Is it bad to have screen at constant full brightness (Retina)

[708692]

I'm finding that I prefer the screen cranked right up to max brightness than any other setting.

Would this be a cause for concern e.g. this will shorten it's life / get duller quicker over a period of time etc?

AFAIK, in the fixit teardown, the retina used LEDs for the backlight, not a traditional bulb. This makes me think there would be no bad effects from running it at full brightness?

Any insight appreciated! Cheers

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm finding that I prefer the screen cranked right up to max brightness than any other setting.

Would this be a cause for concern e.g. this will shorten it's life / get duller quicker over a period of time etc?

No, it won't hurt it to run at full brightness.

 

[iPaintCode]

That's the beauty of LED's, they either work or don't work. No need to warming up to achieve full brightness. Just buy AppleCare and if your display ever goes out in 3 years you're covered. I'm pretty sure you could run that display at max brightness continuous for 5 years straight and probably still have a some lifespan left on the LEDs themselves (no dimming like CFL would).

 

[Gav2k]

Led's will dim over time

 

[708692]

Led's will dim over time

Really? At least it won't be as noticeable as the traditional backlight tech?

 

[cmdrmac]

Really? At least it won't be as noticeable as the traditional backlight tech?

Nice thing about LEDs is that they won't abruptly fail. They will dim over time, but we're talking many many months before you even notice the LEDs dimmed to a point where you can hardly use your machine. I would bet that you're going to upgrade to a new machine before your LED dims horrendously.

 

[fizzwinkus]

Really? At least it won't be as noticeable as the traditional backlight tech?

all light sources will dim over time. leds dim at a much, much slower rate than the fluorescent backlights used before them. the difference is to the point i don't think about leds dimming over time anymore. i'll likely have moved on through two new displays by the time i notice any dimming.

 

[golu14]

I'm finding that I prefer the screen cranked right up to max brightness than any other setting.

Would this be a cause for concern e.g. this will shorten it's life / get duller quicker over a period of time etc?

AFAIK, in the fixit teardown, the retina used LEDs for the backlight, not a traditional bulb. This makes me think there would be no bad effects from running it at full brightness?

Any insight appreciated! Cheers

Will make it get dull sooner but like 5% difference in 10 years.
Its bad for eyes, but OK for the machine

 

[708692]

all light sources will dim over time. leds dim at a much, much slower rate than the fluorescent backlights used before them. the difference is to the point i don't think about leds dimming over time anymore. i'll likely have moved on through two new displays by the time i notice any dimming.

Will make it get dull sooner but like 5% difference in 10 years.
Its bad for eyes, but OK for the machine

Haha, good to know I'll turn it down 1 knotch some of the time to save my eyes then

 

[mexico]

by the time those led's go out, we will all be using crazy computers built into our bodies. We will manipulate those computers via holographic images that appear right before our eyes... needles to say you shouldn't worry

 

[Azathoth]

all light sources will dim over time. leds dim at a much, much slower rate than the fluorescent backlights used before them. the difference is to the point i don't think about leds dimming over time anymore. i'll likely have moved on through two new displays by the time i notice any dimming.

My 2011 macbook seems to have lost about 30% of it's original brightness - measured with a colorimeter, I can not longer get above 200 nits - whereas all the reviews show 300+ nits when new. In my office I definately notice that he screen is dimmer compared to when I bought it, as I have to use it on full constantly now.

So yes, LEDs do get dimmer, within the lifespan of the computer, contrary to the BS that "LEDs don't fail, they last forever". Reading the datasheets of the main LEDs manuf. also shows that those 50000+ hr lifetimes are typically to *half* brightness - that is a noticable drop in luminous output, and on the verge of useless for normal laptop use in an office environment.

 

[whitedragon101]

My 2011 macbook seems to have lost about 30% of it's original brightness - measured with a colorimeter, I can not longer get above 200 nits - whereas all the reviews show 300+ nits when new. In my office I definately notice that he screen is dimmer compared to when I bought it, as I have to use it on full constantly now.

So yes, LEDs do get dimmer, within the lifespan of the computer, contrary to the BS that "LEDs don't fail, they last forever". Reading the datasheets of the main LEDs manuf. also shows that those 50000+ hr lifetimes are typically to *half* brightness - that is a noticable drop in luminous output, and on the verge of useless for normal laptop use in an office environment.

Hmm hopefully Apple will up the brightness of the rMBP screens then to match the cMBP at some point. It was a rather overlooked aspect of the retina screens that that they significantly dropped the max screen brightness.

 

[fizzwinkus]

My 2011 macbook seems to have lost about 30% of it's original brightness - measured with a colorimeter, I can not longer get above 200 nits - whereas all the reviews show 300+ nits when new. In my office I definately notice that he screen is dimmer compared to when I bought it, as I have to use it on full constantly now.

So yes, LEDs do get dimmer, within the lifespan of the computer, contrary to the BS that "LEDs don't fail, they last forever". Reading the datasheets of the main LEDs manuf. also shows that those 50000+ hr lifetimes are typically to *half* brightness - that is a noticable drop in luminous output, and on the verge of useless for normal laptop use in an office environment.

50,000 hours at 8 hours a day is 17 years.
show me a ccfl that has 50% brightness at 17 years.

 

[Zeov]

No.

 

[Azathoth]

50,000 hours at 8 hours a day is 17 years.
show me a ccfl that has 50% brightness at 17 years.

Irrelevant what the CCFL specs are - the OP question was if it was detrimental to leave the screen on at high brightness. I have some empirical evidence that it is.

Moreover, I have a lot of experience of CCFL technology and how the claims of the lifetime and luminous output is often not met in real-world usage (across a sampling of 30 bulbs, a number of the ones that I have tested failed after 1000 hrs - even from high quality manufacturers)

The LED 50000hr spec requires a certain set of conditions, and more likely than not this might be at a nominal drive current that is lower than the maximum current used when the display is at full brightness

"The solid blue curve denotes the typical lifetime derived from LED manufacturers’ data. The shaded blue area on both sides of this curve indicates the performance deviation over different LEDs. This deviation might be attributed to LED flux binning7, batch differences, differences in aging conditions and so on."

http://www.etaplighting.com/uploadedFiles/Downloadable_documentation/documentatie/whitepaper_LED_EN.pdf

http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/solidstate/pdf/guSPIE.pdf

Just like the MTBF figures that are quoted by hard drive manufacturers - many are based on (standardised) calculations - not real world "FIT" data. I know because I've done MTBF calculations for industrial products - they have little correlation to real-world failures, they are often mainly necessary for the marketing department.

Now, as for the OP, I think that if you will use the computer for 2 years then I would not worry too much about degradation, it will be fairly minimal. After another few years then you probably will notice it, but by then you're likely to have a lot of other issues (like image retention due to ionic contamination, but that is the subject of another lecture )

 

[FuNGi]

Hmm hopefully Apple will up the brightness of the rMBP screens then to match the cMBP at some point. It was a rather overlooked aspect of the retina screens that that they significantly dropped the max screen brightness.

The new ones are significantly brighter than the original rMBP. 324 vs. 223 lux (laptopmag)
And significantly brighter than 2011 MBP's (also what I'm moving from) which rang in at 260.

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-snip-
Now, as for the OP, I think that if you will use the computer for 2 years then I would not worry too much about degradation, it will be fairly minimal. After another few years then you probably will notice it, but by then you're likely to have a lot of other issues (like image retention due to ionic contamination, but that is the subject of another lecture )

^ can that hurt my eyeballs?

 

[whitedragon101]

The new ones are significantly brighter than the original rMBP. 324 vs. 223 lux (laptopmag)
And significantly brighter than 2011 MBP's (also what I'm moving from) which rang in at 260.

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I was just commenting on this in other threads. Its awesome

 

[DisMyMac]

I had the impression that dimming a light = more resistance and heat (which is bad). I was never good with electricity though.

 

[fizzwinkus]

so basically, yes. i'm right.

Irrelevant what the CCFL specs are - the OP question was if it was detrimental to leave the screen on at high brightness. I have some empirical evidence that it is.

Moreover, I have a lot of experience of CCFL technology and how the claims of the lifetime and luminous output is often not met in real-world usage (across a sampling of 30 bulbs, a number of the ones that I have tested failed after 1000 hrs - even from high quality manufacturers)

The LED 50000hr spec requires a certain set of conditions, and more likely than not this might be at a nominal drive current that is lower than the maximum current used when the display is at full brightness

"The solid blue curve denotes the typical lifetime derived from LED manufacturers’ data. The shaded blue area on both sides of this curve indicates the performance deviation over different LEDs. This deviation might be attributed to LED flux binning7, batch differences, differences in aging conditions and so on."

http://www.etaplighting.com/uploadedFiles/Downloadable_documentation/documentatie/whitepaper_LED_EN.pdf

http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/solidstate/pdf/guSPIE.pdf

Just like the MTBF figures that are quoted by hard drive manufacturers - many are based on (standardised) calculations - not real world "FIT" data. I know because I've done MTBF calculations for industrial products - they have little correlation to real-world failures, they are often mainly necessary for the marketing department.

Now, as for the OP, I think that if you will use the computer for 2 years then I would not worry too much about degradation, it will be fairly minimal. After another few years then you probably will notice it, but by then you're likely to have a lot of other issues (like image retention due to ionic contamination, but that is the subject of another lecture )