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LED MacBook Gamut
Being a frequent user of Lightroom on the road, I have to use my laptop screen much more often than I'd like for color critical work. Of course, one of the secrets to effectively using Lightroom—or any other photo editing software for that matter—is to have a properly profiled display. I'm usually pretty rigorous with making sure that my displays are profiled, which means that things are predictable. But even so, the problem with doing color work on a laptop display is that they don't have a very large color gamut. In fact, the color gamut of a laptop is significantly less than that of a Cinema display.
To put this into perspective, a Cinema Display or most modern LCD panels can pretty much display the sRGB colorspace, give or take. Laptop displays don't even come close to this range. So, when you work on a laptop, you're working using a limited tool. It's just that simple. So, when Apple's new 15" MacBook Pro was introduced with a display with LED-backlighting, I was curious to see how it ended up performing.
After working with the new laptop and display for a few days, the short answer is that it performs quite well. In fact, I agree with Rob Galbraith's assessment that it's definitely a step up from any laptop display that I've worked with before. It's bright enough to use in environments that were previously too bright for laptop use and it profiles well. Once profiled, it holds neutrals consistently from one side of the display to the other. In fact, the display is the most neutral laptop display I've ever used. My only major gripe with it is that it is more sensitive to vertical veiwing angle than I would really like.
But that's all subjective. Let's look at something a bit more objective. Here's how the colorimeter says the new 15" LED-based display performs against my older first generation 17" MacBook Pro:
As you can see, the 15" LED display does outperform the 17" MacBook Pro's display. It doesn't have a much larger gamut, but it is an improvement. The 15" LED display, however, still doesn't come anywhere near a 23" Cinema display. Here's the comparison in gamut:
And, here's a final plot of the 15" LED's screen's gamut against the sRGB colorspace:
From these plots, and from my subjective experience with this laptop, it's clear that the new display is good. And, it's going to be a useful tool on the road and on location. But, whenever possible, I'm still going to prefer editing on Cinema displays. And, I'm keeping my eye on even better monitors that can display all of the AdobeRGB color space. After all, when you're working in Lightroom or Photoshop, color is everything.
Update: Based on a reader request, here's my most recent ICC profile made with ColorEyes Display Pro and a Gretag/MacBeth EyeOne Display 2 colorimeter.
Hi James,
Interesting article. You don't by any chance have similar charts for iMac screens vs sRGB?
Sean: Unfortunatly, I don't have an iMac that I've profiled in quite a while.
Wow! I didn't even know this was an issue. I have so much to learn about color (and I honestly don't know even where to start).
Thank you James for this article. I calibrated my MacBook Pro LED display but I'd like very much to compare my calibration with the calibration of a professional photographer like you. Would it be possible for you to provide your calibration/color profile for download (or could you send me it by email)? That would be fantastic! Thanks again.
Hi Paulo, I've posted an update above with my most recent profile. Hope that helps.
Thanks a lot. One question: just to make sure, have you been using the matte screen (and not the glossy one) during this test?
Ronald: Yes indeed, matte screen. That's a good point to make.
I also had a question, when you calibrated, what brightness was your display set to for accurate color representation?
PS Thanks for the profile :-D
Has anyone else noticed that their screen displays posterization in gradients? I was looking at the Photoshop color-picker and noticed the top of the gradient is a solid color, which isn't the case on my PowerBook G4, or my 20" Cinema display. I saved a screen shot here: http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/PS2.png
Does anyone else see a line that goes from the top left corner, sloping to about 1/8th of the way down on the right side? That's unacceptable for a MacBook Pro (I checked it on a MacBook and the image looked fine).
Anyone else?
thanxs
I used the icc profile on my Macbook Pro with Led and it looked very yellowish. My ownmade profile looked alot better...
Here is My profile I did on a 3 weeks old Macbook Pro with Led: http://www.jlw.se/foto/Johan_10-26-07_1.icc
Johan: I wouldn't use the profile above for any other purpose than checking out in a viewer. After all, mapping _my_ display to yours which may or may not be from the same vendor and batch and what not is probably not going to lead to good results.
Great comparison. How would you compare iMac displays to Cinema and LED MBP?
Paul: Unfortunately, I don't have access to an iMac to profile and compare with. I'v been curious of the same thing. I suspect the iMacs won't have as large a gamut as the Cinema display, but that's not based on anything but my own speculation.
Hi James, I am very interested in your article, I am also specializing in LED lamps, LED display manufacture in China, so look for if there is any business cooperation opportunity for us.
Thanks!
Siwen
MSN:siwen.s.zeng@hotmail.com
Skype:siwen.s.zeng
email: siwen.zeng@ledman.cn
Hello James!
I'd like to know if this 15" Macbook Pro you tested has a Glossy or a Matte LED-backlighting Display. I'm in doubt what is the best display and I'd like to have the better for all situations, for inside and outside use.
Thank you very much,
Ângela Maria Marx
Can you do this again with the new 2009 17 MBP?
It has higher contrast at 1:700 and a %60 increased color gamut. I'd love to see how that compares to the older 17" and a cinescreen.
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