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...snip...If you have the real thing post a screen capture...snip...
If you mean by "screen capture" the ability to record the current screen with command-shift-3 or -4 then that won't work. That form of screen capture just records the image before it is sent to the display (it's more of a reflection of the output from the video card rather than what you see on the display). You can't read the physical display pixels from the display and save that as a new image.

If you don't believe this just take a screen capture at a reduced brightness or even a reduced (minimum) resolution. You'll find that the screen capture looks nothing like the image seen on the display (it's the image being sent to the display, not an image of the actual pixels on the display). I should add that these tests aren't particularly good examples of what a screen capture is (for example, brightness is controlled by the backlight -- not by the display pixels), but they do begin to illustrate that what you see on the display is not necessarily what you will get in a screen capture. Here is perhaps a better example, take a screen capture on a "bad" display and move it to a "good" display. What do you expect to see? As long as the video cards are working correctly (and using the same color and resolution settings) the image from the "bad" display will look good on the "good" display.

Probably the only way to record the actual image quality produced by a display is with a photograph. However, that's pretty difficult to do since the camera taking the photograph will have its own limitations in color and uniformity (let alone the difficulty in taking a good close-up).
 
Total much ado about nothing. Like it has been said already most LCDs on notebooks are not 8bit. Also I notice black levels, viewing angles, contrast etc much more than the supposed "lack of color". This is comparing it directly with S-IPS and S-PVA panels on my desk.
 
I don't think your method is a good one. First, there are more than one methods to reduce the depth from 8 to 6 bits, and one could imagine that it's customized to each specific image pattern, similar to how GIF can create custom color maps.

Secondly, dithering can also be performed in different ways, and Apple's may be better than Photoshop's.

Thirdly, it's misleading to say that this _IS_ what the image looks like on MBP, when you actually simulated it using a different set of programs according to what you _THINK_ it does. If you have the real thing post a screen capture.

I am not trying to defend Apple for sake of it being right, but when people tell me there's a problem I want to be able to judge it objectively, rather than based on hearsay.

This is not what I "think" it looks like, this is an extremely close simulation I made with my MBP screen next to my iMac.
 
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