23" Cinema display poor color consistency

I've had my 23" ACD for over a month and it has been in use 40 hours a week. I do graphic design for viewing on computer monitors (web, UI, etc.). I have yet to notice any pink cast and I have done the tests. I see a slight bit of uneven backlighting on the right and more on the left edge. No perceivable dark strip in the center. I use a black desk top and at night with the lights off you can see the areas of what I would call brighter backlighting... on the edges and most pronounced in the lower left corner. It is the only time I see any hint of yellow and this is against black. Most (if not all) of the uneven backlighting disappears as I move my head left and right and view the monitor more head on at the edges.

All that said, this is the best monitor I have ever owned. I have spent more $ in the past for CRT monitors that were (or ended up) soft and trouble to calibrate. This 23" is sharp, bright and for the most part quite accurate for its size. Admittedly it bugs me it isn't perfect but the flaws it has have yet to interfere with my work in anyway.

I think it is a personal thing. I bet lots of folks buy these monitors and the uneven backlighting is not an issue for them. There are better LCDs out there like the Ezio but they are at least half again as much $. If you follow professional photographer message boards like Rob Galbraith you see they put little value in LCDs as the optimum monitor for color critical work. Even David Blatner and Bruce Fraser in their current 2004 Real World Photoshop CS book say "But LCDs aren't without their downsides... color shifts noticeably as you move your head side to side." They go on to say "Lack of uniformity in the brightness across the face of the monitor is a bigger problem." And they end with "It is difficult to make the light even, more so with larger LCDs than with smaller ones, so you'll often find significant differences in brightness at different spots on the display."

I'm happy for now though I would send it in for a perfect one if there was such a thing. Luckily I have AppleCare.

bit

Dear All, I received my 23ACD in November, but only caught the discussions a week later. Like most users the pink sheen was not readily apparent- however I recently purchased a 15 inch powerbook, now when placed side by side it is blindingly obvious how pink the 23ACD is. Apple support claimed this was an issue they had never heard of (read the discussion groups chaps!) and I am now awaiting repair. I also found that when cleaning the screen (with my lovely non-pink Apple micro fibre cloth!) the smallest pressure brings a pink smudge (albeit temporary) at the top of the monitor!
It is clear that Apple have sold (wittingly or unwittingly) sold us a dud- they need to wake up, admit it and sort it out. That way with minimum fuss they will avoid the bad publicity when this issue eventually becomes common knowledge. We're waiting Apple...

I just received my new 23" ACD an hour or so ago. The serial number begins 2A504, so I surmise it's just been manufactured. I gotta say, that it really looks stunnning (so far). I see none of the problems that so many of you have suffered from.

Maybe there is a God.

Nicholas,

could you please post photos of your screen, maybe also in this thread here:

unduly graphic, "Post 23" photos of non-defective here", 10:39pm Jan 30, 2005 CDT

Thanks a lot
Björn, who is on his 4th(!!!) exchange

Has there been any progress on this issue. Are the newer ACD 23s better or at least acceptable? Is Apple fixing the older problems for anyone. Is the Samsung 23inch a better idea?
Thanks!

The only thing I can say is that I had mine replaced 3 times. Now it's better then my first one, but nowhere near Apple's marketing promises on these Displays!
A non-expert user might think of mine as perfect but it can't be used for professional use very well. Since I believe it's a problem with its panel I doubt a "fix" anytime soon. I will return mine if possible and maybe get a 30" cause the 20" is too small for me.

Hi Bjoern,

I read somewhere that the 20" and 30" also have some color problems....

Does anyone know if Apple is in any way consistent about servicing 23"ers? I have a 23" and a 20" and its really hard to work with them side-by-side sometimes. They 23" whites are murky and no matter how hard i try to calibrate, I can't get the whites to be the same on both screens.

Thanks

I am left with a sour taste in my mouth after all the BS!!! I switched to 2 20" cinema displays from the crappy inconsistent 23", only to later feel disgust in the fact that now I had two displays which both had their own problems. Totally unacceptable. One was slightly yellow even after calibration... Oh thank god for ebay, I only lost $150 + per display, and I am walking away from this whole mess. I can buy a display for less than $500 that opens up a can of whoop a** all over these crappy displays.

Hi Teg Goh,

I've been watching these forums and others and It did not seem that there are as many problems with other displays?! OK, I read about some 20" but the posts for the 23" were and still are much more even after deletion of posts. The 30" seems to be generally OK. Many told us about their experience with 23" in Apple Stores and always said that the 30" were perfect.

Did I miss something? Did someone see some 30" ACDs with problems?

Thanks
Björn

It's possible that Apple is waiting until there are millions of displays sold so that when they finally are forced to deal with the issues, the cost will be staggering. Why they would want to be in a situation like that is beyond me. Maybe they are using the "Dell model". You know, like how Dell waited until over four and a half million faulty power bricks were distrubuted before recalling them? Maybe Apple wants the record? Who knows? As long as we keep buying them they will not be motivated to fix the problems. I'm still pretty happy with my display but it has faded along the left side to where a light gray bleaches out to almost white. At least it has not turned pink! Read the review of the HP and Sony 23"ers in the Dec 04 ish of Maximum PC...this is what we should be hearing about the Apple units. Even the "kiss-up" Macworld and Mac Addict are tip-toeing around this one!

DD

Well it didn't get very goods across the chart. It only received a GOOD rating in the viewing angle category. There's a good paragraph about how the 23" CD has uniformity problems and they even tell how they sent the unit back for a second unit. They even go so far as to recommend graphic professionals thinking twice about the color-consistency issues. I wouldn't call that wussing out exactly 😉.

At any rate this thread seems interesting... F vd Geest, "(semi)official: 23" have polluted layers!", 06:50am Jan 21, 2005 CDT

By the way DD, nice letter. If anything this should give business owners a lesson in customer service. even if you don't know the reason behind a problem at least acknowledge that you are looking into it.