I was just in the apple store, and realized that the screens on the macbooks are horrible. They are not vibrant, and they have a blinding backlight that makes everything look washed out. Anyone Agree?
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MacBook Screen
- Thread starter iMaccore2
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I completely agree with you.
I currently own a Sony Vaio TX and was looking to buy a Macbook...wasn't impressed by the screen though! I think I'll wait for the next generation. I honestly have to say that the LED screen of my TX is much better than the Macbook one. Of course, it's only an 11 inches though. Pity, because I really like the macbooks...
The screen was the only thing that really pushed me into the iMac. I know people say the screens arent good on the imac's but no one ever complains about the macbooks, which have horrible screens. The screen on my imac is perfect
Any more input is welcome
EDIT: as soon as they make a well built aluminum macbook im buying one (If it has a decent screen)
Agreed. The only difference between the screen on my MacBook and my MacBook Pro is that the Pro is slightly brighter. The MacBooks just need calibrating and they look excellent.
I strongly disagree.
How on earth can you improve the technical spec of a screen by adjusting its sw settings? We are talking about hardware here. There's a limit to the magic you can do by 'playing' with the sw settings.
As a comparison, in theory, you can do the same sw tricks to any other notebook (Vaio TX, MBA, MBP etc) so the gap between the two screens will be the same. If can recalibrate the MP, then you can recalibrate the MBP too. The MBP&MPA's screens are simply superior. Period. Have you heard about the word LED?
How can you fix the viewing angle? by fixing the sw? If you are not in front of it you will notice the glare of the black, it's a tech thing, it depends on the technology used. As well as other factors. That's what we are talking about...
Any comments?
IMHO the MB screens are just not good enough. And am desperately waiting for a MB with a good screen..
Software manages everything. Color, contrast, etc. Calibrating the screen makes a huge difference.
Don't knock something until you've tried it.
I should hope you don't have all of the TVs and monitors in your house using the factory default settings. If so you're missing out on potentially great image quality.
If your Viao has a dedicated GPU, you might be able to calibrate the screen on your system too. I know ATI and nVidia have screen calibration wizards in their drivers, but I don't think Intel does in Windows.
All screens require calibration. No two screens will look the same and thats what calibration is for. Its also good for the owner to calibrate it to their liking.
Why do people seem to think that LED is this magic technology that makes screens look better? LED is just a different backlight. It doesn't effect the LCD's pixels in any way. If you have a crap LCD panel a LED backlight isn't going to work some kind of voodoo that somehow makes it go from crap to great. Apple's own product info on LED screens when they were first introduced was that users would not notice any difference in image quality and they were only being used for their better lifespan, energy use, and instant on capabilities. LED backlights have absolutely no affect on overall image quality. One could argue brightness, but I could easily show you LCDs that blow away those with LED backlights in terms of brightness.
The MacBook screen is just fine. Like ALL LCD (and any display in general) it requires calibration.
The viewing angle on the MacBook is no worse than any modern notebook in the same price range as it is.
And yes I'm defending the MacBook while typing this on an HP with better overall hardware that I like better than my MacBook. The MacBook has a great screen and its a great computer, just overpriced because of the lack of a dedicated GPU.
All you have to do is change it in system prefs. It's very easy to do and as I said above, it makes a world of difference in how your screen looks.
Last July I bought a MBP. I wasn't very happy with the screen and after a few days, I learned about color profiles and downloaded several that I found on this site. Tried them all till I found one that made the colors perfect.
I had also passed on buying a MacBook because I thought the screens looked bad in the store. Instead I bought the iMac and was happy. I still couldn't stop thinking about the MacBook and got it anways about a month later. Was very happy I did.
I still stand by my statement above that the screen on my MacBook is comparable to my MBP except it is not as bright. I've been using it as much as I use my MBP.
There are a few manufacturers that Apple is using who are providing bad quality screens on the MacBook and there are a few threads about them. Just return it for an exchange till you get one with the good screen. I think it's possible people are seeing these few bad screens on display and assume they are all bad.
Hi,
thanks for the accurate reply, I really appreciate the constructive criticism.
So there are several providers of screens for Macbook? I assume that if you buy from a specific store, all the Macbooks the store stocks are from the same supplier, so you can't exchange it with a better one as they are all the same...It'd be good to recognise a good screen macbook vs an average screen macbook by the barcode...or something like that? I cannot just ask for a refund because the screen looks bad?
I found this post about bad quality macbook screens, which confirms my theory btw:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/456121/
Well, I am sure that you could exchange it till you get one with a good screen. There was someone in this forum section who did exactly that at BestBuy and ended up with a MB with a perfect screen.
I ordered my black MacBook from Apple and got mine with a perfect screen.
Apple, HP, Sony, Dell, etc. ALL use panels from multiple manufacturers. Why? Because none of them build their own notebooks. They all outsource it to a third party and that third party buys the panels from different manufacturers and what gets put into that computer depends on what panel is grabbed off the pile and put in.
You could go buy 3 MacBooks, 3 CTO HPs, 3 Sonys, 3 Dells, 3 Gateways, and I guarantee you that every computer will have a different screen made by a different manufacturer.
That was me.
And yes, there are different manufacturers of the screens. Look up my previous post to find out the manufacturer of your screen, at least for the MacBook.
And yes, I now have a great screen!
google: calibrate mac how
results in top hit:
http://www.oid.ucla.edu/units/tec/oidmediagrants/color/calibrate-mac
If you want something more accurate, you can buy a hardware monitor calibrator.
Well, I use Apple RGB profile from Adobe and I find the colors to be better. You could at least try that profile.
The Macbook contrast is adequate and the colors look fine at the right angle, but nothing you can tweak in software will make the display of a Macbook comparable in any way to the viewing angle of a MBP.
The Macbook screen has an absolutely terrible vertical viewing angle, which loses contrast and black level at even a moderate tilt. You have the option of having a brighter bottom of the screen or terrible contrast at the top. There's a "sweet" spot at only an extremely tiny angle and even that isn't great.
The MBP on the other hand as a very good vertical viewing angle (but other problems with the panels) that can be watched comfortably.
Bottom line, the Macbook display is crap for watching any type of video or images with high black levels. And no amount of tweaking is going to fix that.
If you have both, then the Macbook deficiency should be glaringly obvious.
Totally agree with ^^ as I've only recently migrated to a MB from years of MBPs and the screen is similar in some respects but woefully lacking. Vertical angle is my biggest peeve. Calibrating the screen did help a lot.
For those that have "perfect" screens, what model/code are they and what week? (see this thread) Also, how is the backlight bleeding and vertical viewing angle?
Got a week 15 (2008) blackbook with a Samsung panel and the backlight bleed is fairly bad (bottom 1/2 of screen). Narrow vertical viewing angle just makes it worse. Has anyone gotten a recent week model that wasn't a Samsung panel?
Got a week 15 (2008) blackbook with a Samsung panel and the backlight bleed is fairly bad (bottom 1/2 of screen). Narrow vertical viewing angle just makes it worse. Has anyone gotten a recent week model that wasn't a Samsung panel?
9C5F here and it's a bit whacked but I'm comparing from MBP so ...after calibrating it is a lot better. Vertical viewing is the worst. Keep having to adjust the angle of the screen to get it just right.
I just returned a 9C5F (LG) to Amazon that had a few bad pixels. I received the shipment about 4 p.m., unboxed and powered the MacBook on, and almost immediately repackaged the machine and drove to my local UPS store to ship it back. I didn't note the build date, but even outside the pixels, the display wasn't very pleasing to the eye. Given the lesser price of the MB vs. the MBP, I would have probably kept it, had it not been for the 3+ pixels staring back at me.
Back to the drawing board...again. I think my next Apple purchase will be a machine *without* a display, either a Mini or a Mac Pro. I've been through 3 MacBook Pros and now one MacBook, all with screen problems. As I type this, I'm sitting in front of a ThinkPad my office paid for, and it has a terrible screen, but I really don't mind. It wasn't my money spent. When it's my $1500 for a MacBook, or $2000+ for a MBP, I want something I'll sleep well at night about.
Jason
Back to the drawing board...again. I think my next Apple purchase will be a machine *without* a display, either a Mini or a Mac Pro. I've been through 3 MacBook Pros and now one MacBook, all with screen problems. As I type this, I'm sitting in front of a ThinkPad my office paid for, and it has a terrible screen, but I really don't mind. It wasn't my money spent. When it's my $1500 for a MacBook, or $2000+ for a MBP, I want something I'll sleep well at night about.
Jason
Interesting, I received mine from Amazon today. The Samsung screen would be acceptable if it weren't for the backlighting. Who knows what the replacement from Amazon will have? Love the screen lottery...
I'm also in the same predicament, although I went through a few more MBPs before moving to this MB. Besides the dead pixels, what did you dislike about the LG display?
The display just looked washed out, but I knew it would be. Calibration might have helped a bit, but I didn't even bother. Usually what appears to be a bad pixel is just dust or a smudge you can clean off with a cleaning cloth, but no such luck. I've gotten so accustomed to being disappointed in whatever MacBook or MacBook Pro is arriving even before I open it, as so far, each one hasn't met my expectations.
So, I'll be sitting here waiting for Amazon to credit my card for about 2 weeks, and then I'll decide if I want to wait for the next rev, or take a chance again. I love Amazon for the rebates and the tax break, but the turnaround time on refunds is way too long. Plus they make you initially foot the bill for the return shipping, and then they refund whatever it "cost" you to send it back. Returning anything over $1000 to Amazon is a pain, yet doing so at an Apple store on a repeated basis is equally as hard. I've restored to picking from one of 3 of my local Apple stores, just to spread things around. *Sigh*.