MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

Mine came up after 7 weeks. This seems to be around about the average time it takes for the IR issue to kick in.

Updates gentlemen.

Got my 2nd replacement screen today. Samsung.

However, it was disappointing. Previously, my 1st replacement had a evenly but unacceptable yellowish tint (color saturation only able to reached blue at 8500 and still can't get proper white)

This time round, screen was marginally "ok" at the right hand side but deteriorated to an ugly yellow at the left hand side, especially nearer to the bottom-left corner. An acceptable white (right side) was achievable at color temp of around 7000 BUT that made the yellowish tint even more obvious at the left hand side. It's so bad that I noticed this from the first moment I saw the screen.

I immediately rejected the screen and asked the service centre to sort out the problem with AppleCare as I was sick and tired of having to do all the ping-pong style calling game.

Not long after I rejected the screen, the AppleCare officer (fifth person from applecare who took over my case) called me back and told me that she'll needed to do further checks internally on the root cause. (Btw, she said the same thing as what others had told me: it was the first time she heard of "image retention". I simply reply "yeah I get that a lot"). She promised to get back to me on next course of action and how to prevent future occurrences. I simply replied that I am not interested in that. Rather, all I wanted was to receive a call from the service centre informing me on how soon i could pick up a non-defective rMBP.

Any folks out here having similar problems with Samsung replacement screens in the APAC region? Let's compare notes.

WOW WOW WOW WOW!

After buying and returning 11 macbook pro's I finally won the Samsung Lottery! Now I am comparing the LG screen to the Samsung and I notice major IR on the LG. Interestingly it took a little more than a week to show up this bad!

Persistence pays off. Don't accept a crappy LG screen with image retention when you are paying the same money as I did for my Samsung screen without image persistence.

I finally can unsubscribe to this lousy thread! Anyone who claims there is an LG IPS panel without Image Retention is wrong. They all have it, you just have to give it enough time and know how to test for it.

Thanks for all the wonderful help on this thread.

For what it's worth I just got a new LG retina book (week 42).

The display is pretty **** great. it's blacks are darker than I'm used to compared to my 2008 macbook but I calibrated/adjusted the gamma and now it's knock out. I've done the image retention test several times for 15 minutes and yes, if i leave it on full brightness with a checkerboard and grey background I can see a very light IR but it disappears in about 45-60 seconds. I can't imagine it's ever something that would affect me in real usage.

How long are folk finding it takes to develop this issue? I'm still in my 14 days but to be honest reading tales of people switching computer 10-15 times to get a Samsung seems excessive to put it lightly.

teleharvest wrote:

For what it's worth I just got a new LG retina book (week 42).

The display is pretty **** great. it's blacks are darker than I'm used to compared to my 2008 macbook but I calibrated/adjusted the gamma and now it's knock out. I've done the image retention test several times for 15 minutes and yes, if i leave it on full brightness with a checkerboard and grey background I can see a very light IR but it disappears in about 45-60 seconds. I can't imagine it's ever something that would affect me in real usage.

How long are folk finding it takes to develop this issue? I'm still in my 14 days but to be honest reading tales of people switching computer 10-15 times to get a Samsung seems excessive to put it lightly.

Enjoy your new machine. If Image Retention is not going to be an issue for you then don't worry about it! 10-15 times is excessive but that is how long it took for Apple to finally send me a Samsung display. Seriously, enjoy your machine if you don't care about Image Retention.

in your experience of 10 LG retinabooks were they all badly displaying IR out of the box or was there a latency before it developed to an unbarable level?

Thanks for your time.

Hi all fellow OCD retina MacBook Pro owners! I've been following this thread since Tuesday, the day after I noticed my MacBook Pro had the IR issue after owning it for 3 months. Yes, it took 3 months, but I finally noticed the IR problem. I'm not sure if it had this problem when I first got it July 27th, or if it started to manifest itself over the 3 month span, but it's unfortunately here and it's VERY noticeable against a darker background after leaving up apps like Safari for only a few minutes.

I'm going into the Apple Store tomorrow to play the Samsung (or, if possible, a good LG display) lottery and see if I can get one that won't have an IR issue (at least one that's so hard to notice that it's not worth my attention and time). It makes me wonder if all LG displays are truly defective and, if so, why Apple can't use Sharp or Japan Display, like they are with the iPhone and iPad. And, if so, why are they still shipping them? Also, I do wonder how widespread this problem is, especially after following this discussion forum and seeing a thread a user posted here on Mac Rumors.

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens when I get my replacement, although, I do have a question about that: will I get a new MBP since I have the absolute top of the line model, or will I get my screen replaced? I've read mixed results within the (what seems like thousands) hundereds of pages, although I only check around 1/10 of that.

Ok, So I have pretty bad IR and a white spot on my rMBP, what are the chances I'd be able to get a complete refund on it? (even though I'm way past my 14 days)

Thanks in advance.

By the way, as one fourm user put it, Apple should've changed their tagline for the 13" MacBook Pro commercial to something more accurate:

"The new 13" MacBook Pro with Retention Display. For the OCD in all of us!"

*shows white Apple logo against a black background*

😁

I noticed my IR problem last week. I'm going to the Columbia, MD Apple store this evening to talk with a genius. I have an LG display. I won't be satisfied until the display is replaced with one that does not have the issue.

I wrote:

By the way, as one fourm user put it, Apple should've changed their tagline for the 13" MacBook Pro commercial to something more accurate:

"The new 13" MacBook Pro with Retention Display. For the OCD in all of us!"

*shows white Apple logo against a black background*

😁

That would also explain why you see ghosted hands in that commercial as well...

scottpcs wrote:

DomdiDom wrote:

"it is in comparing the right hand side to the left where the right side is (very) slightly yellower than the left."

You say this is a keeper, and you say everything into consideration.

So is it a keeper, period? or is it that apple has warn you down to accepting a notebook with a yellow screen on one side? Try to think back, would you have accepted this current (more yellow on one side) notebook if it was your first one that you received from Apple? Just curious.

I would say at this stage that it IS a keeper. The only condition I'm putting on this is I haven't looked at the screen under darker conditions e.g. my study at home under artificial lighting at night.

Unless something with the screen or otherwise becomes obvious under darker lighting conditions then this one is definitely a keeper. When I say 'everything taken into consideration' I mean that I'm much more likely to get a rMBP with a problem if I were to send this one back, not least of which one that may come with an LG screen and then I'm back to square one.

If the only 'fault' that this one has is slight yellowing to the right hand side of the screen then I can live with that and keep it. I'm going to have another look at it this afternoon anyway as I'm not even sure that there is any kind of problem with it, especially as the screen hasn't been calibrated yet. Will report back later.

Ok guys, I've had a good play around with this latest replacement and I have some thoughts.

Firstly, nothing else showed up under a darker light, even complete darkness. No backlight bleed that's perceptible, no dead pixels or bright spots and no mura from the screen, keyboard is evenly backlit (unlike some others I've received.)

I do notice that the screen is definitely 'warmer' (yellow) on the right side of the screen compared to the left but after some calibration this effect is minimised. It also seems to become less apparent the more the screen has been left on, almost like the warmer (temp) the screen gets, the less noticeable this effect becomes. The yellowing on the right side is subtle it has to be said but can be noticed when looking at this site for instance where a central white column is separated by grey columns on either side - the grey on the left looks a little cooler than the grey on the right.

As I said yesterday, everything taken into consideration and the problems this rMBP could have, I'm still thinking that this one is a keeper although the screen isn't what I'd call perfect. The problem I have is that the only 2 options available to me are to have the screen replaced or send it back for a complete refund.

If I opt for a screen replacement, I'm not guaranteed to get another Samsung (although quite likely from what I've heard on the repair side) and it's not guaranteed to be any better than what I have either. Unfortunately these Samsung panels have a downside in that they seem to have a reputation among rMBP owners that they're yellower than LG screens and have more of a tendency to be uneven.

I'm making my final decision at the end of the day as to what I'm going to do but as I say I think this is as good as it's going to get for me. A full refund isn't an easy option as I need this computer for work and I also got a very hefty discount when I bought it which I'd lose if I had to buy another MacBook Pro, even if it was next year's model.

What Apple gives with one hand (a Samsung display) they take away with the other (uneven colouring) I can't win!

That's great - I hope you like your computer. I want to get one but right now I'm not willing to put up with the challenges it takes to get one that is perfect.

It just a bit bothersome that in several recent posts several people are accepting minimally flawed machines because they think it's the best they can get, it could be worse, etc.... Lowered expectations.

They should all be perfect machines, or at least not a major big chore to get a replacement perfect screen if there is a flaw.

Afternoon guys and gals,

I decided in the end to get a replacement to my Week 33 LG as IR increased and the graphics card wasn't operating properly.

So, this afternoon a week 41 LG has turned-up. Will keep you posted with progress. One slight concern is that I went to system profile and under cycle count it says 3. I'd expect it to say 1 if it were totally brand new as every laptop I've had before says '1'.

Should I be worried that the cycle count is on 3 considering the machine has been sold to be as brand new?

Regards,

lm2

That's a good question. I have ordered mine on 6th of October and I got it on 21st of Octover and it was 2!! I think Apple sends all the machines which are returned to other people and crosses fingers that new user doesn't find out about the problem! Anyway, I asked for a refund and probably the next person will get mine! Because I haven't seen any refurbished rMBP on the UK website. It means they don't put the returned machines as a refurbished item just to say that there hasn't even one new product been returned due to any technical problem. or maybe they recycle the laptop which has worked for 1 hour and then has been returned due to the image retention (which I doubt)!