Why, exactly, are colors on various laptops/computers so different?

Great question. I have also noticed on the various computers in my house that sometimes the entire layout of the screen is different from one to the other. Sometimes it depends on which browser we are using, Internet Explorer or Firefox.

In your scenerio (same pc’s, same setting, same manufacture date) ..I would say that the possible difference in displayed screen colour would only come from the lighting in the environment you are viewing it in. And, I think the electricity outlet that it’s plugged into may make a difference. If it’s not plugged in ..perhaps the temperature of the room is effecting the battery, causing the screens to be slightly different.

I do not have extensive knowledge on the matter. Only what came up in my head as a possible reason ..lol.

I do not know about the different variables at the time of manufacture – as I have no experience in the field.

it has to do with calibration, display types, color modes and stuff like that.

different screen materials (glossy glass, plastic, matte coating), backlights, graphics processors, gamma settings, color balancing and im sure much much more play a role in the actual displaying of colors on various screens.

different manufacturers use different methods for their displays, and they are not all exactly the same. so colors vary from screen to screen, machine to machine.

I’m not sure if two of the exact same model would be different; computers of the same model are pretty much made the same way and would have the same screen, but among computers, there are many different screens. I was interested in the Sony VAIO F, but after examining several of them at various stores, I noticed that the colors appeared faded and “washed out”. I found out online that that’s a common complaint about that particular laptop. It just has subpar color; that’s just how the computer is made and it doesn’t seem to vary among different machines of the same model. They’re all the same.

Another example is the fact that my old Dell has a dimmer screen than my current MacBook Pro, even at full brightness.

There are also different types of screens: WLED, LCD, RGBLED, etc. Those all have different types of coloring. I wish I had more info…

I have had many different pairs of computers running side by side at various times and noticed marked differences in color when displaying the same image on both screens.

I remember reading somewhere that even the same model might use different OEM sources for screens over some period of filling orders for that model. There was something about screens from this original manufacturer being bluer than screens for that.

I think there is some adjustment you can make to settings to compensate for that, but again, my memory is faulty here.

They use different parts depending on the supply chain. There is a reason you get a 600$ laptop. They buy cheap shit. That mostly applies to screens since that is the most expensive part. So one day they get 10k units from one supplier. The next day they get 5k from a cheaper supplier.

I’m a wedding photographer so calibration across a variety of screens is very important for me. I have three displays that all need to represent colour in the same way so I use a spectrophotometer called the spyder 2 pro The only way you will get screens to show the same colours and brightness is to calibrate it using a device like this. :)

LED technology is pretty standard these days. It has to do with the way light is bent by special crystals (hence the acronym L iquid C rystal D isplay) in the screen. Each individual crystal pixel has to be wired into the matrix of pixels so a signal from the video card can tell it what color to be at that moment in time. The way in which the crystals bend light definitely doesn’t change just as gravity doesn’t change – it’s just physics. However, the amount of power they receive from the display’s power source as well as the settings @wenn described that come from the configuration on the video card (set by you in the operating system) make for a very varied number of possible color experiences. I guess the answer to your question is yes. It matters to some degree how the manufacturer has constructed the screen, but the color settings are what really determine what colors you ultimately see. @DominicX‘s point about certain models of laptops having poorer color than others is absolutely a manufacturer problem that probably couldn’t be fixed with settings alone. But for the majority of screens out there, calibration is just a matter of fiddling with the color settings. If you really want consistent color, there are a number of computer programs that try to coordinate color between monitors. If you ask me tho, @syphotoguy‘s technique is the only way to go – you’ve gotta use a spectropohotometer.