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Attention new MBP owners: Please perform this Yellow tint test

Poopy screen

Ok, so I recieved a MBP BTO the other day and it had a poppy 9c82 panel where it was visibly better at the top and downright dirty looking on the bottom half. It sucked but anyway I called apple, complained, asked for my full money back and they complied. It was really easy so aside from the laptop sucking, apple treated me well. They emailed me shipping labels which I printed out and drove to the FedEx store and that was it. The process was very painless so if you're in the limbo between sticking with a lousy screen or returning it, I hope I've helped a little. Just make sure you are firm on the phone and you shouldn't have a problem.

So you're probably wondering what I did about seeking a replacement. I ended up just buying a non-BTO model online and hoping it doesn't suck. It's supposed to get here tomorrow.
 
For someone who is considering getting their first Mac, it was hard enough to overcome the fact that I'm paying DOUBLE for this laptop compared to a Dell XPS, I simply cannot believe that I now have to cross my fingers and hope that I don't receive a laptop with a defective screen (never mind the warped this and that, fans spinning too fast, sleep/wake problems, etc.)

Anyone know of a rough percentage of the good vs bad screens?

BTW, I plan on getting a BTO 2.4ghz/glossy with the 7200 rpm drive. I have had this thing in my cart for a week now, but every time i read this post, I change my mind.
 
It is inexcusable that you do have to pay so much more for an Apple and their quality control is bad enough that they have not been able to address a simple, consistent, problem.
 
Hah, I've seen Dell's screens (as well as HP's) and they are no better. There are really only 2 notebook LCD manufacturers anyway.

The fact is no laptop screen is perfect. They will all have viewing angle and lighting evenness issues because there is so little room to spread light around in the thickness of a notebook screen. The prices of LCD panels are plummeting, and we get what we pay for.

I wish Apple had some way of getting all "Grade A" panels, but it seems they get them like everybody else. I have spent time with about 6 of the 17" MBP panels (1680x1050, CCFL backlight) and each was different in its own way. The sad truth is that LCD technology just isn't that great and there are large variations in quality from panel to panel, and that holds true no matter what brand of computer you get. It's pretty much a lottery.
 
rezonat0r said:
Hah, I've seen Dell's screens (as well as HP's) and they are no better. There are really only 2 notebook LCD manufacturers anyway.

The fact is no laptop screen is perfect. They will all have viewing angle and lighting evenness issues because there is so little room to spread light around in the thickness of a notebook screen. The prices of LCD panels are plummeting, and we get what we pay for.

I wish Apple had some way of getting all "Grade A" panels, but it seems they get them like everybody else. I have spent time with about 6 of the 17" MBP panels (1680x1050, CCFL backlight) and each was different in its own way. The sad truth is that LCD technology just isn't that great and there are large variations in quality form panel to panel, and that holds true no matter what brand of computer you get. It's pretty much a lottery.
Click to expand...


Sadly I think you're spot on. I think by rejecting poor displays at least we're sending a message that as high paying customers we won't just accept any crap they put in the machines. But more people have to do that for apple to feel that preemptive quality control is cheaper than fixing things once they're in consumers' hands. Oh well...
 
Here's some comfort.... I've exchanged my MBP 4x now, so I am on my 5th MBP.

Out of those 5 MBP only 1 had the yellow screen tint. The other 4 were perfect LCD screen wise.... only they had other issues. But the 5th one I am on now is pretty much problem free. It still has one little annoyance but I can live with it since its minor enough that I don't notice it unless I'm looking actively for it.

Oh and just FYI, 4 of those screens were 09c81, one I didn't check.
 
Lyshen said:
Here's some comfort.... I've exchanged my MBP 4x now, so I am on my 5th MBP.

Out of those 5 MBP only 1 had the yellow screen tint. The other 4 were perfect LCD screen wise.... only they had other issues. But the 5th one I am on now is pretty much problem free. It still has one little annoyance but I can live with it since its minor enough that I don't notice it unless I'm looking actively for it.

Oh and just FYI, 4 of those screens were 09c81, one I didn't check.
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in a matter of how many days or weeks did you had all those exchanges?
i'm just surprised how easy it is for some members to get an exchange... some of us have to pull a leg and an arm just to convince a genius/moron that there's something wrong.

they give excuses like they have to send it to have someone who's more qualified to confirm the problem..
even with dead pixels, there's a lower limit, i think it's 7 0r 8
if you have less, that's considered acceptable.
 
markrivers said:
in a matter of how many days or weeks did you had all those exchanges?
i'm just surprised how easy it is for some members to get an exchange... some of us have to pull a leg and an arm just to convince a genius/moron that there's something wrong.

they give excuses like they have to send it to have someone who's more qualified to confirm the problem..
even with dead pixels, there's a lower limit, i think it's 7 0r 8
if you have less, that's considered acceptable.
Click to expand...

This is over the course of roughly 1 week. Penryn MBP only came out Feb 26. Keep in mind a lot of my issues were verified by geniuses and the managers. I was able to demonstrate most of the issues to them.

What it really comes down to is talking to the manager. Even if a genius (moron) signs off saying it is within spec, if you complain to the manager, they'll usually do it to keep you happy. This can apply to non-Apple stores, make enough of a ruckus, they may accept a return...

I understand that they don't want a high number of exchanges, but some issues even if it may be 'within spec' for Apple, will annoy the heck out of the user(s)... just depends on how severe it is.
 
rezonat0r said:
Hah, I've seen Dell's screens (as well as HP's) and they are no better. There are really only 2 notebook LCD manufacturers anyway.

The fact is no laptop screen is perfect. They will all have viewing angle and lighting evenness issues because there is so little room to spread light around in the thickness of a notebook screen. The prices of LCD panels are plummeting, and we get what we pay for.
Click to expand...

First of all, you don't pay $2200 for a Dell or a HP spec'd at MBP levels. You pay far less, therefore you should be expecting quality components.

Second, laptop screens don't need to be perfect but they SHOULD be as good as possible. Some of the LCD's we get in MBP are very good, some are ****. This is not because of technological problems. This is due to companies like Apple and Dell pressuring LCD prices lower so they can make higher profits. So APPLE gets what they pay for, and WE deal with the consequences. Laptop manufacturers will continue to get away with this unless you complain. If they're knowingly selling defect products, revision after revision, then it is clear that this is their operating practice.

Complain.
 
i may just be really sleepy right now but it LOOKS like the TOP 1/3rd of my 17" hi res SR MBP is slightly yellowish. :eek:
 
kashik said:
First of all, you don't pay $2200 for a Dell or a HP spec'd at MBP levels. You pay far less, therefore you should be expecting quality components.
Click to expand...

Oh, absolutely. I paid $3K for my 1st gen MBP, and I've gone from a 1st gen to a 2nd gen to a 4th gen Penryn (well, as soon as I ship this 2nd gen back :D) for free because of repeated screen issues. I've cost Apple approximately $7,000 in terms of revenue and support costs because I don't accept sub-par crap.

That still doesn't change the fact that there are wide variations from panel to panel off the same assembly line. It absolutely is a technological factor. More importantly, it's too expensive to tighten the tolerances at LG and Samsung's factories to the point where all the screens are "perfect".

There are many different reasons Dell and HP are cheaper. Screen quality is barely a factor in the price difference.
 
wk127001 said:
Ok, so I recieved a MBP BTO the other day and it had a poppy 9c82 panel where it was visibly better at the top and downright dirty looking on the bottom half. It sucked but anyway I called apple, complained, asked for my full money back and they complied. It was really easy so aside from the laptop sucking, apple treated me well. They emailed me shipping labels which I printed out and drove to the FedEx store and that was it.
Click to expand...

I'm still waiting to be sent shipping labels! I was told it could take a week yesterday.

In the meantime I performed some additional video test last night. The first is a black screen at full brightness to emphasize the uneven backlight.

The second is a random effect that just happened for no reason. I was actually running the yellow bar pattern test at the time.





Yeah, that looks normal. :rolleyes:
 
ArcaneDevice said:
Yeah, that looks normal. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yikes, that seems to be a fairly common issue, at least with the 15". Something about the way the LEDs are powered is failing and only every other column is illuminating. Hopefully this is only a problem with the first batch of Penryns.
 
rezonat0r said:
That still doesn't change the fact that there are wide variations from panel to panel off the same assembly line. It absolutely is a technological factor. More importantly, it's too expensive to tighten the tolerances at LG and Samsung's factories to the point where all the screens are "perfect".

There are many different reasons Dell and HP are cheaper. Screen quality is barely a factor in the price difference.
Click to expand...

Although I don't have any real evidence to back up my opinion, I find it doubtful that current technology is the main cause, or even a major cause of defect MBP screens. Money is always the first thing that should be considered. Either the screen manufacturers aren't receiving the money they need to research more reliable methods of production, or they are producing the screens as cheaply as possible by cutting corners. I believe the latter to be more likely as the goal is always to produce as cheaply as possible.

LCD technology has been out for many years, and there have been many improvements. However, the same fundamental problems exist. Is it because a solution has not been found after all that time? or because it has been seen to be more profitable to sell those inconsistent components, that the end user may not notice or care enough to act on, than it is to produce a more expensive and consistent alternative?

I'm still betting on laptop manufacturers pressuring component prices lower so they can sell more computers. When that happens, why would LCD manufacturers want to produce a more costly screen? They'd be killing their profit margins.

If there are articles supporting the technology argument, I'd be interested in seeing them. I'm angry about my screen and would love to have a concrete reason why it is like this.
 
kashik said:
Although I don't have any real evidence to back up my opinion, I find it doubtful that current technology is the main cause, or even a major cause of defect MBP screens.
Click to expand...


If it comes form LCD technology, why the screen of Powerbook didn’t have this issue? Powerbook is the old generation of macbook pro.
 
teazen said:
If it comes form LCD technology, why the screen of Powerbook didn’t have this issue? Powerbook is the old generation of macbook pro.
Click to expand...

I think the powerbooks did have issues too, especially the last generation powerbook G4 15" which had a much brighter display than previous versions. It seems like the problems started when brightness became the focus of display quality. We got more uneven illumination, grain (from whatever kind of brightness enhancing filter they were using), worse viewing angles etc. The LED-specific issue is really only the yellowing. Maybe the brightness has just brought out the inherent flaws in the low-power, notebook version of LCD technology?
 
VincentPun said:
Aren't that PowerBook displays don't use LED?
Click to expand...

LED is the light source(Backlight). Macbook didn't use LED as backlight, but it also had poor view-angle. The view angle is depended on the type of liquid crystal. I have compared MBP with the EEEPC which is the currently lowest cost laptop. The view angle is better, and the color ramp is smoother than MBP.
 
teazen said:
http://cantonbecker.com/yellowish-macbook-display/photos/
Check this link. There are comparison photos. You will find the powerbook G4 15" didn’t have viewing angle issue.
Click to expand...


that's what I was saying - the viewing angles have become worse. But, I also think that the problem is that the screens show a yellow color distortion vs the cooler distortion of the old technology. It's not like notebook displays have ever had great viewing angles and just because they are now yellowish from the side doesn't make them more or less useable than when they lost all contrast and were inverted.

I had all powerbooks back to the 540c in the 90s and never really had a problem with viewing angles until the macbook pros. But a significant part of this problem is the hinge mechanism on the MBPs which force the user to view the screen from a non-optimal angle. With the old powerbooks, you could adjust the display so that it was positioned optimally. Of course that doesn't affect the side viewing angles though...

I'm wondering if the relatively poor viewing angles also has something to do with the brightness enhancement film that focus the light differently from the previous LCDs? I don't know much about the technology, but perhaps somebody else does? Just thinking out loud....
 
How can I check for screen "yellowing?" Is there a utility that loads a graphic, or a web site or something? I need a new MBP but I want to check right away to determine if I am experiencing this problem.

This really sucks! I just need a new Mac and don't have time to be returning crap. Hell, I don't have time to worry about returning crap...
 
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