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Image Retention still exists.. RIDICULOUS

B

BlueMoonForever

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 2, 2012
303
16
Got a brand new BTO rMBP13" and low and behold it had image retention. The screen looked washed out right away. I noticed when I was updating it, and it had to restart and I saw gray outlines in the login window. I then ran the image retention test with the checkerboard and bam, that confirmed it.

The computer has already been sent back for a full refund. I told the Apple guy on the phone this is ridiculous that they still do this sine June 2012. He just kept apologizing. I did not figure out which screen it was. But its absolutely ridiculous the third generation retina macbook pros still have these problems. I know not all of them do, but damn.

Maybe Apple should have kept the entire classic line. Pathetic.
 
You didn't try to do a swap or anything? Mine is fine, models that don't have any problems do exist...

Sorry that you had to deal with that, though.
 
kerrikins said:
You didn't try to do a swap or anything? Mine is fine, models that don't have any problems do exist...

Sorry that you had to deal with that, though.
Click to expand...

It was an impulse buy to be honest, but nonetheless the screens shouldn't be doing that after 2 years.

I may go to the Apple store and see if they have any 15" anti-glare models left.
 
BlueMoonForever said:
Got a brand new BTO rMBP13" and low and behold it had image retention. The screen looked washed out right away. I noticed when I was updating it, and it had to restart and I saw gray outlines in the login window. I then ran the image retention test with the checkerboard and bam, that confirmed it.

The computer has already been sent back for a full refund. I told the Apple guy on the phone this is ridiculous that they still do this sine June 2012. He just kept apologizing. I did not figure out which screen it was. But its absolutely ridiculous the third generation retina macbook pros still have these problems. I know not all of them do, but damn.

Maybe Apple should have kept the entire classic line. Pathetic.
Click to expand...
I wonder why the rMBP 13" is selling so well then?
 
Translation, "I bought this expensive laptop, then had buyers remorse so I returned it."
 
BlueMoonForever said:
NO! It was clearly defective out of the box. Maybe next time you should read the OP.
Click to expand...

There are indeed lemons out there, but as said the people in forums tend to highlight only defects, which does not necessary equate to a major flaw in the market.

I suggest you go to a store and try another unit, I had one 2012 13" rMBP, which I sold to purchase the Haswell model, which never developed IR and the new one is IR free so far (A018 panel); my daughter has a 2012 13" rBMP and it is also IR free so far. You may also look for the classic 13" MBP, which they still sell (the 15" MBP is discontinued, but you may buy new old stock of factory refurbished though Apple Store)
 
Of course its not a widespread problem like it was two years ago. I was under the impression that LG or Samsung had completely fixed these issues. I know yellow tints still existed, but not image retention.

And yes, of course lemons will always exist, but for an issue as widespread as this, I would have thought otherwise.
 
I don't understand, why is this a big deal? If you get a dud you exchange it.

Like PeterKG said it's not a huge problem, if it was you'd know. If your using a state of art display, it's not unexpected to have some duds. Maybe Apple will someday be able to get a Retina display manufacturer with better display consistency, but for now you just have exchange a bad one now and then.
 
Chatran said:
I remember a guy said he had exchanged for 5 times, and still got bad ones (IR).
Click to expand...

There will always be products that will have problems, I understand that. But what I don't understand is why this issue, which once was very large, hasn't been fixed yet? Obviously in early 2014 the issue still exists.
 
Don't worry, I understand your frustration. However, my image retention wasn't even noticeable and gradually grew worse as Apple Care was nearing the end. I ended up buying AC a day before it expired, that same day it IR'd so bad that I could see things clearly.

Apple needs to increase their quality control. I do believe that they heavily rely on their manufacturing partners to do the tests and send them the best of the batches. This is why you see Korean off-brand monitors with A-, B and B+ ratings. The ones that don't go to Apple go to the little off-brands. It just so happens that a few slip through quality control. Quite unfortunate, but that's what exchanges are for. If you check around the forums, IR is way less. Yellow tinting is another issue.
 
kelon111 said:
I wonder why the rMBP 13" is selling so well then?
Click to expand...

The average customer is too busy being astonished about every OTHER way the newer Retina screens step on the old screens to care about the very small imperfections.

With new technology, it's about compromise, but if you have OCD, you will only see the flaws. There is no compromise. People with OCD make up a very small segment of the market, as such, the 13" Retina sells very well.

You get an amazingly high resolution display with superior viewing angle, reduced glare, increased readability with higher image quality. On the flipside, there are the occasional blemishes or backlight leaking issues.. I would gladly take a retina screen with all of its shortcomings than the old screens.

At the same time, my laptop cost $750. If I paid $2750 for it, I would probably contract a severe form of OCD as well. A lot of the requests people have seem nitpicky & unreasonable, but when you consider the cost of the product, it's not that unreasonable.

There was this guy in music who said producers and artists will repeatedly go over a take and remove what's wrong. In doing so, they remove what's right. Keep the flaws in if the take is good since it preserves the emotion. I feel this way when I see an A1278 next to an A1425. Backlight bleeding, blemishes, ghosting, I could care less - there's no way in hell I would take an old 13" after seeing a Retina. The flaws in the new technology are nothing compared to living with a screen with the resolution of an android phone.

Focus on what it does right. Focus on how your retina owns and skull****s every PC laptop at best buy. Smile, be happy, because ghosting and image retention aside, it still looks a lot better than everything else.
 
BlueMoonForever said:
Of course its not a widespread problem like it was two years ago. I was under the impression that LG or Samsung had completely fixed these issues. I know yellow tints still existed, but not image retention.

And yes, of course lemons will always exist, but for an issue as widespread as this, I would have thought otherwise.
Click to expand...

The problem with your point of view is that it's not realistic at all.
Products like these have grown so much in popularity, that the 1% of faulty products (which is perfectly normal, and acceptable for a company this big.)
gets blown up so much that people start assuming it's a common issue, while the other 99% isn't experiencing any problems whatsoever.

The xbox/playstation community is worse, they started this whole "the first batch is a bad batch" nonsense because at launch that 1% of 10 million consoles is going to be followed up with a 100k people having a defective device THIS IS normal, and the companies responsible will replace your device.
 
Last edited:
Serelus said:
The problem with your point of view is that it's not realistic at all.
Products like these have grown so much in popularity, that the 1% of faulty products (which is perfectly normal, and acceptable for a company this big.)
gets blown up so much that people start assuming it's a common issue, while the other 99% isn't experiencing any problems whatsoever.

The xbox/playstation community is worse, they started this whole "the first batch is a bad batch" nonsense because at launch that 1% of 10 million consoles is going to be followed up with a 100k people having a defective device THIS normal, and the companies responsible will replace your device.
Click to expand...

So true, people see a the posts from people with problems and blowup the failure rate to extremes.

People don't seem to realize that people don't post threads like "HELP - my rMBP works perfectly!!! - is my display too good!?" to balance out the negatives.
 
Last edited:
BlueMoonForever said:
Of course its not a widespread problem like it was two years ago. I was under the impression that LG or Samsung had completely fixed these issues. I know yellow tints still existed, but not image retention.

And yes, of course lemons will always exist, but for an issue as widespread as this, I would have thought otherwise.
Click to expand...

If you new about it then why buy, couldn't resist then got buyers remorse. Don't be ashamed happens to most people after a purchase :)
 
If you have a brand new laptop, why not just exchange or return it :confused:

If you are having IR, there's nothing that can be done to alleviate or fix the issue and its brand new so return it.
 
simon48 said:
I don't understand, why is this a big deal? If you get a dud you exchange it.

Like PeterKG said it's not a huge problem, if it was you'd know. If your using a state of art display, it's not unexpected to have some duds. Maybe Apple will someday be able to get a Retina display manufacturer with better display consistency, but for now you just have exchange a bad one now and then.
Click to expand...

State of art? I presume you're kidding. Since when wLED-IPS displays are state of art? They are on the market for years. In truth, Apple went Retina because high-res-old-tech became cheap. If Apple wanted state-of-the-art anything, they would get suppliers like NEC or EIZO. Of course it would make the rMBP cost twice, then Samsung/LG seemed a good choice -- but they proved it wasn't.
 
I just returned a late 13" rMBP with a A020 because of IR. It would show up incredibly fast (less than 3 mins) and wouldnt' fade till about 5 mins or so.

However, my buddy got the same base 13 the same time as I did and doesn't have ANY IR show up at all. A020 panel as well.

If you want i say play the lottery and try to get one if everything meets your standard, I decided to return it completely and not sure if I want to go with a cMBP instead.
 
l.a.rossmann said:
The average customer is too busy being astonished about every OTHER way the newer Retina screens step on the old screens to care about the very small imperfections.

With new technology, it's about compromise, but if you have OCD, you will only see the flaws. There is no compromise. People with OCD make up a very small segment of the market, as such, the 13" Retina sells very well.

You get an amazingly high resolution display with superior viewing angle, reduced glare, increased readability with higher image quality. On the flipside, there are the occasional blemishes or backlight leaking issues.. I would gladly take a retina screen with all of its shortcomings than the old screens.

At the same time, my laptop cost $750. If I paid $2750 for it, I would probably contract a severe form of OCD as well. A lot of the requests people have seem nitpicky & unreasonable, but when you consider the cost of the product, it's not that unreasonable.

There was this guy in music who said producers and artists will repeatedly go over a take and remove what's wrong. In doing so, they remove what's right. Keep the flaws in if the take is good since it preserves the emotion. I feel this way when I see an A1278 next to an A1425. Backlight bleeding, blemishes, ghosting, I could care less - there's no way in hell I would take an old 13" after seeing a Retina. The flaws in the new technology are nothing compared to living with a screen with the resolution of an android phone.

Focus on what it does right. Focus on how your retina owns and skull****s every PC laptop at best buy. Smile, be happy, because ghosting and image retention aside, it still looks a lot better than everything else.
Click to expand...

If you read PDFs while write papers/documents in a daily basis, you'll get definitely annoyed by uneven yellowing. That uneven yellow pattern make your eyes burn when text scrolls through it. I know even iMac displays suffer from yellowing, but at the center you get a barely decent reading. In smaller displays like on the rMBP, you simply cannot find a way of reading a text article without scrolling from white-to-yellow or vice-versa. Better reading on my 1280x800 MB White.

----------
JunkyJeff said:
I just returned a late 13" rMBP with a A020 because of IR. It would show up incredibly fast (less than 3 mins) and wouldnt' fade till about 5 mins or so.

However, my buddy got the same base 13 the same time as I did and doesn't have ANY IR show up at all. A020 panel as well.

If you want i say play the lottery and try to get one if everything meets your standard, I decided to return it completely and not sure if I want to go with a cMBP instead.
Click to expand...

If I lived near from an Apple Store, I'd enter the lottery exchanging until get an even, non-IR, non bleeding display. There are defects that annoys more one or another person. To the Photoshopper, IR is less of an issue than uneven-yellowing. If you usually edit/watch videos, you'll be concerned with backlight bleeding and perhaps yellowing. If you read a lot, uneveness is the worst case ever. In short... it's better stop exchanging when you find a problem that doesn't affect your most common use case.
 
IMO,

If this effects you that badly.

You shouldn't buy a retina.

Any product you must enter a return-repurchase-lottery to properly obtain is a product whose inherent manufacturing compromises aren't suited to your needs.

I have many times been on the receiving end, the customer end, of buying a product 5-6 times only to continuously be disappointed. It's easier to just break up & find a device that suits you at that point.
 
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