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My Unibody MBP Screen Sucks.

S

Sherman90

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
27
0
Very disappointed with the panel in my MBP.

The slightest adjustment of the hinge, i.e. changing the viewing angle, causes the colors to alter significantly. This renders calibration virtually impossible, as I cannot locate a "dead centre" standard for the screen.

Viewing angles from the sides cause are decent, but by no means exceptional and cause a marked yellowing overall. In addition, side viewing angles reveal slight rippling in the screen (faint black shadows near the base) which I consider a mark of a poor panel.

Every so often the screen's refresh rate seems to fall out of sync, causing phantom flickering that is very subtle but very very annoying.

I thought LG was supposed to be the superior screen? There's conflicting information on the web between the LG and the Chi Mei, but I'm beginning to think the Chi Mei probably has the upper hand.

Anyone else suffer from these symptoms?
 
Sherman90 said:
Very disappointed with the panel in my MBP.

The slightest adjustment of the hinge, i.e. changing the viewing angle, causes the colors to alter significantly. This renders calibration virtually impossible, as I cannot locate a "dead centre" standard for the screen.

Viewing angles from the sides cause are decent, but by no means exceptional and cause a marked yellowing overall. In addition, side viewing angles reveal slight rippling in the screen (faint black shadows near the base) which I consider a mark of a poor panel.

Every so often the screen's refresh rate seems to fall out of sync, causing phantom flickering that is very subtle but very very annoying.

I thought LG was supposed to be the superior screen? There's conflicting information on the web between the LG and the Chi Mei, but I'm beginning to think the Chi Mei probably has the upper hand.

Anyone else suffer from these symptoms?
Click to expand...

I owned 3 LG screens of the new unibody mbp and 2 of them were very vivid and vibrant where the whites are super white and blacks are really bright but 1 of them was very washed out.

I'm suspecting that it does not matter which manufacture screen that you get but it really matters on what type of backlighting from that specific company used (maybe each company LG and Chimei uses 2 different type of backlighting).

My first 2.4ghz unibody mbp the screen was gorgeous and I loved the new unibody mbp so I exchanged for the 2.53ghz model but this one was also an LG but with washed out colors. Anyways, luckily the 2.53ghz mbp had a small dent on the unibody so I brought it in and exchanged for a new one. My current 2.53ghz unibody mbp doesnt have any dents/scratches on the aluminum, the hinge is very tight (both closing and opening) and the screen is absolutely gorgeous (even compared to my 24" LED ACD, it holds its own).

If you are very dissatisfied with your screen and you are still within the 14 days of exchange/return period, I'd highly suggest trying to get it exchanged. Try to look for minor flaws/details and complain, usually Apple will allow you to exchange at least once if your not satisfied about something.

This is coming from the exchange master~ I'm so nit picky, The first 2.4ghz mbp I exchanged 8 times from 2 different apple store without paying restocking fee due to yellow tint issue back then, and just last year's penryn mbp I exchanged 5 more times due to minor inperfections and also been through 4 17" 2.6ghz penryn hi res led backlit mbp, and 2 17" 2.5ghz penryn hi res mbp.

Being polite but serious will get what you want at the apple store.
 
I have the Chi Mei and I think its more than adequate. Have you seen some of the panels in PC laptops? Even the Macbook is noticeable inferior to any MBP display. I haven't had any flickering or rippling in my screen either...

If you really need precise color accuracy you need an external display that is dedicated to this purpose. You won't find that in any laptop panel, to my knowledge.

--mAc
 
All of the lg mbp screens I've seen have been horrible, including the one on my mbp, but I'm living with it b/c I got sick of dealing with apple
poor quality issues and just wanted to use the laptop. All of the lg pannels I saw in the store had these awful gray verticle lines on the bottom of the screen. Maybe similar to what you are seeing on yours? Like, you could easily see them on a white screen. Idk how they looked on black screens b/c I didn't want to spend too much time ogling the computers, but just walking by and glancing at them made me grimace. The lg panel on my mbp has verticle stripes of light bleed that are mostly only visible on a black screen, and, even though it's aggravating, I'll just live with it. You could try returning yours, but they may try to make you pay the restocking fee and you might get an even worse screen.
 
It's not your specific machine.

As far as I am concerned all the mbp late 08 produced till today have this problems. I have gone through 7 mbp since november.
 
carferse said:
It's not your specific machine.

As far as I am concerned all the mbp late 08 produced till today have this problems. I have gone through 7 mbp since november.
Click to expand...

Seven? I bought a MBP Uni last week and it's perfect. Out of curiousity, what have been the issues with each of the machines you returned? I just wonder if others would find problems with my machine that I don't see. Do you have any pics of the machines you returned?
 
carferse said:
It's not your specific machine.

As far as I am concerned all the mbp late 08 produced till today have this problems. I have gone through 7 mbp since november.
Click to expand...

You went through 7 MBP's and you jump to the conclusion that all have this problem?

I don't.
 
oh! and I forgot the flickering issue at low bright settings, search the forums you will find the complaints. I know I'm not alone :)

I will wait for the next revision the actual machines are crap
 
carferse said:
oh! and I forgot the flickering issue at low bright settings, search the forums you will find the complaints. I know I'm not alone :)

I will wait for the next revision the actual machines are crap
Click to expand...

I notice you didn't respond to my post. You had the screen issue with each of the 7 machines?

Well, I don't have those screen issues.
 
I have the "spotlight" problem with my two day old new MacBook Pro (9C85 screen).

The attached picture shows that the problem is visible in a reasonably well lit room. I'm not sure if this is worth exchanging if this the best I'm likely to get. It is an annoyance though, I can see the lights when watching DVDs with dark scenes and when watching trailers in Front Row.

Also another complication is that I ordered this online from J&R Computer World in New York. Their return policy states no returns on opened Apple products. If I were to take this to an Apple store would an exchange even be possible?
 

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i have the flickering / refresh issue at low brightness settings, sucks.
 
quite98 said:
I have the "spotlight" problem with my two day old new MacBook Pro (9C85 screen).

The attached picture shows that the problem is visible in a reasonably well lit room. I'm not sure if this is worth exchanging if this the best I'm likely to get. It is an annoyance though, I can see the lights when watching DVDs with dark scenes and when watching trailers in Front Row.

Also another complication is that I ordered this online from J&R Computer World in New York. Their return policy states no returns on opened Apple products. If I were to take this to an Apple store would an exchange even be possible?
Click to expand...

They might or might not.

I bought a Alu Macbook on eBay and they did exchange it for me (3 times).

If you think your MBP screen is bad you should see the MB screen.
 
Thank you for all of your responses.

I'm both relieved and frustrated to learn that I am not alone in my "panel woes". Nevertheless, I should note that I do not suffer from most of the extreme symptoms that some of you are complaining about (i.e. notable floodlighting on a black screen, etc.). After hearing your complaints, I ran a couple of widescreen DVDs on full brightness to happily learn that, notwithstanding the viewing angle and refresh problems I have, backlighting seems to be fairly consistent on my panel (9C84-LG).

If my notebook had symptoms as obviously problematic as some of those already posted above, I would certainly file a complaint and try to perform an exchange. Perhaps the LG screen - albeit imperfect - is less prone to such blatant backlighting problems.
 
carferse said:
yes, all exhibit the same problems

-uneven backlight / light bleeding
-weak hinges

you can see examples on http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1808366&tstart=15 for the light bleeding and in www.fixthehinge.com for the weak hinge
Click to expand...

So I'm curious.. did you ever get a unibody mbp that the hinge didn't fall when held perpendicular to the floor (like in the video)?

My year and half old Classic MBP is rock solid, but like the video, my unibody MBP hinge cannot hold the screen parallel when held perpendicular. This seems to be normal w/ the unibody MBPs.
 
Ron21 said:
They might or might not.

I bought a Alu Macbook on eBay and they did exchange it for me (3 times).

If you think your MBP screen is bad you should see the MB screen.
Click to expand...

Took a trip to the Apple store on Thursday evening. I viewed the five MacBook Pro machines on display and only saw one that I could consider to have a better screen than my own - and even then, it was marginal. Two other examples were about the same as mine and there were a couple of examples that were considerably worse (indeed, one was bleeding from three sides of the display).

Interestingly, I noted that the two computers with the 9C84 screen were missing the spotlights and a bit brighter, but the overall black level was much worse. Ditto the horizontal viewing angle - I wasn't able to get a consistent 'black' across the whole screen on the machines with that screen.

The Genius was sympathetic and could see my issue (after taking the machine to the back room) but all he claimed to be able to offer was a repair as I hadn't purchased the Macbook from an Apple store. He also mentioned that if I was to opt for a repair, it was possible that it may come back without a new screen if Apple considered the display to be within spec.

I guess I was a little surprised at not being offered an exchange, but having seen that mine is reasonably typical and the odds are good that I could actually end up with something worse, I decided to decline and wait to get it resolved at a later date when there may conceivably be an improvement in the displays in the supply chain.
 
six.four said:
So I'm curious.. did you ever get a unibody mbp that the hinge didn't fall when held perpendicular to the floor (like in the video)?

My year and half old Classic MBP is rock solid, but like the video, my unibody MBP hinge cannot hold the screen parallel when held perpendicular. This seems to be normal w/ the unibody MBPs.
Click to expand...

Never understood this particular gripe. Yes, the screen is apt to close when held at extreme angles because the glass is heavy. No surprise there. My hinges do the job up to 45 (and slightly higher) degree angles, and that is fine for most of my own "lap use scenarios."

Fortunately I don't need to us the laptop while I'm laying on my back balancing the MBP (somehow) on my stomach, so it's a non-issue. :D
 
Sherman90 said:
Very disappointed with the panel in my MBP.

The slightest adjustment of the hinge, i.e. changing the viewing angle, causes the colors to alter significantly. This renders calibration virtually impossible, as I cannot locate a "dead centre" standard for the screen.

Viewing angles from the sides cause are decent, but by no means exceptional and cause a marked yellowing overall. In addition, side viewing angles reveal slight rippling in the screen (faint black shadows near the base) which I consider a mark of a poor panel.

Every so often the screen's refresh rate seems to fall out of sync, causing phantom flickering that is very subtle but very very annoying.

I thought LG was supposed to be the superior screen? There's conflicting information on the web between the LG and the Chi Mei, but I'm beginning to think the Chi Mei probably has the upper hand.

Anyone else suffer from these symptoms?
Click to expand...

nope
 
six.four said:
So I'm curious.. did you ever get a unibody mbp that the hinge didn't fall when held perpendicular to the floor (like in the video)?

My year and half old Classic MBP is rock solid, but like the video, my unibody MBP hinge cannot hold the screen parallel when held perpendicular. This seems to be normal w/ the unibody MBPs.
Click to expand...

no, all 15'' unibodys I have seen are all the same
 
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