Acceptable level of backlight bleeding on MBP?

[six.four]

All the people saying that is totally unacceptable have not seen the unibody MBP screens. It is completely normal on the unibody MBPs and even if you do get it exchanged, you will likely get the exact same thing.

If you have a 9c84 panel - on highest brightness - you will ALWAYS have that light bleed (to varying degrees of course). I've seen several 9c84 panels and they ALL have the same light bleed on the highest brightness. Yours honestly does not look too bad. As crappy as it might sound, it is completely normal on the unibody MBPs.

If you have a 9c85 panel - the light bleed is less, but the screen doesn't get as bright - and many have complained about yellowing compared to the 9c84 screen.

My other LED/CCFL laptop LCDs have much more even back lighting - hence I understand some of the sentiments here saying it is unacceptable, but on the unibody MBPs, it is completely normal. Nothing you can do about it.

 

[stevemiller]

sigh. its probably true that exchanges will yield a similar or worse machine. but this is still really disappointing.

we got my grandmother a $150 digital frame for christmas, and as i was loading it with some photos, the side by side comparison with my laptop wasn't very encouraging.

i really don't wanna be one of "those people" who go demanding perfection, but between a screen that is bested by a consumer crapgadget, and the warped unibody (the thing wobbles all over the place while typing, and i've tried a number of surfaces, so i'm sure its the body and not the desk) i feel like it might be worth the risk of taking it in.

 

[jjahshik32]

sigh. its probably true that exchanges will yield a similar or worse machine. but this is still really disappointing.

we got my grandmother a $150 digital frame for christmas, and as i was loading it with some photos, the side by side comparison with my laptop wasn't very encouraging.

i really don't wanna be one of "those people" who go demanding perfection, but between a screen that is bested by a consumer crapgadget, and the warped unibody (the thing wobbles all over the place while typing, and i've tried a number of surfaces, so i'm sure its the body and not the desk) i feel like it might be worth the risk of taking it in.

Get it exchanged, I can almost guarantee you that your new unibody mbp will be much better and near perfect.

There are no perfect screens as all displays on whether on notebooks or even external displays have some sort of backlight bleeding. The current one I have there are tiny backlight bleeding at the corners but other than that looks perfect in pure black in the complete dark.

 

[SchneiderMan]

i dont have that kind of bleed, btw speaking about blood doesnt that syler guy always have blood on him lol? what up with that

 

[Crash1234]

sigh. its probably true that exchanges will yield a similar or worse machine. but this is still really disappointing.

we got my grandmother a $150 digital frame for christmas, and as i was loading it with some photos, the side by side comparison with my laptop wasn't very encouraging.

i really don't wanna be one of "those people" who go demanding perfection, but between a screen that is bested by a consumer crapgadget, and the warped unibody (the thing wobbles all over the place while typing, and i've tried a number of surfaces, so i'm sure its the body and not the desk) i feel like it might be worth the risk of taking it in.

Have you tried calibrating the screen? Exchanging the macbook b/c of the screen might get you a book with even worse bleeding. But calibrating the screen should help with the washed out appearance. I downloaded a profile that someone made on this site and it made my screen look a thousand times better.

 

[PDE]

It's a little sad that laptop screen manufacturers seem so obsessed with brightness over color, even backlight and lack of bleed. I guess in the store that's what sells. I think part of theproblem is the brightness of these displays compared to many other PC laptops. If you bring the backlight brightness down half-way (which is where many PC laptops are), the bleed is not at all as visible.

It's weird that for the past 3 years, Apple has consistently failed with the 15" displays. I still don't understand why, especially not when I look at bestbuy and see lots of beautiful cheapo PC laptop displays!

 

[stevemiller]

...calibrating the screen should help with the washed out appearance. I downloaded a profile that someone made on this site and it made my screen look a thousand times better.

the image quality itself on the mbp screen is fantastic (my photo doesn't do that aspect of the comparison justice), sorry for not clarifying that. my only complaint is with the mbp's backlight bleed. i have tried numerous colour profiles and calibrated the display myself, but that doesn't seem to affect the backlight issue.

 

[CleverUsername]

~~Update Here~~

After being advised by Steven (the CSR helping me, last name not Jobs ) that it was the best way to get this taken care of quickly, we made the trip up to Des Moines yesterday. The Genius who helped me was willing to take my computer into a darker area to check out the display, and actually seemed to spend quite a while in the back room with the unit and when he came back out said he had even asked for additional opinions from some of the other workers. He said he definitely sees exactly what I am referring to, and understands why I am concerned about it.

However, after looking at the displays on a couple other unibody MBP's they had there, he decided that it is "within specifications", and switching displays would be pointless. According to him, some of the others were even worse than mine Basically he said that although he understands it is annoying, since all of the units are exhibiting the same unevenness in the backlighting, and there are no notifications from Apple about this being a "known issue", he was not authorized to do anything at the retail level. He proceeded to say that Apple does not recommend using the laptop in the dark, and have I "considered turning on a light?" I reminded him that the bleeding is still visible at times even with another light source in the room, and in fact most of the time I do have a lamp on beside me and I still see it. His only other suggestion was calibrating the display to make the bleeding less visible. I asked him how that would make the screen more even within itself, and he again said some calibrations might make the bleeding less noticeable (Is this even possible ?)

He seemed really nice and helpful, but, looking back at the conversation, it seems like he was repeating the same lines I have been told by other Apple people with other problems I encountered last time I was trying to buy a MBP. And we made a six hour trip just to hear it.

Not really sure where else to proceed with this, because it's really looking like Apple has no desire to do anything about this issue. I have to have a laptop, and I'm feeling inclined to just try harder to ignore this problem: avoid editing dark pictures and movies, leave more lights on when watching shows and dvds (and fight the reflections), etc. etc. etc.... Still seems a little ridiculous to have to make concessions like this with such an expensive laptop, doesn't it???... I'm just really tired right now and don't really feel like I have any other options

 

[alphaod]

no its called a backpack duh

No it's a called a m... oh nevermind.

 

[ewoo]

Like I said, that's the best you're gonna get with this generation of MBP. If it bothers you that much, return it or sell it to get rid of it or get over it. Stop wasting your life obsessing about this.

Your time is probably better spent on more meaningful endeavors.

 

[SolRayz]

hey, i'm in the same boat as the original poster. i've attached 2 images, one with the lights off and one with lights on to show that the backlight bleeding shows up pretty much all the time for me.

i use the machine at my job (doing graphics/video work) and while i realize a laptop screen has its limitations, it can get pretty distracting having screen edge glow thats apparent even in well lit situations.

i've had the machine for 2 months now though... so i'm almost scared to see if apple will do anything for me. however lately the fans have started buzzing like an electric razor intermittently, so i may have a "collection" of issues to bring forth.

am i being too picky?

That is horrific, sorry.

 

[bigfried]

I'm in the same situation. I am undecided about whether to just accept this light leek problem or return my new macbook pro. I have just returned the previous one for this reason and waited 2 weeks for a replacement today which turns out exactly the same. (perhaps it is!). Light bleed down sides and spotlights across bottom. Apple UK online store replaced it for this reason with no problem whatsoever so I sympathise with the poster who could not get theirs replaced. that sounds unacceptable to me.
Whenever I think what the heck I'll just keep it and stop worrying, I see a poster who has a perfect screen and I think I will be a fool to accept anything less. I have 14 days to decide so will see if I can live with it.

 

[sesnir]

Thanks for posting pics, I wasn't sure what people were talking about when they mentioned this problem... my 2.53 unibody MBP is flawless

I'd definitely get that replaced... it's not acceptable.

 

[TheSVD]

that is bloody defective!
the blacks are perfect on mine, get a new one now

 

[fongyuen]

OP, i would suggest that you keep the one you have. i've had several macbook/pros in the last couple of years and they exhibited that characteristic.

what you don't want to happen is what happened to me, where i went in to have them replace my lcd because of some subtle dark spots on my top right corner only to get replacements with dead/stuck pixels multiple times. i have backlight bleeding on the new one i ended up getting but it's not noticeable during regular usage.

 

[dogg]

I am on my 4th replacement screen. Still have light bleed. The Apple Store Genius Bar have been really good and every time i returned with the issue they have replaced it without any discussion.

Recently i read that LG are soon to be supplying all LCD panels for the Apple range so i am going to wait 2-3 months and see if the issue disappears.

There is no point in exchanging at the moment.

 

[PDE]

I'm amazed that there are still problems with the 15" MBP displays. This has been going on since 2006 and nothing seems to have changed. When other manufacturers can produce laptops with even illumination and little bleed, why is Apple having such a tough time with it? I just don't get it. And why are the 17" ones generally of higher quality? The technology is the same so it makes little sense.

 

[Tranzaddict]

Greetings all! I am new here and just received my first Mac yesterday, a MBP.

I really love the crispness of the screen except for the backlight bleed problem which I also have and mine looks just like the pictures the OP posted when on a black background. I have the LG panel. One thing I am thankful is that it has no dead/stuck pixel which can bother me even more than backlight bleed. I am able to live with it if I set the brightness lower. But I like to ask, is there a unibody MBP display out there thats perfect or atleast near perfect?

One more question is - I bought mine from Amazon.com, will I be able to walk into a Apple store and exchange for another if I find something wrong with it or do I need to ship it back to Amazon for an exchange?

Have a nice day, thanks all!

 

[rj-300zx]

That lcd is totally unacceptable. Immediate refund/replacement. I don't know why is incapable of selling notebooks with decent lcd's. It seems that if you get a good one, consider yourself lucky. I've been through four different lcd's on my MBP while under warranty. Finally the last one has been ok...although recently some bright pencil tip size spots have been showing up on the left side...not worth worrying about anymore at this point.

I love apple but they are the suck when it comes to quality control.

I stand by the fact that the Rev. E powerbooks seem to have perfect displays. No backlight bleed for me =)

 

[bigfried]

I stand by the fact that the Rev. E powerbooks seem to have perfect displays. No backlight bleed for me =)

apologies for naivity but what is Rev.E and how do I find out what I have. I have a screen problem like the OP which is the only problem with my MBP. This one is already a replacement for my first one which had an identical problem so I have given up on the idea of getting it replaced again as I had assumed they were all the same. But if ther is a possibility of getting no backlight bleed then I will exchange again.

 

[Hot Snowboarder]

I have the 15" 2008 MBP (not unibody) with no backlight bleed.

 

[Jottle]

After being advised by Steven (the CSR helping me, last name not Jobs ) that it was the best way to get this taken care of quickly, we made the trip up to Des Moines yesterday. The Genius who helped me was willing to take my computer into a darker area to check out the display, and actually seemed to spend quite a while in the back room with the unit and when he came back out said he had even asked for additional opinions from some of the other workers. He said he definitely sees exactly what I am referring to, and understands why I am concerned about it.

However, after looking at the displays on a couple other unibody MBP's they had there, he decided that it is "within specifications", and switching displays would be pointless. According to him, some of the others were even worse than mine Basically he said that although he understands it is annoying, since all of the units are exhibiting the same unevenness in the backlighting, and there are no notifications from Apple about this being a "known issue", he was not authorized to do anything at the retail level.

I've dealt with stupid Apple "geniuses" before. They are trained to stifle any complaints at this level and tell you that almost everything is within spec. This is Apple's party line: "Don't repair anything that looks somewhat abnormal unless the customer pushes." I've had them do this to me in the past with my mbp lcd display as well. If you escalate to a manager at the apple store, 99% of the time the manager will say something like "OK, we'll do a one time good faith repair or replacement." The lower level people at Apple stores really have zero power, and the managers are there to make peace with the customers and keep $$$ going into the store and prevent $$$ from going out My advice for getting around "geniuses" is to find an apple authorized repair center (3rd party techs) that can look at your screen. They are almost always better trained than apple store minions, and they can order parts in from apple if they deem it defective. Trust me, this is the way to go if you have the option. If this doesn't work, call Applecare. Explain the issue to the first person that comes on the phone to help you, and then immediately ask for a "customer relations" or "2nd tier corporate customer relations" representative. These people have SO MUCH more power than lower level CSR. They can authorize repairs w/out seeing your machine (based on trust) and they have the power to eventually authorize a replacement computer if your computer cannot be repaired within 3 repairs. I've had 5 AWFUL yellowing screens on my previous generation aluminum macbookpro, and my customer relations representative was great through all of it. I had to email him pictures of the screen on 3 separate occasions, but because apple couldn't get me a SINGLE good screen, I'm going with these unobody mbp's since I do not have the option of a refund. These unibody mbp's do have other screen issues (as noted in this thread), but at least they don't have the bottom 1/3 ugly yellowing that the previous gen mbp's had. Try my method if you're still unhappy with your screen. But it really is a large gamble to play the screen lottery. Most have small issues. Some have very significant issues that make you wish you never exchanged your lcd

 

[rj-300zx]

apologies for naivity but what is Rev.E and how do I find out what I have. I have a screen problem like the OP which is the only problem with my MBP. This one is already a replacement for my first one which had an identical problem so I have given up on the idea of getting it replaced again as I had assumed they were all the same. But if ther is a possibility of getting no backlight bleed then I will exchange again.

Apple comes out with several revisions of its hardware before they go onto their next piece of hardware. I havent seen a MacbookPro with out the backlight bleed. I personally own 2 Powerbook G4's (both final revisions) that don't have the backlight problem, although I have seen earlier models that do.

And remember people, real men use PowerPC