Comments on: Problem with 20 inch iMac screen – colours washed out

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:04:07 +0000

Just bought the latest 20″ imac. Jut noticed the washed out problem when I did my first photoshop work. VERY VERY disappointing. I have a 4yr old 20″ lcd which didn’t have this problem but it was a matt screen. Maybe there’s an issue with the glossy screens?

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:12:07 +0000

I just bought one of the previous generation iMacs (before the upgrade) which arrived this week. I noticed the gradient problem this morning and started googling to see what others had to say. Now I have to decide what to do … It’s sure discouraging.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:30:21 +0000

Your post is a great little exposition of the two problems I found with my 20″ iMac when I got it a week ago. I soon realized I’d never be able to live with the severe vertical brightness gradient. The extreme sensitivity to viewing angles was awful too. With the combined distortions you’re getting, you basically lose the ability to judge colours by eye, and that’s no good if you’re interested in any sort of graphics work.

Calibrating the screen can’t fix the gradient issue I’m quite sure, nor would you expect it to be able to. Calibration applies across the whole screen, so there’s no way of correcting unevenness. Possibly you could make it a little less obvious, but only at the expense of losing contrast range or something.

My iMac got sent back today and I hope to be getting a full refund – maybe to go towards a 24″, though that’s bigger than I need or want. I looked at a 24″ in a store a few days ago and it had neither of the two shortcomings (which the store’s own 20″ models had, just like mine). Coincidentally though, today Apple have announced new iMacs. I’m not sure what the situation is with the screens though. Has the 20″ screen been replaced by something less diabolical? Not sure, but I kind of doubt it.

By: V. Rosenman

V. Rosenman — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:02:39 +0000

I spotted these light and contrast problems from the first day and have tried three different calibrations with no luck. I am an artist and while the actual light level at the top of the screen measures the same at the bottom (Checked first with the internal light meter in the iMac and then with a hand held photographer’s Sekonic light meter) it looks as if there is a big difference to my eyes. There sure is a difference in the contrast and I agree with the other complainants about it being obnoxious.– I use a solid grey desktop, which really shows this up, but there is a partial fix.

In Photoshop, and probably other photo programs, s- there is a tool called “Gradient.” Indicate the bottom to be darker than the top of your screensaver, and you can indicate the exact percentage of difference you want- I think I used about 20% as I recall. This darkens the lower portion of the screen enough to sort of balance the lighting out.

On my plain grey screen, I can see steps of different grey colors, but my eyes are very sensitive. This might not bother some other users, and I hope this helps. I am going to either add a new display or get another computer. This screen is awful.

My big complaint is that even positioned with my face centered, black and white photos look like they have yellow and blue shading. Even ordinary photos stand out and look great- Till you print them out in greyscale and they go back to looking ordinary. I can’t work with this screen and am going to try to get another computer.
-Victor

By: Andrej

Andrej — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:14:24 +0000

Folks, DOES ANYONE have updated info on tightening “the loose connector of the bottom fluorescent light” issue and whether or not that has solved anyone’s problem?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1110321

By: Mac Hoe

Mac Hoe — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:10:18 +0000

I didn’t know there’s an issue on the 20″ I’m really glad I have the new 24″

By: EagerToBuy

EagerToBuy — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:30:08 +0000

Any ideas when will Apple be able to provide a fix of the iMac 20″ problem?

Thanks

By: John Evans

John Evans — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:17:50 +0000

I purchased a 20″ silver iMac. I am not an expert designer so I did not notice the color distortion at first. My wife and I watch movies, lying in bed with the iMac positioned above us. From that position the distortions are not subtle but so extreme that we could not watch the movie. All detail in the dark areas were completely washed out. I guess most people do not view their computer from below. Until I read this commentary I did not realize that this was a manufacturing defect on Apple’s part.

By: David J

David J — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:59:22 +0000

The new Apple Macs are not the same quality as the old Apple Macs! If I had it to do over I would have not bought a 24in Silver Mac last Feb.

By: Dennis Lamb

Dennis Lamb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:44:19 +0000

I have just spent about 4 days considering whether to buy the new 24″ iMac to replace my PC and give up 25 years of experience from MSDOS to Windows XP. Thankfully I read through a lot of opinions on the web about reliability etc and having read all the complaints about the quality of the screens on this and other sites plus the video demos on YouTube I have decided to postpone my purchase until Apple provide a fix.