Bought new iMac 20" Faded Screen

I noticed this as well looking at 20" iMacs at the Apple store today. The color is too washed out/light/faded. The 24" iMac looks a whole lot better, much more saturated colors that pop at you. I must have looked at 4 different 20" and 3 24" at least in the store, and all the 20" looked way worse compared to the 24"s.

All the 20" were with 2600 Pro graphics (higher end 20"s).

Did not play with color profiles, but the 24" were perfectly fine with brightness on full/max. The 20" just couldn't compare, and got worse if the brightness is set on full/max.

I bought a 20" Imac on Friday and noticed a problem with fading on the screen. Colours were also light and washed out, but that was sorted easily with calibration. However, a block of single colour covering the whole screen appears quite a lot darker at the top than the bottom on my Imac. I was informed by Applecare that it's a fault and to return it, so I'm hoping that's the case.
I'm a designer so the fading screen on my mac wasn't acceptable. Apart from that, the screen seemed fine and the gloss didn't give me any problem reflections whatsoever. Everything else with the mac was excellent. I'm returning the mac later and will check the 20s and 24s. To check for fading I've set up a really simple colour test at www.alexmcleod.co.uk where you can cycle through 4 colours at full screen (links at bottom if you can't see them on a 20). Hopefully it's just a fault, but I'll check the test on a few 20s and 24s at the store to see if this fading issue is common or not. I'll try and report back later tonight.

Rune, I did as you said and fiddle farted around with the expert mode and got a color profile that works but my iMac will still be making a trip back to Cupertino. I noticed that in instances in WoW the action was not smooth with a lot of jerking and bouncing. I'm almost tempted to upgrade to the 24" seeing as this seems to be an issue with the 20". So sad.

Eric

My new 20-inch iMac was sort of washed out looking on the second day. I opened the Sys Prefs/Display and ran the calibrator. The factory setting for
the iMac was gama 1.8. Move the slider to 2.2 and it solved the problem.

Try it ..... you will like the results. The iMac default setting is wrong
or may have been changed by the first software updater

I went to the Apple store on Regent Street tonight, to return my silver imac 20" because of colour fading (darker at top of monitor). While I was there I ran a test on 3 of the 20" imacs and got the same result. The Apple guy agreed. This is in no way conclusive, but the 3 20" Imacs on display downstairs at RS and my own had the same problem. If you're thinking of buying a 20" imac try viewing solid colours over the whole screen (you can pop to my website at www.alexmcleod.co.uk to use as a basic check). The colour (and they are solid blocks of colour - no gradients) appears darker at the top and slowly fades to a lighter tint at the bottom. It may well be a batch issue, but if not, then in my opinion these screens are pretty bad for a designer and there was no way I could use one and be in any way confident.
In contrast the 24" screens had no such problem. Let's hope it's a batch thing, because other than that the Imacs are great and I was gutted to have to take it back.

I just got my iMac 20" dual core dual processor running 2 gb of ram two days ago. From the time I turned it on, there was an obvious gradient from dark to light from top to bottom. It even looks vignetted. It is not a slight change it's quite apparent.
It is my work computer. As I'm working on a vertical photo, peoples heads at the top of the image are dark and everything at the bottom of the image is washed out. This is just not right. I calibrated with the Eye One Match 3 and there was no difference. I've been using a G5 iMac before this for about 3 years and I've never seen anything like it. The problem with the old iMac was the "burning in" of Photoshop palettes onto my screen perminently.
I have a feeling I'm going to have to send this one back, especially if some people report that they don't have any problems with theirs.

Hi, I also posted above about the same problem, unfortunately, nothing works for me. My gamma is always set at 2.2. This is not just a fading problem. You can't even tilt the screen without the gradient getting very dark at the top and very light at the bottom. If you sit and look straight ahead at it, the screen is horribly vignetted. The top corners are darker than the center top and as the gradient moves down the screen it gets bright and washed out. It's as if you made a radial gradient in the center of the screen. Adobe RGB color profile on the monitor or any calibration wouldn't help the inconsistency of the lighting throughout the screen. Seems like something is radically wrong...with mine at least.

I received my new 20" through TNT yesterday and noticed the poor screen quality immediately. Found this thread and tried some of the Gamma solutions but really still wasn't happy.

I found the clearest example of the problem was in iTunes where the blue/white listing dividers were strong at the top of the screen and then almost invisible at the bottom.

In the end I called Applecare and arranged to return the machine for a full refund. What a disappointment. Look like Apple may have a serious problem with this first batch of these machines.

I've gone back to my old G5 20" iMac and the screen is significantly better in every respect.

I bought one earlier this week and definitely have the same issue. This morning I went to the Apple Store and although they did agree and were very nice there was no solution they could offer. It is so hard to determine what a photo should look like with this issue. I have no idea what to do now.

Has anyone tried to calibrate using a Spyder? I have to think it's a lighting/hardware issue at this point though.

Some people have been happy with the results from a spyder, but of course that's only going to help if the problems are screenwide. I don't think a calibration can help banding, if that's your problem. If you want to try calibrating, it appears (based on reports from those who are satisfied with their results) you'll get closest in total darkness, as opposed to the conventional wisdom of calibrating in your working lighting conditions.

Now that my 20" is scheduled to be picked up and returned I'm trying to decide between a 24" (too big for my needs really) and a Mini.

I'll probably go with the mini, but I have to say that I'm really disappointed in Apple for dropping the ball here. I've been using Macs for 15 years and have never had a product experience like this one.

rather than the mini, have you thought about looking for one of previous white imacs? If you're in the US there are some great sale prices right now at amazon and other places. I don't know about amazon.uk, though.

The spec isn't quite as good as the new models, but it's not bad and the 20" has an S-IPS screen.

Message was edited by: Barbara Brundage

That's exactly what I did.. Went to see the new AL iMacs at the Apple store & didn't like the way the screens looked on the 20". I asked about a white iMac & they had a few left. I was able to pick up a brand new white 20"/2.16 GHz/1 GB RAM/250 GB HD at a nice discount..

After reading about all the issues with washed out screens on the new 20" models, I'm glad I went with the white one instead of the new AL version.

I took ours back Monday 8/13/07; Problems same as others posted on this and similar threads; Just wanted to add this post to the data pool; The "gradient effect" was clear and obvious, looking straight on, no tilt relative to sight line, solid color background from one of Apple's included backgrounds. Played around with Expert settings in the Color Profile, tried different color profiles, took it to the Genius, and although I/we could get the desktop to look better, (ie could tell what the icons were in the Dock), it would still be darker at the top; I could maybe live with that, but then other apps would look weird, iTunes for example in the tan colored window at the top, the bottom of it would be this funky color, why? try to fix that and something else somewhere would be out of whack; Have a PowerMac 8500 bought new with 20" monitor, Rev A iMac bought new, G4 Cube with Studio display, bought new, Rev C iMac bought used, a couple of Quadras with smaller monitors bought used, a Mac Pro with 23" display, and I have never, ever, ever had to deal with the kind of thing as this, right out of the box and on first boot; the icons in the Dock were so washed out at first I could not tell what the TextEdit icon was for without moving the pointer over it; This was by default, on first boot up! There is no excuse for this, not from anyone, especially not from Apple. Well maybe some of those cheapo, low-end PC box makers, but Apple? On a brand new, significant product line like the iMac? I just have to echo my disappointment, both in the product, the experience, and with Apple. I think they do have a problem, either with the tech they chose to use, or some manufacturing problem, but this. just. aint. right. I am surprised they made it out like this, unless they decided to ship them anyway so they could hold to the release date and clean up the fallout later.