Attention new MBP owners: Please perform this Yellow tint test

[Digital Skunk]

1. Even illumination with barely any disparity in brightness between various parts of the display. Check out notebookcheck.net for objective measurement of the illumination on a few MBPs - they are below average in this regard, but because they're brighter than average they make up for the unevenness.
2. No shadows, bright strips or bleed around the edges of the display. No vertical beams of light shooting up across the bottom of the display.
3) Even and consistent color rendering throughout the display - no yellow hues or other hues.
4) No color distortion or inversion at the max viewing angles specified by the manufacturer

Finally, why not take a picture of yours with a black screen in the dark ? Or other pictures showing your perfect display. I'd like to be proven wrong, as I'm sure a lot of people would who have, like me, given up hope that Apple will include a genuinely flawless LCD in the pro laptops.

Not trying to be combative either, and honestly I over reacted... I know there are flawed displays because there wouldn't be such a fuss.

For some reason it's just not over here on the east coast of the US (Maryland). We have three Apple Stores nearby and none of them have issues. The 17" I have meets all four points, and I will post a photo of a grey screen, black, and white one as soon as I get a good camera and environment with even lighting.

In the meantime there are photos of clean ones on this thread. If not then they are on the forums.

 

[PDE]

Not trying to be combative either, and honestly I over reacted... I know there are flawed displays because there wouldn't be such a fuss.

For some reason it's just not over here on the east coast of the US (Maryland). We have three Apple Stores nearby and none of them have issues. The 17" I have meets all four points, and I will post a photo of a grey screen, black, and white one as soon as I get a good camera and environment with even lighting.

In the meantime there are photos of clean ones on this thread. If not then they are on the forums.

I've seen pretty much perfect 17" MBP displays too - I had one with an amazing LG display. I've mainly been referring to the 15" displays, which seem to have more problems. I've seen far more 17" MBPs with good screens.

Anyway, it is what it is and I think it's just the price we're paying for the enormous mainstream boom in notebook usage. I just wish there would be more focus on color gamut, viewing angles, even backlighting etc, rather than only on the brightness. they're already more than bright enough.

Signing off.....good night!

 

[alphaod]

Here is my seemingly perfect panel; it's difficult to take a picture of black in a dark room, so I had to use the XP boot screen.

Black (XP Boot Screen)

Gray

White

Green

Blue

Red

Yellow

Magenta

Cyan

 

[Digital Skunk]

...

I am glad that you posted this. Since it seems that it's only with the 15" panels, so people say.

It's funny to me because those seeing the same issue with the iMac screen say it happens on the 20" more so than the 24". Like Apple doesn't care about it's lower end stuff.

 

[astrosyt]

Here is my seemingly perfect panel; it's difficult to take a picture of black in a dark room, so I had to use the XP boot screen.

Black (XP Boot Screen)

Gray

White

Green

Blue

Red

Yellow

Magenta

Cyan

perfect panel? you also have these dark spots/shadows on the bottom of display

 

[PDE]

perfect panel? you also have these dark spots/shadows on the bottom of display

I'm going to have to agree....

Usually the panels look good, except for white, gray and black backgrounds, where you can clearly see the bleeding and shadows and other weirdnesses. you really need a dark room to see the bleed against the black background. All the ones I've seen that have bad bleed look fine in a well-lit room, but awful when in a dark room watching a DVD.

But, yes, the above pictures show typical darkish shadows...a clear defect.

 

[Digital Skunk]

perfect panel? you also have these dark spots/shadows on the bottom of display

...

I thought we were talking about the yellow tinting.

I hope everyone knows that ALL LCDs of any kind has backlight bleeding to some extent. It's been known for years. Some more than others.

The way to not see it is to NOT put solid colors on the monitor in dark rooms.

I think the only LCDs that don't have much backlit bleeding are IPS panels, and even they can be setup to expose bleeding.

 

[alphaod]

perfect panel? you also have these dark spots/shadows on the bottom of display

Hence I said "seemingly" perfect; meaning you can't tell until your are under the extreme of circumstance.

 

[PDE]

I thought we were talking about the yellow tinting.

I hope everyone knows that ALL LCDs of any kind has backlight bleeding to some extent. It's been known for years. Some more than others.

The way to not see it is to NOT put solid colors on the monitor in dark rooms.

I think the only LCDs that don't have much backlit bleeding are IPS panels, and even they can be setup to expose bleeding.

we were... but since this was brought up we shifted the topic a little. I actually think that some people confused the darkish shadows with the lower 1/3 yellowing - they can sometimes look a little similar because whites generally become dim and murky. But the above is clearly just shadows, not yellow.

I'm not too fussy about a little bit of bleeding because it really is usuallyb only visible when watching DVDs and only around the edges and in dark scenes. However, I find dark shadows at the bottom to be really annoying because I often have white pages or backgrounds up on the display and it just looks bad.

My main rule is that if I frequently notice the problem, then it's a problem. If it's only occasionally under very specific conditions, it's just a minor thing.

 

[Digital Skunk]

My main rule is that if I frequently notice the problem, then it's a problem. If it's only occasionally under very specific conditions, it's just a minor thing.

Same here, and over in the iMac threads there is even more of a backlight bleeding issue, and that is an very obvious one. But it's only visible when looking at the display when it's completely black.

And in some of the older Dells it was a major issue too, but bleeding is a side effect of LCDs to word it simply. Some color specific nuts at my paper still swear by CRTs even. The pro IPS panels in the ACDs and others don't have bleeding as heavily as the lappys do.

As for the iMac bleeding, if it's anything other than a black image, the bleeding isn't noticeable at all and my fiancee doesn't usually have big black images on her screen so it doesn't bother her, and therefore it doesn't bother me.

As for the yellowing, I do admit that I have seen one or two of them that are yellow at the bottom. The entire screen, none at all unless you view it at an angle and it's calibrated incorrectly.

 

[jjahshik32]

There are no such things as a perfect panel. Just good or bad.

 

[NRose8989]

Here are some unaltered pics I took in a dark room. Some were from different angles and distances. The yellow band at the bottom is noticeable in every picture.

It's the 2.2 SR with the 09c68 Samsung display. I went to the Apple store and got it the very day they were announced last June. I noticed the yellow right away. I read online about how others had seen it too, but I guess I thought I could live with it, so I didn't return it. Now that the new models have come out, I'm anxious to see if there is a similar problem. I really can live with it, but I feel I shouldn't have to for the price I paid. Like others have mentioned, when you know it's there, it bothers you. I am within the 1 year warranty, but I don't think Apple will respond very well to any sort of complaint.

is apple replacing the defective LCD's on previous SR MBP's? I'm within my 1 year warranty and if so what is the turn around time if i was to send it back? (I don't have a apple store near me unfortunately). I've also noticed when i first got my MBP that it has un even illumination at the bottom of the screen. can this be fixed also? the un-even illumination bugs me more then the color though.

 

[jjahshik32]

is apple replacing the defective LCD's on previous SR MBP's? I'm within my 1 year warranty and if so what is the turn around time if i was to send it back? (I don't have a apple store near me unfortunately). I've also noticed when i first got my MBP that it has un even illumination at the bottom of the screen. can this be fixed also? the un-even illumination bugs me more then the color though.

Whoa... the screen looks like its collected 10 years of cigarette smoke. I guess you could change the color profile.

 

[rjp]

is apple replacing the defective LCD's on previous SR MBP's? I'm within my 1 year warranty and if so what is the turn around time if i was to send it back? (I don't have a apple store near me unfortunately). I've also noticed when i first got my MBP that it has un even illumination at the bottom of the screen. can this be fixed also? the un-even illumination bugs me more then the color though.

Perhaps these pictures do not adequately capture the issue, but I believe that if you are seeing yellow banding in these pictures you are looking too hard. I have the same MBP and the same test image of course. I can see yellow on the bottom if I rock the screen to a certain angle. In fact I can even see blue and pink and some angles. I can always see the whole screen go yellow if I look from a side angle btw. It is very obvious when compared to my MB at the same angle.

I have come to believe that this tinting and the uneven/bleeding backlight issues are not defects. These screens are very likely operating within specifications. They're just plain low quality and cheap. Fortunately Apple will let you exchange the machine a few times so you can try to get a better one, but my suspicion after months of investigation is that the "good" screens are actually the exception to the norm, i.e., performing better than expected.

Why do people say it is a defect just because it sucks?

 

[Jeff5i]

Why do people say it is a defect just because it sucks?

Because a defect is an imperfection. We pay $2000+ for these machines and I would like the displays to not have the yellow tint at the bottom of the displays. Also, not all MBP displays "suck" many of them are perfect. I just have been unlucky.

Jeff

 

[Hushbull]

What are the chances of having any sort of yellowing? I just ordered mine today...

 

[Jeff5i]

What are the chances of having any sort of yellowing? I just ordered mine today...

Please let us know how it turns out, what display model you got, and any pics if you can.

Jeff

 

[MattZani]

I refuse to test, as my panel appears fine, so why LOOK for defects?

 

[PDE]

I refuse to test, as my panel appears fine, so why LOOK for defects?

If you can't see the defects, that's a wise choice. Just to clarify though: those who have defective/subpar displays notice it because it pops up in their face, not because they diagnose it through tests. The tests just confirm what we already know....


Enjoy your display!

 

[Jottle]

I just got my MBP (early 2008 model) and it exhibits this yellowing at the bottom of the screen. It's pretty obvious and pretty sad looking. My build date is late September 2008! So it looks like apple has still not been able to nail down this problem or they really just don't have QC for this kind of thing. So it's back to the apple store to get the screen replaced. My MBP is flawless otherwise, so why risk getting a whole new laptop with other issues. I'm just going to play the "new screen" lottery game that so many other on here have played and hope that I get lucky after the 3rd or 4th try

 

[Jottle]

Had the screen replaced twice now. And I've had two different SR macbook pros. First screen was as LG 9c81, no yellowing but it had a scratch directly from the damn applecare tech. My current screen is another 9c81 LG and it has OK color uniformity, but unfortunately it also has the same bottom third yellowing that my original screen had. This time the whole screen is much more uniform in overall white balance. So I'm thinking about keeping this one for awhile It's true. You can get a 9c81 screen that doesn't have yellowing, but I imagine it's rather hit or miss. Considering I've had a total of 5 screens and new lids each time, I can safely say that many of these screens DO have the yellowish tint at the bottom. There's no way that 3/5 screen being yellow for me is any sort of bad luck. I'm just going to live with this as it's likely no going to do me any good going through the hassle of another repair. Too bad.

 

[Jottle]

UPDATE: I'v had 3 different macbook pro's and about 7 different screen replacement all directly from Apple. I've had a couple LG 9c81 screens an AWFUL AUO screen, and the one I have now is a Samsung 9C83. Except for the AUO screen that had miserable looking mura shadows, every single screen exhibited the lower 1/3 yellow strip at the bottom of the screen. I have the Samsung screen and it has a pretty noticeable yellowing at the bottom. You really are playing the lotto with screens as I've had many new ones. None out of all 7 were free of the bottom yellowing. So consider yourself lucky if you have a perfect screen. I'm sick of dealing with this and do not want to jump to the 15'' unibody. So I'm going to keep this slightly yellow screen and live my life! Apple tried to help me many times and they've worked with letting me replace the screen on this particular macbook pro a total of 4 times. None of these screens have been good. So I'm going to say that it's not likely anyone sending theirs in for yellowing will avoid getting yet another yellow screen.

 

[Scalfani]

I just bought a new 2.53 C2D 15.4 inch MBP with antiglare screen and it has the terrible yellow hue along the lower 1/4 of the screen. I noticed it as soon as it booted, and immediately called apple. They are replacing it after a very long discussion. They didn't understand the problem.... Sucks that I have to wait another week to get my MBP.