job was a bit more sysadmin-ish.

I purchased my 15" rMBP around November 2013.

I was lucky to get one of the samsung displays which does not suffer from any ghosting or image retention, and I have yet to find a dead pixel.

The only issue with mine is that there is a patch about half the height of the screen, and about 2 inches wide on the very right side of the screen that is just slightly dimmer than the rest.

It it invisible under any mixed content, but it just detectable enough to notice when scrolling an all white screen.

Its really minor and I never bothered trying to get a better one as who knows how many tries it would have taken to get another samsung screen with no dead pixels and perfect uniformity. Not worth the hassle.

The thing to keep in mind is that while there's a lot of variance in the rMBP screen uniformity, this is pretty much the state of displays in general right now. Apple set themselves up for this criticism by talking up the quality of their displays and making them a key feature of the device (even putting it in the name).

The truth is that the amount of color temperature variance you see in an rMBP is within the tolerances expected on good quality IPS panels, especially considering the pixel density of the panels.

IPS displays with the kind of uniformity a lot of us would like to see are EXTREMELY expensive. For reference here's AnandTech's review of a 24" NEC pro grade display which, while only 1920x1200, has much better uniformity than an rMPB:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7336/nec-pa242w-monitor-review/6

You may notice that the MSRP of this display is over $1000. Just imagine what a display of this quality would cost at the rMBP resolution and form factor. I would expect it to be more expensive than the laptop itself.

Basically, ignoring the ghosting issue (Apple considers this an actual defect and you can get a replacement easily if you run into it) you're looking at a display that's on par with a good quality desktop IPS display, but at a much higher pixel density. Just keep in mind what that means: There will be some white temperature variance, some brightness variance, maybe a touch of backlight bleed. You won't find any consumer device today featuring a display that doesn't have these issues to some degree.

I would like to see the displays go to IGZO and get a higher peak brightness, but that's just because I like to work outside.

The 13" I returned was fine, a little yellow but that seems to be the norm.

The 15" I just got today has a yellow tint on the bottom half of the screen. I exchanges another 15" earlier today and it was good, issue was the battery was dead when I got it and it had 4 cycles. I think I'm going to go to the apple store tomorrow and try to exchange this one for the one I had before. Do you think they will do that? I don't want to do an exchange for a 4th new one.

Crugga said:

I have that exact model, about 4 months old and its fine apart from an issue with the trackpad which is minor and I will get fixed when I next go away on holiday.
Great machine though.

Click to expand...

Hate to ruin that thought but just returned form apple today for a screen swap due to retention and the genius lady doing the repair said that on the rmbp the only two things they can never repair is the battery and the trackpad as it's under the battery becomes ruined.

In those cases it's a new refurb/new model if lucky. But your going to have to say goodbye to your current screen.

Simplify things.. GO see some..

jediDev said:

I'm thinking about bumping my original MBPr...

My main hesitation is this: I'm a huge nitpicker on screens. I *love* my current screen. I went through 5 of these beasts, 3 of them had the annoying ghosting issues. All of them had color uniformity issues, but the one I have now had least uniformity problems..

Click to expand...

Well, given the 'main hesitation' I would not be trusting others (me included) to sway your choice at all, if you are as stated a Huge Nitpicker!! Why not simplify things by GOING to see one, or many, in person.. and find out what brand of screens you are seeing as well.. Seems the only way to learn to me, a fellow nitpicker in many ways.. Good Luck!!

I think most of the issues were slowly gone once the Broadwell versions came in. I assume they prioritised Samsung over LG.

i'm debating with myself wether or not Retina is worth it.. i got it august 2012, and i've had it ever since, but the lag and dead pixels are really annoying, and the experience isn't that good.

not to say it isn't a great computer, it really is, best one i've ever had.. and also the longest i've ever owned one.. but having a 4000$ computer that laggs browsing a news site makes me feel dumb, considering a 200$ chinese iPad knockoff-tablet is smooth as butter.

Upgraded from 2011 to 2014 -- just picked up a 15-inch rMBP with the discrete graphics card and the right side of the screen had a pink tint to it which I noticed right away, so I got an exchange. This one looks okay *knocks on wood* but I'm not going to test for image retention and just take my chances. Both rMBPs had LG screens btw. Getting a Samsung one would have been nice

john500y2k said:

Hate to ruin that thought but just returned form apple today for a screen swap due to retention and the genius lady doing the repair said that on the rmbp the only two things they can never repair is the battery and the trackpad as it's under the battery becomes ruined.

In those cases it's a new refurb/new model if lucky. But your going to have to say goodbye to your current screen.

Click to expand...

I think what they have to do is replace a whole section which includes the battery, trackpad and other bits etc.
I dont care tbh, will be under warranty anyway so I wont be overfussed how they do it providing its fixed I just need to make sure I have another machine while they have it.

Crugga said:

I think what they have to do is replace a whole section which includes the battery, trackpad and other bits etc.
I dont care tbh, will be under warranty anyway so I wont be overfussed how they do it providing its fixed I just need to make sure I have another machine while they have it.

Click to expand...

100% correct. I had this done to fix a slightly loose trackpad. Trackpad is now perfect but a USB jack died in the process, unfortunately! So now I'm getting a full replacement...! In spite of the fact that I'll be getting a modestly updated 2014 model in exchange, I'm sure not looking forward to playing the screen lottery game again. My current one is very nice.

I bought one on Saturday and it's bloody gorgeous.

theEconomist said:

I bought one on Saturday and it's bloody gorgeous.

Click to expand...

Got mine 2 weeks ago now, no yellowing or other issues. Really like the screen and will not go back to a non retina. I have an older Dell monitor for my desktop and hardly use it now just because of the retina screen on my Mid 2014 MacBook Pro Retina.