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27", 21.5" iMac Owners, test your screen for yellow tint issue here
- Thread starter tapplox
- Start date
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Why do you want to know it? Just return it for cash (no replacements this time) and buy yourself an new one two days later. It is just like a lottery, you can't win, unless you play...
Tom B.
Had a look at the gray one and the right bottom corner is missing ~15% of blue and ~7% of green. There is an orange tint in the lower right quarter of the screen. Corners on the left side are missing 7% and 10% cyan (you can see it as too red). Overall not too good...
Tom B.
Does buying a BTO iMac brand new have a better chance of being defective-free than a replacement?
I don't really know, but there was a fair amount of reports of faulty BTO units as well. What is strange is that, on one hand many people are happy with perfect first unit, and on the other hand many people complain that the second (and often third) replacement units were actually worse, than the first one. Statistically it is highly unlikely, so either those complaining people are VERY unlucky, or VERY picky, or they are receiving "recycled" units, previously returned on the same problem.
Tom B.
My first BTO 27" had a cracked LCD, terrrible gray banding, and a fairly bad yellowing problem. I am still waiting on my replacement.
Since, getting my first iMac, I have looked at 27" units in BestBuy and the Apple Store. They all had a slight gray banding issue. The unit in BestBuy also had a slight yellow tint towards the bottom. (not as bad as mine) and the unit in the Apple Store had minimal, (if any) yellow tint.
I hope I get a good one next week.
Since, getting my first iMac, I have looked at 27" units in BestBuy and the Apple Store. They all had a slight gray banding issue. The unit in BestBuy also had a slight yellow tint towards the bottom. (not as bad as mine) and the unit in the Apple Store had minimal, (if any) yellow tint.
I hope I get a good one next week.
It's actually no wonder. There are panels of a certain quality range. ALL of those panel are OK to Appel's quality insurance levels & testings. Alas, we, the customers are not OK with the lower end of those machines OK to Apple.
That's why you will find the same chance of a good or bad panel in an BTO machine. After all, it is built_to_order and not excessively_checked_to_ensure_it_will_be_OK_to_a_customer_more_picky_than_ourselves.
I've just brought home a replacement for my original 21.5" base model and I'm still not happy (it's pretty much exactly the same as the first).
The yellowing is not noticeable in everyday use, but when working in photoshop I can't help wishing the white at the bottom of the screen was as perfect as it is at the top.
Aside from taking it back again (travel costs, more hassle), do I have any other options? I really don't want to 'settle' for this when I've paid so much for the system. If I went for a different model would I have a better chance of getting a good display?
Also, I know it's hard to judge from a picture, but does it look like I have a particularly bad screen - or just 'average'?
What do people think? - I'm finding this very frustrating as I really like my iMac aside from this niggle.
![]()
The yellowing is not noticeable in everyday use, but when working in photoshop I can't help wishing the white at the bottom of the screen was as perfect as it is at the top.
Aside from taking it back again (travel costs, more hassle), do I have any other options? I really don't want to 'settle' for this when I've paid so much for the system. If I went for a different model would I have a better chance of getting a good display?
Also, I know it's hard to judge from a picture, but does it look like I have a particularly bad screen - or just 'average'?
What do people think? - I'm finding this very frustrating as I really like my iMac aside from this niggle.
Looks about average.
The new 27" models seem to so far have a better track record, but it's a lot more money.
Which leads me to a theory (though far from explaining all defects in current models) I haven't heard much discussion about:
Now that the 21.5" has the same video as the 2009 27"' is it possible that the video card is somehow the culprit? Perhaps the heat, or some other strange interaction that makes ati and lg not play nice together?
....personally, I've never been a fan of either ati or lg. Have been bitten by both more times than I care to remember over the years.
Just a thought.
The new 27" models seem to so far have a better track record, but it's a lot more money.
Which leads me to a theory (though far from explaining all defects in current models) I haven't heard much discussion about:
Now that the 21.5" has the same video as the 2009 27"' is it possible that the video card is somehow the culprit? Perhaps the heat, or some other strange interaction that makes ati and lg not play nice together?
....personally, I've never been a fan of either ati or lg. Have been bitten by both more times than I care to remember over the years.
Just a thought.
I've just brought home a replacement for my original 21.5" base model and I'm still not happy (it's pretty much exactly the same as the first).
The yellowing is not noticeable in everyday use, but when working in photoshop I can't help wishing the white at the bottom of the screen was as perfect as it is at the top.
Aside from taking it back again (travel costs, more hassle), do I have any other options? I really don't want to 'settle' for this when I've paid so much for the system. If I went for a different model would I have a better chance of getting a good display?
Also, I know it's hard to judge from a picture, but does it look like I have a particularly bad screen - or just 'average'?
What do people think? - I'm finding this very frustrating as I really like my iMac aside from this niggle.
![]()
Honestly I don't really see much in that pic, looks pretty good. But maybe in person it's a bit more noticeable.
I've just brought home a replacement for my original 21.5" base model and I'm still not happy (it's pretty much exactly the same as the first).
The yellowing is not noticeable in everyday use, but when working in photoshop I can't help wishing the white at the bottom of the screen was as perfect as it is at the top.
Aside from taking it back again (travel costs, more hassle), do I have any other options? I really don't want to 'settle' for this when I've paid so much for the system. If I went for a different model would I have a better chance of getting a good display?
Also, I know it's hard to judge from a picture, but does it look like I have a particularly bad screen - or just 'average'?
What do people think? - I'm finding this very frustrating as I really like my iMac aside from this niggle.
![]()
I'd be happy with this one.
Actually this screen looks quite good, at least at these light grey levels and with visible reflections on the screen. Slight (~1%) blue missing along the very left edge (~1%) and in the right bottom corner area (~~1.5%).
Tom B.
I received my 27" iMac i7 2010 today and wonder if I should be satisfied or not. Generally the display look good. No back light bleed to speak of and only a very slight yellow tint on the right edge of the screen.
To know if it were just my sight or actually a tint I tested the screen with a meter.
The noticeable slight tint on the right edge of the screen is a 3 cm band vertical running with the edge with the outer most 1cm is worst. Should I get a replacement or is this as good as it gets? BTW I use it solely for Aperture 3 work.
PS! My results were as follows (on a white screen) in R% G% B%:
Center: 101 99 100
Center top: 99 99 103
Center bottom: 98 199 98
Right: 97 101 96
Right top: 100 100 97
Right bottom: 102 99 99
Left: 100 99 100
Left top: 104 98 99
Left bottom: 100 99 100
To know if it were just my sight or actually a tint I tested the screen with a meter.
The noticeable slight tint on the right edge of the screen is a 3 cm band vertical running with the edge with the outer most 1cm is worst. Should I get a replacement or is this as good as it gets? BTW I use it solely for Aperture 3 work.
PS! My results were as follows (on a white screen) in R% G% B%:
Center: 101 99 100
Center top: 99 99 103
Center bottom: 98 199 98
Right: 97 101 96
Right top: 100 100 97
Right bottom: 102 99 99
Left: 100 99 100
Left top: 104 98 99
Left bottom: 100 99 100
Perfect i7 Screen After Waiting 2 Months and 4 Returned Units
Hey Guys,
I took the plunge today and got myself the 27" i7. We had a tax holiday here this weekend in Massachusetts and I could not resist. Let me preface by saying that I had returned and gotten a full refund back in June after I went through 4 i7s (early 2010). I gave up and waited to see if Apple had gotten it's act together after this most recent refresh.
I honestly saw significant improvement on the display models at the Apple Stores locally and at Bestbuy. I told the Apple sales rep that I would need to take my unit out for inspection before I took it home in case of dead pixels or yellow screens. He agreed. Lucky for me the Apple rep was a video and photo editor so understood. I told him to grab me the "latest build unit possible".
I am happy to report that I am extremely pleased with my unit. I did the imac.squeaked.com yellow and dead pixel test in the store and my unit passed with flying colors! There was only a very mild light bleed on the sides which is invisible under normal usage. There was NO gray bars at the bottom. I had that on all of my returned units.
I know what I am looking for as I do a lot of photo editing. The only downer is that I have the audible Seagate harddrive. But I can live with that. I was unable to locate any display models whether they were i3s, i5s, or i7s with the Western Digital drive. Oh well.
dsc888
Hey Guys,
I took the plunge today and got myself the 27" i7. We had a tax holiday here this weekend in Massachusetts and I could not resist. Let me preface by saying that I had returned and gotten a full refund back in June after I went through 4 i7s (early 2010). I gave up and waited to see if Apple had gotten it's act together after this most recent refresh.
I honestly saw significant improvement on the display models at the Apple Stores locally and at Bestbuy. I told the Apple sales rep that I would need to take my unit out for inspection before I took it home in case of dead pixels or yellow screens. He agreed. Lucky for me the Apple rep was a video and photo editor so understood. I told him to grab me the "latest build unit possible".
I am happy to report that I am extremely pleased with my unit. I did the imac.squeaked.com yellow and dead pixel test in the store and my unit passed with flying colors! There was only a very mild light bleed on the sides which is invisible under normal usage. There was NO gray bars at the bottom. I had that on all of my returned units.
I know what I am looking for as I do a lot of photo editing. The only downer is that I have the audible Seagate harddrive. But I can live with that. I was unable to locate any display models whether they were i3s, i5s, or i7s with the Western Digital drive. Oh well.
dsc888
I guess the answer presented itself when using Aperture today. When viewing photos fullscreen they never touch the area that is slightly affected. Another observation is that my Macbook Pro from 2006 also is slightly tinted on the right edge of the screen. It has not bothered me before and it probably won't in the future.
Enjoy your iMac's!
Interestingly (but not in a good way as I'm looking for the 27" only), the poll has now evened out and tells that you're about twice as likely to get a visibly tinted screen as you're not, regardless LCD size. This keeps making my purchase much tougher than I had hoped it to be. I'm right now wondering whether I should give Apple at least one chance with a 27" i7, and then I'll request a refund if it's not good enough, for my standards as someone who'll use it for photography. I simply don't want to feel like a frustrated fool replacing a series of four iMac's or something... If it comes to that, I'll be forced to purchase something like a Dell U2711 (same IPS panel, but not using LED backlighting, and avoiding the yellow tinge at least) and a custom-built PC. Ugh!
Thankfully, our country at least has consumer laws (distance purchase laws that apply to all and any online purchases) saying that it doesn't matter if Apple changed the hardware config before shipping or not.
This keeps making my purchase much tougher than I had hoped it to be. I'm right now wondering whether I should give Apple at least one chance with a 27" i7, and then I'll request a refund if it's not good enough, for my standards as someone who'll use it for photography. I simply don't want to feel like a frustrated fool replacing a series of four iMac's or something... If it comes to that, I'll be forced to purchase something like a Dell U2711 (same IPS panel, but not using LED backlighting, and avoiding the yellow tinge at least) and a custom-built PC. Ugh!Thankfully, our country at least has consumer laws (distance purchase laws that apply to all and any online purchases) saying that it doesn't matter if Apple changed the hardware config before shipping or not.
This is a very good point, since I also use Aperture 3 for my photo management, and I of course care much less if only its UI is affected ever so slightly. My issue is really just with getting the white balance right. That's what this is all about for me. I would even have preferred a full yellow screen over the gradient I'm seeing here, because then I could at least calibrate it away.
This is an old poll whose majority of entries were the previous years models. There is a newer poll that just pertains to the new refresh models: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/983886/
Ohh, sorry, I got confused since I had seen that poll earlier and thought more had just voted since then, haha. Thanks for the pointer!
Part of me thinks we should all find a way to discretly "mark" each defective iMac we receive so that another macrumors board member could tell if they received a recycled return. Perhaps a small dry erase marker dot in a speaker hole along the bottom? haha
Yes, or a thumb fingerprint on the screen glass. But no, wait, we already do this!
LOL
Tom B.
