What is an acceptable backlight bleeding/leaking? (with photos)

I used to have a 20" Cinema Display and that screen was perfect, bought in July 2005, just have recently traded in at one of the Apple re-sellers.
Now that I think of it, maybe I should've kept it instead.

But thanks for the re-assurance, I was split whether I should simply live with this issue or not. After talking to a colleague here at work and reading your reply, I am going to return this monitor as well and try another one. Afterall, paying $2,000 for a screen should yield a 100% working product. If I was paying 80% of the price then I should get a 80% working item...
The only thing in my mind is that I am sorta reserved whether I will actually find a screen without backlight bleed or not - maybe they are all defective like this.

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

And so I went and got a third screen (returned the second one to the Apple Store). This new screen appeared the best of the three I had after doing some testing and the backlight leak wasn't as severe as the other two (photos follow):

http://www.max3d.com/~amigo/acd/CY62xx28UG1_e1.jpg
http://www.max3d.com/~amigo/acd/CY62xx28UG1_e2.jpg (overexposed)

Then I found two dead pixels about 1.5" apart in the upper left area just above the center of the screen. They appear as bright spots on the black background, but do not show on any other colour background. Tried power cycling the screen and rebooting the computer, but it did not make them go away.

The worst was yet to come - after I tried using the supplied cloth to remove some dust specks from the screen. After a very gentle pressure on the screen I noticed the panel moving inwards into the frame slightly with a crackling sound. I went to the four corners and the screen appears to be somewhat lose there, enough to hear it crackling against there frame assembly holding it in place.
My guess is that this is the reason the backlight on this one does not bleed as much (screen is not screwed in as tight as others) but this is definitely a factory defect and a pretty bad one.
Also, if attention is paid to how tight the screen is agains the frame, backlight bleeding can be reduced if not corrected.

I really wonder if whoever assembles these screens works under some heavy illumination or whether they do it in the semi-dark environment where they can actually see the backlight bleeding. The later would really make sense when tightening the screen to the frame.

There are some serious issues here that Apple's QA should address and make a new assembly policy/procedure so that screens are tested more rigorously before leaving the factory, or specific pressure values established for each mount point. I know this is not a Spache Shuttle here but we are paying $2,000 for each one of these so...

If I can sum it up in one word it would be: AARGH !!!

Apple Stores here do not really let you test monitors before buying, and any testing in-store is impossible under the usual super-bright illumination Apple uses to light their stores.
Yes, everything looks nice, shiny and new but there's no way to tell whether certain things like monitors are really 100% or not.

The frustration level here is rising up and up, I do not know how high can it go. BAH!

I say get your monitor replaced with another one, and another one and another one until you get what you paid for. I am sure going to try that. Maybe in the process Apple should pay US for the hassles, frustrations and time spent on going back and forth and testing something their QA should've done at the first place.

The photos of the last screen I got has the least backlight leaking, and I am split whether I should keep it or not. I fear that my quest to find a display that does not bleed backlight will turn futile.
But that screen has that issue that all four corners of the panel do not seem to be tightely screwed to the frame so that when you gently press in to wipe the dust off, the panel itself moves slightly inwards (maybe 1mm). I do not know whether that would affect the operation of the screen later on...

As for the Dell's 30" I heard that they were not as good as Apple's and that the viewing angle of the display was pretty bad (although people say that both Apple and Dell use the same panels).
Of course with Dell I wouldn't be able to go to a store and just exchange the screen for another one.

When you gently press on your screen, do you see the "smudge" of colours (This is most clearly visible on the pure black background). I have this notion in my head that Cinema Displays have (had) another layer of glass or something protective on top that would prevent from this happening when the surface of the panel is pressed?

Actually does this smudge happen on any cinema display at all, I sort of do not remember my 20" alu one doing that but then again I don't recall checking either?

Those two pixels are no just one, so I think they were stuck and not dead, though the one that's stuck is still around.

I am kinda thinking to keep this screen but I'm worried about the fact that pressing the screen at the corner actually changes the backlight illumination momentarely. Otherwise I think the screen is fairly uniform with just some backlight bleed at the upper right and lower left.