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Is there any proof that Samsung panels > LG panels?
- Thread starter AbeFroman77
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OK, I picked up a 13 MBA yesterday that had a LG display. I started reading all the threads about the display differences, and I was curious if there was a difference between the two displays. Well fate would have it that my "X" key was defective so I went back to the store to get a replacement. While there I took a look at the display units. There was a good mix between the two different displays so I had an opportunity to view several of each type. From my non-scientific investigation I discovered that the Samsung display is the better of the two. The LG is a very good display, but the Samsung has slightly better viewing angles and a little more color saturation and contrast.
A little test I've been using for years to test viewing angles is about as basic as possible. I just open up an iTunes window and select the song list view. You'll see alternating bluish/gray stripes. The better the viewing angle of the display the more consistent the strips will be in color from the top to the bottom of the display. In this test the Samsung was more consistent than the LG. On the LG the bars start off gray at the top of the display and are faint gray at the bottom. This may be what some people perceive as a washed out display.
In side to side comparisons the colors do pop a little more on the Samsung. I didn't do any calibrations on the displays so it is possible that a good cal could help the LG with this aspect. I did cal my LG and it did look better than stock. No doubt most people probably wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between the two displays. Though when you put them side by side the differences are perceptible.
I just got home and booted up the new machine. It appears that I now have a Samsung display. As I saw at the store the Samsung display on the replacement machine is a little better than my previous machine. That's my $.02
A little test I've been using for years to test viewing angles is about as basic as possible. I just open up an iTunes window and select the song list view. You'll see alternating bluish/gray stripes. The better the viewing angle of the display the more consistent the strips will be in color from the top to the bottom of the display. In this test the Samsung was more consistent than the LG. On the LG the bars start off gray at the top of the display and are faint gray at the bottom. This may be what some people perceive as a washed out display.
In side to side comparisons the colors do pop a little more on the Samsung. I didn't do any calibrations on the displays so it is possible that a good cal could help the LG with this aspect. I did cal my LG and it did look better than stock. No doubt most people probably wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between the two displays. Though when you put them side by side the differences are perceptible.
I just got home and booted up the new machine. It appears that I now have a Samsung display. As I saw at the store the Samsung display on the replacement machine is a little better than my previous machine. That's my $.02
duffyanneal - If you get minute, could you open this test image and let us know how it looks on a Samsung 13" display?
Scroll to the right and see if you see all the shades or some start blending on the high end...
Reds and Greens blend on the LG.
http://www.pbase.com/jackcnd/image/75285374/original
Scroll to the right and see if you see all the shades or some start blending on the high end...
Reds and Greens blend on the LG.
http://www.pbase.com/jackcnd/image/75285374/original
Same here. Had a friend at the mac business unit look at my display vs the samsung I found. He could tell a difference in contrast (color saturation) and viewing angle between the LG and Samsung. He allowed me to swap out my i7, and got the new model home just now. Instead of a samsung SSD and LG display, it has a Samsung display and toshiba SSD.
I can tell a difference between the two displays. Toshiba SSD be damned, this one's a keeper.
Oh, and for those wondering how quickly a new model air will get to the refurbed section, you're welcome.:roll eyes:
He wondered about how the displays could be so different when I informed him about the MR site and the two different manufacturers. I then used the terminal command and showed him the different manufacturers. He at first sputtered disbelief until I reminded him about the 08 aluminum MacBooks, then he shook his head.
I can turn the samsung display all the way up, and while blindingly bright, it doesn't wash out. I can turn it down, and there's still good contrast. Blacks are BLACK, :censored: it!
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This sounds like a bad news to me. My LG panel with the same test in the link provided, Red and Green high end 4 bars looked like a 1 big chunk with the same color. Bah!
This sounds like a bad news to me. My LG panel with the same test in the link provided, Red and Green high end 4 bars looked like a 1 big chunk with the same color. Bah!
That type of issue is exactly what hardware calibration will fix. A lot of the issues with these displays is the poor Apple default calibrations.
On the first test I can see down to 16 on all bars on the LG (2011 13"),on the grey scale ones I can see the bar below 16.I can only see down to the bar one above 16 on the 2010 Samsung.I do not notice any clipping at the other end of the scale on either the LG or Samsung screens
On the second test both screens have similar narrow viewing angles
On my 13 my screen obviously needs to be at the right angle for everything to work. If I tilt my screen forward or backwards I can tell the difference.
I hope you're correct about it. It seems like having red and green clipped early seems to explain the slightly warmer tone/lacking saturation on the LG as other owner described?
Seems like Samsung panel on the 2010 MBA 13" suffer the same tilting=color distortion too.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1191123/
If it's just purely calibration issue I guess I'm ok with it. I'm no photographer anyway, and I don't think I'm needing all those color accuracy. I think I'm now suffering some kind of your-d!ck-is-bigger-than-mine syndrome or something.
This is interesting. The first test, on my LG 2010 13" MBA, despite on 40% brightness, I can see all the differences all the way down to the left most bar. However, red and green on the right most had all 4 bars clipped and looked like a big chunk of color.
I guess it's all down to individual panels even from the same model/batch? Back in the 15" LCD days I bought 2 identical model/brand LCD, and one appeared to be a little washed out than the other one, despite everything should be the same.
Dude I have an LG and mine's the same way.
When viewing the top part...the last 4 red ones look the same...then the last 3 green ones look the same...then the last 2 blue ones look the same...then the gray looks normal (can tell a difference between every one.)
And it's the complete same on the bottom part. Every gray one is different. The first 2 blue on the left look the same. The first 3 green look the same. The first 4 reds look the same.
I think this is normal. Can anyone look at the same test and let me know if there's is like this too? And what type of display they have?
It's this test =
http://www.pbase.com/jackcnd/image/75285374/original
I hope you're correct about it. It seems like having red and green clipped early seems to explain the slightly warmer tone/lacking saturation on the LG as other owner described?
Seems like Samsung panel on the 2010 MBA 13" suffer the same tilting=color distortion too.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1191123/
If it's just purely calibration issue I guess I'm ok with it. I'm no photographer anyway, and I don't think I'm needing all those color accuracy. I think I'm now suffering some kind of your-d!ck-is-bigger-than-mine syndrome or something.
Hehehehe
I call it "MacRumors Syndrome"Most people wouldn't even notice or care unless they read about it. That said, I seriously hope the viewing angles are not as bad as the old Alu MacBooks.
You might want to take a look at what I've noticed here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1195183/
Update: Now I see the red 4 bars same, green 3 bars though it looks almost 4 bars. No problem on the blue.
Performed some calibration attempts, none of the setting seems to make any differences on the colors. Interestingly, there're some other preset profiles and I click on the first one and now I can see all the red bars at the high end albeit the blue'ish tint.
If this is individual panel issue then I'm completely fine with it as long as viewing angle are more or less the same between SM or LG. I see no point taking the hassle to give Apple a call and make arrangement to return my MBA as it's CTO order (and I'm not even sure if they'd accept the return).
In short, no problem when the screen is at normal viewing angle.
Performed some calibration attempts, none of the setting seems to make any differences on the colors. Interestingly, there're some other preset profiles and I click on the first one and now I can see all the red bars at the high end albeit the blue'ish tint.
If this is individual panel issue then I'm completely fine with it as long as viewing angle are more or less the same between SM or LG. I see no point taking the hassle to give Apple a call and make arrangement to return my MBA as it's CTO order (and I'm not even sure if they'd accept the return).
It happen on my 2010 MBA 13" LG panel but not as bad as yours that you can actually take a photo to show the problem, if anything, slight tilt of the screen further back and the shadow is gone. Tried to make my eye level/angle the same as how you took the photo, and was having hard time to see the effect from side. I did play around with the screen angle and only appear at some angle that will never work during regular use.
In short, no problem when the screen is at normal viewing angle.
This sounds like a bad news to me. My LG panel with the same test in the link provided, Red and Green high end 4 bars looked like a 1 big chunk with the same color. Bah!
13 inch LG screen here. The highest 4 bars on mine blend too for Red.
Green is a little better; the top 3 bars blend.
But still, if Samsung displays that much better with no blending, this is unacceptable.. We paid good money. I would bet the LG screens were cheaper to produce than the Samsung screens....
I went to the Apple Store today and checked all the MBAs on display. All were Samsung. The one I bought from the same Apple Store was an LG. It could be coincidence but maybe Apple is only putting the Samsung screens on display.
Just got back from the Apple store.
All Air display models, 13 and 11, clipped the Reds and Greens.
I checked the display type on a couple and they were LG.
Tried some MacBook Pros 15 and 17 and they did not clip, they looked great.
Found one Air in another store it was the previous gen 13"
with a Samsung screen ... and it had some clipping as well.
It didn't look that different if any. Could not compare it directly to a LG.
As a couple have posted a different .icc color profile
should solve the clipping issue but you would probably need
a hardware calibration tool to create a decent one.
You can try the manual OSX color profile advanced tool,
but I had no success with it as far as changing the RGB limits.
If your able to create a decent LG profile please post it!
Overall don't lose too much sleep over the clipping seen
in the test image unless your doing $500/Hr color work
and then your probably not using a Air and have a colormeter.
Bring up some photos on the LG or Samsung Air they look very nice in either case.
All Air display models, 13 and 11, clipped the Reds and Greens.
I checked the display type on a couple and they were LG.
Tried some MacBook Pros 15 and 17 and they did not clip, they looked great.
Found one Air in another store it was the previous gen 13"
with a Samsung screen ... and it had some clipping as well.
It didn't look that different if any. Could not compare it directly to a LG.
As a couple have posted a different .icc color profile
should solve the clipping issue but you would probably need
a hardware calibration tool to create a decent one.
You can try the manual OSX color profile advanced tool,
but I had no success with it as far as changing the RGB limits.
If your able to create a decent LG profile please post it!
Overall don't lose too much sleep over the clipping seen
in the test image unless your doing $500/Hr color work
and then your probably not using a Air and have a colormeter.
Bring up some photos on the LG or Samsung Air they look very nice in either case.
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They only had one samsung at my local store, and it wasn't even on the front table, it was off to the side.