2010 iMac 27" - Any Widespread Issues?

[redsaint182]

Are there any widespread issues for the current 27" iMacs? Mostly when I find issues, they are with 2009 model (yellow tinge, etc. and maybe this affects 2010 model as well, idk... have they fixed that?)

But I am curious about the specific issues with the 2010. If I ordered one today, what problems would I be likely to encounter?

Thanks.

 

[AJP1980]

If anything, I think the quality control has gotten worse. Before I get into that, though, I think you have to accept that with the 27inch iMacs you will get a faint 1 inch wide grey shadow running the whole length of the monitor about 1 inch above the bottom of the screen. I have never seen a 27 inch iMac without this. I don't think that this is a QC issue more a manufacturing "feature".

Onto QC. My October 2010 iMac, whilst having this grey bar, had an acceptable screen - i.e. it was reasonably consistent without any overly bright spots or noticeable yellowing. However, its hard drive died a few weeks ago and Apple gave me a new computer. The new screen was terrible - the brightness dropped off considerably from one side to the other and the whole of the right side of the screen had a noticeable blue tint (about 600 kelvin cooler). So this new iMac went back to the store and was replaced with the one I have now. The brightness on this screen is reasonably consistent and the colour is fine...until the last inch on the right hand side - the length of the screen has a 1 inch wide green tint. This is not in the yellow - blue axis (measured on Aperture) but is in the green - purple axis and, measured on Aperture is about 10 units greener than the rest of the screen (the Aperture scale goes from -50 to 50). It is quite obvious with the naked eye.

So my second iMac of 2011 is about to be returned. I would also note that both 2011 iMacs have finger prints behind the glass and on the ips panel itself, and the first 2011 iMac had a big shiny particle (it looked metallic) attached to the inside of the glass right in the centre of the screen measuring about 5x5 pixels.

I don't think I have been unlucky.

I think that Apple has no quality control and relies on good customer service instead effectively putting the burden on us to persevere with returns until we are satisfied (I don't expect to be happy).

For about a £1000 in the UK, you can pick up a very good Eizo ips panel and the balance of the difference will get you a decent cpu. Apple needs to step up its game me thinks!

 

[Pndrgnsvc]

If anything, I think the quality control has gotten worse. Before I get into that, though, I think you have to accept that with the 27inch iMacs you will get a faint 1 inch wide grey shadow running the whole length of the monitor about 1 inch above the bottom of the screen. I have never seen a 27 inch iMac without this. I don't think that this is a QC issue more a manufacturing "feature".

A dissenting voice. My machine does not have that or for that matter, any other design/QC issues of which I'm aware.

I did, however have a major Migration Assistant issue that eventually took a "Third Tier" Apple tech to resolve. But aside from that I love my machine. Still, I would love it more were it to have a matte display.

 

[AJP1980]

A quick update.

I took 2011 iMac no.2 back to the Apple store, this morning. The assistant said I should get a refund and wait to get the new model iMac, next month. I asked for an exchange, which he was happy to provide, and I asked if I could have one from some newer stock as I didn't want to exchange again (he just smiled at this).

Anyway, 2011 iMac no.3 is on my desk. The first thing I noticed on opening the box was that it had been re-taped. Not a good sign. Removing the clear film from the screen I noticed scuff marks on the aluminium bezel running along the top of the machine, where the microphone is. Oh dear I thought - I had been given someone else's returned machine. I started peeling this plastic film off the screen and watched as the front glass panel came off the chasis with it

The sticky plastic pulled the glass off. The sticky bit of the plastic isn't normally in contact with the glass but with the aluminium sides. Somebody did a bad job putting this baby (back?) together.

Plugged it in or rather tried to as the plug wouldn't align easily with the socket as the casework overlapped the hole a little too much.

It is now fired up and copying my life from my Time Machine back-up.

On the plus side, the white start-up screen looked pretty good (apart from the obligatory grey shadow).

If the screen is good, I think I can live with the scuff marks.

 

[McRCN]

Maybe I was lucky, but I purchased refurb and it was perfect.

 

[dwarnecke11]

At this point I'd wait for the imminent iMac update. Here's my experience with iMac QC:

I bought my first 27" i5 in November of 2009. It had a noticeable yellow gradient to the display, intermittent flickering and a grumbling Seagate HD. I returned it after ten days.

I bought my current 27" i7 in August of 2010. The Western Digital HD was much quieter, no flickers and the screen was much more uniform. However, it had a glob of dust trapped in the LCD panel. In December I took it to an Apple store and had the display replaced that afternoon. AppleCare covered the entire $709 repair. The new display is just as uniform and is free of dust.

 

[gdeputy]

Maybe I'm just blind, but I had a 27" i3 from best buy that was perfect, I returned it so I could get a refurb i5, and that one is perfect as well.

Both machines have been excellent.

 

[brucem91]

Maybe I'm just blind, but I had a 27" i3 from best buy that was perfect, I returned it so I could get a refurb i5, and that one is perfect as well.

Both machines have been excellent.

Same here. Purchased a 2009 27" C2D and it was fine. Almost a year later we purchased a 2010 27" i7, and this one as well has no problems.

 

[leftywamumonkey]

I was actually surprised as well. I received my iMac this week and the screen was perfect. I was actually expecting to return it a few times to get a perfect screen, but I got lucky on the first try. I took some time making sure it didn't have any dead pixels, yellow tinting, or anything else.