Apple quietly settles MacBook 6-bit LCD screen lawsuit
By Nilay Patel 
posted March 26th 2008 1:56PM
posted March 26th 2008 1:56PM
It looks like that would-be class action lawsuit over the quality of MacBook and Macbook Pro screens has fizzled out to nothing, as the plaintiffs have quietly settled. Although it's technically true that the 6-bit screens can't actually display millions of colors at the same time, apparently the two photographers who filed the suit had a difficult time finding other people who had bought MacBooks based on the advertised color depth of the display -- and from what we're told, you just can't have a "class action" without a "class." Even still, we hope someone at Apple was paying attention to how much interest the case generated at the outset -- although MacBook Pro screens generally look fine to us, we've seen some awful MacBook screens in our day.
No wonder OS X users love Web 2.0 design.
Simple colours for simple displays. :)
If only they had sued over Apple using crappy displays that are a year old and have yellow patches along the bottom. Lots of takers for that one.
Hold it!!!
Take That!!
Phoenix Wright for the win!
for irony points:
http://www.apple.com/pro/color/
"Whether you’re a designer or printmaker, photographer or filmmaker, or just about any kind of creative pro who deals with visual material, you face the daily challenge of getting your colors just right, of making them at least as rich as those you see in the world around you. This section of the Pro site is designed just for you."
i lol'd
I lol'd at the color of the highlights in your hair.
A sure sign that a Republican is gay? When he can't stop talking about gay people. One day, very soon, sinai, someone is going to catch you in the bathroom stall of an Airport, hiding with a MacBook Air.
And by the way, when are we going out?
Wow, super hostility. When I read this article the first thing I thought of was how the Mac platform is supposed to be geared towards graphic designers, professional photographers/filmmakers, etc. Some of my friends went and bought Macbooks with little-to-no research except for that "Mac is good if you make the arts!" mentality. What a joke. The only thing sadder than Apple possibly deceiving their customers is a pair of 'professional' photographers that don't do research on the equipment they will be using.
my Highest Ranked comments versus your Lowest Ranked.
The people have clearly spoken.
ps, they're not highlights. it's the result of camera flash blasting right into my naturally dark brown hair. but maybe you couldn't tell because your mac monitor probably doesn't show that many colors.
Oh, my, there's a rating system here? Thanks for telling me. I'm a Mac user, so obviously I'm a glutton for what 90 percent of computer users think of me. /sarcasm.
Clak, I think you're an idiot anyway. And I'm a Mac user.
Only in America....
http://www.apple.com/uk/
http://www.apple.com/jp/
http://www.apple.com.cn/
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2486050
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2486089
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2486108
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2486141
all of apple's LCD panels are crap. their cinema displays are a joke, for the money they charge for the 23 inch one could buy 2 samsung 24" monitors with better contrast ratio, faster response time, and brighter display. Yes, TWO samsungs, as the 24" inchers go for about 400 bucks and the 23" cinema display sells for about $900. And even then, youd be saving money.
Yes you can get 2 TN panels for the price of an S-IPS panel.
and your money would also buy you more than one input. That's why my Mac is hooked up to a Samsung.
One input? Really Apple? Still?
How not very multimedia of you.
i'll take one (or two) cheaper, better looking, bigger TN panel monitor over apples shitty S-IPS monitor any day.
not generalizing, SIPS should be better, but in apples case against the newer samsung devices, its not just not the case.
@Wkn
S-IPS or else, it's still 6-bit.
Apple's monitors are expensive, yes, but I have one of those Samsungs, and while I am happy with it for the price and purpose (writing code), the viewing angle and contrast are not nearly as good as my Dell ultrasharp, which I think is more comparable to Apple's monitors. The 20" Dell is $400, and the 20" Apple is $600. They have similar specs, though the Dell claims a larger viewing angle by 8 degrees and 800:1 vs 700:1 contrast, but I'm not sure where they get these numbers. The Samsung claims the same 800:1 ratio as the Dell, but clearly is not as good as the Dell in side-by-side comparison.
IMO the Dell monitors are the best for the money...
FYI - both the Apple and Dell monitors are made by the same manufacturer, LG. For some time now, the Dell ultrasharps have had a much wider color gamut, making them ideal for graphic artists.
no matter how crap Apple Cinema Display is, I love the design and I got an old one (ADC) and a new one(DVI) and I am satisfied with its performance on colour reproduction. I dont care on its input, on its response time and brightness as it is enough for DTP and general use.
What i couldnt tolerate is the LCD of my new iMac 20". Its crap! Holy Crap!
wtf apple. Its the responsibility to mention on your product page that LCD of 20 inch iMac is 18 bit, and its different from that of 24". f@#K.
This is normal of Apple. it's a real problem that they don't want to actually fix, so they bury it.
err...buy it out with money
I love the pic they used! Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS was one of the most addicting games I ever played!
not to change the subject but don't forget about the STILL crappy ipod touch displays.
You should never fall for the face that company's put on.
clak, we're going out as soon as you take steve job's cock out of your can't-stop-talking-about-gay mouth.
furthermore, i already own a powerbook. it's the crappiest computer i have ever owned, and a real testament to why apple ditched the powerpc for the intel chips.
But, sinai, surely we can have a three-way.
And as far as your Powerbook is concerned: Dude, you're getting a Dell! Sorry, I couldn't resist.
nope, i got a thinkpad x61s and a x61 tablet. both combined cost less than an MBA (with SSD) with 6x the USB ports!
and they both can run OSX just fine. not that i would.
Oh and Sinai, your comments get highly ranked because you hate Apple, and this is Engadget. It's as simple as that. It's not because your comments are insightful, or accurate, or even anything other than verbal diarrhea. Hate Apple = automatic high rank. Say anything that isn't hating Apple = automatic low rank. People love to hate Apple on Engadget.
right, zak. people here hate apple. do you know why? because engadget readers want the best technology they can get; not overpriced, plastic pieces of hype that are lied about in advertisements.
oh, and engadget readers also hate pretentious fucks who think they're better than other people because their technology can do parlor tricks like multi-touch, or fitting into a manila envelope.
wow that last comment by me rocked. you guys mind if i vote myself up?
sinai, you're officially the engadget asshole. now all you need is your sphincter costume.
Holy hell, Sinai's comments are laced with profanity. Idk, but I thought it was an understood, unstated rule that one should not use alternate spellings for "fock" and "c0ck" on these comment boards. Very interesting...
Censorship necessary? No. Just speak intelligently, please.
See? You actually said Apple lies about their products in their ads (which of course isn't even close to being true) and you got ranked up. That's how it works. You can blatantly lie, make stuff up, pretty much say whatever you want, especially if you swear a lot, and as long as it's about hating Apple you get ranked up.
Say anything in Apple's defense, even with proof, and you get ranked down. That's because the number of Apple haters on Engadget far outnumber the Apple fanboys, contrary to popular belief.
In any case, you're "special" and should probably see a psychologist before you go postal and shoot somebody. I'm guessing your target would be anybody using an Apple product. If you'd like to try to prove that you're not insane, I invite you to try to back up your ridiculous claims about Apple and their products (they're made out of plastic? Really? I could have sworn aluminum was not actually plastic), but I'm pretty sure you'll just go off on another swearing rant about how Apple sucks so much.
And of course it'll get ranked up.
The only thing this was about was the colour of money
you cant sue over 996 songs instead of the advertised 1000 because the fine print says those figures are based on a specific song average size of (usually) 4 Mb and actual number of songs may change, if your average isnt exactly 4000 Kb (not 4096, i meant 4000) it wont fit 1000... :)
Mine is horrible... Any white window in windows XP will have atifacts, and there is tons of banding on all my porn on the mac side. Seriously, this needs to stop!
Of course it will have artifacts!
XP is ancient! ;)
The only question I have is:
Do I get anything out of this?
So what was the basis of the lawsuit?
LALALALALALALA
Some people make no sense at all, why would anyone write & talk about something they don't even own or have not even seen, i personally just got a mac & am loving what it does for me, but hey if you think vista & and everything microsoft does is great hey that's ok too cause its your problem not my. People stop bitching about things that don't make no sense at all
why does disliking apple automatically make you pro-microsoft?
@ sinai Does it???? Dude i personally don't care if microsoft or apple see daylight tomorrow, i buy thing i like regardless of what fanboys think
dont get what the big deal is about... as far as i know, nobody even makes 8 bit laptop panels anymore. you can get ones that have a wider color gamut, but that's only in 17" sizes. everything else is cheap crap.
and speaking of cheap crap... i agree with engadget on the macbook displays. set one up for a friend two months ago and I was completely flabbergasted at how piss-poor quality the display was. tilting it more than about 15% off even, all the blacks went bright gray. I took it back to the store and they said that it was fine, nothing wrong with it. i couldnt believe it. Perhaps it wouldnt have sucked so bad if the "optimum viewing angle" meant that the craptacular glossy screen was at the precise angle to reflect every light in the ceiling behind me.
anybody who actually works in graphic design knows that glossy screens are one of the worst things you can have for accurate depiction of what you're working on. it's a sham designed with special coatings to hide the fact you're being sold an inferior display. apple is by no means alone in doing this, everybody is jumping on this glossy screen bandwagon. next up, we'll all be driving pintos too. :(