21.5" BTO Experience

[MassMacFan]

Hi all -

First of all, let me say that I'm very happy to be here. I used an Apple II as a kid along with the first Mac in HS and a Powerbook 150 in college - but have been on the PC track ever since. The fam has been hobbling along on an ancient Dell for 8 years now with a 50lb ViewMaster CRT and a million wires. We've fallen behind the times on photos, video, and easy access to our music as the Dell was stashed away in the home office in the attic. After showing off the iMac to the wifey, we agreed the form factor, OS, apps, etc. were a good fit for us and we decided to get a new 21.5" BTO i5 2TB. Yellow tint was a concern but we were hoping the refresh may have helped the issue.

I ordered it on Aug 14 due to a tax holiday here in MA and with the wife's academic qualification got the Touch as well. After a long 10-day wait the iMac finally arrived. What a beauty it was. Amazing form factor, crazy mouse, silent HD, working wifi, a few specs of dust but no dead pixels. Unfortunately it also had the dreaded yellow tint. Enough so, we decided to send it back.

Two hour+ calls later and we were finally set to return. Person on the phone had 'no idea' what an advanced replacement was but said that when FedEx scanned my return that they would then ship the new one. I complained about having to wait so they 'upgraded' me to overnight. So off it goes last Tuesday and thus I wait for two days until I discover that Apple sends the replacement *after* my return has been received back at Apple on Thursday morning. Then the replacement isn't sent out until Friday night and bounces around SF for 15hrs and doesn't start to make it's way cross country until Saturday. Toss in a holiday weekend and it's now been an 8-day journey.

I'm still a bit up in the air on this one - but I think it's a keeper. Not because the screen is great, but good enough under the right conditions for me. No more taking pictures of the screen and looking for issues, lol.

My easy recommendation is that if you think you'll be annoyed by yellow tint or other issue and can purchase a stock model at an Apple retail store to do so. Door-to-door FedEx service sounds good, but the waiting, packaging, phone time, etc. are a huge pain. Everyone's in a different situation, of course, but if you can get away with an i3, just do it.

The yellow tint issue reminds me of the car buying process where the 'right' price is the one that makes everyone happy. People who buy iMacs with yellow tint but don't see the issue are likewise happy - but that doesn't mean they still didn't get screwed a bit along the way. A lucky few may have perfect 21" screens, but the yellow is common (even expected per Apple). I though my odds were at least 50/50 for a clean screen, but alas no, I'm 0-2.

That all said, I'm hoping to take a deep breath, put the purchase behind me, and actually start enjoying the thing

Cheers

 

[Spike88]

I got the iMac 21.5" with i3 3.2 GHZ with 1 TB drive. Luckily, its screen was perfect. Wife says "its a keeper".

If wondering, it took me 7-14 days to learn its basics, customize its data storage structure, customize its GUI layout, apply its screen brightness fix, setup its mail program / address book, setup its wireless & printer/scanner, setup its attached external backup drive and add a few other customize things.

Now.... I can no longer use it. My middle son is always on it (doing his iTunes things) and my daughter is on it doing her song recoarding / movie recordings as well. When they are in school, my wife it on it doing email and photo/movie surfing. And at night (when all are "in bed"), our iMac is downloading free .AVI movies.

Now... I'm not too sure when I get to use it. Perhaps I need to buy another iMac for myself? If only....

Hope you enjoy your iMac 21.5" as well.

As many say, "the iMac is just like driving a new technology BMW with Turbo - instead of a stick shift old Chevy tool using dirty gas...".

.

 

[Tigerman82]

I own a 21.5" BTO iMac (mid 2010) as well. I too have an otherwise perfect unit except it has a tiny bit of that yellow tint (the grey bars are clearly of different hue but the bottom bar does not look like Steve Jobs took a piss on it). I thought about returning the iMac but decided to accept it. I mean I love this iMac and it is otherwise perfect. I know, at this price range, I should get a perfect unit... On the other hand, if I sent it back I could get a unit that has some of the other troubles as well.

The yellow tint issue is a part of the Apple LED display design. Some of us get 'perfect' screens but it could just be that the yellow tint issue in those displays is so mild that you don't even see it. I think people focus too much on these tests. I think people should perhaps stop doing these 'grey bar' tests and what not and see if there is any problems in actual use. Even though my grey bars are of different hue, I cannot detect any yellow tint issue when I write, surf the net, play games or fix photos. If I really focus, I do see that the pure white of a Firefox window is a bit diffent on the bottom of the screen. On the other hand, do we use these iMacs in such a fashion (focusing on the color of the window)? I think not.

If you are a graphical pro and need a perfect screen, it is a good decision to replace the screen. However, if you are like me, a basic user, who gets a perfect iMac with a mild yellow tint issue, I would not return it. I may have the yellow tint issue in some form, but I cannot detect it in normal use. This makes my iMac 100% perfect in normal use and I don't really care about anything else. Would I like to have a screen with identical grey bars? Of course I would as I paid a lot of money for this iMac. Do the difference in the grey bars make the iMac-experience lacking? Not for me.

I do realize, however, that some of us are getting units with extreme yellow tint issue (the 'piss' versions) and those should get replaced.

 

[SiMBa37]

Same here, got a new BTO 21.5 i5. It has a touch of yellow hint near the bottom but I hardly notice it and it doesn't bother me. Everything else was perfect (no HD noise, no dust, no dead pixels) that I kept it and I've been very happy. Everything is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Vince96]

21,5" iMac yellow tint

Hello guys, I'm new in this forum. Well, Same for me. I bought an 21,5 " iMac i5, 3,6 GHz and tomorrow I will return it for replacement less than 1 week later. It came with yellow tinge (bottom to 1/3 of the screen) and the display is flickering when turning on sleeping mode, the iMac looks like Xmas tree… I'm a graphic designer, so the yellow tint is an issue for me. One of my client in front of the screen ask me : did you put a yellow gradient on my picture ? Concerning the replacement, it is a very long and a lost of precious time and energy. I have to work at a friend place because I don't have any computer for 1 week or 2 weeks.
Personally, I think there is an issue with iMac line concerning the display. I read a lot of complaints and iMac returns around the world, not only in North America. But still, I'm an Mac user over 20 years and even if I'm disappointing today, I will not change for PC world. I just hope my new one will be perfect.
I'm glad I can share my experience with you.