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2018 Air Screen + 10.14.5
- Thread starter weezerr
- Start date
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They updated the brightness to 400 nits, check it out on apple's website:
https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/results/?product1=macbook-air-retina-13&product2=macbook-pro-13
Mine is definitely brighter, which probably makes the eye perceive the colors as being “better“. Whatever tweaks Apple might have made to the gamma/screen calibration profile, it still doesn’t look as good as a P3 wide color display, something readily apparent when comparing to the screen on my 2018 iPad Pro.
I am still on 10.14.4 and after restarting my laptop (haven't shut down in weeks) I can report the screen is noticeably brighter, an increase in brightness (at 100%) that looks to be as accurate as Apple's specification bump from 300 to 400 nits in the update. It certainly does seem 33% brighter. The color also looks richer and more contrasting, easier on the eyes. I am not sure how to quantify this change.
Very curious and happy to see this, albeit late to the party!
Very curious and happy to see this, albeit late to the party!
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Does this really mean older Air 2018 (retina) models that originally came with 300 nits display will get brightness increased to 400 nits after just updating operating system to latest version or is it some change in hardware in newer production? Sorry if that has been answered many time here but I just got very good offer for 2018 model with 300 nits display and I need to decide now if I should order one. Actually I've been considering pro model but this offer is really nice and since I don't really need macbook for any particular reason other than just having my first mac os device this offer interest me.
Also would be great to hear what experiences peoples have about this brightness increase if it really makes noticeable difference and does it have effect on colour accuracy on backlight bleeding and such?
Also would be great to hear what experiences peoples have about this brightness increase if it really makes noticeable difference and does it have effect on colour accuracy on backlight bleeding and such?
I just noticed annoying color gradation banding in my Air 2018 screen. For example I open this page: https://www.apple.com/fi/macbook-pro/ the first two photos of the MacBooks there is a light gradation effect surrounding the machines and it has pretty obvious banding on my screen. It is even more pronounced with night shift.
Can others check how it looks on their screens?
Should all Air 2018 screen are 8bit or are there both 10bit and 8bit versions depending on the batch?
System reports for my Air ARGB8888, so I guess it means 8 bit.
Anyway, none of my other non Apple computer 8bit screens have so obvious banding.
Can others check how it looks on their screens?
Should all Air 2018 screen are 8bit or are there both 10bit and 8bit versions depending on the batch?
System reports for my Air ARGB8888, so I guess it means 8 bit.
Anyway, none of my other non Apple computer 8bit screens have so obvious banding.
What brand and model panels other have in their Air 2018?
I just checked mine with terminal command I found here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2018-pro-users-do-u-have-lg-or-samsung-screen.2128760/
So open terminal and type: ioreg -lw0 | grep "EDID" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r
Mine says LP133WQ4-SJA2 so it looks like LG panel. I assume Samsung would be better here as in Pro models. Does anyone has Samsung panel and not suffering from color banding I described in previous message?
It would be great if other Air 2018 owners could report what panel their units have and if you can also do this little test I gave example and check if their displays are suffering from banding,
I have banding on those gradients on our iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) machines at work to.
Really? Most of my displays have very little compared to Air 2018. Even iPad 2018 shows them completely smooth.
I add couple photos here, so maybe other can check theirs and comment or maybe even post photo how theirs look like.
Those are photos are taken with iPhone X. Macbook settings in those photos are brightness at 100%, default Color LCD profile, display scaling at 1680x1050 and Night Shift NOT turned on (with it turned on, it gets worse).
Of course that looks a little worse than what it appears during normal use under stronger room lighting but that's what I see in dimply lit room when I looks the screen closer. It looks a lot like gamma setting pushed too hard in the panel that naturally cannot display darker shades correctly. Are they pushing panels over their comfort zone, so to speak? My panel is LG. Maybe others could check what panel is in their Air 2018's?
I add couple photos here, so maybe other can check theirs and comment or maybe even post photo how theirs look like.
Those are photos are taken with iPhone X. Macbook settings in those photos are brightness at 100%, default Color LCD profile, display scaling at 1680x1050 and Night Shift NOT turned on (with it turned on, it gets worse).
Of course that looks a little worse than what it appears during normal use under stronger room lighting but that's what I see in dimply lit room when I looks the screen closer. It looks a lot like gamma setting pushed too hard in the panel that naturally cannot display darker shades correctly. Are they pushing panels over their comfort zone, so to speak? My panel is LG. Maybe others could check what panel is in their Air 2018's?
I think I found some reason for pretty noticeable gradient banding issue. I have it so bad that even on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php test image the darkest shaded had very noticeable banding.
It turned out that night shift causes that but even switching it off does not work but I have to cycle machine power off / on with night shift selected off before doing that. Or another way seems to be selecting between different display color ICC profiles but it is a bit shady about how it works because some of them make it even worse.
Anyway, without night shift on and with default Color LCD ICC-profile selected that lagom gradient pattern looks just fine but there is still nearly the same banding in the photos I posted above. It just slightly changes.
Anyone else seeing the same issue or is mine just also with broken screen (battery is already horrible)?
It turned out that night shift causes that but even switching it off does not work but I have to cycle machine power off / on with night shift selected off before doing that. Or another way seems to be selecting between different display color ICC profiles but it is a bit shady about how it works because some of them make it even worse.
Anyway, without night shift on and with default Color LCD ICC-profile selected that lagom gradient pattern looks just fine but there is still nearly the same banding in the photos I posted above. It just slightly changes.
Anyone else seeing the same issue or is mine just also with broken screen (battery is already horrible)?
Can anyone please test this Lagom LCD gradient test in their Air 2018 and comment if they see the same issue as I when toggling night shift on / off, as I described in my earlier post?
I'd be very appreciated any info since I really need to decide whether to keep my Air or return it. I'm thinking about taking a loss what I got from weak battery since that is something I can replace later even myself but if display or GPU turn out to be faulty, I'd rather not take my chances with it and instead just return the unit now. Thanks for any comments beforehand!
I'd be very appreciated any info since I really need to decide whether to keep my Air or return it. I'm thinking about taking a loss what I got from weak battery since that is something I can replace later even myself but if display or GPU turn out to be faulty, I'd rather not take my chances with it and instead just return the unit now. Thanks for any comments beforehand!
Mine was fine until I turned on night shift, that's caused banding that didn't go away till I restarted my machine with nightshift off. Just enjoy your machine
Many thanks for testing that and confirming my findings. It looks like this is more like a feature (which they hopefully can fix someday) and not fault.
I guess I will keep this unit as "weak" battery is then the only issue left with the machine. I still have time to return it, so I guess what I do next is to keep an eye on battery health and if it does not seems to be dropping more than it already has, I'll just keep it. It is a very nice high quality feeling machine, I even like the keyboard as it is (knocking on wood it does not break). I have been using the keyboard so that I slide my fingers on the keys and just press the key , not hitting it with the same force you would use when using traditional long key travel keyboards.
I guess I will keep this unit as "weak" battery is then the only issue left with the machine. I still have time to return it, so I guess what I do next is to keep an eye on battery health and if it does not seems to be dropping more than it already has, I'll just keep it. It is a very nice high quality feeling machine, I even like the keyboard as it is (knocking on wood it does not break). I have been using the keyboard so that I slide my fingers on the keys and just press the key , not hitting it with the same force you would use when using traditional long key travel keyboards.
I suggest if the battery is really annoying you just take it back and swap it for a new machine for peace of mind.
I been thinking that but dealer I bought from has easy and long return policy, so that you can return the machine and get your money back but unfortunately exchanging it to another same model is not possible. Obviously I could just get the money back and then rebuy it but the batch they sold for sale price is gone and they are back to list price for it. Also the same thing seems to be on other local shops at the moment. In my opinion list price for this machine is too much and difference to entry level MBP is so small it would be better choice in that case.
Also knowing my luck, I'd probably just get some other problems with the new machine.
In this current one the display is rather nice, I mean no noticeable light leak, even colors across across the screen (just slightly dimmer right bottom corner but that is quite normal), good natural colors, etc... So probably if I'd managed to find perfect battery the screen would be with uneven colors and/or light leak. That is exactly what happened last year with iPads I kept exchanging... Plus the battery in the "good" one lasted only few months and then dropped considerably... So you probably see why I'm trying to find out if my current one is normal, but it seems not many (or any) other here with the new machine see battery health under 100% in theirs, so that definitely worries me a bit.
Anyway, since you mentioned your Air was manufactured in June 2019 (mine is January) I'm interested to hear if there is any difference in hardware, especially T2 chip, camera (which is quite horrible) and battery manufacturer/cell version.
Could you check following? You can find all information without additional programs, by just holding option key down and click Apple logo on the top left corner. Then select the first menu option (system information) where all the components and their information is listed.
1. Camera. Does it say "UVC Camera VendorID_1452 ProductID_34068"? If not, what version is in yours?
Image quality is pretty horrible but I've hear many peoples complaining about the same thing, so it could be more or less "normal" for this model, unless they have changed to better camera in newer production.
2. Controller. Apple T2 chip does it say firmware version "16P5125"? If not, what is it?
This is very interesting because I've heard there might be some problem with internal SSD encryption causing hang up and I was wondering if they have improved chip in newer production?
3. Power. Battery manufacturer and cell version? What does it say for full charge capacity in there? Mine says SMP and cell version 1838, and for charge capacity number vary a lot but it is the same what CoconutBattery says (mostly under 4300mAh at the moment).
This is interesting part since demo models I saw at the local shop with strong batteries all had cell version 1842 even some had much older manufacturing date than mine, and also some had DSY or DNY brand battery, so maybe that one is just better in the begin with.
Also if anyone else could check theirs, it would be interesting to hear if they are the same and what manufacturing date their unit has?
Thanks for all possible comments!
Also knowing my luck, I'd probably just get some other problems with the new machine.
In this current one the display is rather nice, I mean no noticeable light leak, even colors across across the screen (just slightly dimmer right bottom corner but that is quite normal), good natural colors, etc... So probably if I'd managed to find perfect battery the screen would be with uneven colors and/or light leak. That is exactly what happened last year with iPads I kept exchanging... Plus the battery in the "good" one lasted only few months and then dropped considerably... So you probably see why I'm trying to find out if my current one is normal, but it seems not many (or any) other here with the new machine see battery health under 100% in theirs, so that definitely worries me a bit.
Anyway, since you mentioned your Air was manufactured in June 2019 (mine is January) I'm interested to hear if there is any difference in hardware, especially T2 chip, camera (which is quite horrible) and battery manufacturer/cell version.
Could you check following? You can find all information without additional programs, by just holding option key down and click Apple logo on the top left corner. Then select the first menu option (system information) where all the components and their information is listed.
1. Camera. Does it say "UVC Camera VendorID_1452 ProductID_34068"? If not, what version is in yours?
Image quality is pretty horrible but I've hear many peoples complaining about the same thing, so it could be more or less "normal" for this model, unless they have changed to better camera in newer production.
2. Controller. Apple T2 chip does it say firmware version "16P5125"? If not, what is it?
This is very interesting because I've heard there might be some problem with internal SSD encryption causing hang up and I was wondering if they have improved chip in newer production?
3. Power. Battery manufacturer and cell version? What does it say for full charge capacity in there? Mine says SMP and cell version 1838, and for charge capacity number vary a lot but it is the same what CoconutBattery says (mostly under 4300mAh at the moment).
This is interesting part since demo models I saw at the local shop with strong batteries all had cell version 1842 even some had much older manufacturing date than mine, and also some had DSY or DNY brand battery, so maybe that one is just better in the begin with.
Also if anyone else could check theirs, it would be interesting to hear if they are the same and what manufacturing date their unit has?
Thanks for all possible comments!
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Well, I ended up getting a new entry level Pro model and returned my Air 2018. Price difference is negligible but screen and CPU are better, especially CPU in case I ever need to do some CPU demanding stuff. With displays difference in everyday use at home is actually smaller than what it appears when comparing shop demo models in bright light conditions. It is funny however that Pro feels so much bigger and heavier even they are basically the same size except front wedge shape in Air making it looks slimmer and very small difference in weight but using and carrying them difference feels bigger than what it is by the numbers which is funny.
As a side note, banding issues I mentioned in this thread are well alive in Pro model too, even worse in some situations. Not something you'd expect so see laptop in this price range. Is it possible that these displays they use are maybe not even true 8bit but 6+2bit and heavily pushed by the software to calibrate them? Screen quality is still very nice and colors are good but these are not optimal for pixel peepers (like me), if you know what I mean.
As a side note, banding issues I mentioned in this thread are well alive in Pro model too, even worse in some situations. Not something you'd expect so see laptop in this price range. Is it possible that these displays they use are maybe not even true 8bit but 6+2bit and heavily pushed by the software to calibrate them? Screen quality is still very nice and colors are good but these are not optimal for pixel peepers (like me), if you know what I mean.
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