iBook Display

[leesa]

I received my iBook (600/dual USB/combo/12.1) this week and immediately upon turning it on I noticed the display was unevenly lit. It goes from dark at the top to light at the bottom, no matter what angle I look at it. The colors are washed out (no contrast control!) and don't improve no matter how I calibrate it. How am I supposed to do design work on a screen that displays everything unevenly and inaccurately???

I have read the Discussion Groups at Apple.com and it seems that a lot of people have the same problem:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/

iBook (dual USB), Displays, Uneven display
(you must have an Apple ID to view this)

Common sense tells me to take it to an Authorized Tech and have them look at it (which I plan to) BUT from what I've read form others with this problem Apple seems to think that its "acceptable for lower-end notebooks". One poster in the discussion group said that Apple actually sugested that he should contact a lawyer if he wanted to in regards to their refusal to correct or comment on the issue!!Also, Apple refuses to address the issue (in spite of how common it is) in their Support/Knowledge Base area.

Apple has advertized this computer as "your digital hub", but nowhere do they state: except for graphics professionals.

After the amout of time (much longer than Apple promised) and the amout of money it took to get this thing, I am disappointed in Apple for the first time in over 9 years of being an avid and loyal customer.

So, if they don't even read the discussion groups on their own site, why should I hope they'll read this? Optimistic, I guess. I don't really know where to go from here, guess I'll call Apple but I worry about the reponse I'm likely to get.

leesa

 

[isaac_ho]

Dear leesa,

I'm sorry to tell you that iBook is not designed for graphic professionals. On my opinion, everything have their limitations. Till now, there is no any notebook can satisfied graphics professionals. If you want to do serious graphic works on a notebook (include WinTel machines), I think it is not a good idea. I am a web designer and using powerbook and a desktop powermac G4 with CRT monitor. I cannot find any LCD monitor can display color accurate than CRT monitors, even Apple's LCD monitors. However, I believe that Apple's powerbooks are the best notebooks for designers. I never seen any other notebook have a display better than it. I think, iBook also have a good enough display.

 

[leesa]

Talked to Apple yesterday and the tech walked me through booting for the CD, I suppose to see if it was a software problem. It wasn't.
He says that the problem isn't normal and that I need to send it in. They will most likely replace the entire iBook. Unfortunately this means waiting to get it from Taiwan again, which took a very long time before, but I have high hopes that things will go quickly.
My only worry is that I will get the iBook back with additional/different problems than before. In some ways I feel lucky that its just the screen that's defective in light of the kinds of problems most users complain about (broken latch, cracked case, ripped screen, broken ports, etc.) But again, I'm optimistic.
Everybody pray to the computer gods for me and wish me luck!
Leesa

ps. In response to the above post stating that LCDs are not suitable for graphics work, I have to disagree. Many of my friends do design work on laptops/ lcd displays and don't have these problems. Granted they might not be the best displays for graphic work, but seeing as everyone I know is switching to LCD monitors we should be able to do web design that looks decent on them or at least conforms to the standard. One could assume from your comments that people who have the flat panel iMacs or a LCD monitor HAVE to purchace an external monitor to participate in this field or even simply view web pages somewhat accurately. If LCDs were known to be substandard for these purposes I doubt if they'd be sold for 2 and 3 times the price of a comparable CRT!
Just my opinion.

 

[phatsharpie]

Because desktop displays rarely need to take power consumption into consideration, they usaully have much brighter backlighting. This results in sharper and clearer images, and their backlighting are usually more uniform. However, laptops usually have to conserve their power consumption, so their backlighting tend to be weaker and this often results in displays that are dimmer and less rich in color saturation. That being said, Apple does have very good track record in making excellent displays on laptops. Looking at my iBook's LCD display and most Wintel laptops' LCD display I can see a major difference. IBM and I think Sony are also pretty good at making excellent LCD displays for laptops.

-B

 

[apb3]

IBM is pretty good but when I compare my IBM laptop's display (from work) to my wife's TiBook or even my old Bronze PB, there's no comparison.

I've messed with the settings on each and the wintel machine never seems to come close to the other two. I thought maybe it was just my perception or the dreary winblows desktop making me think of work, so I put them side by side... The Powerbooks were still nicer. go figure...

Anyway, good luck with your iBook. Which computer god would you prefer we pray to?