While surfing around this morning I happened upon some slightly distressing, while also relieving, information. I purchased a MacBookPro back in April of 2006. I've noticed over the past year that I see much more banding in gradients on the laptop when compared to my G5 or MacPro. It was never a terribly severe issue since I don't work on the laptop for anything color intensive. However, I know many do.

Do you have a MacBook or MacBookPro and notice banding in gradients or a "sparkly" or "speckled" screen? Well, there may be a reason behind it... Apple's false advertising. This surprised me. Apple has advertised the screens on their most recent laptops as supporting "millions of colors" yet, in reality they do not.

Apple advertises their MacBook and MacBook Pro displays as capable of displaying "millions of colors". An 8-bit LCD screen will indeed display 16m+ colors. However, Apple has been using 6-bit LCD screens in the MacBook/Pro systems. 6-Bit LCD screens can only display 262,000 colors, not "millions."

More information can be found here: http://peewaiweb.free.fr/

And a PDF regarding the pending lawsuit can be seen here: Legal Brief PDF

The most distressing part of this discovery is that I did not get what I paid for. Apple essentially pulled a "bait and switch" with its advertising. I don't think knowing that the screen I was getting was a 6bit LCD screen, rather than an 8bit screen, would have prevented my purchase but it most definitely would have caused me to consider the pricing with more concern.

I could not find any place to add my name to a list of plaintiffs. If such a place does exist, I'd happily sign a complaint against Apple with respect to this matter.