I was in high school working after school at an Apple computer store and they let me take one home for a weekend (!!!). The refresh rate was actually one of the more outstanding features at the time as thanks to the active-matrix display, there was NO ghosting of what you speak of. But every other Mac (and non-Mac) laptop had the ghosting from the passive-matrix screens. I think you're confusing them. The Portable screen was crystal-clear as long as you were in a bright room (since it had no backlighting).