Does anybody here have a 2015 13" A020 screen? I was using a friend's 2014 13" last night and his screen was A020. It was absolute complete perfection. White whites, no tints, no yellow in the greys, put my 2015 to shame. Has anybody received one of these screens on the new model. Mine is A02A.
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Would you return this 13" rMBP?
- Thread starter thadoggfather
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A02A have been the "good" screens, samsung based, this time around.
You can always return until you're happy, but i've been deliriously happy with my A02A since getting a 2.9/16/256 with it.
After being very happy with my A029 panel, the weird backlighting problem came back 
... Now on my 3rd rmbp, which has the A02A panel. For some reason this time apple let me have both at the same time so I was able to do a full comparison. Now..... Just need to decide which to keep! Again the A02A has a very slight yellow tint to the left hand side, not nearly as bad as the first at least.
Either way I think its time to accept the QC for these machines isn't ideal or I'm being too picky and I'm not going to be 100% satisfied. These are still phenomenal machines despite the flaws...
Just as I was cleaning the screen of the rmbp #2 noticed that the antiglare coating looks like its coming off in a few places. Not too happy, only ever been cleaned gently with expensive microfibre cloth and a bit of water and only 3 weeks old! At least the decision is made, A20A it is! Either I am completely reckless or these computers aren't as tough as my old unibody MBP....
... Now on my 3rd rmbp, which has the A02A panel. For some reason this time apple let me have both at the same time so I was able to do a full comparison. Now..... Just need to decide which to keep! Again the A02A has a very slight yellow tint to the left hand side, not nearly as bad as the first at least.Just as I was cleaning the screen of the rmbp #2 noticed that the antiglare coating looks like its coming off in a few places. Not too happy, only ever been cleaned gently with expensive microfibre cloth and a bit of water and only 3 weeks old! At least the decision is made, A20A it is! Either I am completely reckless or these computers aren't as tough as my old unibody MBP....
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So after going through eight 2015 13" rMBP - all with image retention, I gave up. I ended up buying a 12" Macbook (base) and selling my 15" top-end rMBP.
I decided to give the 13" rMBP another try and grabbed a base model (I have no need for storage), expecting the worst. It arrived today and I was disappointed to see it was the A029 screen - the screen was very warm (yellow) out-of-the-box - BUT NO IMAGE RETENTION! (I did 2 x 10 minute image retention tests). Since the the yellow was very uniform I went ahead and calibrated the screen to look exactly the same (apart from brightness) as my 12" Macbook. So I have decided to gift my month old 12" Macbook to my sister (she is going to give my son her 13" cMBP), and I'll give the 13" rMBP a go.
I was running my 12" Macbook at 1680x1050, and I am running my 13" rMBP at 1920x1200. Perfect.
So A029 screens without image retention do exist, and can be calibrated to remove the unwanted warmness (yellow) from the screen.
I decided to give the 13" rMBP another try and grabbed a base model (I have no need for storage), expecting the worst. It arrived today and I was disappointed to see it was the A029 screen - the screen was very warm (yellow) out-of-the-box - BUT NO IMAGE RETENTION! (I did 2 x 10 minute image retention tests). Since the the yellow was very uniform I went ahead and calibrated the screen to look exactly the same (apart from brightness) as my 12" Macbook. So I have decided to gift my month old 12" Macbook to my sister (she is going to give my son her 13" cMBP), and I'll give the 13" rMBP a go.
I was running my 12" Macbook at 1680x1050, and I am running my 13" rMBP at 1920x1200. Perfect.
So A029 screens without image retention do exist, and can be calibrated to remove the unwanted warmness (yellow) from the screen.
I would gladly take the A029 screen over the A02A. My experience has been that they have a brighter more even colour with richer blacks. Is the image retention even a problem anymore?
Yes, I agree with the A029 screen being brighter and having richer blacks (I have compared many side-by-side). My recently purchased 13" has the A029 with no image retention. A family member bought a 13" two days ago and they also do not have image retention on their A029 screen.
What have you used for calibration? Can you upload your profile somewhere? Thanks...
Hi, my calibration file would probably be of no use since everyones screen will be different (even for same model screen), plus I like my screen to be extremely cool (white), which most people would not like (i.e. they would find it to be too blue).
I would suggest using the MacBook Pro calibration software to calibrate the screen.
Quick question, how do I know if I have the A02A or A029?
EDIT: Nvm figured it out. I have the A029 and I think the screen is amazing! Great color depth, rich blacks and whites. No yellow or warm feeling at all... maybe I was lucky idk? I don't notice any image retention either but is there a way to test or something?
EDIT: Nvm figured it out. I have the A029 and I think the screen is amazing! Great color depth, rich blacks and whites. No yellow or warm feeling at all... maybe I was lucky idk? I don't notice any image retention either but is there a way to test or something?
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I don't know if its my eyes playing games with me but i feel my screen has a slight pink tint only when the background is white and I have the A029 screen. Is it same with you guys?
nope not yet, I don't know what to use to compare the whiteness of the screen?
can it be possible that only the top center of my screen has a pink tint, what is the best way to know if it actually exists and its not my head playing around with me
You really need a colorimeter to judge white point and color accuracy. I'd be surprised if there is a color problem localized to a portion of the screen, but I suppose anything is possible?
Well, I'm happy to say that after reading this entire thread as I waited for my BTO 2015 13" MBP to arrive, that my paranoia was unfounded. I may have simply gotten lucky, or maybe they are now shipping mostly A02As again, but mine arrived today, and I have an A02A display, and it is PERFECT to my eyes. And no IR issues either after running the test suggested earlier in the thread. Super happy that I managed to get a great display on the first try. Here's hoping everyone else gets a great display as well.
Got my first Macbook pro 13/8gb/256 yesterday and I got the a029 screen. I did the image retention test for 10 minutes like it said with full brightness and the gray picture showed no sign of any of the grid squares whatsoever. Everything was uniform. I did however notice on my screen on the bottom right side that the tint isn't perfectly even. For example If the whites on the left side of the screen are 100% then the brightness on the bottom right is like 97%. It's very minor and I'm wondering if I should replace my macbook. Also the screen warmth seems to be the perfect blend of yellow and blue and seems to be right in the middle. With a screen this close to perfection, would anybody recommend an exchange for an A02A?
honestly? no not really. When the A029 is defective, its no go. When its good - like you seem to have got - no complaints here. I actually liked the A029 at first glance, but the one i managed to get without IR was an 8GB RAM version and in the end i couldn't "settle" for it (I run lots of VMs and it matters) and spun again for a 16GB A02A - but had my (2nd) 16GB lappy came with a good A029 i wouldn't have complained.
Of course the "safe to give" answer -- the one we can't be blamed for -- is exchange till your happy, but my actual opinion is you're fine. It's a sweet box, I feel the intel 6100 is finally up to retina (HINT: IF you activate the "increase contrast" option in accessibility settings.. which dramatically speeds up mission control.. and now im used to it. I prefer "increase contrast" to the normal setting)
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Thank you for your replies. I consider myself lucky I got a good A029 and I'm going to keep it. I was actually reading another user's post that had an A02A that had yellow tint issues. I guess it's safe to assume that every rMBP screen isn't absolutely perfect. Had I gotten retention issues, then this would be a different subject. Anyways have a good one
I just got a refurbished 2015 13" MBP from Apple and my screen looks very similar to yours. Yellowish on the sides, whiter in the middle. Did you return yours?Same boat
I feel your pain OP. Glad you are happy with your screen finally. I am on my 3rd 2015 rMBP 13". My first 2 had noticeable pink screen tint, my current (3rd) one is much less obvious than the prior ones, but there is a bit of uneven uniformity on the left side of the screen as the photo shows. There was only one perfectly white 13" Pro at my store out of all the 13" on display (edit- at the table I was at). I also note that the 2nd unit I tried had a very loud / clickety keyboard and shallower travel compared to the first one and my current one. I still have a genius bar appointment for tomorrow morning but may cancel it. I think I'm way too OCD about finding the perfect screen, I'm sure they will tell me they don't see any issue with mine. Sadly will probably just settle for mediocrity and move on.
