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How big of an issue is the iMac Yellow Tinting issue?

How many of you guys that are saying the percentage is really low or that people are being too picky and looking for problems have actually bought a late model iMac? Just wondering because after my first 2 being so quiet I thought the loud hard drive noise people complain about was ********. Then I got my 3rd one and the hdd was loud as hell compared to the first two.

I was actually going to keep it because the yellow tint wasn't as bad as the first two but I decided having a yellow screen and a louder hard drive wasn't fair when the guy walking out of the store right in front of me could have had a perfect one. I am glad i switched it one more time even though I still got stuck with the loud seagate hdd my screen is pretty good (gray band on the bottom but no yellow) and the worse problem by far is having a yellow screen it is annoying as hell once you know it is there.

Anyway just wondering if any of you guys that don't think it is a widespread problem has experienced it first hand. I will agree that reading the forums made me look for problems but as far as the yellow tint goes I seen it on the first one before I seen any yellow tint threads.
 
jicka,

I own a late-2009 i7 and it is perfect. I am a photographer that is very picky about color management. I am also getting ready to buy a mid-2010 i7, so I'll be able to speak to the condition of that iMac in a couple of weeks.

Bryan
 
Just got my imac today, it's a 21.5 base model.

I tested the screen and noticed it is slightly warmer towards the bottom. You only even notice when it's something very light e.g a website with a lot of white.

I used it for an hour or two and realized it's not even an issue for me. The difference is very small and if it's something you need a test to even see, you should be ok.

Some people say there's know such things as a perfects screen due to the nature of led technology. I don't know if this is true but even if it is, i think they get pretty close to a perceived perfection.

If i had never been to macrumors forums and heard of this yellow screen thing i wouldn't have tested for it and would have never even found anything different about my display.
 
Bryan Bowler said:
jicka,

I own a late-2009 i7 and it is perfect. I am a photographer that is very picky about color management. I am also getting ready to buy a mid-2010 i7, so I'll be able to speak to the condition of that iMac in a couple of weeks.

Bryan
Click to expand...

Alright man report back, we will see if my 50/50 percentage works out lol
 
thedon1 said:
Just got my imac today, it's a 21.5 base model.

I tested the screen and noticed it is slightly warmer towards the bottom. You only even notice when it's something very light e.g a website with a lot of white.

I used it for an hour or two and realized it's not even an issue for me. The difference is very small and if it's something you need a test to even see, you should be ok.

Some people say there's know such things as a perfects screen due to the nature of led technology. I don't know if this is true but even if it is, i think they get pretty close to a perceived perfection.

If i had never been to macrumors forums and heard of this yellow screen thing i wouldn't have tested for it and would have never even found anything different about my display.
Click to expand...

Maybe the new ones are getting lighter, My 2 09's were dark yellow it was easy to see in normal use on any white or gray background. My first 2010 model had tint for sure but it wasn't as obvious but it was right up the middle of the screen instead of on the lower half. I might not have noticed it for awhile if I wasn't looking for it. The 09's on the other hand...
haha the first one had me searching forums for other people having the same problem.
 
Bryan Bowler said:
Will do. Admittedly, my personal ownership of two iMacs doesn't give us a solid answer either. :D

Bryan
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't think there will be a solid answer unless it is from apple which isn't going to happen. That's why I say 50/50 that you get a screen that has some yellow. In my experience it is higher than 50 where 3 out of 4 had at and for you its a very low percent cuz your doesn't haha no one will ever win the arguement.
 
Well I decided to go down to the Apple store yesterday and have a look for myself. I checked out most of the iMac's and I couldn't see the yellow tinting on them. That isn't to say it isn't there, just that I couldn't see it.

I've been using crappy monitors for a while and even using my mbp as a main screen for a while so I guess anything would be an improvement lol.

Personally I pay the premium for OSX, not necessarily the hardware. So I guess it isn't as big of a deal for me as a professional photographer.

If I do make the plunge, I'll buy the iMac and if I have problems then just return it. That is other premium I consider besides OSX, the support. The fact that some people in this thread are able to return several iMac's without much hassle is pretty impressive, not many other computer companies are like that.
 
Anyone running two screens with an iMac?

Just curious to hear from those who have side by side monitors to compare. I held my iPad up to my new iMac 21.5" and the "contrast" (g) was startling.

I was eventually going to get a 3rd party second monitor but am rethinking if the result would be making the imac's crapple display seem even worse than it already is.

Thoughts?
 
Seeing Is Believing

I went to the Apple Store on Regents Street today and managed to check out the iMacs. Spent some time on the 21.5" models on display and they were fine. Ran the yellow-tint test and didn't notice anything unusual. Screens were uniformly bright and pretty impressive.

I didn't realise the menu bar under Snow Leopard was translucent so at first I thought there was a weird bleeding issue. Toggled it off in system preferences and it was gone. Checked out a couple of 27" monitors as well and they were fine too. I'd be happy to own any of these machines. Left feeling more confident and wondering what all the fuss is about. I'm not saying there is no problem but I'm not convinced this is an inherent design flaw as the machines I saw were faultless.

Of course there's always the possibility that somebody else might look at the same monitors I saw and run the same test and declare them yellow. No doubt there's something like this also going on. If you look hard enough you'll find it. But I couldn't see anything that would make me think there was a problem. I'd be fine about ordering an iMac on the basis of what I saw.
 
What annoyed me as much, or even more than the yellow tint was the gray bar/streak along the bottom. That was much easier to notice.
 
jicka said:
Yeah I don't think there will be a solid answer unless it is from apple which isn't going to happen. That's why I say 50/50 that you get a screen that has some yellow. In my experience it is higher than 50 where 3 out of 4 had at and for you its a very low percent cuz your doesn't haha no one will ever win the arguement.
Click to expand...

I would just go ahead and order an iMac. I saw zero problems with the machines on display in the Apple Store. They looked perfectly fine to me. No doubt some machines have a genuine problem. I don't believe everyone is making stuff up. But some people are also paranoid and imagining things that aren't there. Apple's return policy covers all possibilities. Even if you think you have a problem Apple will exchange it for you or give you your money back. I don't see how you can lose.
 
stonemann said:
I went to the Apple Store on Regents Street today and managed to check out the iMacs. Spent some time on the 21.5" models on display and they were fine. Ran the yellow-tint test and didn't notice anything unusual. Screens were uniformly bright and pretty impressive.

.....
Click to expand...

They could have been preselected by the store.
On the flip side, this is a good proof that good screens DO exist. Do you think you could simply buy a display unit you like?

Tom B.
 
stonemann said:
I would just go ahead and order an iMac. I saw zero problems with the machines on display in the Apple Store. They looked perfectly fine to me. No doubt some machines have a genuine problem.
Click to expand...

Others have said the same but its actually attributed to the lighting in the store, which conceals the yellow tint.
 
stonemann said:
I would just go ahead and order an iMac. I saw zero problems with the machines on display in the Apple Store. They looked perfectly fine to me. No doubt some machines have a genuine problem. I don't believe everyone is making stuff up. But some people are also paranoid and imagining things that aren't there. Apple's return policy covers all possibilities. Even if you think you have a problem Apple will exchange it for you or give you your money back. I don't see how you can lose.
Click to expand...

This is the mindset I had when I picked up my 27" Refurb. Every apple item I have gotten has been fine by me, when people around me return and exchange 3-4 times over. Maybe I will get hit with bad luck this time, but to me it was worth the rist to get this amazing machine. And if there is a problem - I can return it without restocking fee. If there isn't I have an amazing machine. Sure it is a time thing...I think it is worth the gamble. No other computer will fill that void like an imac.

I was at best buy yesterday and did a visual inspection on yellowing for a 21.5". Couldn't notice any yellowing, and I was looking. Couldn't perform the test at the time but if I don't see it I don't see it.
 
Btom said:
They could have been preselected by the store.
On the flip side, this is a good proof that good screens DO exist. Do you think you could simply buy a display unit you like?

Tom B.
Click to expand...

So, the store is opening up a number of boxes, then firing up the machines until they find a few without this issue? LOL!
 
its annoying

its a little issue but its an annoying one i am having to send my mac back because of this yellow issue on the right and two small hairs under the glass on the left
 
So this what I'm talking about. The naysayers are saying things like "maybe Apple is pre-screening iMacs before placing them on display" and "they have special lighting that masks the yellow displays". Hilarious!

Fact: I've closely inspected at least a dozen iMacs in various Best Buys and Apple stores. I did not see a yellow display on any of them.

Fact: I own a late-2009 i7 and it is perfect.

Fact: There have been some bad displays. We've seen more than enough proof in pics posted in this forum.

My opinion: The problem is not as bad as a few make it out to be. I would be willing to wager a thousand dollars that the percentage of bad displays is in the single digits, but of course, we'll never know.

Fact: Apple stands behind their products and has excellent customer service.

People will have to make their own logical decision, but I wouldn't hesitate to purchase an iMac.

Bryan
 
originalvector said:
....If I was using it for casual work then it would be easy to attempt it and live with some exchanges but I need color accuracy for the type of work I do....
Click to expand...

you said you're a professional web developer so you know that any and everything that you create is going to be viewed on displays that vary wildly in the quality of the color they produce. It isn't like print design where you'll have close control over how the final colors appear.

If you get a bad one, take it back right away.....otherwise, you should be able to get one that'll be satisfactory for you.
 
adamw1987 said:
its a little issue but its an annoying one i am having to send my mac back because of this yellow issue on the right and two small hairs under the glass on the left
Click to expand...

Hairs under the glass is the not a unique case, it was reported before, except in that case the guy was reporting just one hair.
I was thinking to crack a smart comment on Apple quality control, but it would be just too easy...

Tom B.
 
Bryan Bowler said:
So this what I'm talking about. The naysayers are saying things like "maybe Apple is pre-screening iMacs before placing them on display" and "they have special lighting that masks the yellow displays". Hilarious!

Fact: I've closely inspected at least a dozen iMacs in various Best Buys and Apple stores. I did not see a yellow display on any of them.

Fact: I own a late-2009 i7 and it is perfect.

Fact: There have been some bad displays. We've seen more than enough proof in pics posted in this forum.

My opinion: The problem is not as bad as a few make it out to be. I would be willing to wager a thousand dollars that the percentage of bad displays is in the single digits, but of course, we'll never know.

Fact: Apple stands behind their products and has excellent customer service.

People will have to make their own logical decision, but I wouldn't hesitate to purchase an iMac.

Bryan
Click to expand...

When the brightness was turned up on my iMac the yellow tint was harder to detect. However, I ran my iMac in a "darker" room and had to turn the brightness down some. That is when the issue got worse. Next time you are in an Apple store, try turning the brightness down to close to half way (50-60%) and see if you see any yellow.

FWIW, TV's are setup the same way in the stores. They are all set on their brightest setting to compete with the large amount of ambient light, and also to also try to look as sharp as possible.
 
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