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Status of rMBP screens?

F

farewelwilliams

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Original poster
Jun 18, 2014
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When the first rMBP 15" came out, I got one of the crappier LG screens. I got it replaced with a Samsung panel after a few swaps and was happy with it.

Almost a few years later, the panel is starting to give out. If I ask Apple to replace my panel, is there still a chance I might get an LG panel? Those LG panels give me motion sickness when i switch between screens many times.
 
farewelwilliams said:
When the first rMBP 15" came out, I got one of the crappier LG screens. I got it replaced with a Samsung panel after a few swaps and was happy with it.

Almost a few years later, the panel is starting to give out. If I ask Apple to replace my panel, is there still a chance I might get an LG panel? Those LG panels give me motion sickness when i switch between screens many times.
Click to expand...

Well I guess that shows you those Samsung panels are not all they're cracked up to be. Most people base decisions on personal experience so I'm surprised you consider the LG to be 'crappy' and want a Samsung when it's a Samsung that crapped out on you.

You are more likely to get a LG panel now and the only way an Apple Store tech can identify them as such is by installing them into your Macbook, so they're not going to keep changing them over looking for what you want. I speak from my experience with a display replacement.
 
steve23094 said:
Well I guess that shows you those Samsung panels are not all they're cracked up to be. Most people base decisions on personal experience so I'm surprised you consider the LG to be 'crappy' and want a Samsung when it's a Samsung that crapped out on you.

You are more likely to get a LG panel now and the only way an Apple Store tech can identify them as such is by installing them into your Macbook, so they're not going to keep changing them over looking for what you want. I speak from my experience with a display replacement.
Click to expand...

With the LG displays, those experienced ghosting and burn-in issues (not sure if I'm using the correct term). If I leave my browser on the screen for 5-10 minutes, then switch to Photoshop, I can literally see a ghost of my browser on the screen while I'm in Photoshop. Those were unacceptable.

If wonder if the LG displays have improved since then.
 
farewelwilliams said:
When the first rMBP 15" came out, I got one of the crappier LG screens. I got it replaced with a Samsung panel after a few swaps and was happy with it.

Almost a few years later, the panel is starting to give out. If I ask Apple to replace my panel, is there still a chance I might get an LG panel? Those LG panels give me motion sickness when i switch between screens many times.
Click to expand...

I bought a maxed out 15" with GeForce GPU last week and even though I got LG (and had a fair share of issues with it on unibody machine before), this one is FLAWLESS - bright, no dead pixels, no image retention...just pure bliss to look at

serial number reveals that the machine was build at the end of March'15, maybe they've ironed out things with LG
 
R2FX said:
I bought a maxed out 15" with GeForce GPU last week and even though I got LG (and had a fair share of issues with it on unibody machine before), this one is FLAWLESS - bright, no dead pixels, no image retention...just pure bliss to look at

serial number reveals that the machine was build at the end of March'15, maybe they've ironed out things with LG
Click to expand...

that's good to hear, looks like replacing my sammy panel wont be too much of an issue.

----------
Mr.C said:
How can you tell which brand of display you have.
Click to expand...

do
ioreg -lw0 | grep "EDID" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

in terminal. If it starts with LP then you have an LG display. Samsung displays start with LSN
 
farewelwilliams said:
that's good to hear, looks like replacing my sammy panel wont be too much of an issue.
Click to expand...


One thing I'd like to add - my unibody LG display was 'too cold' from the moment I got it, I played with calibration quite a bit and eventually after searching forums I came across someones colour profile that did the trick for me (that guy had a kick ass studio calibration sonde, I only have Spyder 3).
The rMBP 15" LG screen is however calibrated just perfectly - I am into photography and my jaw dropped when I saw my Aperture and Capture One libraries on this thing for the first time - spot on colours, silky smooth transitions in gradients, and those details that suddenly jump at you...

Furthermore, after reading about the 'staingate' there seemed to be a pattern that the antireflective coating gets damaged mostly on Samsung displays, LG seemed to have been prone mostly early on (or LG users can't be bothered). I got myself my usual Radtech sleeve and screen protector that goes between keyboard and screen to keep the dust and keyboard dirt away from the screen. Been using is since my firs MBP 17" in 2006 and all my laptops' screen look as good as new.
 
Last edited:
I had an LG screen with ghosting issues. I had it replaced with another LG screen and all is good!

I think it depends. :)
 
farewelwilliams said:
When the first rMBP 15" came out, I got one of the crappier LG screens. I got it replaced with a Samsung panel after a few swaps and was happy with it.

Almost a few years later, the panel is starting to give out. If I ask Apple to replace my panel, is there still a chance I might get an LG panel? Those LG panels give me motion sickness when i switch between screens many times.
Click to expand...

There's no good screens. You'll get either image retention or uneven tint. There isn't a third option. Image retention is annoying, but uneven tinting can be even more annoying. As most people aren't color geeks, they prefer uneven tint over image retention.
 
The first-gen LG displays were prone to IR. The second-gen ones seem fine.

The EDID grep only works if you have a discrete GPU. For some reason the Intel iGPU’s don’t get that info from the screen.

However, you can also check the display by going to System Preferences → Displays → Color → Color LCD → mmod → Model

I don’t know if all the model numbers have been decoded, but A019 is LG and A022 is Samsung.
 
brdeveloper said:
There's no good screens. You'll get either image retention or uneven tint. There isn't a third option. Image retention is annoying, but uneven tinting can be even more annoying. As most people aren't color geeks, they prefer uneven tint over image retention.
Click to expand...

Blanket statements like that aren't helpful.

My 2014 one is flawless (LG). No image retention, and there is no uneven tint at all.

Early LG batches had issues, the majority now are good.
 
Brian Y said:
Blanket statements like that aren't helpful.

My 2014 one is flawless (LG). No image retention, and there is no uneven tint at all.

Early LG batches had issues, the majority now are good.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I can't believe. I appreciate you're satisfied with your screen though. If I had it in hands I would probably be capable of proving that it suffers from uneven tinting.
 
brdeveloper said:
Sorry, but I can't believe. I appreciate you're satisfied with your screen though. If I had it in hands I would probably be capable of proving that it suffers from uneven tinting.
Click to expand...

Well you're going to have to, regardless of your "capabilities". You cannot say that every panel out there has issues, it's simply not true.
 
Brian Y said:
Well you're going to have to, regardless of your "capabilities". You cannot say that every panel out there has issues, it's simply not true.
Click to expand...

It's probably a safe bet though. Have you tried using a colourimeter across it?
 
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