iBook 12" Screen Brightness Different Between Two iBooks?

[jkieffer72]

A buddy of mine just brought over his new 12" iBook (1.2ghz); purchased/delivered earlier this week.

I had my 12" iBook (1.2ghz), purchased Nov 2004, sitting right next to it.

His display is much brighter than mine. We both had fully charged batteries. I could make the brightness of his screen match mine fairly closely by turning down the brightness of his screen by 4-5 notches. (about 1/3 less than the maximum value..)

Is this normal? I thought my display was looking a little dim recently; I really only noticed it after getting a new LCD flat screen for my desktop about two weeks ago. The new desktop LCD was so much brighter.. I wrote it off to just being two different sizes / manufacturers.

But now, with my iBook setting right beside another iBook, it still seems very dim... I tried to call Apple; but it's after 6pm PST, so that will have to wait until tomorrow...

Thanks for any feedback!

JK

 

[mkrishnan]

Did you try re-calibrating your screen? Go to system prefs, then display, then color, then click the calibrate button. The calibration settings may be slightly different on your two iBooks, explaining the difference.

With respect to the external monitor, yes, it is going to be brighter than your laptop display. Look at the power rating on your laptop and on your desktop LCD. Your laptop is designed to run on 10-15 watts of power, for everything including the screen, and your LCD desktop monitor probably consumes about 80-90 watts just by itself. It's got a brighter bulb and it will be brighter than any laptop, unless you have a really poor desktop display.

EDIT: I wanted to add that there probably is some variation from computer to computer in terms of brightness, but I don't know what's acceptable. But bad comparison situations will often make me suddenly think my laptop screen is really dim -- like if I'm sitting in a brightly lit room with white walls, looking at the walls, and then suddenly I look at the screen, or if I look at a desktop screen and then my laptop screen. The eyes have a sort of dynamic range function -- things you see appear bright or dim in relation to the overall ambient light level....

 

[jkieffer72]

Yes; I did try the recalibration option. Did not seem to make things any brighter, although I don't have the other laptop sitting here any more to compare against.

Still have not had time to call Apple...

JK

 

[maya]

There could be several reason why one iBook screen is brighter then another:

1. LCD panel has been modified or changed by the manufacture (Apple and ?).

2. LCD usage, the longer and brightness level an LCD is ON, it shortens its life. On my 5 year old Apple notebook, I have noticed the LCD going dimmer, washed out, pink tint. Nothing major only when there is a flat grey background during booting.

3. You might have a defective LCD panel, or component that is displaying a less brighter then usual, either the setting it tuned low, medium, high.

you get the point.

You can call Apple in regards to it, however I see them doing little to nothing in regards to it. I know they will tell you to calibrate the display. That said sending it back will not guarantee you a better display, it might be the same brightness as before or worse.