Hi all, first post here. [edit to add spacing- sorry all!] I am on my second i5 27"; the first had a big scratch in the glass and another _behind_ the glass. As I was setting up the replacement, I described the screen bleed I was seeing to the rep and was told that it was a defective screen, don't worry, the next one will be perfect.
Next one arrived, and had similar issues, thankfully not as severe. I went to the local apple store and after a long negotiation persuaded the "geniuses" to take a 27" off the floor into a darkened back room so they could see what I was talking about. Which is:
The screen bleeds light at the edges, irregularly. In a dark room, while trying to display solid black, the edges of the screen are hazed with white light. It's uneven, and is different between different units- So far I've seen three 27" iMacs in the dark, and they were very different- which brings up the point that the quality control in these is very inconsistent. My current unit is the best. The one in the Apple Store was the worst- terrible, in fact. And not only is the bleed there, but if you get slightly off-axis it becomes rapidly more intense, so that if your viewing angle is maybe 30 degrees to the right of center, the left half of the screen is pretty bright grey instead of black.
The "geniuses" at the store said it looked terrible, and they thought it was defective. They said I could get a replacement screen, but I might get one that was worse than my current unit.
I called Apple, and was told to send in a movie of the issue, and a capture data file from a program they sent me. I did so. Then, for nearly a month, the rep I was supposed to be talking with simply refused to return calls or emails. I can't help thinking that they were just running out the clock on my time to send this one back, but I don't know.
I finally got with a rep who has been responsive and finally talked to engineering about it. She told me today that it's a feature of the technology. (I'd call it a bug, personally, a REALLY BIG HAIRY BUG, but whatever...) She said they'd send me a new one, and I said that there's no way I'm taking another one sight unseen because it looks to me like this is a lottery. So they're going to send a new one to my local apple store, and I can look it over in the dark before making a decision.
However, based on my research, it seems that this is just how these displays are. If I had known this, I would almost certainly not have purchased this computer. Instead, I believed Apple when they said the monitor has a 178 degree viewing angle with minimum color shift. That is a huge misrepresentation.
Now, I have a very expensive computer that I can't use in the daytime in a bright room because the screen is a giant mirror. Before getting this thing, I had no position on the glossy screen issue, by the way. Now, I understand the problem. This screen is difficult to use in bright light for any purpose, and is totally impossible to watch a movie on or do video editing work on, due to the reflections. So it needs to live in a dark room all the time.
But in a dark room, if you are trying to watch a movie or edit video, or do any sort of graphic work, and you need to deal with dark content, surprise! The edges of the screen glow, and if you shift your head a little, the pattern changes pretty quickly and intensely. Is that a full moon rising? A fog rolling in? Dawn breaking? Oh, no, that's just that damn glow from my defective LED screen.
Rather than the ultimate display I thought I was getting, I have a $2k disappointment that is actually optimal only in a narrow range of conditions with a narrow range of content, and is very problematic otherwise.
I feel that Apple falsely advertised this display. Black is in the gamut, and should display perfectly. It does not. This monitor in fact has radical color (luminance) shifts with viewing angle whenever fairly dark content is displayed in a dark viewing environment.
This looks to me like very fertile ground for a lawsuit. What say you?
[Edit to add: I'm not contemplating suing Apple, thanks. I meant class action.]
Next one arrived, and had similar issues, thankfully not as severe. I went to the local apple store and after a long negotiation persuaded the "geniuses" to take a 27" off the floor into a darkened back room so they could see what I was talking about. Which is:
The screen bleeds light at the edges, irregularly. In a dark room, while trying to display solid black, the edges of the screen are hazed with white light. It's uneven, and is different between different units- So far I've seen three 27" iMacs in the dark, and they were very different- which brings up the point that the quality control in these is very inconsistent. My current unit is the best. The one in the Apple Store was the worst- terrible, in fact. And not only is the bleed there, but if you get slightly off-axis it becomes rapidly more intense, so that if your viewing angle is maybe 30 degrees to the right of center, the left half of the screen is pretty bright grey instead of black.
The "geniuses" at the store said it looked terrible, and they thought it was defective. They said I could get a replacement screen, but I might get one that was worse than my current unit.
I called Apple, and was told to send in a movie of the issue, and a capture data file from a program they sent me. I did so. Then, for nearly a month, the rep I was supposed to be talking with simply refused to return calls or emails. I can't help thinking that they were just running out the clock on my time to send this one back, but I don't know.
I finally got with a rep who has been responsive and finally talked to engineering about it. She told me today that it's a feature of the technology. (I'd call it a bug, personally, a REALLY BIG HAIRY BUG, but whatever...) She said they'd send me a new one, and I said that there's no way I'm taking another one sight unseen because it looks to me like this is a lottery. So they're going to send a new one to my local apple store, and I can look it over in the dark before making a decision.
However, based on my research, it seems that this is just how these displays are. If I had known this, I would almost certainly not have purchased this computer. Instead, I believed Apple when they said the monitor has a 178 degree viewing angle with minimum color shift. That is a huge misrepresentation.
Now, I have a very expensive computer that I can't use in the daytime in a bright room because the screen is a giant mirror. Before getting this thing, I had no position on the glossy screen issue, by the way. Now, I understand the problem. This screen is difficult to use in bright light for any purpose, and is totally impossible to watch a movie on or do video editing work on, due to the reflections. So it needs to live in a dark room all the time.
But in a dark room, if you are trying to watch a movie or edit video, or do any sort of graphic work, and you need to deal with dark content, surprise! The edges of the screen glow, and if you shift your head a little, the pattern changes pretty quickly and intensely. Is that a full moon rising? A fog rolling in? Dawn breaking? Oh, no, that's just that damn glow from my defective LED screen.
Rather than the ultimate display I thought I was getting, I have a $2k disappointment that is actually optimal only in a narrow range of conditions with a narrow range of content, and is very problematic otherwise.
I feel that Apple falsely advertised this display. Black is in the gamut, and should display perfectly. It does not. This monitor in fact has radical color (luminance) shifts with viewing angle whenever fairly dark content is displayed in a dark viewing environment.
This looks to me like very fertile ground for a lawsuit. What say you?
[Edit to add: I'm not contemplating suing Apple, thanks. I meant class action.]
