I don't have a screen problem but I'm wondering, is the yellow noticeable in day to day use, or must you stare at gray bars to see it.
Day-to-day use. Could care less about test bars, personally. I do care about half this forum being grey and the other being yellow-green. Test bars were just the best way to even attempt to photograph it.
I can't see anything wrong with these .
I think most of you quys are crazy.
Very difficult (read: impossible) to photograph this accurately. Trust me, I do not have the time nor energy to be a perfectionist. You'd notice it if you were here.
We're not crazy, just picky. We have every right to be considering Apple's high prices and their claim to be the best in the industry..
I wish I could say I was being picky. Friends and family far less tech-literate and picky than I have noticed all issues unprompted. Just a simple, "Hey. Use this." quickly becomes "So why is it yellow?"
When I first saw the pics I got the same impression. When does anyone spend time looking at a blank screen? Are the"faults" noticeable in normal use? Has anyone checked the colour profile?
I'm willing to bet that 99.9% of people who own iMacs and haven't read the "colour cast" threads on forums such as this are happily using their machines without a care in the world!
In my case a blank screen has nothing to do with it. Use iTunes, Finder, Safari, etc. and you see it. Color profile also has nothing to do with it. Can't fix localized issues with a global adjustment.
Photo and HD video editing are my primary use - can not think of a single time where a print had to be redone due to screen caused localized edits being unwarranted.
Photos on the bottom half of the screen do appear warmer in my case, such as when using a grid view of thumbnails. That said, I wish I could get past the discoloration of the Mac OS X interface and actually process some photos!
And the saga continues. To recap my iMac path:
1) 2010 27" i5 Refurb. Loud hard drive, severe yellow tint on bottom half of the screen. Returned.
2) 2011 27" i7 Refurb. Loud hard drive (thought these two were loud, and completely silent new unit confirms it), distracting dark shadow bar across the screen, overall inconsistent color and lighting.
3) 2011 27" i7 Brand New. Gave up on the online route after realizing the i7 models were stocked in my local store. Didn't even get out of the store with this one. Hard such a prominent grey bar on every screen that I could see it from across the store. Sales staff admitted they would not even buy, despite head genius trying to convince me it was okay. The genius even dared to suggest that I wouldn't be doing much work near the bottom of the screen anyways. I reminded him of all the handy new fullscreen features of Lion.
4) 2011 27" i7 Brand New. Ended up leaving the store with this one as the grey bar was much less noticeable and definitely acceptable. Upon setting it up at home, it immediately became apparent that there is yellowing on this screen. I'm not talking test bars, etc. Just using this forum, Finder, iTunes, heck, having one grey window in the top-left corner and one in the bottom-right corner exposes it very obviously. As I type this post, the bottom of the page is greenish-yellow, the top a nice neutral grey.
Throughout the process I've had contact with a case manager who could do very little other than offer me $125 off an online order or a equivalent gift from the online store if I chose to buy in-store. As much as that is appreciated, at this point I just want a satisfactory computer.
I am not looking for perfect by any means. I know there's limitations, tolerances, etc. to everything. If I wanted a pro monitor, I'd buy one. What I'd like at the very least is a monitor that could achieve the color consistency of a $150 Samsung.
It's a shame. I really love using the machine. It's the nicest, most productive beast I've ever worked with. Love the 27", the trackpad, and even Lion. But I'm convinced Apple can't build this machine to a reasonable standard and am heavily considering walking away from it altogether. It's been over a month since I (on an impulse) decided to purchase my first Apple computer and it has been nothing short of hassle since. I'm out of time and patience.
