Attention new MBP owners: Please perform this Yellow tint test

[root1jean]

thx for the reply,
yeah i guess i should just change the screen, but i wonder if
the techs in the store(compnow premium apple reseller) can actually
do it properly or not. annyways i've got apple care should be fine.. they
said to order parts it takes one week , and if they get in a new mbp it would take 2 weeks! how silly is that haha. its sad how people are paying lotsa
money and worriying that they are going to get a faulty product + the waiting..
i really hope that is just the minority..

 

[eyespii]

I agree with PDE, get it repaired because getting a good screen is like a toss up.

That's actually a really really good idea. I actually thought of it earlier and brought the essentially brand new MBP down to the apple store, but they claimed to not have any DVD drives in stock, and it would take 2-3 days to get them in. At the time (as in 3 hrs ago), I was hoping for them to be able to just swap the drives within the day, so I took the computer back home with the intention of shipping it back to AMZN.

Hmm...i think i may give the apple store a call back and have them order that part in, because it will take at least 2-3 days for amazon to ship me another notebook. I didn't realize the good screens were such a crapshoot!

Thanks for the idea, guys!

 

[skiffx]

Both of mine 9c82's have yellow tint problem, Im on my 3rd replacement as of now (waiting to be delivered). Seems 81's are the least problematic, then 83's and 82s are just complete TIHS.

 

[dallas112678]

That's actually a really really good idea. I actually thought of it earlier and brought the essentially brand new MBP down to the apple store, but they claimed to not have any DVD drives in stock, and it would take 2-3 days to get them in. At the time (as in 3 hrs ago), I was hoping for them to be able to just swap the drives within the day, so I took the computer back home with the intention of shipping it back to AMZN.

Hmm...i think i may give the apple store a call back and have them order that part in, because it will take at least 2-3 days for amazon to ship me another notebook. I didn't realize the good screens were such a crapshoot!

Thanks for the idea, guys!

No problem because the 9C82's and 9C83's i think have the biggest problems of this but some 9C81's have this problem but i dont think the 9C81's that have this are nearly as noticeable. 2/3 of my 9C81's have had this and ill admit they are hard to see but once you see it, its alot easier to notice when your reading text going left to right on the screen you just see that slight color change and its annoying.

 

[ctishue]

My new 15" 2.5 glossy has the 9c82 display. It has slight yellowing on the bottom third of the screen. It really depends on the lighting I'm using the laptop in. Sometimes it doesn't seem like its there at all and sometimes it is noticeable if I pay attention to it.

I really don't feel like doing the laptop swap over and over with the Apple Store to see if I can get a perfect one. If anything I'll bring it back as defective and trade up to the hires 17" which seems to not be having this yellowing problem. But then thats a question of yellowish tint vs. 1.4 pounds.

As of right now I'm leaning towards just keeping the machine though because it is a very slight yellowing and from what I've seen I could do much worse playing the swap lottery.

EDIT: I did also calibrate the display with my Huey Pro. It didn't really make the yellowing disappear but it did work its magic on the display overall. It looks 10x better than it did out of the box color-wise.

 

[tanjacob]

My new 15" 2.5 glossy has the 9c82 display. It has slight yellowing on the bottom third of the screen. It really depends on the lighting I'm using the laptop in. Sometimes it doesn't seem like its there at all and sometimes it is noticeable if I pay attention to it.

I really don't feel like doing the laptop swap over and over with the Apple Store to see if I can get a perfect one. If anything I'll bring it back as defective and trade up to the hires 17" which seems to not be having this yellowing problem. But then thats a question of yellowish tint vs. 1.4 pounds.

As of right now I'm leaning towards just keeping the machine though because it is a very slight yellowing and from what I've seen I could do much worse playing the swap lottery.

EDIT: I did also calibrate the display with my Huey Pro. It didn't really make the yellowing disappear but it did work its magic on the display overall. It looks 10x better than it did out of the box color-wise.

I took a second careful look at the issue and my MBP does have the yellowing issue when I look at it at certain angles. Apparently, it seems that I'm not the only one having this "yellow screen at some angles" problem which at some angles is small enough to ignore. Since the problem doesn't really seriously affect my perception of color in daily use (I don't see blue as green or red as orange) and can be minimised with screen tilting I'm keeping it. It is still a great system as everything else works perfectly.

EDIT: Strange. When the screen is at 20% brightness (when I use it in the nights), there is NO yellowing issue at all! The bottom of the screen is just a little dimmer, but there is no trace of the yellowing. This is just so weird.

 

[mcbeej]

Ok, an update:

So I drive back to the Apple Store today after making a genius appointment, and took back my 9c82 Chi Mei with the problem.

He could see it straight away (and he said it's the first time he had seen the issue) and replaced it with a new machine. The new one was also a 9c82, and the screen was exactly the same as the previous one (bright white and sexy at the top, smudgy grey/yellow at the bottom).

He went and found a manager, and they opened up a further machine. It was also a 9x82, and the screen was exactly the same.

I reluctantly got a refund, because there was no point opening up any more machines if they were all going to be the same. They suggested I try buying one at John Lewis instead, because that might come from a different batch, but they only had old models for sale(!).

So at this stage, I'm not sure what to do - but I'm MBP-less again. After a few years of anticipating a nice new machine, it's kind of annoying to have one for one day.

So - are there any people in the UK who have Samsung or LG screens? Or are they all Chi Mei screens?

 

[Zeos]

It is discouraging as I am ready to switch to Mac from Windows. Now I'm paranoid this is going to ruin my 1st experience with Apple. The closest Apple store to me is 2 hours away.

Many of these negative posters will NEVER EVER be happy no matter what. If it's not this, there's always going to be something else. Just buy your Mac and enjoy it. Yes, you'll find flaws, just like in anything else. But Macs are still the best thing going.

 

[RHMMMM]

I have gone through 3 MBP's since Wednesday. The first one had the 9C83 MATTE Samsung display and I could faintly see the yellow tint problem. It wasn't horrible-bad, but was noticeable to me with the test image. It was also my birthday (this was my present to myself!) and I hate dealing with bad LCD's, so I decided to take it back.

Rather than try to prove something was wrong with it, I just requested a glossy model, which they let me exchange for no charge - very nice of them. I have never had a glossy-screened laptop before and I figured it might be a nice change anyways.

WRONG!

The second MBP had a GLOSSY 9C82 Chi-Mei display and then I REALLY realized what you guys were talking about, it was VERY noticeable, not to mention the screen looked washed out and had bad color saturation compared to the previous Samsung. It sucked! It also had a stuck pixel, too. I was not at all happy with that one.

So, just wanting to get it all over with, I took that one back and exchanged it for another MATTE one. I opened the sucker up in the store and it turned out to be another 9C83 Samsung screen. It is the best I have seen so far and if the yellow problem is there, I can't really see it. I decided to take it and RUN!

Posting this message from it right now and I can't be more happy! It's WAAAYYYY faster than my old DDR2 Powerbook 17" - I should have gone Intel long ago. I'm glad I waited for the Penryn, though, because it's quiet, runs cool and I think this base 15" 2.4 is definitely at the sweet spot spec and price wise compared to the 2.5 - $1799 with the edu discount!

If I could do it over again, I probably would have kept the first 9C83 to avoid the hassle. The 9C82 Chi-Mei was horrible and made me wish I hadn't seen this thread at all!


Yeah, I haven't updated my signature in about 2 years, hehe....

 

[Ello]

I also have the Chi Mei 9C82, and I notice the yellowing in some light conditions. It isn't all that bad so I don't really think it's worth it to exchange it (it's a BTO too). Right now I use the Apple RGB profile, but if anyone who has calibrated the screen (with Huey pro maybe?) and is satisfied with the result I would really appreciate if you could post the profile here!

 

[powermac_daddy]

replaced my sr mbp 3 times...

 

[ctishue]

Went back to the Apple Store today to show them the 15" I had with yellowing. The guy first said that one of the "head" techs would need to look at it and determine if it is really a defect allowing me to return with no restocking fee. But after waiting 15 minutes for this tech to become available the guy comes back and says "My manager said if you are interested in upgrading to the 17 inch like you said he will waive the restocking fee."

So here I am typing on my new hi-res 17". The screen is perfect. Just calibrated it with my huey pro and the colors are amazing.

 

[Apogee]

Do you guys think that Apple deliberately introduced the yellowing issue into the screens to force users to upgrade to the 17" Macbook Pro? How is it possible that screens from 3 manufacturers can exhibit the same issue? Perhaps this is Apple's differentiator for the Macbook Pro line: the 15" are not "true Professional" laptops, whereas the 17" models are the real deal.

 

[mcbeej]

Do you guys think that Apple deliberately introduced the yellowing issue into the screens to force users to upgrade to the 17" Macbook Pro?

No.

How is it possible that screens from 3 manufacturers can exhibit the same issue?

Dunno, but it should have been sorted out a long time ago. The fact that different manufacturer's screens have similar issues perhaps implies that the technology is not sufficiently mature yet, or maybe that the investment in quality control to significantly reduce the problem is more expensive than just replacing the few screens that get returned - at least while they get through the numbers of displays already manufactured with the problem.

The other reason of course might be nothing to do with the actual screens themselves, but more on the MBP side - some controller/shileding/power supply/graphics card issue - this would explain why the issue occurs across different manufacturer's screens.

And I'm sure that there are plenty of people with defective screens who don't really notice - after all, this issue is best seen under certain conditions, and may not be noticed under "normal" conditions. The fact that I pulled out three machines today and they all had the issue, implies to me that any MBP's of at least the same spec sold from that store today would probably also have the issue - but I'm guessing it's unlikely that any of those will come back.

I wonder how many of these bloomin' things I'm going to get through before I get a "good" one? My count is three so far, and I'll go to a different Apple Store on Monday (probably the London one) and go through the whole process again.

A display that displays white properly in the top half, but then fades down to display it as grey (slight yellow ting) in the bottom half is not what I can "within spec". I want/need a machine, so I have to keep playing the lottery until I don't lose.

What's more surprising is that the Macbook Air, which has a similar spec screen, doesn't appear to suffer from the same issue - are they using a different screen manufacturer for these? A higher spec / more expensive screen?

 

[Wingnut330]

Just opened mine and it's definitely yellow on the bottom. You don't need to run a test to see it, it's obvious. I have an MBA also and the screen on it is perfect, but my new MBP isn't.

Can this be fixed by calibrating?

 

[mcbeej]

Can this be fixed by calibrating?

No - you can only adjust the whole screen, but with these issues, the top part of the screen is noticeably brighter, and the bottom part is dirtier, so whatever calibration you do, there will always be a disparity.

Try opening a small blank Safari window and positioning it at the top of the screen, then open another one and position it at the bottom - the top one should be bright, clean white. Is the bottom one the same, or is it less bright and a light grey colour rather than bright white? It may also be slightly tinted yellow, but this can be difficult to see sometimes, depending on what's on the screen. But the brightness difference between the top and bottom is clearly obvious.

 

[TaylorB]

I have never heard of this problem before and I did the test and it doesn't look like I have a problem, but now I will be worrying about it from here on out.

 

[G. I.]

Many of these negative posters will NEVER EVER be happy no matter what. If it's not this, there's always going to be something else. Just buy your Mac and enjoy it. Yes, you'll find flaws, just like in anything else. But Macs are still the best thing going.

Typical fanboy reaction.

 

[StevieMooey]

MBP 15.4" 2.6 Penryn (BTO online purchase)

Screen Manufacturer: 0610
Screen: 9C83

Very obvious lower 1/3 screen yellowing, and intermittent vertical LED shadows.

I spoke to Apple who said take in for repair. I didnt ask for replacement as I dont want to wait.

My choices are:

1) Take to Apple reseller for screen replacement (about 4 Miles)
2) Take to Apple store for screen replacement (40 Mile train journey)



Is there any benefit between going to the store rather than a reseller for a repair? Am I being 'soft' by only asking for a replacement screen? Or should I really push for a replacement computer? I don't actually want a replacement computer really. I love this machine in all other respects. Its only one week old! But of course I do want to get value for money and get what I pay for.

What do people think? I'd love to hear some input before I make my decision.

(One other option I have been toying with is upgrading to 17". But this would mean an even longer wait of 2-3 weeks for the glossy that I would want, and seems an extreme measure just to get a good screen)

Thanks in advance,

-Mooey

 

[verveshen]

Honestly, the yellowish issue is widely spreading. Sticking to 17" with LCD TFT would be a solution if MONEY is not concerned.

 

[PDE]

Honestly, the yellowish issue is widely spreading. Sticking to 17" with LCD TFT would be a solution if MONEY is not concerned.

I don't think it's spreading. I think it has been an issue ever since the introduction of the LED LCDs last year. It's neither worse or better - which means that it's still bad. I've seen some pretty awful 17" MBP LCds too - mainly very unevenly backlit displays, but perhaps the new LED ones are much better. And I used to have one that had an LG display that was great too.

 

[mcbeej]

Yeah, but I neither want, nor can afford, the 17...

I just want a 15 that works...

Oh well, I'll go play the MBP lottery again tomorrow... *sigh*

If I can't get one tomorrow, then I might try getting a BTO instead...

 

[Heil68]

I think I'm just going to go to the Apple store and look at them out of the box before I buy it and leave the store.

 

[mahger]

If my screen has a VERY slight tint problem and also a dead pixel, will they take it back, and if so, will they let me get a glossy display on a replacement unit instead of a matte one, which I have now? I wasnt going to take my mbp back because the problems are small enough, but I really want a glossy screen.

 

[mcbeej]

I think I'm just going to go to the Apple store and look at them out of the box before I buy it and leave the store.

They won't do that, for fairly obvious reasons. The won't open a box until it's been purchased. You can't get them to open up a hundred boxes until you find one that's "acceptable".

The best you can do is buy a machine, then open it up, and if it has a noticeable problem, swap it for a new one. If you're lucky you may get a third try - after that they will just offer a refund.