Ghostly Impressions of Keyboard & Trackpad on Screen

[anthrojohn]

Greetings, all. I just received a mid-2012 MacBook Air through ebay, and while it's in overall excellent condition, I've noticed something that I have not seen mentioned on these forums:

When a gray or black screen is being displayed, what I thought was typical LCD "clouding" actually looks to be some sort of impression made by the keyboard and trackpad upon the screen. And I'm not talking about surface dirt or oil -- this looks like a deformation of a deeper layer, seen only when the backlight is on, when darker fields of gray or black are being displayed.

These photos are exaggerating the condition through slight overexposure, but the issue is still visible with the naked eye.

Was this likely caused by pressure being applied while the case was closed (though there are absolutely no marks on the top case)? Or was it some sort of heat-related burn-in that could have occurred with the MBA being run in clamshell mode? It's a really pristine-looking unit, with a battery cycle count of 36, so it's hard to imagine it being overworked in this way.

I'll be contacting the ebay seller as I don't really want to live with this distracting defect, but I just wanted to get some feedback from the MacRumors community on this one. Thank You!

 

[kohlson]

In my experience, somewhat common. I believe it is caused by storing in a situation similar to a full backpack, where the screen is pressed against the keys. That's a very low cycle count - perhaps a new battery?

 

[anthrojohn]

Thanks for your response! So, you would consider this within the range of normal for a used MacBook Air? I'm surprised this phenomenon is not mentioned more by owners.

As for the battery, I do suspect it's the original, as the laptop's aluminum surfaces are in near-perfect condition and I don't think it's been used much at all. No scratches or dings. It's almost as if someone used it for a month back in 2012 -- and then stored it in a tight backpack for the last 4 years?

So, the question is: is it worth returning this or is this issue common enough that most used MBAs will exhibit it to some degree or another?

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[soulreaver99]

Scary!