Buyer Beware: Retina MBP Burn-In Extraordinaire

[Mojo1]

No one in the current economic climate has startup funds to double up on every machine! In fact the rMBP is one we got as a replacement for the previous ones that got stolen. The portability being the main reason for the upgrade as i'm constantly out in the field or different offices etc...

For the cost of one base model rMBP one can purchase two refurbished 13" MBPs, with money left-over to boost the RAM in both Macs (in the U.S. anyway; I'm not familiar with the U.K.)

That is how I would budget my limited portable Mac purchases until I had the funds to upgrade. I've had to settle for something less that I would have preferred due to money considerations. Since portable computers are prone to theft and damage, redundancy would be very important to me if I depend on them in my business. My work involves using valuable and easily damaged gear on location; having adequate backups of critical pieces of equipment are not luxuries, they are a basic cost of doing business.

 

[salthustle]

For the cost of one base model rMBP one can purchase two refurbished 13" MBPs, with money left-over to boost the RAM in both Macs (in the U.S. anyway; I'm not familiar with the U.K.)

That is how I would budget my limited portable Mac purchases until I had the funds to upgrade. I've had to settle for something less that I would have preferred due to money considerations. Since portable computers are prone to theft and damage, redundancy would be very important to me if I depend on them in my business. My work involves using valuable and easily damaged gear on location; having adequate backups of critical pieces of equipment are not luxuries, they are a basic cost of doing business.

Good, cheers for the business lesson fella.

 

[M87]

Well, I use Caffeine (always on and set to "indefinitely") and I left my rMBP on while I was snoozing and I see no ghostly images haunting my display.

 

[spdntrxi]

have not looked for it and probably won't... I think I would see it, if I had it anyways.. I tend to notice those type of things.

 

[DVD9]

A product thats this expensive shouldn't ship with such obvious defects. The issue here is with apple, not the fact i've bought the machine. I'm expecting them to make this right and so far the customer support has been *****!

Apple is only paying the Chinese that assemble these laptops a dollar an hour. You don't expect Tim Cook to give up his three hundred seventy million dollars per year do you?

 

[macbook123]

Are there different display makes? Can't people do the same terminal check MBA folks do to determine their display make for the RMBP?

If not, surely everybody must have the same ghosting issues, so replacing one RMBP for a different one makes no sense.

 

[Mojo1]

Good, cheers for the business lesson fella.

You're welcome.

 

[Toltepeceno]

I just wanted to say that this is not unique to apple or retina display. I have a Dell studio 1555 that I have had for several years that has had burn in for a couple of years from wallpaper I was using at the time. People say it does not happen to lcd's, that it is temporary, but I call 2 years far more than temporary.

 

[kaput]

Just wanted to mention that the replacement rMBP for my original one with severe ghosting is absolutely flawless. No burn-in at all.

It's definitely an issue, and one worth taking up with Apple for replacement.

 

[Pacwell]

Just thought Id throw in that I left my RMBP on for 5 hours @ full brightness on a static image. Once I got home and checked it against multiple colors, no burn in.


On a side note. Anyone having issues with the display not going to sleep after the set time? No really

 

[Nutdotnet]

I'm sure this has been brought up already but this is NOT burn-in. It's called image retention and it is temporary. It can happen quite often on new displays. Any easy way to get rid of it is to just use your laptop, it WILL go away.

If you're really worried about it you can download a break-in program designed for plasmas, it essentially runs on a loop with differing colors that fill the screen for a few minutes. Plasma owners use it for the first 40 hours or so to reduce the amount of image retention. I'm not sure how effective it would be on an LCD display but I garauntee it will get rid of any actual retained images.

 

[terraphantm]

Is there a correlation between display manufacturer and image retention? Mine was made by LG and does not appear to have any IR

 

[Gibbyice]

I'm sure this has been brought up already but this is NOT burn-in. It's called image retention and it is temporary. It can happen quite often on new displays. Any easy way to get rid of it is to just use your laptop, it WILL go away.

If you're really worried about it you can download a break-in program designed for plasmas, it essentially runs on a loop with differing colors that fill the screen for a few minutes. Plasma owners use it for the first 40 hours or so to reduce the amount of image retention. I'm not sure how effective it would be on an LCD display but I garauntee it will get rid of any actual retained images.

Do you know the URL for the program to reduce potential image retention as I would like to run it when my rmbp arrives next week.

Also would following similar plasma guidelines like keeping at 50 brightness for the 1st 100 hours of use help?

 

[boto]

Do you know the URL for the program to reduce potential image retention as I would like to run it when my rmbp arrives next week.

Also would following similar plasma guidelines like keeping at 50 brightness for the 1st 100 hours of use help?

Don't bother running any applications or resorting to any routine because there is nothing you can do to prevent IR from appearing if you have a LG panel. In due time it will display, whether it may be a few days, weeks, or months I'm almost certain through the community that it is inevitable. Just hope you receive a Samsung with no other defects and you will be satisfied.

 

[Gibbyice]

Don't bother running any applications or resorting to any routine because there is nothing you can do to prevent IR from appearing if you have a LG panel. In due time it will display, whether it may be a few days, weeks, or months I'm almost certain through the community that it is inevitable. Just hope you receive a Samsung with no other defects and you will be satisfied.

Hmm, ok thanks.
This is not very encouraging news

 

[PJCarmody]

You act like just because you spent a few thousand dollars on a product, it should be perfect. Truth is, $3,000 is not a lot to spend on a high-end computer these days. Is this the first luxury item you've purchased? Every product has faults and defects that most high-end consumers have learned to deal with. If you spend $3,000 on a laptop and complain that its monitor isn't perfect or that text scrolling isn't 100% perfect, then clearly the MBP retina wasn't designed for you. It was designed for an entirely different class of users. A lot of forum users here (me, ixodes, jcpb, the list goes on) only buy the latest and greatest technology, and don't complain about text scrolling, or how facebook doesn't work, or how you can see "ghost" effects that are on every IPS in existence. If you're complaining, the MBP probably wasn't designed for you and I suggest you look at Dell and HP, which make very good, low quality laptops

Please tell me you are joking with this response.