iBook 12" screen dim?

luca · July 18, 2002 9:10PM

At the Apple store yesterday, I tried out one of the 12" iBooks (after all, I am seriously considering purchase of one). The screen seemed unusually dim, even with the brightness at maximum. I mean, dimmer than my four year old PowerBook. Sometimes my PowerBook's screen is dim when I first wake it from sleep, but after a few minutes it's back to normal brightness. The iBook had definitely been open for a while, and it seemed as if all the 12" iBooks around the store had this problem. Are there any iBook owner who can comment on the screen brightness? Was it maybe the lighting in the store? The cinema displays seemed very bright, but it may have to do with them being up against a wall while the iBooks were on podiums in the middle of the store.

It's just that I've heard so many people raving about how great the screen is on that thing, I'm wondering why I felt underwhelmed by it.

EDIT: for the record, I also tried color calibrating the display using Color Sync, but it didn't help.

[ 07-18-2002: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>

patchouli · July 18, 2002 9:17PM

I also found that the iBook's LCD was much dimmer than the PowerBook's LCD (which was right next to it). I even compared it to the other PC notebooks they had there (all 12"). I too upped brightness settings and it was already set to the brightest. This was consistent with two iBooks in two different stores (CompUSA and DataVision). However, neither iBook were the latest revision models and I doubt Apple uses one display maker for the iBook. I am sure it's random.

alcimedes · July 18, 2002 9:38PM

mine seems fine, not sure compared to others though, as this is the only notebook i use with any frequency. seems fine to me.

-alcimedes

luca · July 18, 2002 9:41PM

Oh, and people still seem to hate the 14" even though the screen seemed brighter on all the 14" ones than on any of the 12" ones. Granted, all the iBooks in the store were from the previous generation (all 600 MHz AFAIK), but hopefully they aren't all like that now. I really don't want a brand new LCD to be worse than a four year old one.

eman · July 18, 2002 9:57PM

My iBook's LCD isn't as bright as my desktop 15" LCD of course, but it's not dim at all.

luca · July 18, 2002 11:33PM

Well, judging from what people said, it looks like the iBook's screen is probably good, and my perception of it being dim was probably due to the very bright, overhead lighting in the Apple store.

i-bent-my-wookie · July 18, 2002 11:50PM

[quote]Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:

<strong>Well, judging from what people said, it looks like the iBook's screen is probably good, and my perception of it being dim was probably due to the very bright, overhead lighting in the Apple store.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Mine is an older 600 but the screen is very bright unless Im out in natural light on the deck. Then I have to crank up the brightness. Ohterwise its super.

haven't been to an apple store so I cant relate to their environment

serrano · July 19, 2002 2:48AM

I find the 12" lcd's quite bright/sharp. Also, I've noticed on the eMacs I've played with that in the monitors preference pane you can adjust the contrast. My 10.1.5 does not support this, and I'm not sure if it's eMac specific but you could take a look.

murbot · July 19, 2002 8:40AM

My first thought would be the same as the others here have said - probably a lighting condition of some sort making it seem dimmer. Or, it could be that particular iBook got a bum display - I've seen it happen.

Generally, the iBook has a great display, and brightness really shouldn't be a concern at all. It has a brighter, and more uniform display than all but the latest revision of PowerBooks. I always had mine set a few steps down from maximum brightness.

You should have mentioned this to an employee - I'd be insterested to hear what they'd say about it...

iBook 12" screen dim?

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