Mid-2014 15" rMBP screen issue?

[Farsider]

So I picked up my Mid-2014 15" rMBP yesterday from Apple Store Regent's Street (London). I got the base 15" (2.2Ghz Quad Core i7, 16GB RAM & 256GB SSD).

Great laptop - having come from a 13" MBA, this is a great step up.

The only abnormality I've found is possible screen uniformity issues - but I'm not sure. When I look at the centre of the screen head on, its nice and bright with good colour and contrast. Whilst looking at it head on, the right hand side appears slightly darker with a little less contrast. The left side does this also but you'd barely notice it. If I tilt the screen or move my head so the right hand side of the screen is head on, the brightness is almost as good as the centre.....but not perfect.

How this translates to day to day use is that whilst reading a sentence of text on a white background (like webpages) your eyes see a gradual darkening of the background when your eyes hit the last 25% of the screen on the right.

I've played the panel lottery with my Samsung LED TV as that had banding problems and I'll be damned if I have to go through that again with Apple.

What do people think? Within tolerance or fault?

 

[mrmali]

you can change your machine through 14 days go to store and make a replacament

So I picked up my Mid-2014 15" rMBP yesterday from Apple Store Regent's Street (London). I got the base 15" (2.2Ghz Quad Core i7, 16GB RAM & 256GB SSD).

Great laptop - having come from a 13" MBA, this is a great step up.

The only abnormality I've found is possible screen uniformity issues - but I'm not sure. When I look at the centre of the screen head on, its nice and bright with good colour and contrast. Whilst looking at it head on, the right hand side appears slightly darker with a little less contrast. The left side does this also but you'd barely notice it. If I tilt the screen or move my head so the right hand side of the screen is head on, the brightness is almost as good as the centre.....but not perfect.

How this translates to day to day use is that whilst reading a sentence of text on a white background (like webpages) your eyes see a gradual darkening of the background when your eyes hit the last 25% of the screen on the right.

I've played the panel lottery with my Samsung LED TV as that had banding problems and I'll be damned if I have to go through that again with Apple.

What do people think? Within tolerance or fault?

 

[Atomic Walrus]

There's definitely going to be backlighting variance in any display. It's also worth noting that IPS does something which you mentioned that can compound the perception of uniformity issues:

As you move your head around it's normal to see the area directly in front of you as the brightest. IPS loses brightness off angle, and the areas farther to the sides of your head are at a greater angle from your eyes. If the bright area moves around with your head that's normal IPS behavior (still better than what TN does). Since most panels seem to have the brightest spot at the center this tends to make it appear even worse than it is.

Anyway, if you've got actual bright/dim areas on the screen it's basically impossible for anyone here to tell you whether or not it's within spec. There's no such thing as a perfectly uniform display even in "professional" grade monitors which tend to be very expensive. Something like 85% uniformity would be considered good in a consumer-grade panel.

Without a meter or a bunch of other units to compare to it's just a matter of subjective assessment. Display models in the store aren't a great choice to compare to since they seem to be universally excellent (probably hand-picked), but it's an option.

 

[Martin82]

I have already mentioned my short story in other topics with screen issues but it is also connected with your problem.

I ordered top MBPr 15". 2 weeks ago I received a one with gradient yellow tint. Unacceptable. Sent it back.
2nd one is uniform...with pink whites and pink apple logo. I compared it to some store MBPs and mine was almost twice as bright as 13" and 15" in the store (all with brightness set at maximum). I compered it to my friends iMac (whites are white there) and of course the difference was obvious (pink whites vs white whites). I am highly disappointed considering the 3500$ price, that's not a PRO thing especially in area of video and photography. So it seems for me that there is a huge quality spread. Strange thing as screen should be the best feature there. At that moment I am not sure if I want the next replacement with next issue.

 

[MayaTlab]

How this translates to day to day use is that whilst reading a sentence of text on a white background (like webpages) your eyes see a gradual darkening of the background when your eyes hit the last 25% of the screen on the right.

I've played the panel lottery with my Samsung LED TV as that had banding problems and I'll be damned if I have to go through that again with Apple.

What do people think? Within tolerance or fault?

It's very hard to know for sure without any form of measurement. If you have a calibration meter, it's time to use it !

But my opinion is that manufacturing tolerances are so appalling with Apple's retina IPS screens that one's eyes are usually all that's needed to make a fair assessment of the situation. Perhaps you should go to an Apple Store and check if you happen to see the same phenomenon with their other displays, and, if you feel that other displays don't seem to exhibit the issue, unless Regent Street has different exchange practices than Opera or Caroussel du Louvres, I would keep exchanging it until I get a somewhat decent one (you'll never get a display as consistently made as Apple's own TFT non-retina screens though, so some degree of compromise is necessary). My fifth RMBP 13" is the one I chose to keep, despite being flawed in certain ways (even for a consumer display). The second one might have a different issue (these displays are riddled with them, from uneven white point to backlight bleeding - not to be confused with IPS glow, or strongly uneven luminance), but ultimately you're likely to find one that isn't too rubbish.

 

[Martin82]

It's very hard to know for sure without any form of measurement. If you have a calibration meter, it's time to use it !

But my opinion is that manufacturing tolerances are so appalling with Apple's retina IPS screens that one's eyes are usually all that's needed to make a fair assessment of the situation.

The problem with retinas is that even a bad eye will catch the issue. And that's a product with a PRO tag and corresponding very high price. In my opinion IT SHOULDN'T BE LABELED LIKE THIS. On the other hand, why to measure using advanced equipment if u don't experience any problem using your own eyes (ok, i know why but thats other topic of calibration). If people who are not professionals, experience tints, yellow gradients etc during basic activities like reading text and browsing the web that's a serious flaw in a gear, moreover- labeled as a PRO. Pro or even a premium products have to be standardized with some tighter tolerance in order to provide comparable results etc. MBPs screen provide 99% of sRGB and taking into account the resolution, its a decision maker for many buyers i guess.

 

[MayaTlab]

MBPs screen provide 99% of sRGB and taking into account the resolution, its a decision maker for many buyers i guess.

I suppose that's indeed one of the problems : the Air's display is quite consistent relative to the RMBP's display, but it's a poor display no matter what and nobody would use it for anything but very early preliminary photo editing. The RMBP's display, though, has potential, and should make for a very decent photo editing display (at least for a laptop). Only that this aspiration is ruined by crappy manufacturing tolerances, meaning that only a small selection of RMBP are actually fit for the job. But the existence of this small selection is enough to attract people interested in the RMBP for graphic editing application.