Q: MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

For what it's worth, my local Best Buy told me that they mostly have Samsung displays in stock. Indeed, I bought a retina from them anticipating the "lottery" described in depth here - lo and behold, the very first one I got was a Samsung! Like all of you guys have talked about, the LG panels are certainly broken beyond repair: even the display model at the Best Buy I was at was an LG, with incredibly bad IR (when I showed one of the salesman there, he was genuinely shocked). I then talked to a manager, who then looked up their stock of retinas and told me that they are mostly Samsung displays. If you're struggling with the lottery, maybe try out Best Buy? I'm loving my new laptop, even though I was certainly quite fearful (I read almost every post on this thread).

An update:  Thirty hours after I took it in, the Apple Store called me earlier today to say my laptop was ready.  I've picked it up, and it now has a Samsung panel, as the part number on the work order indicate it might.  I'll examine for light leaks later, but for now everything seems fine. 

Are they finaly replacing bad LG with samsung panel to avoid multiple complain from the same user ?

That would be all i want to hear from Apple so i can keep my LG panel out of 14 days and see if it fail or not. If i was certain they swap it out for a samsung panel in case of failure so i don't have to fight to get a working computer...

Chris Welbon wrote:

 

An update:  Thirty hours after I took it in, the Apple Store called me earlier today to say my laptop was ready.  I've picked it up, and it now has a Samsung panel, as the part number on the work order indicate it might.  I'll examine for light leaks later, but for now everything seems fine. 

Did you have an extended warranty or was it just under 1 year that you changed it? Also, did you show them the problem?

My full story is here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20599228#20599228  I do have Apple Care, but haven't transferred it to this machine yet, which is only 10 days old.

I was willing to show them the problem, but it never came to that. The genius kept saying, "Oh, I've seen the problem before, I know what it looks like."

As for whether the replacement panels a store has are Samsung or LG, I bet that's still a bit of a crapshoot.  But I would think there're more Samsung panels in the chain now, given the LG problems.

I first ordered a rMBP 2.6/16/256 online and got an LG panel 2 days back. The 10 min test showed that there was indeed some faint image retention. I took it to the local Apple Store yesterday. The first salesperson I met was a rookie and was clueless. He pulled in a 'senior' who was quite curt and said that he was aware of this issue but couldn't predict which particular machine had a Samsung panel. He said that I could try swapping for now but would be unwelcome if I went to the store frequently requesting an exchange!

As I had a custom config, they offered no replacement but instead refunded the amount and advised me to book another machine online. After this, I remained in the store just to see which panels were present in the displayed machines in the store. Meanwhile, the store manager walked by and asked me if I needed help. I explained my situation. He was quite unaware of the IR issue. He went in and discussed with a 'Genius' and came back. He was very apologetic and said he could try to help me get an in-store model. He also reassured me that if need be, I could walk in to the store for a replacement every other day until I was satisfied. He gave me the 2.6/8/512 for a deep discount (roughly $400 more than what I would get with only my Academic Discount).

I happily returned home only to find out that this one had an LG panel too. While the IR was very faint (nearly absent) on testing, the color saturation was horrible.

After spending another sleepleess night, I went to another Apple store about 90 miles away... Got the machine exchanged and this time I got a beautiful and flawless Samsung. This one is slightly (though noticeably) brighter with better color saturation. No dead pixels. No bleeding. My only gripe was that out of the box the battery showed that it was in its 3rd power cycle. I hope this is just due to factory testing. Would hate it if it means that I've been given a refurbished machine.

Sunad wrote:

 

He pulled in a 'senior' who was quite curt and said that he was aware of this issue but couldn't predict which particular machine had a Samsung panel.

I'm sure he wasn't correct about that.  They can find out everything about each machine.  The guy at Best Buy referenced above was able to.....And in the past, Apple has recalled machines based on which company supplied the battery. 

At this time of year, it might be hard to find someone at an Apple store who's willing to do that, but it can be done.

Thats awesome mate ! least someone has a happy ending ...

I knew nothing about this issue until i already brought my rMbp ...

I felt sick reading all the horror storys so i bit the bullet and chceked mine BAM Samsung 1st go !

Just got my unit back from repair and it's a SAMSUNG!  And it took them less than 24 hours to do the repair as they had panels in stock!

Looking good so far - no dead pixels, no light bleed, no strange colorings anywhere.  Very happy!

Are there any week 49ers yet?

How are you guys having any luck with this? I brought the laptop into two different Apple stores, and both have completely shut me down. I argued with all the information I found here and elsewhere, but they said its normal, within the parameters of their diagnostics, and would not budge from that. I went as high up the ladder in-store as possible. They all gave me the same BS about how it's standard, comparing the Retina display to Plasma screens - you sacrifice the risk of image retention for visual clarity. Now I'm stuck here with a laptop with severe image retention. I know I shouldn't judge a company based on one product, but the way it's being handled at the store level is atrocious. I'm done with Apple unless they can somehow fix this for me.

Maybe depends on where you live. In a big city with floating population maybe they don't care.

Whichever store you choose, try talking to the store manager upfront. Try a suburban store.

I spoke with the store in Santa Clara.  They have never heard of the issue and was not open to replacing to a Samsung Display.

Can you put some picture of your retention problem ?

I'm really curious what acceptable is for them.

Also, how do you live with the problem. Do you really notice it on daily use or really need force it to happen ?

Thanks

ixdnl wrote:

 

How are you guys having any luck with this? I brought the laptop into two different Apple stores, and both have completely shut me down. I argued with all the information I found here and elsewhere, but they said its normal, within the parameters of their diagnostics, and would not budge from that. I went as high up the ladder in-store as possible. They all gave me the same BS about how it's standard, comparing the Retina display to Plasma screens - you sacrifice the risk of image retention for visual clarity. Now I'm stuck here with a laptop with severe image retention. I know I shouldn't judge a company based on one product, but the way it's being handled at the store level is atrocious. I'm done with Apple unless they can somehow fix this for me.

Try taking it to a certified Apple store that's NOT an Apple Store. That's what I did back in September and they took care of me really well. The Apple Stores have hurt the smaller retailers, so they're more likely to bend over backwards to make you happy and, hopefully, come back. As far as I can tell, the Apple Store employees are being instructed to be hard-nosed about replacements unless the problem is really, REALLY bad. Probably because the problem is endemic and that's the only way they can slow the bleeding.

As for their claim that...

"you sacrifice the risk of image retention for visual clarity"

..., what a load of horse-sh-t. If anything, my Samsung rMBP display is even clearer than the LG was, so that's a complete lie.