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

Macbook Pro 15" Panel Lottery

HR, AG
9CB7
LTN154MT07
Samsung

Yellow tint: no
Dead Pixels: no


Quite surprised to see screen works really well after many yellow tint horror stories!
 
Hi-res glossy here with yellow tint. I think Apple could have done a much better job with this, particularly considering the whopping $2,100 price.

9CB6
LTN154MT07
Samsung

Who feels like joining a class-action suit, if I can find a lawyer? :rolleyes:
 
Having a look around at various sites today I found a post on the ars-technica forums from a person who says he had an 15" HR Anti-Glare with CPU temperature problems which was eventually replaced.

He says his replacement MBP has the LG-Philips LP154WE3-TLB1 panel for which the "screen quality seems significantly worse" than the screen that was in his original MBP. He isn't sure what panel was in the original, but he imagines it was probably the Samsung.

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=20394794#p20394794

This is slightly worrying. Anyone else have access to or seen both the LG-Philips and the Samsung 15" High res anti-glare screens?
 
NicktheNorse said:
Having a look around at various sites today I found a post on the ars-technica forums from a person who says he had an 15" HR Anti-Glare with CPU temperature problems which was eventually replaced.

He says his replacement MBP has the LG-Philips LP154WE3-TLB1 panel for which the "screen quality seems significantly worse" than the screen that was in his original MBP. He isn't sure what panel was in the original, but he imagines it was probably the Samsung.

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=20394794#p20394794

This is slightly worrying. Anyone else have access to or seen both the LG-Philips and the Samsung 15" High res anti-glare screens?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have seen both the LG & Sammy HR screens. (several of both actually, as it seems my whole office has the new 15" MBP now) I would say the title of the thread is very true, in that it really is a panel lottery.

My good friend's LG screen is beautiful, but that doesn't mean all of the LG screens are that way. Another co-workers LG screen is among the worst i've ever seen, on any notebook. It's incredibly dim, overly grainy, and color reproduction looks very poor. I've found the same is true for the Samsung screens, although it seems to be just a brightness issue with these. My boss has a samsung HR anti-glare and the screen itself looks great, but it's just way too dim for me. (especially considering i have the exact same panel - and it's among the brightest i've seen)

I really do think it's luck of the draw.
 
I have the yellow tint on the bottom of the screen, I have MBP 15" HiRes. 8CB6 or something I can't remember will post later. I remember the manufacturer was 610.

Seems like this affects MOST screens. and a replacement will be a waste of time. As in I'll probably get the same or worse screen for a replacement.

Is that the executive summary?

If so, oh well.
 
NicktheNorse said:
Having a look around at various sites today I found a post on the ars-technica forums from a person who says he had an 15" HR Anti-Glare with CPU temperature problems which was eventually replaced.

He says his replacement MBP has the LG-Philips LP154WE3-TLB1 panel for which the "screen quality seems significantly worse" than the screen that was in his original MBP. He isn't sure what panel was in the original, but he imagines it was probably the Samsung.

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=20394794#p20394794

This is slightly worrying. Anyone else have access to or seen both the LG-Philips and the Samsung 15" High res anti-glare screens?
Click to expand...
That was me actually. I haven't been able to do an A/B comparison but the first machine definitely had a better screen. Don't know for certain it was a Samsung since I didn't check. The new screen isn't *awful*, but it definitely suffers in comparison. The hue shifts depending on viewing angle make any colour accurate work even more of a lottery than usual. And bright whites get inverted to purple if the viewing angle is more than slightly off as well. Since I aim to use this as a Lightroom machine, I'm not happy with the screen downgrade.

However, from the posting above I'm not sure any more that it's specifically down to the panel manufacturer. I'd say assess each screen on it's merits, or compare with what you've seen in an Apple store if you're unhappy.
 
NicktheNorse said:
I'm assuming yours is a standard resolution screen?
Click to expand...

Yes it's standard res.

Btw, those of you with a yellow tint, have you tried recalibrating the screens?
I meet so many people that are complaining about their screens, and I've fixed quite a few with a simple recalibration.
 
It can not be fixed with calibration. It only affects the bottom third of the screen.

I have the 9CB6.

I just went to BestBuy. They ALL had the yellow tint issue. MacBooks, the Air, and all sizes of MacBook Pros. The iMac did not.

This is VERY disappointing. Why? Because I also looked at the PCs. A few had color gradients but most did not. Most of the $400-500 netbooks had uniform color, in other words, better screens!

I'm actually not going to exchange at the moment I am going to hold off until I do further research. But what it seems like is that all MacBook/MBP displays have the yellow gradient. I'm assuming people that don't see it can not see it. I'm not trying to be demeaning, you just can't see it. For instance my wife did not see it and the BestBuy guy couldn't see it. It's as plain as day to me. I also see it on my Gateway FHX2300 23" LCD display, yellow tint in bottom third of display. So I guess we have to live with it.

However I have no dead pixels and I'm afraid I'll get an even worse unit. This is really disappointing, Apple can't make good computers any more. My color classic still works. My PBG4 12" still works. Why can't a $2000 computer be trouble free?

For people that think they do not have a tint on the lower third of the screen, do this to check: look at iTunes or open a Finder window in list view covering the whole window. You will see the interleaved horizontal blue stripes (every other file having a slight blue shade in filename) be darker at the top and almost invisible at the bottom. Adjusting angles may make the bottom ones visible but the top ones change with the angle as well. They are still different in hue, when comparing top to bottom. In other words the tint is there no matter the angle. My wife could not see these; however, I can.
 
My MBP (15", 2.4 i5, HR AG) arrived yesterday. It's a replacement, the first one i bought had a blue stuck pixel and a slight yellow tint on the bottom half of the screen.
This one seems to be perfect, no yellowing, no dead/stuck pixels, good construction. The lid is actually weaker than before, but i prefer it this way.

BUT i noticed a quite big difference right out of the box: the colors seem kinda washed away. Too much bright, too less contrast. I've checked and I've the 9CBB panel by LG-Philips. The first MBP maybe was too over-saturated, but had richer colors, didn't check but I believe it was a Samsung. This one apperars "well balanced" (sorry for the term) but with poor colors. I'm going to use Aperture on it, I don't know if a calibration (I'm not used to it) will solve the problem (if it's actually a problem) and doing photography it will be better with less saturation, or to ask for a refund and then try to buy again.

BTW, can you test one thing for me? Put a solid color wallpaper (the dark grey one shipped by Apple), and then activate Exposé. Is there any color banding on the shadow's circular limit? On my MBP yes, there is. I'm using the 330GT M.

edit: i forgot, sorry for the bad english; i'm from italy and wrote it soo fast, had no time. thank you.
 
xaquaticx said:
I have the yellow tint on the bottom of the screen, I have MBP 15" HiRes. 8CB6 or something I can't remember will post later. I remember the manufacturer was 610.

Seems like this affects MOST screens. and a replacement will be a waste of time. As in I'll probably get the same or worse screen for a replacement.

Is that the executive summary?

If so, oh well.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is is the executive summary. I waited a full week for a replacement that has the same problem. :(
 
So it's pretty much official. Nothing has changed with respect to the problematic yellow tint issue that has been a feature of all MBPs for at least the past 3 years, seemingly regardless of the actual panel manufacturer :(
 
parajba said:
9CA4, standard res, very good quality! I'm usually very picky about displays (my previous MB Rev E was awful). This 9CA4 is a good one finally.
Click to expand...

Right, this standard res is very good, I'm really happy with quality and color, does anyone know who is the manfacturer?
 
My 15" MBP has a standard resolution 9CA3, with manufacturer code "0610." No yellow tint, no dead pixels. Actually it's a bit warm, which i like.

Anyone know who makes this display?
 
If you run the terminal command in the OP you'll get the panel model number as a result. Google this and you'll get the manufacturer (probably Samsung though, I expect).
 
parajba said:
9CA4, standard res, very good quality! I'm usually very picky about displays (my previous MB Rev E was awful). This 9CA4 is a good one finally.
Click to expand...

Do you have any more details about this 9CA4 screen?

I've updated the OP with all the information gathered so far.

Thunder82 said:
My good friend's LG screen is beautiful, but that doesn't mean all of the LG screens are that way. Another co-workers LG screen is among the worst i've ever seen, on any notebook. It's incredibly dim, overly grainy, and color reproduction looks very poor. I've found the same is true for the Samsung screens, although it seems to be just a brightness issue with these. My boss has a samsung HR anti-glare and the screen itself looks great, but it's just way too dim for me. (especially considering i have the exact same panel - and it's among the brightest i've seen)
Click to expand...

Any chance you could have a play and get ahold of some panel information - to see if there is any sort of pattern in terms of brightness, colour reproduction and/or yellow tinge?
 
In order to get something approaching an objective view wrt brightness, I suggest those with DSLRs can try and measure nits as follows:

*DSLR in manual mode
*Prime lens (if possible)
*Av mode and set to f4
*set to 200 ISO
*Spot metering (or centre weighted average)
*1/3 EV steps
*Find a white screen e.g. http://www.aquarius-laser.com/html/images/2white_screen.jpg
*Set the lens to infinity (at short ranges the effective aperture is increased and *not* indicated as such)
*Get the camera´s exposure time, aperture and ISO value, put these into this calculator to find the EV
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Exposure/Exposure_01.htm

*Then look at this list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value#EV_as_a_measure_of_luminance_and_illuminance

I get a Cd/m2 value of 256, e.g. around 250nits (estimated error +-50) for my LG Philips screen
 
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