Dust and Dead Pixels, Arghhhh!

[Nielsenius]

Over the past four years I've bought six Apple products that have a LCD display (iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone 4, MacBook Pro, iPhone 4S, and Cinema Display). Of those six, four have had either dust under the glass screen and/or malfunctioning pixels. I had my iPad and iPhone 4 replaced (last year) for this issue. The replacement iPad was fine, but the replacement iPhone 4 also had dust under the screen, so I lived with it. Now, I have a 4S with a busted pixel (yes, it's hard to notice and it's not a big deal) and a new Cinema Display with a couple specks of dust under the glass. I'll probably just forget about it and live my life.

I'd like to know why these premium products have this issue. Is it just really difficult to keep dust out of the factory? Is it inevitable that out of one million pixels one will be bad? Let me know what you think and if you've had the same problem I've been having... or maybe I'm just really unlucky.

 

[Acorn]

dead pixels are a common occurrence when manufacturing lcd screens. so common in fact most companies have a threshold of how many that are acceptable. apple included. the more pixels you have the more chance of failure. the one good thing is the more dense the pixels usually the smaller they are and harder to notice if one is stuck on a particular color of has totally failed.

some companies like asus on their laptops offer a no dead or stuck pixel warranty. dell on their premium ips panels offer this as well. apple does not offer this service as far as i know on any product.

 

[fat jez]

I too have fallen foul of the dust problem. There should be no excuse for this, as the displays should be manufactured in a clean environment. As soon as you stick a glass panel in front of the LCD, you remove the ability for the user to clean specks of dust away. It might look prettier, but I'm sure it costs Apple plenty.

Dust is the main reason I went for the AG display on my MBP, so I could clean the screen when I wanted to.

 

[diegobgr]

My iMac has it, but I only can see them if I look for it, do no reason to be worry.

 

[Nielsenius]

dead pixels are a common occurrence when manufacturing lcd screens. so common in fact most companies have a threshold of how many that are acceptable. apple included. the more pixels you have the more chance of failure. the one good thing is the more dense the pixels usually the smaller they are and harder to notice if one is stuck on a particular color of has totally failed.

some companies like asus on their laptops offer a no dead or stuck pixel warranty. dell on their premium ips panels offer this as well. apple does not offer this service as far as i know on any product.

Interesting. You're right, of course. With millions of pixels the chance of a dud is inevitable.

I too have fallen foul of the dust problem. There should be no excuse for this, as the displays should be manufactured in a clean environment. As soon as you stick a glass panel in front of the LCD, you remove the ability for the user to clean specks of dust away. It might look prettier, but I'm sure it costs Apple plenty.

Dust is the main reason I went for the AG display on my MBP, so I could clean the screen when I wanted to.

Exactly. I don't understand why there is so much dust floating around where these things are manufactured. My MacBook Pro has the anti-glare display. It's been one of the few screens that has been free of imperfections for me.

My iMac has it, but I only can see them if I look for it, do no reason to be worry.

Yeah, it takes some pretty close observation to see the dust under my screen. I'm not gonna bother complaining to Apple about it. A replacement would have just as much chance of having imperfections.