MacBook Pro Grainy Display

[PDE]

It's not the grainy nature of the screen which is causing the viewing problems, it is as said by others the excessive coating of anti-glare which causes whites to appear grey, if the brightness is turned right down and silver at mid to high levels of brightness. It is impossible to get a proper white to display on these screens.

For instance, on this site, it is hard to tell the difference between the grey background to the left of replies where avatars sit and the reply boxes themselves. It all sort of merges into one. The difference is particularly pronounced when running Windows, where the smaller system fonts appear blurry, because of the lack of contrast from all of the shimmer.
This is not restricted to Apple. I had a look around PCWorld (UK's answer to CompUSA) and noticed the same problem with a lot of current laptops - particularly on a lightweight Samsung model, which looked every bit as bad as the MBP C2D.

I suppose that the excessive anti-glare caking is a response to higher levels of brightness in current laptops. I could live with the Powerbook levels of brightness and better colour rendition, since the first thing I do with laptops is to turn the brightness down, anyway. I don't think returning the laptop and getting a replacement will solve anything, as the replacement will most likely have an identical screen. I have four Applestores to choose from (live in Nth London - work in Manchester) and all the MBP C2Ds have the same poor panels - whether glossy or matte in all the four stores I visited.[/QUOTE

I also think it is related to the brightness enhancing filter on these laptops that grainy/sparkling feeling. The glossy and matte both have the grain and, when I checked yesterday, the 20" cinema display also has it.

In any case, while it is subjective if it bothers you, if you put the 15" next to the 13.3 macbook or 17" MBP, the difference is too obvious to ignore. Those who say they have no grain either have a very early model with a totally different display, or they just don't notice it. I've been to two apple stores and every single MBP has some degree of grain. Some of them are better than others, but they all have it.

Given the circumstances, I think the question buyers should ask themselves is not "Will I get lucky to get a good display?" but rather "Will I be happy with the displays Apple is currently using?"

 

[PDE]

I think this issue is blown out of proportion by small number of vocal users. My Matte C2D MBP does not have any grainy issue I can notice. If you are worried about this, maybe you should visit the near-by Apple store or Apple-certified retailer to check out the display model in the stores.
If I were you, I would avoid CD MBP as it is the rev A. It seems Apple finally put their acts together with C2D MBP in terms of built quality.

Yeah, the build quality is really so much better than rev A.

 

[daneoni]

You mean there are glossy MBP C2D with the same grainy screen as the matte? I am about to send my super-grainy matte back and exchanging it for a glossy one.

Grain can be found on both screens. However the glossy screens i've seen remedy the grain...i guess this is due to the glossy coat. In other words the grain is not as bad and sometimes virtually non-existent on glossy screens if you're lucky.

 

[PDE]

Grain can be found on both screens. However the glossy screens i've seen remedy the grain...i guess this is due to the glossy coat. In other words the grain is not as bad and sometimes virtually non-existens on glossy screens if you're lucky.

Yesterday when I was getting my MBP exchanged I did check the displays of the glossy vs matte very carefully side by side. I found that while the glossy units were slightly better, they still had the grain. They were also equally uneven in their illumination. I think that the glossy nature of the display somehow hides the grain better because it did look better than the matte at a distance of a few feet. If you look close though it still has the grain, while the 17" clearly does not.

 

[daneoni]

Yesterday when I was getting my MBP exchanged I did check the displays of the glossy vs matte very carefully side by side. I found that while the glossy units were slightly better, they still had the grain. They were also equally uneven in their illumination. I think that the glossy nature of the display somehow hides the grain better because it did look better than the matte at a distance of a few feet. If you look close though it still has the grain, while the 17" clearly does not.

"Grain can be found on both screens.....the glossy screens i've seen remedy the grain...i guess this is due to the glossy coat..........the grain is not as bad and sometimes*virtually* non-existent......."

So yeah, what i said. Its there but not as bad.

 

[PDE]

"Grain can be found on both screens.....the glossy screens i've seen remedy the grain...i guess this is due to the glossy coat..........the grain is not as bad and sometimes*virtually* non-existent......."

So yeah, what i said. Its there but not as bad.

Sorry for just repeating what you said....

 

[danengel]

Yesterday when I was getting my MBP exchanged I did check the displays of the glossy vs matte very carefully side by side. I found that while the glossy units were slightly better, they still had the grain. They were also equally uneven in their illumination. I think that the glossy nature of the display somehow hides the grain better because it did look better than the matte at a distance of a few feet. If you look close though it still has the grain, while the 17" clearly does not.

The grain on my matte 15" MBP C2D is so bad that I cannot ignore it and that it severely degrades readability. As a programmer I care most about text, and I hope my exchanged glossy will be better. If not I'll leave Apple until they fix this problem.

 

[PDE]

The grain on my matte 15" MBP C2D is so bad that I cannot ignore it and that it severely degrades readability. As a programmer I care most about text, and I hope my exchanged glossy will be better. If not I'll leave Apple until they fix this problem.

I agree. I write a lot on my computer and it just isn't nice for my eyes to have blurry text because of the grain. Please let me know how you find the glossy screen though. When are you getting it?

 

[daneoni]

Sorry for just repeating what you said....

No big.

 

[iW00t]

Maybe that dithering is to improve the maximum viewing angle by deflecting the pixels in all directions... just a crazy though... no proof.

Actually the viewing angle on these panels are so narrow you cannot even sit right ahead of the MBP and look at the whole screen without color shifts at the side.

This is on a 15" panel - it is that lousy.

 

[iW00t]

I guess everyone got over it. Sweet... I got over it already too. I have a 20" Apple Cinema Display and I'm very satisfied with it even though it's a tad grainy but, it depends on how far away I view it from or if I even look and TRY to see it.

For example... it's a lot less noticeable when I'm closer to the display (about 12" from it) but, when I'm about 17" away from it, it's a little visible. I'd like to say it's better than the MacBook Pro but, I can't even tell anymore... maybe I just got used to it and that's just how it's gonna be so I don't even care anymore. Oh, and another thing... I just saw a MacBook Pro today at the store and the screen didn't look too bad... sure, I could see a little bit of grain but, from my memory, the 15" MBP that I had was really annoying me. Perhaps I should have given it more time for my eyes to get more used to it and to be able to see passed it and concentrate more on the actual image on the display rather than the coating on the outside. No one can really tell. All I can say right now is that I don't mind using this 20"... it's probably the best display I've ever used.

PS: I looked at a BUNCH of display models set up at Circuit City (some from Apple and a lot from other companies) and to tell you the truth... almost all of them suffered from the same problem... although some were a little worse than others... but, they all had it... interesting.

"Mac users tolerate far more than Windows users. Sometimes they also go into denial and pretend issues don't exist"

A quote I found on a forum that seems more and more true the longer I read posts here.

 

[snoopt]

Hi there,

This is my first post so hi to all !

I've been thinking for a long time of switching to a mac, as i now have a HP pIII 850mhz laptop which has proven very useful and reliable but is getting closer to a well deserved retirement ...

After waiting for the intel platforms, then for a decent revision of original mbp which you have to recognize it were released too early and were completely flawed for that amount of money .... I thought this might be the right time !

This weekend I went to my local Applestore to have a look at the mbp (spent 2 hours playing around ). I started with a mate display and i felt i really did not like it, it did not look sharp/crystal clear there was something wrong. I then thought maybe i'm just too used to my current 6-years-old laptop with its own mate display...

I tried the glossy display, much nicer but straight away i was struck as well by the fact something was wrong with the screen making it... 'unprecise'. I do a lot of photo editing and work on photoshop, and immediately I had this feeling there was something wrong, the image was not sharp / crystal clear... I opened a browser, loaded google page and on the white page I saw in a split second that the background white was not uniformly white, looking at the screen closer it looked as if there was a layer of dust or the now called 'grainy display'.

I had not heard about this anywhere, so I came back home googled for some random mac forums and realized I was not crazy but that there is a problem with the screens of mbps !! being the screen itself or something to do with the x1600 graphic card...

So sorry mr Jobs but it will not be for this time again ! no way i'm spending that amount of money on a 'professional laptop' with such a poor display.

After reading this on their website, I must say that they are not selling what is being advertised, at least not on the laptops' screen, maybe on an external screen plugged to your laptop it applies ... 'Everything is illuminated
MacBook Pro makes your ideas more enlightening, with a sharp, high-resolution screen. See blacker blacks, whiter whites, and many more colors in between on a brilliant 15.4-inch, 1440-by-900-pixel or 17-inch, 1680-by-1050-pixel digital display. Enjoy a nuanced view simply unavailable on other portables'

So maybe some of you guys are the lucky few and got a nice screen but seeing this issue on a mbp c2d displayed in one of Apple's major stores (Regent Street, London) I tend to believe that if even Apple has laptops with these problems in their shops, it seems wierd they give away the good ones and not keep any of them for display.... which brings me to tend to agree with the quote above:
"Mac users tolerate far more than Windows users. Sometimes they also go into denial and pretend issues don't exist"

No offense, mac computers are amazing and well worth the money, but not with these kinds of MAJOR flaws ...

So I guess I'll have to wait for next upgrade or at least for some improvement on the screens. After 6 years with my p3 850 its not another few months thats gonna kill me

 

[Big Boss Man]

So this issue is only with the 15" MBP, and not the 17" MBP or the MB? I was going to get a 15" MBP, but now I might have to reconsider. I was not really planning on making the purchase until spring anyway so maybe Apple will have the issue resolved by then.

 

[PDE]

So this issue is only with the 15" MBP, and not the 17" MBP or the MB? I was going to get a 15" MBP, but now I might have to reconsider. I was not really planning on making the purchase until spring anyway so maybe Apple will have the issue resolved by then.

Yes, it seems that the 17" don't gave the grain issue at all, though some of them have uneven illumination. When I looked yesterday in the Apple Store, the 17"MBP and 13.3" macbooks looked excellent display-wise.

 

[deputy_doofy]

I've been reading sporadically through this thread and I'm curious about the grainy effect everyone has been seeing. I don't see grain, per se, but some small fonts look blurry (or, not filled in, or something). Is this what people are talking about? It's not bad enough for me to want to return it, but it did get my attention day "one." I put "one" in quotes because my original MBP (C2D) came to me with a bad left speaker, but I don't remember the display messing with my eyes. Now I have a good speaker, but possibly a worse display??? Both were glossy.

 

[deputy_doofy]

I'm annoyed, because my first MBP (C2D) had a bad left speaker. This one has the goofy screen problem, I think. It doesn't seem sparkily, necessarily, but the text seems like it's slightly blurry.... or anorexic.
Is this the problem some people seem to be having? I get slightly better results by changing the color profile to AdobeRGB(1998), but only slightly. I have noticed it with some really small fonts on the WinXP side, too. I don't know if I want to wait AGAIN for a new (3rd) MBP. F....

 

[weckart]

Actually the viewing angle on these panels are so narrow you cannot even sit right ahead of the MBP and look at the whole screen without color shifts at the side.

This is on a 15" panel - it is that lousy.

Spot on. For me this is almost worse than the shimmer. The sparkles diminish depending upon the ambient light. In a well lit office, the 'grain' is there, but fades somewhat in a darkened room, although never completely. However, the killer is the very, very narrow viewing angles. My MBP looking straight on is actually evenly lit - or at least appears to be to my layman eyes. However, look at it slightly to the left or right of centre and the the opposite side appears noticeably darker giving the appearance of uneven lighting, to say nothing of the colour shifts. I am comparing this to my work LCD, which is a run of the mill HP 17". Much better colour rendition and even lighting throughout. When all is said and done, my MBP just has a crap screen and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Apart from that, I could not be more chuffed with it. Runs fast and remains stable and cool. The improved fans are a far cry from my PB 1.5 Ghz, which are much louder, even though my MBP will hit higher temperatures when pushed.

 

[prplmnkydshwshr]

However, the killer is the very, very narrow viewing angles. My MBP looking straight on is actually evenly lit - or at least appears to be to my layman eyes. However, look at it slightly to the left or right of centre and the the opposite side appears noticeably darker giving the appearance of uneven lighting, to say nothing of the colour shifts. I am comparing this to my work LCD, which is a run of the mill HP 17". Much better colour rendition and even lighting throughout. When all is said and done, my MBP just has a crap screen and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Were the MacBook Pro CD or 15" PowerBook LCD screens that much better in respect to the narrow viewing angle? I am upgrading from a rev B 12" PowerBook and the viewing angles on that was pretty bad. I'm so used to the narrow viewing angle of my 12" PB that my new C2D doesn't seem that bad, it is only more noticeable due to the larger size of LCD panel.

 

[TheSpaz]

I think most Mac users ignore problems because they just got done raving to all of their PC friends how great Macs are and don't want to admit that we have our problems too!

I still can't wait to get my Mac Pro. From what I've read about them, there's not too many concerning problems with them (nothing even near how many complaints there are about the MacBook Pros).

 

[PDE]

Were the MacBook Pro CD or 15" PowerBook LCD screens that much better in respect to the narrow viewing angle? I am upgrading from a rev B 12" PowerBook and the viewing angles on that was pretty bad. I'm so used to the narrow viewing angle of my 12" PB that my new C2D doesn't seem that bad, it is only more noticeable due to the larger size of LCD panel.

The 12 inch PB didn't have the same display as the Powerbook 15" - the 15" was much better both in terms of brightness and in terms of viewing angles. That was the one reason I didn't buy a 12".

 

[deputy_doofy]

They are sending me a box so I can send it in for them to take a quick look. I'm not embarassed by it because, at the end of the day, all machines are made in the same place (outside the U.S. for as little pay as possible).

I have friends who swear by HP and never have a problem (hardware wise), yet the HP's here at work have dying hard drives constantly.

 

[Mysterio-]

First I thought it was the screen. But it really is something else. I plugged mbp to external display, and the image turned grainy. But guess what, I dont care, cause it isn't bad at all.

 

[chendo]

Well, I got my glossy 15" replacement... grain is still there, but not as annoying. Otherwise the rest of my replacement seem fine... cept the SuperDrive makes really disturbing sounds, like it's murdering the disc I put inside.

 

[mrtho]

With regards to the screen shots included in this post that simulate what the grain looks like. Does it really look that bad when you look at it on a screen with this issue, i.e does it stand out like a sore thumb so it all looks gray and white ?. I have just brought a 17" Glossy MBP C2D, when I look at the gray and whites they look soild. I have looked at the screen with great detail, the only thing I can see that would look like grain is when you concentrate hard on the screen, and then drag a window around the screen, you can just about see the texture of the top surface, but I have to really look to see this. I can also see this on other screens such as my Iiyama TFT and my 20" Imac.

 

[e12a]

How about: Everyone post their Manufacturer # and Model # along with their opinion on whether or not the grain is bad and a description of the overall quality of the display? Information on manufacturer and model can be found by Apple Icon > System Preferences > Display > Color > Open Profile

Mine is manufactured by 610
9C60 on a 15"

Grain is there, but i see it on every other lcd screen. including my friend's 22" widescreen Dell LCD. Lighting is not as bad as some i've seen. No bleeding on the bottom.