MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

So I actually have a burn-in spot on my LG Retina MBP. It's not a pixel, it's like a 4mm in diameter bright spot in the lower left side of the screen that is now PERMAMENTLY there. The guy at Apple Store said that this is unusual as it tends to happen - if it does - on retina screens that have been used for longer.

Anyway, they placed an order for a new screen.

And today on top of my burn-in light leakage spot I notice I have a ghost burn-in issue in general. Great.

So I am still unclear - do they now replace all the displays with Samsung ones?

Hi, I was planning on getting a MacBook Air 13 initially but decided the screen size and power were lacking so I splurged and got the rMBP with best display ever in a notebook. It's unfortunate that it took 4 exchanges until my 5th rMBP 2.3/8/256 base model has a perfect Samsung display. (Build week 40 according to AppleSerialInfo.)

I came across this thread post-purchase and although exchanging the rMBP has caused a good amount of time and effort, I finally got what I initially paid almost $2500 for. Those of you that are within your 14 day exchange / return period have a choice: 1) Keep your rMBP with LG display if the IR is not apparent or does not bother you or 2) Exchange your rMBP until you get a Samsung display you are happy with. Given all the reports of Samsung ramping down and eventually ceasing display production for Apple, the 2nd choice should be acted upon sooner than later as the Samsung display quantities diminish.

My story:

My first was an LG that was perfect other than some minor IR against gray backgrounds. I had decided that I would exchange it as it bothered me enough to make me regret my purchase. I was thrilled that the 1st exchange netted me a Samsung from week 40. However, the next day I noticed the screen / lid was a bit warped meaning the right side gap (with the lid closed) was about double the gap on the left. In addition, the colors seemed a bit washed out and viewing angles were far less impressive than the previous LG. I was strongly considering keeping it given how so many on this forum get LG after LG for exchanges... On the 14th day I went in the store to exchange it as I decided I should't have to accept a product that doesn't live up to it's lofty promises. I dealt with an Apple Store employee who was extremely helpful and believed I should have a product I am satisfied with. He offered no objection to exchanging the unit for a new one and we agreed to try a max of two exchanges as they had limited quantity on hand. Both unfortunately were LGs from week 40 and I was "stuck" with the second LG as you can't undo an exchange. He recommended I go to another Apple Store and try my luck there. The next morning, I took his advice and was at another local store as soon as it opened. I was informed by the employee there that 1 final exchange would be allowed or a refund would be offered. I agreed and took the final exchange home without bothering to open it in the store as I would need to think things over for a couple of days if it was an LG. I was ecstatic when the terminal window displayed "LSN" and grateful that I could move on and actually be happy using my new rMBP.

So in the end I have a perfect rMBP and I can justify that it was money well spent as this is the best computer I have ever used. I've been following the topic for several weeks now and I truly hope everyone who is experiencing an issue ends up with a product they are 100% satisfied paying the premium price for. Cheers!

WOW. There is no way in **** I am buying one of these. What a shame. I wanted a Macbook retina for photography programs so I could use them on location. This proves that you would never be able to trust what you see on the screen. I just saw that the new 27" iMacs are due out in December. I think I may get one of those and just use existing windows laptop on the road. Of course I am going to really look over the iMac first before I buy. I don't think they have retina screens though.

I had been considering returning my 15 inch rMBP for the 13 inch due to the much better size advantage, but I happened across this one as a great open box deal in Arizona while traveling and then found out it has the Samsung display. Given the amount of trouble some have gone to here to get that screen in brand new in the BOX models, I guess that was a pretty lucky find.

That said, I do think the IR thing is getting to be a little overblown, to an extent. If the IR issue is temporary and resolves as the screen wipes and refreshes content, then it isn't such a huge deal. However, my concern as I have seen with a lot of LCDs in supermarkets and other venues that are under constant use, is that what looks like light IR right now, is going to eventually leave darker and darker spots and "smudges" with extended use, that won't simply go away. Of course, the machines aren't quite old enough yet to know whether that will be the case or not, but it would be interesting to know if people who have very early run 15 inch rMBPs with IR that decided to keep them are noticing any gradual worsening to the overall effect. If not, it may be much ado about nothing for anyone but intense graphic artists.

Display issues aside, the much more annoying problems with these notebooks are just the side effects in operation from driving such a high number of pixels in a "Gen 1" product. Lots of scrolling jerkiness and things that just aren't quite as smooth as they are on the lower res displays. Functionally, these issues are much more annoying than the minor IR so many seem to complain about.

My case has been esculated to a fifth person, after 2 protracted months of talks, and into my 2nd screen replacement, and this "senior" relationship officer had the audacity to tell me that its the first time she had came across such cases of IR. I will write to Tim Cook if this officer could not sort out the problem.

+1

Seeing the fact that Apple goes on with the IR affected LG screens in the rMBP13" shows us that Apple trully thinks this isn't a problem.

From my point of view. I work with a static (toolbar) screen in my CAD program all day. IR shows up when switching from my CAD program to a webpage. However in less then a minute it fades away. If it doesn't get progressive worse then this, I be fine with it.

However if it does get progressive worse to a point that people get permanent burnin or a unusuable screen in 6 months from now, then Apple cut itselve in the fingers big time! The damage would be huge since by then they must recall/replace thousands of sold rMBP's. Time will tell, since no one knows yet how the LG screens are a 6 months or a year from now.

Asside from the IR which in my opinion is trully a design error made by LG (I guess making the pixels so small brought some unexpected technical problems in the diodes) I find it good to see that most LG screens I've seen have zero dead pixels. Considering how many pixels it has, It is a good thing.

You users who has had an LG display with these issues for several months. Does the problem get worse or not? How long will the IR stay on-screen for you?

I'm curious if it never gets worse than stuck for a minute, or if it will show retention for like several minutes.

It ***** that I'm now AFRAID of buying this notebook.

@danielwerner: The problem just started for me yesterday and it stays on for several minutes and actually multiplies so as I browse this site now I know that the white bg and black text will cause residue.

@anyone that implies that this problem only affects graphic designers, etc: THAT IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG! I just wanted to look at some of my photos and they were covered in grids from where I had been on facebook earlier (see the pic I posted 5 threads back)...so this will affect anyone that might look at an image on their LG macbook pro retina or anyone that browses facebook (or any website with a white background and black text).

It seems to have gotten worse for me with time, noticed it around two months ago, and its worse now than it was then. So I think I will have to make a trip to the Apple Store. To bad my keyboard is in Norwegian and I live in Barcelona now, will probably take some time. Hopefully I get a perfect Samsung screen.

In my case it defenetly got worse in two months.

At the begining i could see ir after a few minutes with checkboard and then change to a dark grey.

Now it develops in 1-2 min from just having a safari window open and i can see it on the default background from OSX.

Well, actually it seems to be a lot of the same people here on a great majority of the posts. Its hard to say how many actually have a problem. Just because a couple of hundred people are telling everyone in the world, over and over about the problmes they are having doesn't mean that "thousands and thousand" are having display problems. Just a thought.

@Barry fisher: Your "just a thought' sounds exactly like what a mac "genius' told me when I bought my (now-faulty) LG macbook retina pro (pics a few post up to highlight the problem). Your post is clearly flamebait and doesn't help people in here at all.

People in the UK with this issue: contact Watchdog: a weekly primetime T.V. (BBC1) show that has many millions of viewers. They highlights these consumer issues (they put out bad press against amazon and virgin just this month) so if you contact the show, your message will go out to millions of people and I'm sure a lot more people will come forward. This will of course have the unfortunate effect of lowering sales of Apple products unless they do the right thing and face the problem instead of saying (as Barry Fisher does) "This only affects a few people"..I think you'll find that more people are affected than you think.

This will of course have the unfortunate effect of lowering sales of Apple products unless they do the right thing and face the problem instead of saying (as Barry Fisher does) "This only affects a few people"..I think you'll find that more people are affected than you think.

No, you are twisting my words. I'm just saying that neither you, me nor anyone else here knows how actually widespread it is. You are very locked into a feedback loop. Also, I didn't say it only affects a few people, those are your words, please don't put quotation remarks and attributte a statement to me I didn't make. I can speak for myself well enough, thank you. Again, let see some actual statistics on how widespread the problem is. I do believe that a fair amount of LG screens have the problem, even my own as I've said ohhhh probably bout 10 times before I just don't know how actually widespread it is and neither do you. Again, we all want to see this fixed. I have the same slight IR that doesn't effect anything I do, including processing and viewing my photography. It hasn't changed for about 5-6 weeks. So I'm hopeful that stays the same because otherwise, I love the screen, the resolution, color rendetion and the computer itself rocks. I know others here can't live with their screen problems.

Message was edited by: Barry Fisher

(I finally had my retina taken in today after 1 LG replacement & 3 months of IR BS. Here's what happened.)

Alright, finally managed to argue some sense into Apple Eaton and get this exchanged for a Samsung display.

I have a CTO 2.3/16/256 unit, week 1/35, which was delivered through an authorised reseller 08 July, 4 weeks after ordering it. LG screen, no IR until 31 July.

This was right before the test came out, so when I took it in, the Genius looked at it, and said, 'Right, we'll exchange that screen for a new one right away.'

Pointedly, to my question, 'Is this a Samsung screen?' he replied, 'It's a new one.'

Of course, it was another LG display. So I started to see moderate IR by day 6, and took it in on day 14, having already visited a reseller whose technician hadn't yet been certified on the newer retina displays (and thus couldn't take on my warrantied AppleCare repair).

The reseller tech was able to confirm that the stock of display units had formerly been available under two part numbers, 6529 (since confirmed as LG) and 7171 (Samsung), but that now [as it then was mid-September], only the 7171 part was listed. This was confirmed via the inputting of my serial number into the Apple inventory system at the reseller.

Anyway, the Apple Genius at first hadn't encountered a retina IR return before, so he had to read up on the now-changed SOP for dealing with it. He spewed the standard lines that I had to have a test via their URL, and at the end the rMBP didn't have as pronounced an effect as with the previous screen, and so was judged as 'within spec' - Totally and utterly infuriating, given the fact that as Dr Sly points out, the spec is arbitrary and subjective, and worse, it is post-hoc or after the fact as a way for Apple to basically cover its ***. [Did Apple talk about this at all in its advertising? Of course not. But not even in the fine print do they say, 'These displays may be subject to image retention']

And, again, this guy didn't even know what the **** my problem was 5 minutes earlier. How can anyone take this process seriously? I protested, but the Genius would not budge. I asked what would happen if the IR got worse, and he basically weaseled out with a reply that I would have to take the test again. And if it failed? Well, I'd have to consider my options.

When I realised that I could at last resort just return it as unsatisfactory and cancel the credit card charges, I decided that would be the thermonuclear option, and tell them so.

Other things intervened, but the IR on the retina steadily worsened. Two weeks after the test at Eaton Centre, I had a call from a retail manager at Apple Eaton Centre following up from my feedback, which had been pretty critical of the whole experience. I called him back, then his colleague called to follow up on the follow up. After I explained what had happened, he agreed to look into the part numbers and see if they could exchange the screen. And he would call back within the hour.

Then, nothing.

For 11 days.

Finally, I called back, and said, look, I want this resolved, and I want options from you by next week. Exchange the screen, exchange the machine, or refund, but my preference - as yours should be - is to just get the Samsung, and go home.

OK, final result, manager calls back on Tuesday, he's very apologetic, but there's really no way they can specify a part number for the retina. My ears are burning as I listen to this.

Thursday. I have to get back to the manager. OK, go in, maybe you can explain this better in person.

As I'm by the reseller first, I figure I will go back in and ask about the incident (see original post from mid-September for details; search the IR thread for 'northtwilight'), then ask if I can chat with the tech again about the IR on the retina and the supply chain. No luck on the incident itself, unfortunately, but the technician confirms that the situation is unchanged, only one part available.

So when I get to Apple Eaton this older dude resembling Jerry Garcia walks up and gets the manager, who turns out to be a bit younger than I would have expected. Then the two of them get into it. The IR is within spec, they say, and you'll have to take the test again. We can't specify part numbers.

'Oh really? So why is it that other Apple Stores are confirming on your forums that they in fact can do so? Do you have a different distribution chain between here and the US that no one has mentioned before now?'

That's just unconfirmed noise, says Garcia. I'm getting very angry now.

To which I say, here, check out these - and I show them the originals of the photos from Wednesday's German IR test -- and the older guy goes, 'Well, I don't know where that could have come from' -- dude. It's your bloody test. In German.

And this is beautiful, because I really do have them dead to rights now.

You want to make me take the test, this machine will fail it. Here's the proof.

Manager says they can't specify the part number, but as he said, they'd be happy to exchange the whole unit - or refund it. I say, look, I know beyond doubt that there are only Samsung screens in your reserve stock.

Let's confirm it, OK? If what you say is true, and I am wrong, you can prove it.

The 6529 is the LG <types into the iPhone stock controller>

The 7171 is the Samsung.

off they go.

Five minutes later, lo and behold! The 7171 is a Samsung unit after all. You *can* specify part numbers after all. Gee, you've only been lying to me for the last 6 weeks.

So then it's chat with a Genius time to sign for the repair. Christ on a bike.

Apple: How is it that I supposedly know more about your parts chain and distribution than you do? I don't, but your willingness to generate this pointless set of procedures and make your staff go through this disheartening exercise is corroding your credibility with customers who have already forked over a small fortune for what is supposed to be your best product.