Do the LED screens on the MBP require calibration or something??

I just received my new 2.2Ghz MBP from Amazon.com and I'm really not very impressed with the LED backlit screen. It seems farely bright enough but the colors just seem more saturated and images just seem like they're almost a little blurry to look at. I'm comparing an image now that I retouched in Photoshop previously and I've looked at the same image on both my Sony VAIO SZ LED backlit laptop, my Dell 2007wfp w/ an S-IPS panel, and a CRT monitor. On those three the image looks fine and the skin of the person looks natural but on my MBP I'm sitting here looking at it and the image is more saturated like the persons skin and everything has more of an orangeish tint. It also somewhat blurry. Maybe it just needs some calibration or something but from what I'm looking at right now the LED display on my Sony VAIO SZ 780 and my Dell XPS m1330 are both way better. Is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

Apple -> System Preferences -> Display -> Colour -> Calibrate. The Gamma might be off. Make sure Colour is set to "Millions" under Display too.


It might also be possible that the colour on the MBP is more "true" than the other ones. I have an old LCD display connected to my MBP, and the colour between the two is very different. Even the shade of gray from the windows is different.

 

It's definitely set to "Millions" and I tried the four different Gamma setting options but didn't seem to get anywhere with that. I'll have to see if I can't do something more through the Expert Gamma settings.

And I don't know how the colors would be more true. The personal photos I'm looking at just don't look good at all compared to how they do on my PC's. The Dell XPS m1330 I have has a Toshiba LED display which is known as the best for the m1330 and then Sony VAIO SZ's are regarded as having the best displays out there and I have to agree. But then on top of that I compared the images on my desktop LCD which is a Dell 2007wfp with an S-IPS panel and it's full 8-bit true color. Then I went up and compared the same images on another PC connected to a CRT monitor. The images on those three are all roughly the same and look good. Looking at the same ones on this MBP they look blurry and washed and have the orangeish tint. The images just aren't sharp or natural in color in comparison at all.

 

It's possible that your screen might be faulty then. Try giving Apple Care a call and see if it's a software issue, or if you need an exchange/repair.

Also pop in disk 1 from your OS X disks and restart while holding own D. Run a hardware test and see if you get any errors.

EDIT: I actually just compared one of the pics I have an it actually looks too saturated on my external monitor... so I really think it's an issue with your screen. Do you have the resolution set to max?

 

Another thing to consider is the differences that might be due to the different default gamma levels between OS X and XP/Vista. For comparision sake, you can try setting the gamma in OS X to what Windows uses by default and then compare the two.

Just run the display color calibration wizard (if I remember correctly, it's in the Displays pref pane as a button labeled "Calibrate display" or something such) and create a color profile with the modified gamma setting through there. Even if the difference you're seeing isn't due to gamma setting differences, it's still a good idea to at least give the calibration wizard a try if you haven't already. Who knows, it might improve the color balance overall as well.

 

The expert options could fix the problem (They adjust colour balance). I had to go through mine a dozen times when I got my new LCD monitor because it was just not right. I still can't quite get the brightness down as low as I want either which is bugging me a bit... but that's what I get for cheaping out on the monitor.