Backlight Bleed or IPS Glow?

[tashi_108]

Hi there everyone, thank you for reading my post! I'm new here!

I recently purchased a used (in semi good condition) 2015 - 15 inch MB Pro. I seem to be having issues with the display backlight which seems to be progressing daily. As you may notice in the picture attached there are four brighter corners with a yellow tint to them when the screen display is showing full black color. I first noticed it while watching a movie with black panels. I never noticed this issue with any of my earlier MB Pros but they were not an IPS panels nor retina display. I'm going utterly crazy trying to figure out how to solve this issue and or if I just need to purchase another used MBPro since I don't have the money yet to buy a completely new one which doesn't seem to really guarantee me from not having this issue as I've read on many sites and forums of other MBPro users encountering the same issue even on the newer models.

There is absolutely no solution I've found yet besides "just take it to the apple store (I can't because I'm not covered by Apple Care, besides it would cost me just as much if not less to just buy another used device with a better display), backlight display massage (which seems sort of absurd in my opinion though I tried it to no avail), reducing the brightness (which works but then I can't see the display as well). Other than that I've found no solutions to this issue. I don't believe this laptop was ever dropper although is does have some dents but not deep or bad enough to make me believe it would affect the screen in any way at all. I think what I'm encountering is both a backlight and ips glow issue. Any guidance/tips from anyone would be much appreciated as this issue is really bummin me out and driving my ocd insane as I'm trying to watch a movie on what is such an incredible machine with such a bad issue


Thank you so much everyone, take care!

 

[daneoni]

Looks like horrible backlight bleed. Fairly common with the IPS macbooks sadly.

 

[tashi_108]

Hey, thanks for the reply! Do you know what causes this besides the IPS panels? When I examine the screen it actually looks like it's the back casing and the screen are not snug together and when I press down on the display the backlight bleed goes away. So maybe the issue may be the screen just getting looser over time? I wonder if there's a way to fix the tightness of the display and casing?

 

[daneoni]

Unlike OLED or mini LED. There is a backlight for IPS panel that is separate. So there's often a tiny gap where light leaks through.

 

[tashi_108]

Unlike OLED or mini LED. There is a backlight for IPS panel that is separate. So there's often a tiny gap where light leaks through.

Is there a fix to this??? I mean did Apple really create a device that's faulty? haha

 

[daneoni]

Not that i know of. Its endemic to most IPS displays.

 

[tashi_108]

Not that i know of. Its endemic to most IPS displays.

Okay so I probably just have to live with it and buying another model of the same or earlier year with an ips panel will probably have the same issue. I've inquired to several sellers on eBay and Facebook and requested a backlight bleed test which all came back with the same results : (

 

[Surfsalot]

Even the new air’s can have it.

 

[tashi_108]

Even the new air’s can have it.

That is honestly too bad, but it makes me feel less awful about my device. I thought maybe I just got a faulty screen but this seems to be an issue across more than one platform. I'm still inspired to find a solution, if there be one. I think the fault lies mainly in the construction of the display/screen/back plate and not the actual display itself.

 

[Surfsalot]

9 years too late lol

 

[tashi_108]

9 years too late lol

What do you mean? And yes I haven't used any Apple devices since I'd say 2018 was my last iMac which had no issues whatsoever btw.

 

[tashi_108]

9 years too late lol

I read threads even in macrumors of people having the same issue right after they purchased their units in 2015, 2016 and so on so it has nothing to do with how much time had passed. Apple knows very well the issue yet they keep producing displays with ips panels.. beats me.

 

[Surfsalot]

I meant for your 2015 MacBook, nothing you can do now about it.

 

[tashi_108]

I meant for your 2015 MacBook, nothing you can do now about it.

Yea it's sort of like zen, just have to see it for what it is and live with it since it's what I have for now which btw I am really grateful for considering how much I bought it for.

 

[mike1123]

Totally normal. An unfortunate trait of IPS. Luckily, you’re not starting at a black screen all of the time

 

[tashi_108]

Totally normal. An unfortunate trait of IPS. Luckily, you’re not starting at a black screen all of the time

Hey Mike, thanks for your feedback. You're absolutely right as in the daytime its almost completely unoticable but I mainly benefit from the unit at night as that is when I like to use it the most while playing games and watching movies. Do you know which model/years don't have the ips panels? I'm guessing the newer ones most definitely.

 

[mike1123]

Apple has used IPS for at least the last 10 years in their laptops. The Apple Silicon MacBook Pros all have Mini LEDs that should be better.

 

[MrGimper]

Newer screen technologies like Mini-LED and OLED display black by the absence of light. Mini-LED turns sections of the backlight off to achieve total black, and with OLED each pixel is self-lit so turning them off achieves total black.

With LCD you have a permanent non-controllable backlight illuminating the screen, and it's up to the liquid in the LCD to try and block out all the light to achieve black. It's not very good at that. Bleed is where the liquid in some areas does a very bad job.

 

[tashi_108]

Apple has used IPS for at least the last 10 years in their laptops. The Apple Silicon MacBook Pros all have Mini LEDs that should be better.

What I'm curious about is if Apple know's of this issue (as I'm sure they do) have not done anything about it until 10 years later. I was hoping I could make use out of this MB Pro which I still will but will need to get a newr

Newer screen technologies like Mini-LED and OLED display black by the absence of light. Mini-LED turns sections of the backlight off to achieve total black, and with OLED each pixel is self-lit so turning them off achieves total black.

With LCD you have a permanent non-controllable backlight illuminating the screen, and it's up to the liquid in the LCD to try and block out all the light to achieve black. It's not very good at that. Bleed is where the liquid in some areas does a very bad job.

Hey, thanks for that feedback! It makes a lot of sense, actually! And when you say "liquid" I immediatly think of a way to spread the liquid out evenly if it's possible. Some people mention doing things like rotating their macbooks and also giving the display a gentle finger massage on the edges for a temporary fix but unfortunately I've had no success with that. I have however began to notice that the backlight bleed tends to be more visible at certain times and less in others. Maybe after closing the lid the liquid moves about I'm not sure. Anyhow a new macbook is what I'll need if I want to get the full benefit of an LED/OLED display without any such backlight issues. Thanks again