2013 MBP Hotspots in Backlight / Apple Warranty

Question

So last night I was playing Portal 2 in a rather dark room, and the combination of the dark colors in my screen with the darkness of the room allowed me to see quite a few "dead spots" in the backlight of my screen. I've attached an Illustrator recreation of what the spots look like.

Dead Spot Image http://www.thoughtspacedesigns.com/images/deadspots.png

These spots don't seem to react to pressure on the screen at all, which would lead me to believe they've been there since I bought the thing, and weren't caused by pressure (just shooting in the dark though). They really aren't all that noticeable, and again it took me til this point to even see a problem. I can't even see them in daylight conditions. Regardless, the fact that I dumped over a grand on this computer and it's still under warranty makes me want to have this fixed.

So two questions stem from this:

1) Is this a common issue with the unibody MBPs? Is it a known issue with this model year or a certain make?

2) Will this issue be recognized and covered by Apple under the standard one year manufacturer warranty?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Answer 1

1) I haven't seen many reports of flat spots like this over the past few refreshes of the MacBook Pro so I wouldn't consider it a widespread or known issue. Only Apple will know for sure, and if it is then they would likely consider a Repair Extension Program (REP) to handle repairs for these symptoms outside of the 1 year warranty. Only time will tell.

2) I would expect Apple to cover this so long as theres no signs of damage or trauma to the MacBook Pro. AppleCare provides an extended warranty for failures and defects that are not a result of accidental damage. Ultimately it depends on the human being you end up dealing with but if I were you I wouldn't expect much pushback on having it repaired.