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Has Apple Finally Solved The Backlight Bleed Problem?...I Think Yes!

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donster28

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 5, 2006
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Great White North
I finally caved and purchased the base 2018 15-incher after returning the 2017 Refurb 15-inch MBP I just got. I figured the $500 difference between the two is worth enough spending more for the added oomph and other additional features the 2018’s have.

Actually, I ended up purchasing 3 units, 2 for friends (they paid for them) and upon comparing our units, I examined all thoroughly for screen anomalies. One had a slightly warmer left side on a white screen, none had dead pixels and all of them did not have any backlight bleed whatsoever...I was amazed!

Could this be a growing trend now with these newer laptops...no dead pixels, no backlight bleed?! If yes, I’m happy. Now we just have to watch out for uneven whites.
 
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There will always be some backlight breeding. Nature of using LCD screens ( LED is LCD though OLED isn’t) . If you can notice it or not is a different story. If I wanted to be anal about it I could probably find it on my own 2017 laptop.
 
Closingracer said:
There will always be some backlight breeding. Nature of using LCD screens ( LED is LCD though OLED isn’t) . If you can notice it or not is a different story. If I wanted to be anal about it I could probably find it on my own 2017 laptop.
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Backlight bleed (or flashlighting) can be seen in a totally pitch dark room, with a pure black image on the screen and with highest backlight setting.

I do know what I’m talking about and I’ve been examining these anomalies since my first aluminum iMac.

The screens on these 2018’s are different and are slightly better in my observation. Back then, 2 of 3 of them had backlight bleed and it was frustrating. I think we can at least not worry too much now.
 
donster28 said:
Backlight bleed (or flashlighting) can be seen in a totally pitch dark room, with a pure black image on the screen and with highest backlight setting.

I do know what I’m talking about and I’ve been examining these anomalies since my first aluminum iMac.

The screens on these 2018’s are different and are slightly better in my observation. Back then, 2 of 3 of them had backlight bleed and it was frustrating.
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Flash lighting and backlight bleeding is separate things. Every lcd panel has backlight bleeding of some sort.
 
Closingracer said:
Flash lighting and backlight bleeding is separate things. Every lcd panel has backlight bleeding of some sort.
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What are you talking about?
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HumpYourWayUp said:
I can totally confirm this!
Backlight Breeding has a long tradition among Breeders.
Some Breeders actually prefer backlight because it makes the breeding process more visible!
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Haha. That explains it.
 
thats great. i dont want to fight with lucky draw on no dead pixel panel to get mine
was sad on last yr's ipad pro
 
donster28 said:
What are you talking about?
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Haha. That explains it.
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You don’t know what your talking about ... simply put there is backlight bleeding on any display that uses LCD. Severity and noticing it is a different story.
 
My 2018 15" base model has the best screen I've had on an Apple device in awhile. It is white and has no unevenness with or without True Tone on. I don't know if this year's screens have improved or I just lucked out, but I'm very happy with it.
 
I can’t say I have ever seen backlight bleed issues on a MacBook Pro with a Retina display. My current 2017 certainly does not have any backlight bleed that is noticeable. And I’ll add that I consider myself pretty sensitive to imperfections when it comes to monitors (my Samsung 4K has heavy light bleed but apparently it’s normal, and still bugs me)

As @Closingracer stated, technically speaking all LED and LCD screens have light bleed, some very noticeable, and some almost not at all. Personally the MacBook Pro Retina display has always been the best display with little to no light bleed.
 
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bevsb2 said:
My 2018 15" base model has the best screen I've had on an Apple device in awhile. It is white and has no unevenness with or without True Tone on. I don't know if this year's screens have improved or I just lucked out, but I'm very happy with it.
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I'm willing to believe Apple has stepped up the QC on these screens. I remember exchanging my 2015 15" MBP multiple times until I got a decent enough screen and the one I ended up with, although was good, still had slight backlight and colour shift issues on a black screen.
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Closingracer said:
You don’t know what your talking about ... simply put there is backlight bleeding on any display that uses LCD. Severity and noticing it is a different story.
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I'm only talking about visible backlight bleed...anything you don't see is not covered in this topic or in any discussion about having screen anomalies.

We don't complain about dead pixels we don't see, do we? You can say, yes, there are dead pixels in there that are tiny enough not to be seen by the naked eye, but the fact they will not be seen at all is pointless to include them in any post that complains about them.
 
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donster28 said:
I'm only talking about visible backlight bleed...anything you don't see is not covered in this topic or in any discussion about having a problem free screen.
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But that is actually the point. You’re saying there is light bleed, most people using any of the MacBook Pro Retina displays would say there isn’t because we never use the computer on a pure black screen. Truely significant backlight bleed is where you can see the light bleeding through on even moderately dark images, not just pure black images. Apples retina monitors haven’t really had the issue thanks to the way they do tightly laminate the layers in the monitor.

If it’s not there or noticeable on normal daily functions other than on the black startup boot screen, I’d say it really isn’t as much of a “fix” as it was a slight improvement on the constraints of the monitor build quality. But in any case I agree the new displays are awesome, even if they aren’t 4K.
 
Painter2002 said:
But that is actually the point. You’re saying there is light bleed, most people using any of the MacBook Pro Retina displays would say there isn’t because we never use the computer on a pure black screen. Truely significant backlight bleed is where you can see the light bleeding through on even moderately dark images, not just pure black images. Apples retina monitors haven’t really had the issue thanks to the way they do tightly laminate the layers in the monitor.

If it’s not there or noticeable on normal daily functions other than on the black startup boot screen, I’d say it really isn’t as much of a “fix” as it was a slight improvement on the constraints of the monitor build quality. But in any case I agree the new displays are awesome, even if they aren’t 4K.
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I am representing and calling out to users who actually are aware of the problem, can see it and care about it. The people you talk about, who don't care about this issue are not who I'm referring to. There are a number of users here who are aware of the backlight bleed issues on MacBooks and they are the ones I want to point this out to so let's just leave it at that.
 
donster28 said:
I am representing and calling out to users who actually are aware of the problem, can see it and care about it. The people you talk about, who don't care about this issue are not who I'm referring to. There are a number of users here who are aware of the backlight bleed issues on MacBooks and they are the ones I want to point this out to so let's just leave it at that.
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I apologize. I didn’t mean to offend this group of people, I guess I didn’t realize that many people had an issue with it. In any case, glad to hear that it has improved on the new 2018 models. Hope you enjoy your new MacBook Pro!
 
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Painter2002 said:
I apologize. I didn’t mean to offend this group of people, I guess I didn’t realize that many people had an issue with it. In any case, glad to hear that it has improved on the new 2018 models. Hope you enjoy your new MacBook Pro!
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No worries at all. Just want to make sure we understand each other. Thank you for chiming in. :)
 
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Ahaha, this is so MacRumors, we even manage to turn a "hey guys, I think the new panels have less backlight bleeding" into bickering :D
 
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the 2018 has different screen/Backlight, the Backlight layer is no longer right over the display panel, but raps around the panel.
 
has-apple-finally-solved-the-backlight-bleed-problem-i-think-yes
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No, they don`t.
I saw a couple 2018 15 max spec that was bleeding awfully! No change from first retina models at all - it depends on your luck.
 
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bosozoku said:
No, they don`t.
I saw a couple 2018 15 max spec that was bleeding awfully! No change from first retina models at all - it depends on your luck.
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Pictures?
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bosozoku said:
Read this
https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48223/~/ips-bleeding-explained
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Sorry but why do you assume someone did not examine their unit properly? The 2018 MBP LCD's are of a better quality with barely noticeable to no backlight bleeding. Previous models are a hit and miss but these current gens are consistent!
 
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