Aluminum Apple Cinema Display HD 23"

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Color Consistency Problems with the Old LCD Aluminum Apple Cinema Display HD 23" (NOT Newer LED)

First ACD 23" after 2 weeks.	Second ACD 23" after 1 month.


Issues

NOTE: This issue report only relates to the old (2006) LCD Aluminum Apple Cinema Display HD 23" This does not apply to the new Apple LED displays. It has only been left in our archives for people still using the old LCD displays.

Above Left are snapshots of the first Aluminum Apple Cinema Display HD 23" that I bought and experienced color consistency problems with. The right and left sides of the display had a dingy yellowish tint to them and there was a darker bluish vertical band just left of center.

I returned that screen and got another, photos of which are above right... It looked better for a few days. It still had the same problems in the same places but didn’t look quite as bad... After a month or so of use however, it now looks pretty much the same as the first one did. The right and left sides have a dingy yellowish tint, though not quite as bad as the previous display. The darker bluish vertical band is still there just left of center, and this one has a pinkish tint to the sides as well, with the left side being worse. The first five digits of my second screen’s serial number are: 2A432. I then returned that screen again just before the one year warranty expired, hoping to finally get a better unit after a full year of production units. Unfortunately this latest screen also has the exact same problems... the first five digits of its serial number are: 2A507.

I must commend Apple for their attempts to make this right. Their service and support have been quite responsive and attempted to resolve the problem. They have replaced the screen a number of times from different batches from different years but the problem seems to be an inherent issue with all the displays and there doesn't seem to be anything that they can really do about it.

At this point (as of 08/04/06) I have finally resigned myself to the fact that there don't appear to be any ACD 23" screens without these color problems, and I’ll just have to live with it. It’s a shame because I’m one of the biggest Mac evangelists I know (Since the original 128K Mac). I’ll continue to recommend Macintosh computers, but unfortunately, I just can’t recommend these ACD 23" screens to graphics pros that need consistent color.

If you have an Aluminum Apple Cinema Display HD 23" please try these three very simple tests...

Set your desktop to solid color white and hide all.
Look at the far right and left sides of the screen for slight yellow discoloration.
Set your desktop to solid color medium gray and hide all.
Look for a slightly darker/bluer vertical band just left of the center.
Look for a slightly pink hue on the left side of the monitor.
Look for slightly darker/browner right/left sides.
Open an iTunes window and move it around the edges of the screen.
Look for the blue bands to fade out near the sides of the screen.

If you notice any of these problems, send an email describing your problems, including the results of the tests mentioned above, including the exact model, size, how long you’ve been using your display (tends to get worse over first month of use) and the first five digits of your serial number to a forum such as:

http://www.macintouch.com/email.html

xlr8yourmac.com

If you don’t see these problems on your display, be sure to test again after a few weeks of use, they often get worse over time. Also be sure that you can see the problems described in the above photos. If you can’t see what I’m talking about in these photos, then you probably wouldn’t be able to see the same problems on the display either. Sometimes graphics professionals are more keenly tuned to subtle color differences than the average user who may not notice these problems. If you truly do have a “good” ACD 23" then please post photos of your screen showing nothing but solid white and solid gray desktops as proof and include the first five digits of your serial number as well as how long you’ve been using the display. So far I have not seen even one photo of a "good" ACD 23" screen, even though I have repeatedly created threads on Apple's display forum trying to get someone to post such photos...

It’s been suggested on xlr8yourmac.com that this could be caused by the way the LCD panel is mounted to the rigid Aluminum frame. This may be stressing the LCD panel. This could be a problem similar to the white spots that appeared on the first batch of Aluminum PowerBook 15" screens. It has also been pointed out to me by another owner of a problem ACD 23" that the bottom of the screen doesn’t seem to be fit together very well. I ran my hand across the bottom of my monitor and noticed it did seem rather uneven. The left side seems like the front/back are pretty close to aligned, but as I slide my hand right, I notice that the seam becomes progressively worse. At the far right the front is noticeably lower than the back where they meet. It also feels like there's a slight bump just to the right of the center... Not sure if any of that is related or not, but if all the “bad” screens seem to be more unevenly fit together, then maybe the LCD panels aren't properly seated, or are being unnecessarily stressed...

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