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17 inch brightness--- yes, it is dim.

I just checked out the Stoneridge Mall in Dublin, CA's apple store. The 17" is just as bright as the 15" and if you turn the brightness to 100%, its brighter. The MacBook had a worse quality screen in terms of viewing angles but the 17" had the best brightness in the store.
 
first i thought it was dim too however to get the 'secret' full brightness in the preferences menu you have to untick the box saying dim automatically when connected to power adaptor and battery
 
BlueJayLouchE said:
Speaker grills = Macbook pro.. mate

also Macbooks are 13"

Are you sure you're not comparing the brightness of a 17" to your car's headlight?

(sorry - I'm STILL waiting for my 17" arrive...)</vent>
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lol... you let me know how yours arrives... If that is indeed a 15'' MBP in the video then there was something seriously wrong with both 17''s I had.
 
James Cole said:
No mate its a macbook... that why it looks much dimmer.
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It's clearly a Macbook Pro. Look at the video and the speaker grilles are clearly visible at several points.
If you can't even differentiate between the relative scale of a 15" screen and a 13" screen when positioned right alongside a 17", it makes me doubt the reliability of your observations regarding brightness differences.
 
Sir Cecil said:
It's clearly a Macbook Pro. Look at the video and the speaker grilles are clearly visible at several points.
If you can't even differentiate between the relative scale of a 15" screen and a 13" screen when positioned right alongside a 17", it makes me doubt the reliability of your observations regarding brightness differences.
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Yes you guys are right, I stand corrected it is a MBP... but look at that screen on the 17'' It defenetely looks much better... Thats the one I want !!!
 
redeyeflight said:
After reading so much about this 17" vs 15" brightness issue, since I have both 15" and 17" unibody MBPs, I took my properly calibrated photometer and took the measurement of the display brightness.

I took the measurement under the following conditions:

- Measurememt taken with Photometer, exactly 1 foot a way from the display surface.
- No other light source were available other than a dispaly in test.
- Same, exact gray solid color desktop on the screens.
- Display brightness set to maximum.
- Turned off birhgtness adjustment in system preference
- Took measurement 3 times per system.


Result:
17":
45 Luxes, 45 Luxes. 46 Luxes

15":
47 Luxes, 46 Luxes. 46 Luxes

So there is really no difference at all. I think reflection on the screen as well as type of background is fooling your eyes.
Click to expand...

You measured the display as a whole. The extra 2" on the 17" could have compensated for the decreased brightness per square inch.

Actually, the fact that both displays yielded similar results actually suggests that the 17" is indeed dimmer. If they were the same brightness, the 17" should have yielded more Luxes
 
I'm wondering if people are either ignorant, or more likely, there are a number of 17'' laptops with less bright screens, be it software issues, or hardware issues.

As far as my view, I went back to the store, didn't adjust gamma ( I'm sure someone will say that), but there's no way in hell the 17'' is as bright as the 15'', or my macbook air. The 17'' has great colors, but isn't powerful enough for me to work outside ( at least no the demo they had). The 15'' seemed to be able to, and my air definitely can.
 
rroback said:
I'm wondering if people are either ignorant, or more likely, there are a number of 17'' laptops with less bright screens, be it software issues, or hardware issues.

As far as my view, I went back to the store, didn't adjust gamma ( I'm sure someone will say that), but there's no way in hell the 17'' is as bright as the 15'', or my macbook air. The 17'' has great colors, but isn't powerful enough for me to work outside ( at least no the demo they had). The 15'' seemed to be able to, and my air definitely can.
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Yep Im with you mate, I have researched this problem far and wide and actually have a new mbp 15'' to compare too... THE DIFFERENCE IS QUITE NOTICEABLE...

I just came back from the Apple store to tell the manager to give me a call when new Macbooks Pros arrive since they are currently out of stock, very nice guy btw, so new 17'' pros are due I will buy one and let you guys know if I got lucky...
 
I didn't believe that there is a difference, but I think it's a software issue. I have the Unibody MacBook Pro 17". I did a restore from my previous 2006 MacBook Pro 17", running OSX 10.5.6. The screen on the new MBP was very bright. I couldn't see what people were talking about the screen being dim. Turned all the way up, it would hurt my eyes.

Fast forward to today. I get my new 128GB SSD, and do a clean install. Bingo, screen is much dimmer than my previous install on the same MBP. No matter what I do, I can't get it bright like it was before. I think that it's software, and hope for a fix soon.
 
I just got my 17" Matte unibody this morning. Took the brightness up to full and I'm VERY happy with it.

I know there are some people moaning about it not being as bright as the 15", etc, but come on... Dim? I've already taken the brightness down a few steps to a more comfortable level.

For those of you having problems I hope a software fix comes out soon.


Oh... just quickly.. The border around the matte screen is SO much better than the photos. I have no light leakage on my matte either, blacks are nice and black. All in all I'm super happy with the 17" so far.

Regards,
Si
 
I just ordered my first Mac yesterday and it was the 17" antiglare. Plunge from PC world.... I have been comparing the glossy and matte 17" in two different Apple stores for the last two weeks. The matte screen was not less bright than the glossy. I just kept comming back to the matte screen because I just felt so much more comfortable using it.
 
I was a little sceptical about this thread, particularly since I owned a 15" Unibody MBP, and currently own a 17" Unibody MBP and noticed very little difference between the two in terms of brightness (The 15" I think was very slightly brighter - But in terms of useful brightness I found I couldn't use the 15" at full brightness).

Anyway, when I was in the Apple store in Belfast, I noticed they had both the glossy and matte 17" MBPs on display and wow did the glossy one look seriously dim... I mean, REALLY dim (the Matte one was brighter though not as bright as the 15"). I did a little bit of fiddling around with the settings etc to see if it was something to do with the ambient light sensor or something and I just couldn't get it any brighter.

I actually enquired with the sales guy I know there who said that they'd had quite a few people comment on how dull the 17" was and he believed it relates to the way the laptops are configured for display - he was saying that the preferences are locked down to stop people fiddling with them in the store and so it's possible the ambient light sensor has been locked 'on' and because of the brightness in the store it has dulled it down. I'm not sure that's right though as the brightness was full when I pressed the brightness up/down keys.

Anyway, I wouldn't read too much into the display models as my 17" is waaaaaaaay brighter than the display model. I think Apple should get it sorted quick though as I'm sure lots of people are being put off buying one because of how dim they look in-store. I certainly wouldn't have bought one had I seen the display model like that beforehand!
 
NATO said:
I was a little sceptical about this thread, particularly since I owned a 15" Unibody MBP, and currently own a 17" Unibody MBP and noticed very little difference between the two in terms of brightness (The 15" I think was very slightly brighter - But in terms of useful brightness I found I couldn't use the 15" at full brightness).

Anyway, when I was in the Apple store in Belfast, I noticed they had both the glossy and matte 17" MBPs on display and wow did the glossy one look seriously dim... I mean, REALLY dim (the Matte one was brighter though not as bright as the 15"). I did a little bit of fiddling around with the settings etc to see if it was something to do with the ambient light sensor or something and I just couldn't get it any brighter.

I actually enquired with the sales guy I know there who said that they'd had quite a few people comment on how dull the 17" was and he believed it relates to the way the laptops are configured for display - he was saying that the preferences are locked down to stop people fiddling with them in the store and so it's possible the ambient light sensor has been locked 'on' and because of the brightness in the store it has dulled it down. I'm not sure that's right though as the brightness was full when I pressed the brightness up/down keys.

Anyway, I wouldn't read too much into the display models as my 17" is waaaaaaaay brighter than the display model. I think Apple should get it sorted quick though as I'm sure lots of people are being put off buying one because of how dim they look in-store. I certainly wouldn't have bought one had I seen the display model like that beforehand!
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I am experiencing in the Apple Store.. The sales guy also gives me the SAME answer..

My question is, is EVERYONE's 17" MBP brighter than those in store?? I don't wanna buy something to find that it is so dark until I can't use it.. Especially when it costs $3000...

Also, if I were to buy from eBay, do you guys think I could return it to the Apple Store if there is some defect??

Thanks...
 
I had a 2.16 15" that went through 5 screens before being replaced. The factory specs on those displays were any from 300 to 350 so that's variability of 15% just in the specs of the displays before any normal variability.

So you can probably find 15% variability even between similar 15" MBP's alone; add 17" models into the mix and I'm sure you can find 20% differences as well. If that were not enought, I'm assuming here, 17" users are more likely to properly color calibrate and that can sap a small amount of absolute brightness and you have a fine explanation.

This is a mountain out of a molehill. Look up the manufacturer specs on those displays and I'm sure you will find the hard numbers to compare.
 
So I just got my 17" glossy UMBP and the display is very dim. My previous 15" UMBP was blinding. This one is a bit below what I would call acceptable. I'm going to the Apple Store tomorrow to buy an Incase bag and I'm going to see what they say... It really isn't bright enough for me, I feel like my eyes are straining just to see the display. It's not the resolution difference, it's definitely the brightness.

It feels like max brightness should be twice as bright as this.

This is maximum brightness on my MBP and medium brightness on my TV. The 15" MBP was about even, this is ridiculous. :mad:

EDIT: I reinstalled Mac OS X and it's much brighter now!
 

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