Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How are the MacBooks screens nowadays?

C

caktusaurus

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 24, 2007
50
0
Hi everyone,

MR forum member since a few years back. Bought a MacBook back then (November 2007), but couldn't stand the poor contrast and viewing angles (and kinda blue/gray-ish sparkling) of the screen so it was immediately returned. After a number of returns, I finally gave up on MacBooks altogether.

A lot of friends and colleagues got the early aluminium unibody MacBooks, and I found the screen quality to be just as bad on those.

However, I recently saw the new polycarbonate unibody MacBook at the Apple shop-in-shop at a local retailer, and the viewing angles seemed great. Has the screen quality really been improved that significantly?
 
dont know about the old ones but my new unibody white Macbook is great. Have watched many movies on it and games... viewing angles great and is very bright.
 
I don't know about the Unibody macbooks but the unibody MBP's have a new glass screen which is well, just orgasmic. I had one put on my polycarbonate 09 macbook and it really looks so much better than the previous samsung one.

EDIT: Actually I just remembered on a recent excursion to the local mac bar I tinkered with a UMB and a UMBP and I compared mine to both and mine shut down the UMB and I honestly think beat the UMBP by a tad as well. My personal mac genius picked the glass (LG), screen to replace my rather less-than-stunning samsung.
 
My girlfriend got the White MacBook (Unibody) just before Christmas and I think the screen quality is great - there is a little diagonal cross hatched detailing when there is moving images or when you drag things around but you have to look close to notice this...

I find that the contrast is as good if not better then my MBP screen and the non-glossy display reminds me of my old 15" MBP (2007 model) but I would say its an improvement.

Why is viewing angle important for a Lap Top? Surely you are going to look at it straight on?
 
the newest white unibody macbooks have much better screens because they are now LED backlit... the viewing angle is better than before..
 
Jon-Luke said:
Why is viewing angle important for a Lap Top? Surely you are going to look at it straight on?
Click to expand...

With the old ones there was no "perfect angle", the top was always "inverted" and the bottom was always washed out. In general it's important since you sometimes find yourself working in places where you can't tilt the screen as you like (e.g. on airplanes or trains).
 
I'd just like to post some information I picked up after some extensive searching, the 'keys' to which manufacturer you have.

System Preferences > Display > Colour > Open Profile (Pick your favourite profile) > go to #13 (<OSX 10.6) or #17 (OSX 10.5.9>), labeled 'mmod' and 'mmod' and click on it. It will say
Manufacturer:
Model:
Serial Number:
Manufacture Date:

Your model number is what you're looking for, whatever one you have will fall under one of these four categories.

00009C5E/00005E9C = Chi Mei N133I1 (bad reviews)
00009C5C/00005C9C = Au Optronics B133EW01 (good ish reviews? Haven't heard much about this, good or bad.)
00009C5B/00005B9C = Samsung LTN133W1 (generally bad reviews)
00009C5F/00005F9C = LG Philips LP133WX1 (absolutely glowing reviews. The 9C5F model listed is the glass screen used in the Aluminium models, that I had installed on my last run 09 Polycarbonate)
 
XboxMySocks said:
I'd just like to post some information I picked up after some extensive searching, the 'keys' to which manufacturer you have.

System Preferences > Display > Colour > Open Profile (Pick your favourite profile) > go to #13 (<OSX 10.6) or #17 (OSX 10.5.9>), labeled 'mmod' and 'mmod' and click on it. It will say
Manufacturer:
Model:
Serial Number:
Manufacture Date:

Your model number is what you're looking for, whatever one you have will fall under one of these four categories.

00009C5E/00005E9C = Chi Mei N133I1 (bad reviews)
00009C5C/00005C9C = Au Optronics B133EW01 (good ish reviews? Haven't heard much about this, good or bad.)
00009C5B/00005B9C = Samsung LTN133W1 (generally bad reviews)
00009C5F/00005F9C = LG Philips LP133WX1 (absolutely glowing reviews. The 9C5F model listed is the glass screen used in the Aluminium models, that I had installed on my last run 09 Polycarbonate)
Click to expand...

I looked up my screen but i pulled up model 00009CA5 Manufacturer 00000610. Is that new or old? I have a Late 2008 2.4ghz Alu unibody
 
knlawledge said:
I looked up my screen but i pulled up model 00009CA5 Manufacturer 00000610. Is that new or old? I have a Late 2008 2.4ghz Alu unibody
Click to expand...

If the manufacturer number actually varies with the manufacturer of the LCD, then you'd have the same manufacturer as mine — which would make your panel an LG.
 
Sorry for the double post, but here's a picture you guys might wanna see, it's my October 08 Collectors Macbook, pitted against my June 09 (Last Run of these laptops) which I had my dealer custom install a brand new LG screen. I think it's fairly evident that my June 09's screen is a bit better (the collectors macbook has some contrast issues:confused:) but they're overall still both quite good. They're using the same profile, so that's not a factor.
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3347/displays.jpg
 
No issues with my white unibody screen. I heard that some of the early MacBook Pro's had a few issues with the first batch of LCD screens.
The new ones are good though.:apple:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back