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Colour Profile for LED 15" MacBook Pro (Gloss)

H

hi-there

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 8, 2007
84
0
Melbourne
Hi all,

I have had the pleasure of switching to Apple MacBook Pro 15" (gloss) with the new LED backlight. One of things that concerned me before my purchase was, how good is the display? I am a photographer so it was very important for me. Some said, "same" and others say "brighter". How about the colour accuracy? Who really knows?

Now that I have one, I will offer you my opinions. In a nutshell. It is far better than my old HP nx7010 laptop (which looks dull now). Since not all of you would own a nx7010, that might be a limited help. So, I have attached a colour profile you can have a look (http://www.savefile.com/files/825401). This was achieved with the brightness of the display set to the 3rd brightest... or make it full brightness and press [lower brightness] button twice (about 220 cd/m2... if that means anything to you). To achieve the colour temperature of 6,500K and Gamma 2.2 is pretty good in my book. After my previous experience with nx7010 (didn't come anywhere near it). I could not risk adjusting the colour on my laptop... it would come out VERY different. Now with MBPro, I am happy to adjust photographs on the road.

To me (human), the display brightness appear pretty even but my GretagMacBeth Eye-One Display 2 tells me otherwise. I am borrowing this analysis method from a notebook review site which reviewed displays as well... unfortunately I lost my link and I can not credit them for their ideas (if anyone think they have seen similar review methods as below, please post and I will credit them).

Anyway, the above mentioned site measures 9 spots (3 columns and 3 rows) on the display to test the even brightness of laptop displays. Also, I recall reading in one of their reviews that many laptop displays can rarely break the 200 cd/m2 in brightness.


At the brightest setting (in cd/m2) - centre of display is 345cd/m2
---------------------
| 353 | 335 | 311 |
|------|------|-----|
| 331 | 345 | 323 |
|------|------|-----|
| 302 | 392 | 401 |
---------------------


At the 2nd brightest setting (in cd/m2)
---------------------
| 280 | 266 | 247 |
|------|------|-----|
| 263 | 273 | 257 |
|------|------|-----|
| 240 | 310 | 318 |
---------------------


At the 3rd brightest setting (in cd/m2)
---------------------
| 223 | 211 | 196 |
|------|------|-----|
| 209 | 217 | 204 |
|------|------|-----|
| 190 | 246 | 252 |
---------------------


At the 4th brightest setting (in cd/m2)
---------------------
| 186 | 177 | 164 |
|------|------|-----|
| 174 | 182 | 171 |
|------|------|-----|
| 158 | 205 | 210 |
---------------------

So the LED back lit 15" display on MacBook Pros are VERY BRIGHT if you want to work that bright. Personally, I like around 3rd brightest to 4th brightest settings.

In terms of colour, I noticed that the MacBook Pro 15" LED display was too blue/cyan. I accept that no 2 displays are the same but as the difference is so dramatic, I have attached my icc colour profile, just in case someone might want to use it. It should bring the colour a lot closer to 'true' to life colours than leaving it default (remember to set your display to the 3rd brightest setting). You can download the icc file from http://www.savefile.com/files/821812.

I hope this helps someone out there!

EDIT: New link as the old file got deleted
 
Only way I know of is to go to the color profiles in sysprefs > Click on Color LCD > Open Profile > 2nd to last line > model if its 9C68 its a Samsung if 9C67 LG, hope I helped..
 
mayoko185 said:
Only way I know of is to go to the color profiles in sysprefs > Click on Color LCD > Open Profile > 2nd to last line > model if its 9C68 its a Samsung if 9C67 LG, hope I helped..
Click to expand...

What is the default "Display Profile"? Is it Apple RGB?
 
Hi-There.

That is a great post. It is really nice to hear an opinion, from a professional photographer, on glossy screens. Thanks for taking the time to run a test and post the results if reference to the display brightness. Although audio editing does not require accurate colours I am going to give your colour profile a try.

Thanks again for the great post, good information.

Sopranino
 
I did download the profile and it is perfect :D thanks for the help.

But I have a question if someone want to help me.
You did talk about 3rd brightest to 4th brightest settings but where do you change that? I can only see a slider to change brightness.
 
Thanks! Very interesting. It's also interesting to note that the brightness is so high. The previous ones, when reviewed by notebookcheck.com showed around 250cd/m2 at the brightest spot! So much for Apple's claim that the displays are identical in every aspect except the backlight...
 
giganten said:
I did download the profile and it is perfect :D thanks for the help.

But I have a question if someone want to help me.
You did talk about 3rd brightest to 4th brightest settings but where do you change that? I can only see a slider to change brightness.
Click to expand...

erm i thin the F2 and F3 keys are like short cuts to adjusting the brightness....they have like a little sun icon on them.

when you press them a little graphic pops up on screen and it has a series of little squares. id imagine 3rd setting is the 3rd square down from the far right.

so you should have 2 grey squares.
 
giganten said:
I did download the profile and it is perfect :D thanks for the help.

But I have a question if someone want to help me.
You did talk about 3rd brightest to 4th brightest settings but where do you change that? I can only see a slider to change brightness.
Click to expand...

Good to hear that it worked! I was wondering about how it would go on another MBPro as no two machines are exactly the same...

Re: The 3rd brightest - I am referring to the brightness adjustment using the keyboard... F1 (less bright), F2 (brighter). So... just press F2 until the brightness is set to full... than press F1 twice to get to the 3rd brightest setting.
 
PDE said:
Thanks! Very interesting. It's also interesting to note that the brightness is so high. The previous ones, when reviewed by notebookcheck.com showed around 250cd/m2 at the brightest spot! So much for Apple's claim that the displays are identical in every aspect except the backlight...
Click to expand...

It is interesting about the brightness... why Apple claim what they claim... mmmm....
 
Works on Macbook too

Thanks for the profile. I put it on my Macbook and found that it makes text easier to read (not so washed out). Seems to be good for any of the new glossy screens.
 
glhiii said:
Thanks for the profile. I put it on my Macbook and found that it makes text easier to read (not so washed out). Seems to be good for any of the new glossy screens.
Click to expand...

I'll agree with that - makes everything look much better on my MBP (not that it was bad to begin with!).
 
otispunkmeyer said:
stop telling me how excellent it is and tell me how i install it !:D
Click to expand...

Just download it, get the icc file, go to Macintosh HD, go to Library, go to Color Sync, put that icc file in Profiles (inside the ColorSync folder), go to System Preferences, go to Displays, go to Color (inside Displays) and select that file you downloaded and after that the screen will be calibrated. :)
 
whoa got it, yeah this makes a big diff

i get a yellow hue over the screen from extreme left or right viewing angles, but i thnk this is actually due to the glossy coating

loaded up this profile and its much better than the stock one....and no yellow piss stain on the llower 1/3 or if there is i cant see it!

i think this looks boss on full brightness as well. but it still cant match the vivid beauty of my dell 2005fpw.

tell you what is wierd....this profile casts a red hue over the keyboard while the stock on is more of a yellow/green
 
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