MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

I first noticed this after my MBP [Retina] had gone to sleep, but: when returning to the login screen (since I have it set to require a password whenever the computer is idle long enough) I noticed what appeared to a very faint ghosting primarily noticeable on darker backgrounds.


After messing around with it a bit, there seems to be a fairly consistent in-display ghosting that occurs without much time at all; I was able to leave my screen on (a little above half-brightness) for about 10-15 minutes and the ghosted "burn" would be of the screen I left it on (which I deliberately reconfigured so that everything would be a new position).


Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a normal thing that I just have to get used to? It's not really noticeable at all in standard use.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 16, 2012 10:26 PM

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9,625 replies

May 7, 2014 11:15 AM in response to LifeReceiver

Can you please tell me how does this lack of brightness manifests? Because, as i have written above, I do have something like that, sometimes the display becomes a bit yellow, but if I open a video and close it, or a picture, when I get back to a white page I can see that the white is more white and even the brightness is stronger. Unfortunately after some minutes this goes back to a bit yellow again. I think it is some issue that will be gone sooner or later. At least I hope so.

May 7, 2014 1:02 PM in response to Restj

Hi Resj,

with a very yellowish native white you will never be able to get to a really clear white aka "paper white" or anything around 6000K since the color-temperatue range of the display just simply doesn't support it hardware wise.

You will have to move the color profile for the white point more into a blue-ish area (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/PlanckianLocus.png) and that will make the whole screen look very blueish on cool colors. It will also create strong color correction curves for red and green and yellow so the color quality would be questionable IMO. This is very sad for a screen that pricey.


If you have the luck of owning a Macbook Pro Retina with an LG screen 2nd generation you can calibrate the color ranges much better.

May 8, 2014 3:46 AM in response to mittense

After four unsuccessful logic board replacements on a mid 2012 retina, many complaints filed, legal threats made, etc. Apple begruggingly agreed to replace my computer. The repairs took around 45 days, the replacement took over a month to receive. They offered no other compensation, explanation or anything. Apple is a horrible company to deal with. Perhaps the worst electronics manufacturer ever for the consumer.


The new computer has a samsung screen. It doesn't show any signs of IR (yet) and it seemsed to have quite good color out of the box. I was able to calibrate it with a spyder and hte spyder showed very even red green and blue outputs even before calibration.


Hoping this one lasts (knock on wood).

May 10, 2014 6:08 PM in response to mittense

OK this thread officially scares me. I bought a late 2013 15inch retina MBP and it is being delivered on Monday. Will be just my luck to get the "yellow ghost" version of the rMBP. It's going straight back if it is.. I paid ÂŁ1869 for it and bought the AppleCare too!. Its a lot of money to get a 'mono' screen which is basically what the images in this thread look like - yellow and black only!


I was in the Apple shop today and one thing i did notice is that the options for colour profiles are different tot he ones earlier in this thread. There were Adobe profiles and several others and they made a BIG difference to the look of the screen... is thi something recently added to OSX?

May 10, 2014 7:28 PM in response to jayrammac

jayrammac wrote:


is this something recently added to OSX?

Nope. AFAIK it has been around since 1993.

There were Adobe profiles and several others and they made a BIG difference to the look of the screen...

Please see the last response on page 629 on why this does not apply for the yellowish screens. It will change how it looks but the colour accuracy (and accurate representation of the white "colour") will not improve.

May 11, 2014 4:06 AM in response to Restj

Makes sense - I huess you can turn the yellow to white but then every other colour will be wrong!


I wonder is there something in the discussions about replacement screens - i.e. the new screen not matching the rest of the hardware and causing this?


Certainly the notebooks in the Apple stores look fantastic - but I suspect the quality control for the units that make it to teh shop floor is about as stringent as it gets.

May 14, 2014 12:02 AM in response to mittense

I am having this same issue too. 15" Macbook pro 16gb ram...

I has been getting worse and worse... Just tonight the ghosting stayed on for 4-5 minutes.

Not happy... plus I use this for work and I can't have this thing out for repairs for a long time, if any time at all!

Had previous issues with a macbook pro's battery that they never would do anything for... Just sell me a new battery after they would blow up like a blow fish. My wife inherited it and she is now on her 3rd battery! Feeling like apple is losing their "innovative" edge!

May 29, 2014 9:56 AM in response to mittense

I have puchased my MBR 15' on Feb/2013 and unfortunately didn’t purchased the AppleCare. Notice the problem on my computer 2 months after my warranty got expired. I currently live in Brazil, but bought my MBR in an apple store in San Francisco.


Recently I have contacted the apple care service about the 'image retention' issue. They asked me to take my laptop to an official technical assistance to confirm the issue. I could negotiate with the tech assistance and they didn’t charged me to assess the problem and generated a technical report confirming the 'image retention' on my display. After that I have contacted back apple care and forwarded the technical report, but they said they cannot cover my MBR since my warranty expired.


Compared with other computers, I really liked my MBR, but got very frustrated with this issue and mainly with the “importance” apple care service gave to my problem.


If anyone knows a way of being covered somehow by apple on this problem, please let me know. I would really appreciate that.

Jun 4, 2014 10:17 PM in response to mittense

Hi all. I've kept up with this board and just bought a late 2013 Macbook Pro 15 Retina (base model) this week. No ghosting, but I have a display issue and would like some advice. My screen is the A019, so presumably LG. It's not yellow or dim, and has good, popping colors. But on a white-ish screen I did notice a pinkish gradient/cloud on the right side of the screen that seemed to extend from the upper right corner of the display, extending about 2 inches horizontally into the display, and extending down to about two inches from the bottom right corner of the display. Not super-noticable, but I noticed. I called Apple Care for some advice and the fellow had heard of these variances and first had me do a PRAM reset, saying that in some cases this can fix screen variances. I did so, and it actually seemed to help somewhat. The pink didn't seem to extend down nearly as far, and even where I could still tell, the pinkish hue appeared fainter, less noticable. Still, there is a bit of a pink hue in that upper right corner, most noticable if you drag, say, a safari window with a white background and text on it (e.g. a Wikipedia page) from left of the screen to that right corner. By doing this you can see the background 'white' shift in hue behind the text. Upon further investigation, I've noticed that the bottom left region has a bit of a yellow/green hue to it. The most pure white is the upper half, central part of the display.


So basically there are screen variances within different regions of my display. None of which are super-noticable, but they nevertheless are there. When watching videos or viewing a picture none of this is an issue. I wouldn't call my screen defective, but more like imperfect. I'm not a photographer and don't need perfect color representation; my work is mostly with text, and I also use it for web browsing and videos.


My question is: Do you think it worth it or advisable to take this one back and get another? (I'm still within the Best Buy return period). My worry is that the new one might just have it's own sceen variances, or worse I'll get a dim and yellow one, which would be frustrating. On the other hand I could just keep this one and accept the imperfection of the variances. Advice is appreciated.

Jun 5, 2014 5:42 AM in response to JJA.1

JJA.1 wrote:


My question is: Do you think it worth it or advisable to take this one back and get another? (I'm still within the Best Buy return period). My worry is that the new one might just have it's own sceen variances, or worse I'll get a dim and yellow one, which would be frustrating. On the other hand I could just keep this one and accept the imperfection of the variances. Advice is appreciated.


There have been a few people who have gone through 5 or more units and each screen has had some kind of defect. I suspect that if you exchange it the new one will have some other kind of problem as you suggested.

Jun 5, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Merch Visoiu

What I have read and heard about Apple that attracted me and millions of customers around the world, is the fact that their products used to have a very high quality when compared with other brands. Along the recent history we can notice they have been considerably losing their quality, but still ahead of most of their competitors. They don't produce this quality for free. We customers pay the price, that are much higher than their competitors.


Since I didn't pay for the extended warranty I couldn't be covered by apple about the repair of my MBR. But since this is a factory issue, I strongly believe not only I, but everybody else who faced the same issue, should be covered by apple.


Once you bought your MBR recently and can exchange or return your product, if possible, I strongly recommend you to do so and make sure you are going to receive the product you have paid for.

Jun 9, 2014 9:48 AM in response to mittense

I am suffering from the same yellow-tint issue as well. On my third screen replacement (the first two due to dead pixels), I recieved the SJA2 display (rMBP 15" 2012). I understand this is the second generation LG display for this model.


The tint is frustratingly yellow-green. There doesnt appear to be any defined splotches or IR, though.


I work with other 15" rMBP's (2012 and 2013 models) on a daily basis at work and the side-by-side difference between my screen and the ones shipping with new machines is HUGE. No amount of calibration has solved the issue for me. I am frustrated as the display was the reason I forked out the extra cash for this otherwise great machine.


I'll be nice and voice my concerns to the Genius bar. Perhaps they will understand this legitimate dissapointment and issue. Side by side, it is clear as day that the quality of the screen just isn't as good. It just isnt possible to make a reasonable argument in the way of subjective preference.


And if I dont get anywere? On top of being extremely dissapointed, I dont think I will ever be purchasing an apple product again.


I'll post an update.

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MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

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