Well, I'm on my third unibody MBP in three weeks. The first had a problem whereby it would occasionally develop random lines of corrupted pixels on the display. The second would randomly lock-up during use, and sometimes immediately after power-up. The local Apple store was great about the returns. I'm surprised at the problems, but not upset. I've bought a lot of hardware from Apple over the years, and on the whole the machines have been very reliable.
There have been a lot of posts regarding screen quality. Just thought I'd post my observations of the three MBPs that I've had. The first had a 9C85 panel, and the second and third were 9C84s.
First, the overall display quality of all three was outstanding. There was no perceptible difference between the first 9C85 and the first 9C84. The second 9C84 (the third MBP) is very slightly less bright than the first two. The contrast, sharpness, black level, saturation, and everything else was the same between all three.
I suspect that the slight reduction in the brightness level of the second 9C84 might be related to the battery of the MBP or the internal power conditioning. I say this because the other perceptible difference in the second 9C84 is that the keyboard is also slightly less bright. I'm an electrical engineer, I've designed laptop hardware, and if I were trying the understand the difference in brightness, the first place I'd look on the second 9C84 is at the voltage supplied to the LEDs that drive the display and the keyboard.
The other thing I noticed with all three is that the black level of the displays is somewhat sensitive to the angle of the display when you look at it. That is, if you sit directly in front of it, you can see the black level shift slightly as the display rotates forwards and backwards, or equivalently, as the view angle of the user moves from less than 90 degrees, to 90 degrees, to more than 90 degrees. With all three, the best black level was when view angle was 90 degrees (by view angle I mean the angle between the line of sight from your eyes to the surface of the screen). To see this, just move the screen back and forth.
There have been posts that illustrate that the black level of the displays (9C84 and 9C85) are quite a bit different when the view angle is far from 90 degrees. I don't think this, of itself, is evidence of a problem. It is true that a property of a good display design is that it minimizes the black level shift when the view angle is not 90 degrees. To know if there is a real problem, you need to measure how much shift occurs as you move away from 90 degrees. It is possible that a display that has low black level shift when viewed from a 45 degree angle may have a worse absolute black level at 90 degrees - you need the entire set of measurements to make a comparison.
In any event, just thought I share one set of observations that the 9C84 and 9C85 are very close in performance.
There have been a lot of posts regarding screen quality. Just thought I'd post my observations of the three MBPs that I've had. The first had a 9C85 panel, and the second and third were 9C84s.
First, the overall display quality of all three was outstanding. There was no perceptible difference between the first 9C85 and the first 9C84. The second 9C84 (the third MBP) is very slightly less bright than the first two. The contrast, sharpness, black level, saturation, and everything else was the same between all three.
I suspect that the slight reduction in the brightness level of the second 9C84 might be related to the battery of the MBP or the internal power conditioning. I say this because the other perceptible difference in the second 9C84 is that the keyboard is also slightly less bright. I'm an electrical engineer, I've designed laptop hardware, and if I were trying the understand the difference in brightness, the first place I'd look on the second 9C84 is at the voltage supplied to the LEDs that drive the display and the keyboard.
The other thing I noticed with all three is that the black level of the displays is somewhat sensitive to the angle of the display when you look at it. That is, if you sit directly in front of it, you can see the black level shift slightly as the display rotates forwards and backwards, or equivalently, as the view angle of the user moves from less than 90 degrees, to 90 degrees, to more than 90 degrees. With all three, the best black level was when view angle was 90 degrees (by view angle I mean the angle between the line of sight from your eyes to the surface of the screen). To see this, just move the screen back and forth.
There have been posts that illustrate that the black level of the displays (9C84 and 9C85) are quite a bit different when the view angle is far from 90 degrees. I don't think this, of itself, is evidence of a problem. It is true that a property of a good display design is that it minimizes the black level shift when the view angle is not 90 degrees. To know if there is a real problem, you need to measure how much shift occurs as you move away from 90 degrees. It is possible that a display that has low black level shift when viewed from a 45 degree angle may have a worse absolute black level at 90 degrees - you need the entire set of measurements to make a comparison.
In any event, just thought I share one set of observations that the 9C84 and 9C85 are very close in performance.
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