Difference Between LED and LCD Screens

What's the difference between the LED screen and the LCD screen in a MacBook Pro?

Good question. The first thing we need to clear up is the idea that your MacBook or MacBook Pro has an LED screen and not an LCD screen. The LED refers to just the backlight portion of your screen, not the entire screen itself. There is a common misconception that the current models of MacBook and MacBook Pro do not use LCD screens.

So, what's the deal? Well, before June of 2007, Apple laptops used LCD screens that used a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp as a backlight.

Why would these need this backlight in the first place? Another good question - you're on a roll. LCD screens need a backlight, because the screens themselves (the liquid crystal display part) do not actually emit any light. In order to see what is on your screen, you need a special light, located behind the glass LCD screen, to brighten things up enough for you to view them.

A common MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop repair is a damaged screen due to a fall that causes the backlight to stop working. You can usually tell if your backlight is damaged by turning on your MacBook or MacBook Pro, or your PowerBook or iBook for that matter, and if your screen looks dark, but you can still see things on the screen when you shine a flashlight onto it, chances are your screen has a damaged or non-functional backlight.

During 2007, Apple (and a bunch of other companies) decided that CCFL backlights were evil and they had to go. They were full of mercury (bad), they used up to much power (bad) and they broke rather easily (very bad).

So, enter stage right, the LED powered backlight in June of 2007. Since that time, all Apple laptops have used a backlit LCD screen that has an LED based backlight. This has helped increase battery run times, increased reliability, and helped the environment all at the same time. All is good.

Apple certified repair technicians still see LED backlit MacBook and MacBook Pro systems arriving daily for repair. Even though the LED is more reliable and less fragile than the CCFL, they still break when dropped hard enough.

Customers often ask if just the backlight can be replaced on a LCD screen, and while it is true that you can replace just the backlight in many LCD panels, the parts and labor costs are not that much lower than replacing the entire screen. Plus, the vast majority of screens many times have additional damage, either to the LCD itself or to the screen housing on the MacBook or MacBook Pro.