The Apple Store and the new 20" iMac

[prs986]

So last night I was down at my local Apple Store (Fresno) to check out the new iPod Touch. So I see they have the new iMacs so I was curious to see if they have the "gradient problem". Nope they don't. But here's the weird thing. The viewing angles are just as good as the 24"! My new iMac has very short viewing angles. If you just lean your head to the left or right, you can see the shift in color. Not the 20"s at the store!! There was 3 lined up and the first one in the line was like mine, very short viewing angles......but the other 2 didn't have this problem! Very strange! Did Apple silently upgrade the panel in the 20's? So I'm going to see since I'm still under warranty if they'll let me exchange one. So what do you guys think about this? Have you noticed anyting like this?

PS and by the way, I got my iMac the week it came out. So maybe there has been a revision.....

 

[kkat69]

So last night I was down at my local Apple Store (Fresno) to check out the new iPod Touch. So I see they have the new iMacs so I was curious to see if they have the "gradient problem". Nope they don't. But here's the weird thing. The viewing angles are just as good as the 24"! My new iMac has very short viewing angles. If you just lean your head to the left or right, you can see the shift in color. Not the 20"s at the store!! There was 3 lined up and the first one in the line was like mine, very short viewing angles......but the other 2 didn't have this problem! Very strange! Did Apple silently upgrade the panel in the 20's? So I'm going to see since I'm still under warranty if they'll let me exchange one. So what do you guys think about this? Have you noticed anyting like this?

PS and by the way, I got my iMac the week it came out. So maybe there has been a revision.....

I did the same thing with 2 apple stores here in atlanta. They both had the issue. BUT I had to do some work to get it to show. (no I didn't force the gradient issue)

First off, the lighting in that store is very bright and somewhat uniformed than an average home. Therefore it's harder to see the gradient. One person actually mentioned a color "salmon" that really showed it off.
Tilting the monitor down a bit so that the ambient light wasn't flushing away the gradient also brought it out.

Sometimes (I'm no prof photographer, I'm just a lowely IT guy) the flouresent lights can hide things like bad backlighting, so you really REALLY have to look hard.

 

[Trout74]

same here

I have been to the Apple store at hte Jordan Creek Mall here in WDM, IA. and I noticed the same thing, but I figured I was just seeing things so I kept quiet. The one that is used to sign up for the Mac Genius has the color shift and the ones in the front of the store I could not get them to shift colors no matter what I did, it was freaking me out, I made my girlfriend who owns her own photography studio ( uses dells, bleh I know) and she concured with me.

Trout

 

[prs986]

I have been to the Apple store at hte Jordan Creek Mall here in WDM, IA. and I noticed the same thing, but I figured I was just seeing things so I kept quiet. The one that is used to sign up for the Mac Genius has the color shift and the ones in the front of the store I could not get them to shift colors no matter what I did, it was freaking me out, I made my girlfriend who owns her own photography studio ( uses dells, bleh I know) and she concured with me.

Trout

I was starting to freak out too! Here I thought my iMac's screen was amazing.....then I saw the other 20" iMacs..........now those are amazing!!! Man, I hope they let me exchange it.......

 

[nakile]

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple did some sort of silent revision. They've done stuff like that in the past.

It's really just another reason to avoid a new product for the first few months. Wait for the bugs to get filtered out and all.

 

[flopticalcube]

I just received two new 20" iMacs yesterday (straight from China) and to my eyes they exhibit less gradient than ones I had previous seen in stores. Maybe Apple is becoming more choosy about its panels.