My 13" MacBook Air (late-2010 model) shows strong flicker on some of the following "Inversion / Pixel Walk" test images from the LCD test on the site "lagom.nl". Does that truly indicate a quality problem with the screen (as the test says), or is it a normal side effect from the screen technology that any 13" MacBook Air would suffer from?
I do notice that when scrolling say a web page or Pages document, the image noticeably flickers while scrolling. This might be due to the problem this test is supposed to detect, but I'm not sure. Web pages with a striped background where the stripes are just 1 pixel high also show annoying flicker (even when not scrolling).
The test images: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/inversion.php#inversion-all.png
At full screen brightness on my 13" Air, I can see strong flickering on test image 3. Some of the other images show some slight flickering too, but 3 is particularly strong. By "strong" I mean that the flicker is clearly visible even from over 1.5 meters away from the screen (and yes I measured that).
I had a chance to test it out on two store models of the 13" MacBook Air and couldn't see any strong flicker, but I did forget to turn up the screen brightness so I'm not sure. Neither my 20" Cinema Display nor some MacBook (Pro) and PowerBook screens I tested showed any strong flicker. But note that the Air's screen has a higher pixel density, could that affect this test?
And if it's a quality problem, is it something I should / can demand Apple to fix or replace? (I still have a few days of return period left; it might just be a minor nuisance, but do I have to put up with that considering the price of the machine? …)
Best Answer
The flicker is caused by the technology (TN) used in your MBA. It's noticeable when brightness is high and under some of the tests. I have 13" MBP 2010 and I can register flicker on 2a and 4a tests when brightness is above 50%.
Usually under normal use this shouldn't be noticeable.