My MacBook's screen is pretty dim, even at full brightness. The iPod Touch far outshines it and even a Sony PSP is brighter.
Is this normal?
Is this normal?
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MacBook screen too dim?
- Thread starter Jack Flash
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I find mine somewhat dim, depending on lighting, and its brand new (from late January). Keep in mind also that there is a setting that dims the screen slightly when on battery power.
How old is it? I just did a apple care swap on one of my ACD 30's cause it was too dim. It was almost 3 years since purchase. Purchased it 10/05 replaced on 03/08
Being in graphic and web design as profession, I cannot have dim / poorly lit monitors as colors are vital to my profession.
Being in graphic and web design as profession, I cannot have dim / poorly lit monitors as colors are vital to my profession.
lol
ya a few days ago i was showing this guy my macbook. and he was like "can the screen go brighter?" and i continued to spam F2 and i was like "Nope." then he said, "too advanced for mac eh?." and ya i have noticed the dimness. it makes me sad
ya a few days ago i was showing this guy my macbook. and he was like "can the screen go brighter?" and i continued to spam F2 and i was like "Nope." then he said, "too advanced for mac eh?." and ya i have noticed the dimness. it makes me sad
i always keep my laptop on the lowest setting. When I do turn it up it seems really bright... but that's just because I have essentially adjusted to the low settings. It saves battery power, and I only turn it all the way up when I'm watching a movie or TV show.
My advice would be to get in the habit of keeping it at half power. Unlike your ears and low volume, your eyes will thank you for it later.
My advice would be to get in the habit of keeping it at half power. Unlike your ears and low volume, your eyes will thank you for it later.
I keep mine at the lowest setting most of the time. Up to 40% in a office lit with bright white florescence lights. Any higher and I squint because it's too bright.
Bring it to an Apple store and compare it against the floor models of the same make / model. I'm having my logic board / LCD replaced because the screen on my SR Macbook looked like garbage. It was also very dim compared the laptops on display. The "Genius" agreed and I will (hopefully) have it back tomorrow.
I agree. Usually Apple's screens are blinding at full brightness. I think the OP is unintentionally skipping past a setting or something.
I think it depends a lot on ambient lighting. Perhaps the screen is just very sensitive to glare. I sit next to a window, and as I type right now at night, the screen is plenty bright; however, during the day, it has trouble competing with the daylight from the window (and I do not mean direct sunlight, but just ambient light.)
With the glossy LCD, I find myself adjusting my seating position every so often to avoid glare and reflections.
this topic is completely subjective
its all what you view as "bright" or "dim"
i won't be purchasing my MB for a few weeks but the models i've seen in the store seem very bright...
granted i keep all of my electronics at about 25% brightness (when i turn my iPhone brightness up its almost blinding)
i have no clue whether or not a "dimness" issue was addressed with the introduction of the Penryn MBs but its pretty much common knowledge that the MB screen is somewhat out of date and not of the best quality compared to the MBA and MBP.
In my book, however, the MB screen works fine in pretty much all environments...As long as you don't do any intensive graphic/video work it should suit you fine...
i agree with others that you should just turn your brightness down...it saves battery and makes the screen look THAT much better when you need to turn the brightness up...the screen may honestly just seem dim because your eyes are adjusted to the highest setting
its all what you view as "bright" or "dim"
i won't be purchasing my MB for a few weeks but the models i've seen in the store seem very bright...
granted i keep all of my electronics at about 25% brightness (when i turn my iPhone brightness up its almost blinding)
i have no clue whether or not a "dimness" issue was addressed with the introduction of the Penryn MBs but its pretty much common knowledge that the MB screen is somewhat out of date and not of the best quality compared to the MBA and MBP.
In my book, however, the MB screen works fine in pretty much all environments...As long as you don't do any intensive graphic/video work it should suit you fine...
i agree with others that you should just turn your brightness down...it saves battery and makes the screen look THAT much better when you need to turn the brightness up...the screen may honestly just seem dim because your eyes are adjusted to the highest setting
My MB screen looks dim only if I've been on my alum iMac or my girlfriends LED mbp for a while. It ends up looking dim and washed out. Tweaking the color calibration helped a lot though, at least for the washed out part (which I think mentally make it look dim)
LCD too dim
I have been occasionally plagued by the screen on my MacBook Air going dim and staying at one brightness despite using the brightness controls to set it to a higher brightness. Oddly the LCD keyboard backlight will get brighter and dimmer, but not the LCD backlight.
To at least get the brightness set to a higher level do the following:
Go to your system preferences section and click on displays. You will notice that this is usually set to a low level and you can manually set it to a higher brightness.
Hope that helps.
I have been occasionally plagued by the screen on my MacBook Air going dim and staying at one brightness despite using the brightness controls to set it to a higher brightness. Oddly the LCD keyboard backlight will get brighter and dimmer, but not the LCD backlight.
To at least get the brightness set to a higher level do the following:
Go to your system preferences section and click on displays. You will notice that this is usually set to a low level and you can manually set it to a higher brightness.
Hope that helps.
yeah mine seems to be getting dimmer as well. I bought it almost a year ago and ive used it a lot....when i bought i remember having it set to 70 or 80 percent now if i have it set to maximum its not as bright as i want it to be. Of course it may just be my eyes who knows.
I have a 15" Macbook Pro from late 2008 and a new 13" that I bought about 2 weeks ago. I go to a school that is 100% Mac (all of those Vista PCs got chucked 3 years ago) and therefore my computers are perfect for this environment. Today, however, I sent my computer in for a repair (hard drive-13") and I don't want to use my 15" as it would have to be reimaged. So, I borrowed a classic Macbook Pro with the silver keyboard and the über big power button. Not sure what year it is from, but it is a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 1 GB of RAM and Leopard. I have to use this computer for quite a while, so I polished it up and checked over it. The exterior was perfect aside from a few scratches, and it started up normally. However, the one irritating problem is that the screen's brightness is so ow, even on the highest setting. It is about the same as 20% brightness on my new Macbook Pros, and the matte screen increases the dimness. Since I am going to be using this computer for a long time during my entire 6 hour school day, I need to know whether or not this low screen brightness is normal.
The screen on my iBook G4, which is now 4 years old, has definitely gotten dimmer over time. My late 2008 unibody MB's screen still seems as bright as ever.