Email sent to Gizmodo about 27" iMac experience

If you haven't heard the hype about Apple's apparent problems with their 27" iMac displays flickering and having a slight "yellow" tint, head over to http://gizmodo.com/tag/faultyimacsaga/.

We just got one. Here's a brief rundown of our experience. An email I sent to Gizmodo today...

Had to write in about this... :) First off, read this: http://sumopro.blogspot.com/. That's a friend/colleague of mine... Because of his experience, I waited to replace my 4 year old white MB that had a million peripherals connected to a 24" Samsung monitor, and became ghastly slow while trying to run PS, Bridge, iTunes, Firefox, Mail, etc, etc, etc all simultaneously... But I just couldn't wait for the i7, 8gb ram 27inch monster. So, I hopped online and ordered it. Waited three weeks. It came. Looked fantastic, except for the lower half of the screen (especially the lower right hand side). It had a slight, and I mean slight, yellow tint. I would have never know this, probably, if I hadn't used the imac.squeaked.com (or whatever the url is) test... Could I have been happy for another 4 years and never have it affect my work - probably. But hey, I just dropped over 2 grand on the thing.

So I contaced Apple. They sent me a new one. I put it on the desk started it up (still had the other one - told them I wouldn't return it or pay for another until I received a satisfactory replacement), and side by side, the new replacement (that I waited another two weeks for) was yellow in comparison. Here's the catch. While noticeably warmer in color, it was even from top to bottom, left to right. Initially, I was extremely upset at the "yellow tint" on the new one. After all the original wasn't yellow, except for the lower half and right hand corner.

Now, here's what I do: www.dmphotogallery.com. Yep, I'm a photographer. i.e. I use an external piece of hardware to calibrate my monitors (we use xRite iDisplay 2). Works great, we've been really happy with it. So, here's my own little test that I came up with. I calibrated both monitors using the iDisplay 2. Here's what I found.

Original iMac:
Too little reds
Perfect degree of Greens
Too high of blues

In other words, the original iMac came too "cool" from the factory for Photo/graphic work. (of course the issue with the display being uneven from top to bottom, and bottom right hand being different in hue or more "yellow" than the rest is the real issue here - but stay with me...)

Replacement iMac:
Perfect degree of Reds
Perfect degree of Greens
Perfect degree of Blues

So what did I learn?
1. The original iMac came cooler
2. Original iMac did have uneven display hue/color/tint (Thee problem that needed fixing)
3. Although the replacement iMac appeared to be yellow (especially when it's side by side with a cooler screen), it was actually perfect for my use in temperature/hue/color and even in hue/color/temperature.

I wonder if Apple changed the factory settings on the monitor calibrations? That's what it looks like to me. Could I actually have a "yellow tinted" iMac that was sent as a replacement? Perhaps. But it looks damn good and is the perfect color for my line of work!

**Disclaimer** I think my peripheral vision may have caught a sentence or two blip somewhere on xRite's site about the iDisplay 2 not being compatible with the 27" quad core...not sure, didn't look into it or have any idea about an issue if it exists...just ran the software and trusted it and the hardware...and was happy with the results.

In conclusion, I have determined the following:
1. Apple has customer service that is really great, and that has been confirmed, again, to me.
2. Perhaps sometimes people are too finicky, or imagine problems that don't exist, all because of hype.
3. I've got AppleCare - if something goes wrong, Apple will fix it.
4. I love my monster.

Cheers,

Jed
Twitter: dmphotoAZ

DM Photo dmphotogallery@gmail.com www.executive-headshots.com www.dmphotogallery.com