MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

After some time of searching the market I havedecided to buy a MBPr 15" with high specs. Decision was mad about w week ago. I was just ready to buy it today. I guess I was lucky to find this loooong topic. I guess the problem is still present in 2014 macbooks, so there is no point to buy it now? Its a huge amount of money for me and a really wanted a good laptop with great screen, but after hours of reading this topic it seems its not worth it. I am very picky with my eyes and all visual issues.

I purchased my 15" MBPr not long after they came out and spec'd it right up. It's a little over 2 years old now, and has terrible image persistence. Leaving a web browser open for only 5 minutes leaves a very clear ghosting on the screen if I minimise to my desktop, to the point that I can quite clearly read the URL on top of my wallpaper, and it's a scenic photo, not a uniform colour. If I bought an entry-level laptop, I wouldn't be particularly surprised, but this was a high end laptop I paid a lot of money for. My only 2 previous Apple laptops both had issues, but thankfully these occurred during warranty. The only reason I spec'd this thing up so high was so that I could keep it for ~4 years, I'm thinking that if such a poor build quality issue can be so prevalent, that maybe this will be my last mobile Apple device, the really nice visual experience of Yosemite, especially translucency effects are ruined by such bad image persistence.

Did you solve your problem with apple?

I'm in the same situation and apple refused to repair it.

Hello, always the same problem...

I have a MacBook Pro 15’’ retina mid-2012, purchased in August 2012, and in the last 6 months I had attended the "ghosting" (aka “burn in”) phenomena on my computer monitor, which is getting worse every day. With just a few minutes of high-contrast image exposure, followed by a gray background light, we can clearly see the persistence of previous image on the monitor.

At the beginning I never saw this phenomenon as a computer problem, but a fatigue phenomenon in the result of an intense use.

In the last 6 months, we can clearly see that this phenomenon is a serious anomaly in the computer monitor which has been aggravating.

It should be noted that I already have communicated this problem to Apple Portugal after the warranty expired, so they tell me that they can´t/don´t have to do anything about it.

I just wanted to share with you this, because I consider this anomaly a manufacturing defect that already was in the computer, and that this should be repaired by the brand without any extra cost to the client.

This computer is the top of the range brand, so is not supposed to have an anomaly as serious as the one I just registered.

Kind regards,

I just received a REFURB, mid-2014 15" base model rMBP, manuf date of Oct14, battery count of 3 cycles, with LG screen (A019). Running the screen tests two pages back, I see no dead pixels, yellowing, or image retention. On the black test, I can see down to square 5 or 6. I'll be doing more testing over the next few days.

So far, so good, may be a keeper, but when does IR show up if it's an issue?

On the black test, I can see down to square 5 or 6

I am sorry but I dont understand that, what do u mean? Does it mean u see 4-6 dead pixels or what?

I've never written a post before but my 2012 Retina Macbook Pro has been experiencing heavy ghosting since upgrading to Yosemite. I had always seen ghosting before but didn't realize it was the image retention issue so I'm far past my warranty at this point. The only thing Apple Care recommended was sending it in for a $310 replacement which is a bit steep given the display doesn't cost nearly that much.. but I realize labor is part of the price. I'm a very disappointed that an issue as heavily documented as this is going ignored and deflected back onto the user. Just adding to the list of posts. Thanks!

It's the image retention test that uses boxes on a black screen.. you let the test run and see how many boxes are "retained" on the screen. It doesn't have anything to do with dead pixels, though -- I think the previous poster said there were no dead pixels on the display.

Can't confirm.

Yes it's unfortunate these things happen to our devices. I also had it in my 2012 rMBP. The ghosting on my machine stared after leaving something on the screen for one minute.

I had applecare so I was covered. First time I've ever had AC and first time I've had to use it.

$300 doesn't sound too bad. It's about the same price as applecare so if nothing else bad happens to your machine, you come out even.

On the same boat as bradamr - way out of warrantee and the problem has gotten worse after Yosemite.

I've been using both Macbook and PCs for many years and love many things about both, but this July, I got my own Macbook Pro. It's the late-2013 baseline 15-inch Retina display model with an i7 processor, 256 GB storage and 8 GB RAM and is currently running OS X Yosemite 10.10.1.

Just this evening, I was doing some word processing and Internet browsing when I began to notice a slight pinkish tinge to the screen. It eventually progressed to a rather distinct fading of the normally-bright colors. After going back to the desktop screen, I noticed a faint burn-in of the webpage I was on, then after switching over to the login screen, some of the desktop logos and some lines not part of my wallpaper. I've read burn-ins are typically caused by long-standing, extremely bright images, but I always use my computer at around half brightness and then I was only using it for less than an hour. The unit was cooling properly--no intensive tasks at that time. I put my computer's display to sleep for an hour since turning off the display sometimes solves the issue. The ghost images faded somewhat but the colors remained washed-out. As I type this now, the ghost images are practically invisible but upon using Exposé, which shows my dark wallpaper, they are visible.

I have heard of this phenomenon occurring on earlier model MacBook w/ Retina due to the way the screen is made but I wanted to share my experience to see whether people with the same or similar Mac have this issue. I've also attached some pictures of the burn-in as a reference, taken at a slight angle. The first one is suppposed to be portrait and is of my login screen. The second is the desktop itself.

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Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.

Ekoneko wrote:

this July, I got my own Macbook Pro.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.

Well, it's a common problem, as you can see by this thread that is 636 pages long. You can expect that the image retention will get worse, as many have reported here. You can visit your local Apple Store Genius Bar and they will perform a test to see if it's severe enough and if so you can get it replaced. If it's not severe enough, don't worry, it will be in another 3–6 months. If you do get a replacement, the replacement will likely have a horrible yellow tint to it but probably no image retention. You might consider by the time we get to July 2015 whether you want to buy Apple Care, if you haven't already, since you might be going through many repeated display replacements for various problems like image retention, yellow tinting, yellow gradients, pixel retention, exploding pixels, or stuck pixels (muras).

I found myself in the following situation:

I bought my macbook retina 15" in february 2013 from an Apple store in Switzerland. I ve never experienced burn in issues until now, almost 2 years later. Does anyone know why is that? Now I am in Brazil, and not even an Apple Store they have here. I can not get assistance on the apple website because it has been more than a year after my purchase. When I run persistence tests, a few seconds are enough to see the burn in effect.

I ask for your help on the following:

Does it tend to get worse, getting into a point where I can no longer use my macbook?

Will apple give me another computer or fix the problem even tough it has been more than a year since I bought mine?

Thank you!

Lucasariel, I'm in a similar situation as you. I started noticing the problem close to 2 years after my purchase, but I feel it got worse after the Yosemite update.