MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

It may be a small problem as only a few posts on here, or it may be a large proportion of people don't notice it or don't complain as they think it is normal.

I had two things in my kind when I decided to return it :

1. Will it get worse with time. The level it is at at the moment I could live with, but apple are keeping quiet about the technical aspects of the problem, I.e. is it inherent in the Retina technology but varies in how noticeable it is or is it a real defect. I am not taking chance it will get worse and spoil my use of a £2400 computer.

2. At some point there will be a better MBP (2013/14 ?) at which point I may want to sell this to part fund my new one (as I did with my 2011 MBP). When you come to sell it, guess what question you are bound to be asked,mand if you have to answer yes, it has an LG screen with retention effects, the resale value will drop drastically.

If this was a £400 Dell I would ignore it and avoid the issue with my next purchase, but I have PCs that are that quality already, I bought my MBPr because it is the best at what it is, and for its price, I expect it to be defect free when I receive it.

I called applecare and they said it was normal, unless it was very obvious. I spoke to a advisor and he later forwarded me to a senior advisor when i asked for a replacement. The senior advisor said this was perfectly normal as all screens have a tendency of image retentivity if a static image is left for extended periods of time on the screen. He said apple engineers are working hard on this issue and it isn't a defect unless the IR is severe. He guided me through some IR solving techniques which i patiently go through with him since i already knew about it (putting on a white screen and stuff). Guess i'll live with it (unless if it gets worse) since the IR is very slight and does not directly affect my work on this computer.

I have Samsung :( i will test this later tonight with the same situation to see what happens. I'm so sad because i'm out of 14 days and i was so happy that this issue will not bother me.

Lets see what happens.

Test it with maximum brightness for at least 1 hour. I've been testing mine since last week for 40 minutes every test but cannot see any traces of IR, not until today when i decided to leave it there for 1 full hour. Leave a high contrast page with lots of blacks and whites (like this thread here) and use photoshop to create a dark (very dark, close to black) background that can fit into the whole screen (2880x1800) then open it full screen using preview. Once an hour passes, swipe away from this thread into the full screen grey backgroud and see if you have anything. Good luck!

OK the moment of truth. I have a Samsung screen week 30 and I tested this for 40 minutes at the day one. No IR.

Now I tested again for 1:05 hour with high brightness and left this page open. No sign of IR at all.

That's it. I wont test it again otherwise I have to be around and do it everytime for 1:30 or 2 hours or etc. If I will be noticed some how in the future I will repair it. If I have an IR and didn't notice it well perfect! It's like I don't have it at all.

I'm out of 14 days now then I have 1 year (3 years with AppleCare) to find this issue and let them fix it

for me.

Good luck and have fun with your MBPR.

Is it also possible to identify the type of Display, with the serial number, by yourself?

I will get tommorow my third replacement and dont feel like contacting the support again.

My second replacement is on the way. I called tech support and they told me I had LG.

So I ordered another one immediately and plan on to return this replacement once I get it.

Id say teturn it. You shouldnt live with that when u paid so much for the laptop. Get ur money back.

How do they know which display type you have before it even arrives?

The only way is asking Apple.

UPDATE: Oops I thought you said how do you know before it arrives. They may have some database for this details and find them by serial numbers.

Thanks. Is there a way to determine the serial number before it arrives? My replacement rMBP shipped last night. I remember seeing some web site where you could punch in the serial number and get a bunch of info about it. I forget the web URL for that, and I can't find the serial number of the replacement anywhere. Thanks.

UPDATE: Never mind about the serial, I found that on the invoice. 😀

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php and the serial it's in the E-invoice pdf they will send it when they charge you.

Thanks. Too bad these are still shipping with Lion. I was hoping it would have 10.8 preinstalled by now. I appreciate the help.

I ordered another computer yesterday and I saw taht ilife and mountain lion comes with it.

I don't know how you did it, but I called Apple Support twice and they claimed that they have absolutely no possibility to check whether my MBPR is being shipped with Samsung or LG screen...
Also most people on this forum would have checked it a long time ago, instead of waiting for ages untill the actual unit is delivered...