Backlight on Black Screen with MacBook Pro 2016 15"

[Ilhan The Man]

Hello,

I've picked up a MacBook Pro 15" (2016) and would like to know if my experience of the display is the same as other owners.

When I use the app Screen Utility (available in the App Store for free) to see a fully black background in a dark room, and turn the brightness up on the display, I can see a noticeable (but uniform) glow of light coming from the entire display. It's far less noticeable when I put the display to 50-60% brightness (and even more less noticeable below that), but ramps up with any movement above the 50-60% level.

I know these displays are not OLED, so I shouldn't expect pitch black blacks, but is it normal that this screen's glow on a full black screen is very noticeable (especially at 75%+ brightness)? I hope I don't have some sort of backlight bleeding that is washing out my colours on this display.

Furthermore, when I take a picture of the display in a dark room, it looks like a rectangle of grey on an otherwise largely black picture (except for the keyboard backlight).

Thanks for your feedback,
Ilhan

 

[Eason85]

How about a picture of it?

 

[Ilhan The Man]

How about a picture of it?

Looks something like this at 75%. Brighter at 100%, but I think the camera's exposure over-represents that so I'll share this as a more representative picture.
[doublepost=1490538925][/doublepost]Here is 100% brightness. Might as well share that too. Again, the camera is exaggerating it a bit since it doesn't look the same to my eyes as in the picture. Taken on iPhone 6 in a dark room.

 

[Eason85]

Looks something like this at 75%. Brighter at 100%, but I think the camera's exposure over-represents that so I'll share this as a more representative picture.
[doublepost=1490538925][/doublepost]Here is 100% brightness. Might as well share that too. Again, the camera is exaggerating it a bit since it doesn't look the same to my eyes as in the picture. Taken on iPhone 6 in a dark room.

Is that a black background and a white background? The lighting looks quite even, very good. If the second one is black background... That's weird, I don't know what is up with that

 

[jerryk]

That looks normal. The new screens are brighter than the old ones. So in a dark room the display looks really lite up. Set it back to 70% and you have max brightness of the older units.

 

[Ilhan The Man]

Is that a black background and a white background? The lighting looks quite even, very good. If the second one is black background... That's weird, I don't know what is up with that

Black background with brightness up to 100%. I suppose the best way to tell if yours is the same would be to take a picture of yours with an iPhone 6 in a dark dark room and compare.
[doublepost=1490539511][/doublepost]

That looks normal. The new screens are brighter than the old ones. So in a dark room the display looks really lite up. Set it back to 70% and you have max brightness of the older units.

That's what I was thinking might be the case as well. Do you have the same laptop?

 

[jerryk]

That's what I was thinking might be the case as well. Do you have the same laptop?

I have a 2015, not a 2016. But I have used a friend's 2016 and immediately notice how bright the screen got.

When you put them side by side, the max brightness difference is quite noticeable. I have never felt the 2015 unit did not get bright enough, but being able to go brighter could help in bright rooms or outside.