Could you tell me your serial number?
Actually, I can't really tell if mine is or not. The powerbook screen shot looks quite smooth compared to the MBP. If mine was grainy, should both screen shots look similar?
Is there a sure fire way to figure out if it is grainy or not?
That's easy. Simply open your browser to this forums for instance.
Look at the colours on this page, they are all constant colours (ie: no patterns, no gradients, no nothing, just a pure single white background, light blue frames etc).
Look closely at these colours. If your screen has grain, you will see that these colours are not rendered "cleanly" (ie: the whites will have tiny little specs where it is less white, and more white)
They replaced the panels for people who sent it in.
Maybe, maybe not (regarding the stifle). The horizontal line issue took a few months to gain enough steam before C-Net covered it. If this turns out to be an issue with the magnitude of the horizontal line issue, maybe Apple will be more proactive about it and address it quicker, esp. if the fix is a software one.
I am not sure if the issue is really due to software, it genuinely looks like it is due to the matt finishing that they use on these LCDs.
Of course I am hoping there will be a software fix though. Even more hoping that someone on these forums will manage to get a fix where they swop the panel to a PVA/MVA/IPS panel instead of the TN ones they used.
I avoid TN panels like the plague when I shop for CHEAP PCs. I really can't bear working with these on extended periods.