I've started using my late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro away from my desk again after keeping it connected to my desk setup for the majority of the time I've had it. One thing is for sure: just using the basic settings to set the display's gamma to 2.2 and the white balance to D65 do not yield the best results, since there's a lot of room for improvement. Even at this, the MacBook Pro's gamma is too low, even compared to my self-calibrated monitor, iPhone 4, and iPad. In fact, I believe the iPad (as well as the others) are using a higher quality screen than the late 2008 MacBook Pro, and I used to praise the screen.
I managed to get better results by using expert settings, but I had no idea what I was doing during the first five steps and I know I can still do better, but it's an improvement in most areas. the first five steps make no sense and seem impossible to do correctly. I don't do work that requires colors to be 100% accurate, but I like my display to have the best contrast possible without overdoing it, and the best color temperature I can get. I wish I had options similar to a TV, since I was able to get everything how I wanted within a few weeks of tweaking the settings slightly on my Pioneer KRP-500M.
When my iPad and iPhone have better color accuracy and contrast ratio than my MacBook Pro, (at least with default settings and a profile calibrate through basic options) it shows that those come out of the box with much better settings and my MacBook Pro's display is not a joy to use when the color profile isn't as good as it could be.
I managed to get better results by using expert settings, but I had no idea what I was doing during the first five steps and I know I can still do better, but it's an improvement in most areas. the first five steps make no sense and seem impossible to do correctly. I don't do work that requires colors to be 100% accurate, but I like my display to have the best contrast possible without overdoing it, and the best color temperature I can get. I wish I had options similar to a TV, since I was able to get everything how I wanted within a few weeks of tweaking the settings slightly on my Pioneer KRP-500M.
When my iPad and iPhone have better color accuracy and contrast ratio than my MacBook Pro, (at least with default settings and a profile calibrate through basic options) it shows that those come out of the box with much better settings and my MacBook Pro's display is not a joy to use when the color profile isn't as good as it could be.