[...] They offered to give me a full refund of my purchase. I suppose this would be fine, if I could go to another Apple retail store and purchase a portable machine of this size that had an 8bit screen. [...]
Here's where I stopped reading. I, too, would like a pony.
I'm not sure about this - if false advertising (millions of colors) caused him to sell his old laptop with a better screen, then he's still worse off, as a result of Apple's actions.
Then again, I think the whole MBP line has had 6 bit displays for their whole history, so I'm not sure why he's complaining now.
Damn nearly everybody was a poor peasant or slave in the 1000s, people where getting upset over nothing.
Just because the status quo is such it doesn't mean it is good and cannot be improved. I was searching for a quality LCD screen lately and I couldn't find a reasonable 8-bit screen at any shop, just 6-bit. I read a lot of reviews from seemingly professional sites and they all say the same thing: 8-bit MVA, PVA or IPS panel types are much much better than 6-bit TN at anything except price and maybe a bit of extra latency (not important for anyone except hardcore FPS gamers). The sad state of affairs is that all the reasonably priced 8-bit screens I wanted were out of stock for an unknown period of time at all shops (like the HP LP2475w) or out of production for good. It seems I'll have to pick the best of the worst and be happy just because everybody has the same.
When your product is theoretically a pro product aimed as such and is pretty expensive to begin with you expect the best quality out of all the components. I own a PowerBook Pro and this thing is amazing. More than 5 years old and and everthing works perfectly except some scratches on the metal surface due to drops from heights. The screen in it is the best I ever saw, even compared to new expensive Dells, HPs and others I saw at friends and colleagues. It will be a sad day when I have to change it with a MacBook Pro and the screen will be worse.
Here's where I stopped reading. I, too, would like a pony.