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2013 Air Samsung vs LG Display Redux
- Thread starter themacmeister
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I had a 2013 11" with LG screen.. Washed out, grainy, horrible.
Traded to a 2013 13" with Samsung panel.. Night and day. No comparison.
I really wish Apple wouldn't pull this crap.. Something that costs this much should have a standardized quality panel. Even Asus and Acer have IPS panels that look way better than this Samsung.. but i'll take what I can get.
Traded to a 2013 13" with Samsung panel.. Night and day. No comparison.
I really wish Apple wouldn't pull this crap.. Something that costs this much should have a standardized quality panel. Even Asus and Acer have IPS panels that look way better than this Samsung.. but i'll take what I can get.
It's just a calibration issue. The LG just needs calibration while the Samsung is usually good to go out of the box. My 2011 was a Samsung, and my 2013 is an LG. I am more than happy with my new MBA after calibration.
Us there any pattern in which panel is used in air? I mean like lgs in stanard config and sammy in upgraded ones? I do plan to buy 13incher 256 ssd and 4 or 8 gigs ram (still undecided) - any chance that would be sammy?
No patterns. I have a BTO i7/8/256 and it came with an LG. My 2011 Air was also a BTO but came with a Samsung. Don't worry about it. Both screens will do a fine job. One just requires a little calibration. If you want an amazing screen that will blow you away, go buy a rMBP.
Well, I am selling my IPS iMac, so macbook air display wil lhurt me little bit, but i dont like retina macbook - it is too slow, laggy, wont stand that... so I choose macbook air... hope for samsung LCD
I had an LG in my 2012 13" and I used a calibrated profile on it. .It does certainly help but I still think the out of the box Samsung lcd looks better and the text doesn't have a weird dithered look like the LGs have.
Wow - a 256GB Sandisk SSD? I thought we determined all 256GB/512GB SSDs are Samsung? My 11" has a 512GB Samsung.
Attachments
What read / write do you get for the SanDisk SSD? Could you post your Blackmagic results?
Hi guys, first time poster.
I went to the Apple store last night and checked the display type of all their demo macbook airs, both 11" and 13."
ALL the 13" demos were Samsung, whereas the 11" were LG.
I'm a graphic/visual designer, so I was looking very closely at the screens for color accuracy, shifts in color/contrast/brightness on changing viewing angle, etc.
With no calibration, I actually ever so slightly preferred the LG on the 11" air as it was just a hair brighter and crisper, whereas the 13" was minutely darker but with slightly better color saturation. Additionally, the 13" was slightly more orange/reddish.
Conclusion: Both screens are extremely similar - both excellent and usable, and no one should have any concerns as to which they receive. I don't see why anyone would be even slightly unhappy with either, and I would calibrate either, regardless of which I received.
I went to the Apple store last night and checked the display type of all their demo macbook airs, both 11" and 13."
ALL the 13" demos were Samsung, whereas the 11" were LG.
I'm a graphic/visual designer, so I was looking very closely at the screens for color accuracy, shifts in color/contrast/brightness on changing viewing angle, etc.
With no calibration, I actually ever so slightly preferred the LG on the 11" air as it was just a hair brighter and crisper, whereas the 13" was minutely darker but with slightly better color saturation. Additionally, the 13" was slightly more orange/reddish.
Conclusion: Both screens are extremely similar - both excellent and usable, and no one should have any concerns as to which they receive. I don't see why anyone would be even slightly unhappy with either, and I would calibrate either, regardless of which I received.
Do icc color calibrations persist into games/other full screen/movies/apps.. etc.. I know that i've seen in the past on Windows machines where color profiles did not persist into my games and would be reverted back to factory settings while playing a game, etc.
Apparently both are good. Many people say the LG needs a icc profile to get it better. I had the LG on my 2012 MBA and after I used one it looked good to me but I still prefer the Samsung. I guess I like inkier blacks and more saturation than more folks.
For color accuracy, the LG is the winner. If you want brighter, more saturated colors, go with Samsung.
agreed. I'm a graphic designer as well and i prefer the LG screen over the Samsung.
Ok thanks guys. So a bit of a lottery huh?
And how about the SSD's? are there diff manufacturers/speeds? From what I have read the 512 SSD is faster than the 256 SSD, is that true?
No, not if they are from the same manufacturer.
So far it was reported that the 128 GB and 256 GB model can bei either Sandisk or Samsung.
As already stated, the 256GB and 512GB will benchmark about the same. Only the 128GB models bench lower because traditionally they have half the memory chips than the larger models. Matrox or Samsung, really doesn't matter because even if there is a small amount of difference in speed, it would be something like 700 vs 750 (and at those rates, what's 50MB/s?).
I've used various IBM Thinkpad models for 15 years. Last year, I decided to treat myself to a 11' MBA base model. I bought the mid 2011 model. When I first used it, I was wowed by the screen. Such vibrant and high contrast. It's even better than the 24' Dell and the newer 21' Dell monitors I have for the PC. Both Dell monitors are IPS screen and yet it was no contest to the MBA. When I checked the panel using Term command I was not surprised to find that I had a Samsung screen.
While the screen was great, I had headache using it. I use the MBA daily in an office environment reading emails, web, Excel, PDF, etc. I looked at the screen for 8-9 hours daily. I find that I get a pain on both eyeballs and have to rub my eyes. It's not excruciating. Just mild annoyance but very uncomfortable. At one point, I had to use a warmer color calibration. At another point, I have run an App call Shades that slightly dimmed it. Some forum said that it could be due frequency. It could be due to interlacing. But the screen was brilliant and bright. Everyone who sees it loved it.
Eventually I sold the MBA off because I want to buy the mid 2013 model for the longer battery life. While waiting for my unit to ship, I reverted back to the Thinkpad and have been using it for two weeks.
Yesterday, the 13' i7/8GB/256GB MBA arrived. The first thing that struck me was how dull the screen was. Almost like the ThinkPad I was using. I pushed up the brightness and it was better but it didn't stand out as much as the 11' MBA with Samsung display. I'm not sure if it was me being used to Samsung thus expecting the same type of vibrancy. When I run the command, I find that it was a LG.
I was disappointed. This is a most expensive MBA that I've paid. It's almost max out everything. The machine is a beauty. But the screen! Should I return?
But after using it for 2 days, I find that it didn't get any uncomfortable eye pain or headache from this machine. I will have to use it longer to be sure but the 'dullness' of the screen definitely made it very comfortable for my eyes. I didn't see any ghosting and even when scrolling a website with white background and black text, it was nice. No lines or ghost images. And it's still very comfortable to the eyes.
As I said, I will have to test it out more but if I can use this machine at max brightness and yet my eyes are very comfortable, I wouldn't mind this display. What's the use of having a Samsung and running apps to dull and dim it if the LG natively is good for the eyes. I'll have to see but I just don't want to return this BTO machine and then get a refurb or something. Wish me luck!
While the screen was great, I had headache using it. I use the MBA daily in an office environment reading emails, web, Excel, PDF, etc. I looked at the screen for 8-9 hours daily. I find that I get a pain on both eyeballs and have to rub my eyes. It's not excruciating. Just mild annoyance but very uncomfortable. At one point, I had to use a warmer color calibration. At another point, I have run an App call Shades that slightly dimmed it. Some forum said that it could be due frequency. It could be due to interlacing. But the screen was brilliant and bright. Everyone who sees it loved it.
Eventually I sold the MBA off because I want to buy the mid 2013 model for the longer battery life. While waiting for my unit to ship, I reverted back to the Thinkpad and have been using it for two weeks.
Yesterday, the 13' i7/8GB/256GB MBA arrived. The first thing that struck me was how dull the screen was. Almost like the ThinkPad I was using. I pushed up the brightness and it was better but it didn't stand out as much as the 11' MBA with Samsung display. I'm not sure if it was me being used to Samsung thus expecting the same type of vibrancy. When I run the command, I find that it was a LG.
I was disappointed. This is a most expensive MBA that I've paid. It's almost max out everything. The machine is a beauty. But the screen! Should I return?
But after using it for 2 days, I find that it didn't get any uncomfortable eye pain or headache from this machine. I will have to use it longer to be sure but the 'dullness' of the screen definitely made it very comfortable for my eyes. I didn't see any ghosting and even when scrolling a website with white background and black text, it was nice. No lines or ghost images. And it's still very comfortable to the eyes.
As I said, I will have to test it out more but if I can use this machine at max brightness and yet my eyes are very comfortable, I wouldn't mind this display. What's the use of having a Samsung and running apps to dull and dim it if the LG natively is good for the eyes. I'll have to see but I just don't want to return this BTO machine and then get a refurb or something. Wish me luck!
So I got my 13" It's an LG. I tried using the profile that corrects color contrast, but it just made everything hard to see. Images that had a dark tint, that could be read on my larger monitor were completely darkened out on the notebook screen. I changed it back to stock and it looks great.
Can you let me know how many profiles you have from the stock install? I found I have many from the previous Samsung 11' MBA so I don't really know what was the default for LG screen from Apple.
( I restored from my Time Machine backup via Migration Assistant so I still have those profiles I downloaded to make my Samsung display more comfortable)
( I restored from my Time Machine backup via Migration Assistant so I still have those profiles I downloaded to make my Samsung display more comfortable)
Thanks for this. Using it now on my 11" with LG panel. Much nicer than stock.
Nope, my 11" with 256 GB SSD has a Sandisk. Performs pretty well. With all my stuff on it i'm getting 600 write, 700 read for sequential tasks. the big improvement is that it almost doubles the xbench 4k random read speed from my 2011 13" Air (with a samsung SSD).