Q: MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

Hey guys, so I loaded the bank with some cold hard "cash" today, gave in to my gadget craving that i've held out on over the past week (doh!) and took the plunge. my brand new shiney awesome, fault free (hopefully) MBPR will be here between 11 - 13th Sept.

I JUST CAN NOT WAIT!

Just HOPE TO GOD that it is a Samsung and not a HORRIBLE LG - makes me sick to see some of the issues you guys are having!

Hope that everyone can find a Samsung.

Man I AM SO EXCITED - finally getting a macbook pro machine after I took my 2010 back when I bought it cause of a few issues, have been waiting since then.

man i'm pumped!!!!!

I was the one who was told to wait for a software/firmware fix. It had been a week.

I called Apple Store in Lexington today for any updates. They said there weren't any updates from Apple, but they could swap my mac. Unlike everyone else I preferred them replacing just my screen. I wouldn't have to setup all the apps and countless software again. I have a custom built. So they can't swap it in-store. I'd have to wait 5 days for the new custom built to get here. Just replacing the screen would have been easier.

But from what they said, it seems I would definitely get another LG if I replaced the screen. I had a better chance replacing the entire machine.

I'm in Kentucky now and I'll be going back to Louisiana on 3rd Sep. There isn't a Apple Store in Louisiana near my college. So they worked out a solution. I really appreciate the store manager doing this for me. They took in my mac at the store in Lexington. They gave me a gift card worth exactly what I'd paid for the mac. And I placed an order online for a new MBPr with the exact configs from the store and put my Louisiana address in for shipping. That way I get my mac on 4th September in college.

The Good: They didn't take back the VGA, Ethernet adapters that I had got with my mac. Although they gave me back the money for it, they let me keep them. I think I also get another free $100 gift card for the app-store (not sure though). Kudos to the manager for taking the mac in in-store, giving me a gift card and letting me order online. Hopefully I'll have the mac in before my classes start.

The Bad: The first genius to meet me was not initially informed of the swap although I had talked to the manager about it over phone just a few hours ago. He actually questioned me -- 'who told you that we'd swap it?' The second genius who handed me the gift cards-- looked like it was his first day on the job. And after handing me the gift card, he never helped me make the new purchase online.

The Ugly: All the while I was there the first genius kept telling me it was a software issue. He told me it was a problem with 'all' retinas and it was a 'graphics card issue'. He said Apple is still working on a software fix. He told me that swapping will not correct the issue. I told him that as far as I know, some of them are alright (Samsung Screens) and I was willing to take a gamble and swap it once.

Hopefully I'll get a Samsung on Tuesday/Wednesday. Hate to go through all that setup again. I do use a lot of software.

lionhoho wrote:

 

that was mine!  

LOL!

I know. You're famous...for having the sh**tiest case of IR yet!

@ lionhoho

How many minutes did you leave it on for those pics?

joekljk wrote:

 

@ lionhoho

 

How many minutes did you leave it on for those pics?

It probably took more time than yours "joelljk", so the two of you are kind of tied for worst case of IR. One minute is really pathetic, but really, this shouldn't be happening at all. Samsung displays don't appear to be suffering from this, so none of them should...period.

This is starting to get really sad. Apple needs to solve this ASAP. It's about to hit critical mass and grow exponentially in notoriety, so they need to rememedy this soon. Tech news sites are going to start covering this, followed by mainstream news sites, and then they will have an even bigger problem on their hands.

Anyway, don't forget everybody, if you haven't done so already, please go to the Facebook page...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apple-Please-Recall-Retina-Macbook-Pros-with-LG-Di splays/515441551804955

..."Like" it, and post a description and any good photos you have of your IR issue. If we get enough "Likes" it should really start to take off in terms of general web-visibility.

I didn't read through 2000+ posts but here are some of my thoughts. I'm taking delivery of a maxed out rMBP next week. Although I'm able to take advantage of a 25% and $500 discount it's still a large chunk of change for a laptop. If it's an LG display it's going back. I find it interesting to read that some people were getting hassled on exchanges, and forced to do a refund, even though they were within their 14 day return period. According to Apple retail's return policy the 14 day return period should give you NQA for either a return or exchange. An exchange is nothing more than a return and a new purchase. How can the retail guys possibly allow a return but block an exchange ?

I find it apalling that Apple is suggesting that there is a software fix for this. Image retention (image persistence is more correct) is a widely known issue in the LCD industry. Some panels have it while others do not. There have been many studies and publications on this phenomena. I used to have an old LG desktop monitor that had image persistence. This has absolutely nothing to do with firmware. It's intrinsic to the crystals in the display. If Apple could solve this industry problem with a few lines of firmware code they should patent it and license it to vendors.

Apple is not going to be responsive to a couple thousand posts on a forum. That's enough to make them take notice but not make a change to the manufacturing process and vendor contracts. Apple did not react to antenna-gate until there were serious class action lawsuits forming. Although there are many people on here complaining about the issue there are 10x more who don't even notice. I was at an Apple store the other day checking out the rMBP and chatting with the Apple sales guy. I mentioned how I appreciated Apple finally putting an IPS screen into a laptop. He replies, "what's IPS ?" This Apple employee is representative of many customers who only care about how shiny the product is.

On a side note, I was at the Palo Alto Starbucks last month and bumped into Tim Cook. He was by himself. It's unfortunate that I didn't have a rMBP with an LG panel back then. Otherwise I could have pointed out the issue to him directly. BTW, if you guys are by the Palo Alto store the middle rMBP is an LG panel while the one to the right is a Samsung. You can do an direct comparison between the two.

I agree, this is basically an unknown issue for 95% +/-  of the people who own rMBPs.  And while the issue might be reaching some eyes and ears in Apple, it's not even close to a threashold that would justify any action.  As Apple shows us in their videos, they test the hardware they sell under every condition and so they most likely knew about this issue during manufacturing. 

There is no firmware update, there is no fixing the LCD and one week to the next the issue will vanish.  The bottom line is Apple cuts its product and only real junkies pick up on it.  I am most interested in seeing if the problem is in the 13 inch.  Then we know that this is an issue is going to be a part of this product line until a change takes place in manufacturing down the road.

If the story hits a major news channel like CNN, then that 95% will shrink and Apple and attorney's who like to file class action against Apple might react. 

I have been following this thread daily since it's inception and it has prevented me from buying one and I recomended to the people I consult to hold off.  I can not recomend a product that could potentially cause them work flow issues. 

It's a shame you didn't have a rMBP with you.. would have been interesting to see how Tim reacted.

It's also a shame Samsung didn't respect their partnership with Apple

Use this app to check the image retention problem:

  http://www.mediafire.com/?1jwh6o6ql1wmiww

If there is 2000 posts, plus its also been in several Mac fan sites that Apple is very aware of of so they are absolutely aware of it at high levels.  What's silly is that it seems that everyone here seems that the LG screens are all bad.  That is utter nonsense.  I've been to a couple of Apple stores in my area, turned the rMBP screens to grey and played around for well over 20 minutes and didn't see any ghosting at all.  I know its happening, but generally LG screens are high quality.  You are talking about a 1000 bad screens in how many units?  I'd rather have a LG screen (without the notorious problem) than a Samsung, better color fidelity.  But, continue on. Mine's coming Tuesday.  If it has a problem, I'll report it here.  Wish me luck!

Barry Fisher wrote:

 

You are talking about a 1000 bad screens in how many units?

Well, I just picked up my rMBP after second display change. It's an LG again.

With the first display I noticed IR after 17 days and on my second one it showed up after 2 days. As of now this third one doesn't have IR, but having it for just over an hour, it doesn't count.

If it were just a couple thousand faulty LG, then how come I got two? And this isn't just me being unlucky. There are many other users who got multiple exchanges/repairs and still got faulty LGs, too.

HI Barry, I wanna wish you luck with your purchase.

About LG displays:  They are poor in quality compared to Samsung when you sit them next to each other on non-retina displays.  The LG has washed out colors and less contrast.  You can see that all day long...I have yet to see an LG have as nice a screen as Samsung.  Even the icons in the doc are washed out and have less detail.

As far as the LG retina displays, clearly they are not as high in quality or this problem would be effecting both manufacturers. 

Not that I want to disagree with you, just saying that the evidence in this situation is pretty overwhelming that the LG based retina displays have IR at a very high rate.

And in this case, I don't think any of us can say what % of LG retina screens have IR until and if this news reaches all owners.  All I know is that all the LG displays I have ever seen on a Retina MBP has it. 

LIke I have said earlier, I'm not prejeduce against LG, but I'm prejeduce against buying a product that has a defect, that's just not acceptable no matter how much I love OSX. 

Well, LG makes screens for some pretty high end monitor makers such as Eizo, so I think they are pretty good.  But we'll see.

***** man.  I'll see what happens next week when mine comes.  If it is going to go bad, hope it happens before 14 days. 

Agree, they have some big contracts, make a wide range of electronics, and some of those are of high quality, but in general who is going to make a higher quality screen across the full range of products?  I think Samsung if comparing the two.  Everytime I have been to the shop to buy LCDs, LG is always less money but it never seems worth it in comparison to the Samsung's quality.  But lets see!  Hoping you have good luck

So I called the Apple Store in Amsterdam and made an appointment for next sunday. They were suprised because they never heard of this issue and wanted me to show them.

I went to the Apple Store in Amsterdam because I was having IR issues on my 8 week old rMBP. They are aware of the Image Rentention issue, I talked to Genius named Leo he told me that certain screen had issues, the LG ones. So they would replace the screen it but they couldn't garantuee I get a Samsung screen for a replacement. He said on this issue occur, the manufacturer will do everything to fix this issue. Yup, thats why so many LG screens around with IR.

Of course now it could be just the person you talked to was no aware of the issue, or he or she is lying.

I couldn't miss my machine so I didn't leave it there for repairs, but Iet us know what they say...