Apple quietly gave the M4 MacBook Pro a quantum dot display

M4 MacBook Pro reviews mostly endorsed my own view that, while the machine would make a great purchase for Intel MBP owners, there isn’t a compelling reason for any M-series user to upgrade.

However, it turns out that Apple quietly gave the latest MacBook Pro a new display tech, offering two benefits …

MacBook display tech

MacBook displays still use IPS LCD screens, though of a far higher quality than offered in most laptops.

Apple describes them by the term miniLED – a reference to the much-improved backlighting in which many more, smaller LEDs allow far greater local brightening and dimming of the display.

In this way, while the underlying tech is unchanged from earlier models, there’s a notable improvement in brightness and contrast.

M4 MacBook Pro got a display upgrade

Previous M-series MacBook Pro models used a red KSF phosphor film to enable the miniLED backlighting to produce a wider color gamut than would normally be possible.

This film is also very efficient, but there’s an even better film available, known as quantum dot. Display analyst Ross Young reports that Apple quietly introduced this to the M4 MacBook Pro.

Big Apple display news, they have adopted quantum dots for the first time. The latest MacBook Pro’s (M4) use a quantum dot (QD) film rather than a red KSF phosphor film.

Young says this provides the latest models with two advantages over earlier models.

Better color gamut and better motion performance.

One commenter said that tests verified the faster response rate.

Pixel response is pretty clearly significantly faster when TestUFO motion tests seen side by side, you can go to Apple Store & run testufo.com versus M1. The M4 LCD is noticeably faster.

Apple had good reason to wait

The reason the company hadn’t done this before, says Young, is due to a mix of relatively poor efficiency and the fact that earlier generations of QD contained cadmium.

In the past, Apple went with the KSF solution due to better efficiency and lack of cadmium (Cd)

Apple commented on not wanting to use cadmium as long ago as 2015.

The World Health Organization classifies the element as a human carcinogen, and one particular danger is the recycling or disposal of electronics containing the metal.

Cadmium exerts toxic effects on the kidneys as well as the skeletal and respiratory systems. It is classified as a human carcinogen. It is generally present in the environment at low levels; however, human activity has greatly increased levels in environmental media relevant to population exposure. Exposures potentially of particular concern for children include disposal and recycling of electronic and electrical waste.

Photo: Apple