MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

Just had a friend of mine check his store to see how many panels were LG vs Samsung through Ripley and I can tell you that the majority are in fact LG. It seems as though Lg just simply has been producing more than Samsung has. I would also guess that Apple probably pays less for the LG than the Samsung which would make sense given the ratios. You get what you pay for!!!

It definitely does seem like there are more LG rMBPs than Samsung.

My friend has a 2.5 week old LG rMBP, and I tested it for IR. It has absolutely no IR. My replacement rMBP (which happened to be another LG and is now still less than a week old) has a tiny bit of IR - it's barely perceptible, but definitely there. I'm hoping it doesn't get worse (but I know it probably will). If it doesn't get worse, I can definitley live with the way it is now.

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Well hey guys. I'm back. To tell you that my nice new BTO 2.7GHz/16GB/256GB that I said in this post had a seamless and not warm LG panel, has now developed extremely faint image persistence after one week and a day. I just noticed it while using it; I hid the dock on a rather busy background which mainly has a sky blue color. I saw a really really faint outline of the Calendar icon. I'm surprised because all the way up to yesterday it never had any IR. If the amount of ghosting (which is so minimal I could barely see it) stays at this level (although I will be editing photos and I will be really annoyed because of how much it cost) it'll be bearable.

I talked to the manager of the Apple Store near me, and he said although I could not unbox multiple laptops to check for one with a Samsung display (understandably, as it was a small store and I couldn't exhaust their inventory), I could send it in to switch the panel. I really don't like the idea of repairing a brand new laptop, but I have all my data on it and school has started already; I have no time to wait for another one to arrive. He was pretty sincere when he said he didn't know about the problem, and first called around all the local Apple Stores; they said that they had all had customers come in having the problem. He says he would assume that Apple headquarters knows about the issue by now and told me that he hopes they would be able to say something about it in a couple months, but he has no way to know for sure as they never communicate with individual stores. He seemed sincere and apologized quite a lot for the inconvenience.

I could swap it out for another laptop in-store, but like I said I already have data on my current one and I wouldn't be able to customize it. And that would really be even more annoying if it wasn't the BTO I wanted but STILL had an LG display. 😀

By the way, on a side note, this article states that Samsung will be the manufacturer of projected 13" MacBook Pros with Retina display. Interesting.

Oh and the link to that post I was talking about, you'd have to scroll one post up to get the main info about how my laptop was on day 1. Sorry.

A local Apple store has six rMBP, 4 LG panels and 2 Samsung panels. This very small sample size shows that you only have a 33% chance of winning the Samsung lottery. BTW, all 4 LG panels had bad image persistence after 30 seconds of a static image. The 2 Samsung panels didn't have any image persistence issues, as expected. The evidence seems to indicate that the image persistence problem is in the LG display by design. Regardless of whether it shows up on the first day or some time later I think that 100% of LG panels have this issue to some degree.

The New Apple Retail Store Cologne was opened yesterday and I took a reservation with a genius there.

Arriving at the store being applauded from the staff.. I moved forward to the guys with the ipads for checking in. A sign with "Trainer" around his neck. He asked me what the problem was I said.. well I own a retina Macbook and I got that display problem you might have heard about.

He said.. No he hasnt heard about anything which is clearly a political response but well. It was a test question from me so I headed forward to the genius desk.

Booted rMBP from USB3 to a test Mountain Lion with dark gray Background. Placed photos from the IR Problem on the Desktop and showed them. I backed up some files to the disk from a default Terminal window (plain white) and the 3 minutes or so were enough to put an ugly edge of IR on the screen.

The Genius saw everything and started to boot some external diagnostic from thunderbolt and wanted me to go through their display test.

Their display test seems to be more or less incapable of reproducing an image retention problem. It has Full Screen Red and Green Gray and a gradient with smoth transition from black to gray. No contrast images that could reproduce the problem. My bet is that these tests are there to show pixel problems or alike.

In the end the right solution: Changing Display.

I was to take the macbook with me again until the new display was delivered to the shop.

Now I fear it will be another LG. Hoping for a Samsung. We will see.

rgds

Christoph

quintex wrote:

... The evidence seems to indicate that the image persistence problem is in the LG display by design. Regardless of whether it shows up on the first day or some time later I think that 100% of LG panels have this issue to some degree.

Exactly! The fact that IR doesn't show up early on explains why the fault wasn't detected before release. Apple should atleast switch their replacement screens to Samsung. For what I know they only ship LG replacements...

I still believe that there are some good, IR free LG panels! Otherwise we are pretty much screwed, as this is not likely to get a Samsung anymore. They just seem to be very very rare now...

IMHO all the LG displays have the issue more or less, but 95% of the users don't know about the issue yet. The 13 inch will tell us a lot - if the 13 inch LGs are IR free than something was learned at the expense of early adopters

In statistics you need a much larger sample to get accurate %s. With that said, I'm curious about what % of screens are Samsung, LG, and AOU.

quintex wrote:

BTW, all 4 LG panels had bad image persistence after 30 seconds of a static image.

I checked the first LG equipped rMBP I found at the Apple Store in Florence and it has the worst IR I've seen up to now. I showed it to a Genius and he wasn't pleased with that and thanked me...

Hi folks,

I was out of my 14-day return period when I first noticed the image retention on my LG rMBP. Had my screen replaced twice, and this is the third screen I'm using, including the original one. The image retention is still there, and I fear that plagues all LG screens. Checked all the rMBPs on display at the store, all of them LGs with dreadful retention on the checkerboard test.

Since this is going to be my third request for repair for the same fault, do you think I've got the option to ask for a refund or a new device, as they are not able to fix it currently?

I have the same provlem as you, ahmetunsur. The closest Apple Store I went to, they wouldn't return for me. However, when I went to the 2nd store, I talked to a "Manager" (2nd in command) and then a "Store Leader" (in charge). They are be able to to authorize the return even if you are out of 14 days but you have to be nice but insistent. That's how I returned my first Macbook Pro.

If the store refuses you, go to another store. There is also AppleCare.

As for me.

1st Macbook Pro: 2 repairs, all 3 panels are LG, all developed IR. Subsequently got refund. Even got some extra cash back because the returns system couldn't refund "education discount".

2nd Macbook Pro: LG panel again. Bought yesterday, already showing faint signs of IR after 15 minutes on checkerboard test.

If we make some assumptions that: 50% of LG panels are defective, there is a 6.25% chance that I got 4 LG panels in a row which are defective. So I must be really unlucky with defective LG panels, or LG panels must have a really high IR rate.

Hi All,

I had the same experience. I found this site, checked my rMBP but didn't find any image retention. Then after a week or three of heavy use, there it was.

It's was comparable to the worst case pictures shown here in this thread. After 5 minutes you could read my e-mail on the lockscreen. The "Geniuses" in the Apple Store in Amsterdam didn't want to replace the mac as it was out of the 14-day return period. I refused to have the macbook repaired and I insisted on a replacement. After calling with Apple Care and making my way up their support tree, I finally managed to get a replacement (not via the store though).

DIdn't do me much good I'm afraid. The new rMBP also has an LG panel. For now image (day 2) retention is sometimes present, very faint and it disappears quickly (within 30 seconds).

I'm continuing the tests 24hrs per day while keeping the CPU fairly busy (20% overall CPU load) to see if and how fast the retention problems worsens over time.

Perhaps one of you knows: do I have a new 14-day return window for this replacement rMPB ? If so, I'll just sent it back, reclaim my money and wait untill they sorted this problem out (I've allready migrated all my work back to my previous MBP).