[gregro]

The screen looks blah- needs more contrast and brightness and the built-in calibration doesn't get the job done. Are there any options to improve the display or is this as good as it gets? I do a lot of photography and graphics and know what my images should look like on screen. The laptop is used for travel and I won't be doing serious editing with it, but I will be storing and organizing the days images every night when I'm on the road. I've also got FCP installed and have been playing with hd video I've shot, and the video looks flat too. Any suggestions? Did Apple sell me a $2800 laptop that will never look good?

[SierraDragon]

My 17" C2D MBP display is excellent as have been all the others I have seen. Get next to another MBP to compare and if yours looks bad send it back to Apple. My eyes crave brightness on displays, but I actually keep the brightness turned down a bit on my 17" MBP; first time I ever lowered the brightness on a display.

-Allen Wicks

[gregro]

Thanks for passing that along. I think I'll be sending the laptop in after I get back from a short trip I'm taking next week. Comparing it to others is difficult since I don't know anyone who has one. But I suppose I could compare it to what they have in the Apple store where I bought it, and where I'll bring it in for repair.

[Clive]

IMO Apple laptop screens are getting worse, rather than better – my old 12" PowerBook is better than more recent models, and when I put that next to my *really* old PowerBook 5300 the 5300 makes the 12" look bad.

Maybe this is because LCDs are more mass market commodities where they were once premium products!?

If you tried the ColorSync calibration and aren't getting anywhere, then try it next to a another 17" for comparison. If that doesn't bring any joy, then that's probably as good as you're going to get.

A laptop LCD isn't going to match a desktop LCD and get nowhere near a CRT gamut. That's one of the reasons glossy screen laptops sell, because they give the impression of a more vibrant image, with a denser black – but that's just smoke and mirrors (literally).

[gregro]

I hear ya. I know the laptop won't match a crt- that's why I edit on the desktop. But it's got to look better than it does for $2800. My old $1300 pc laptop looked far far better.

[mduell]

Sounds like you bought matte and you want glossy.

See if you can find someone who wants to swap with you

[cherry su]

Why don't you connect the MBP to the CRT and use the CRT as your main screen?

[Clive]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Sounds like you bought matte and you want glossy.

See if you can find someone who wants to swap with you

Uh, don’t do that, glossy screens are just trickery to fool you into thinking it’s a better image – the damn things should be banned!

[mfbernstein]

Have you tried SuperCal for calibration? The sad truth is that most LCDs, especially the laptop ones, have a rather limited dynamic range, and IMO, Apple's in particular are not among the better ones. One of the very obvious problems is that most LCDs offer only 6-bits per channel, yielding 18-bit color (and dithering on 24-bit images), whereas CRTs can all do true 24-bit color at this point.

[NeutrinoMan]

Originally Posted by gregro 

Did Apple sell me a $2800 laptop that will never look good?

Yes, they did. Sounds like another "washed out" 17" with poor backlighting. Buying a MBP is a real crapshoot these days.

I really hope Apple addressed these display quality issues in the next revision.

[solofx7]

i was going to recommend calibration stuff also.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Clive 

Uh, don’t do that, glossy screens are just trickery to fool you into thinking it’s a better image – the damn things should be banned!

He wants more brightness and contrast, which is what the glossy gives you.
If you think it's a better image, isn't that the point? I'm don't see the "trickery" here.