Quality falls again : panels a la carte
Monitor manufacturer then have the possibility of customizing their panels. They have several basic electronic component sets (sometimes customizable) and several qualities of backlighting. For example, fluorescent tube life (MTBF, Mean Time Before Failure) varies from 25,000 to 50,000 hours. It is up to consumers to see what the monitor is equipped with as this data is theoretically available in the monitor specifications. Pixel command components and backlighting quality, however, is never disclosed. In fact, the MTBF for backlighting control is always shorter than for the tubes. How much shorter? Nobody could give us a straight answer for this question. Once again, it varies according to manufacturer spending. This is the same for the power adapter whether it´s internal or external. The difference in cost between low and high quality components (except for customisations as NEC and Eizo do with brightness sensors, etc.) is around 10%
Once the panel, class and rank are chosen, the only question left for manufacturers is whether they want monitors with or without dead pixels. Half of Atlantis Land products have the « O pixel » warranty. To maintain this warranty, they buy a specific “sorted Class II” and ranked A+. (Different from a Class I which guarantees zero dead pixels, this warranty only lasts one year for Atlantis Land and then changes to a standard Class II type). As the sorting isn’t quite enough, their Asian offices check each batch during assembly for product quality.
Additional cost for this zero dead pixel operation? 10% of the panel price answers Atlantis Land.
To have a “Zero dead pixel” monitor by sorting out panels results in a 10% price increase. For a monitor sold initially at $500, it goes up to $550. This isn’t surprising as this difference is the price of a zero dead pixel warranty sold by a growing number of stores.
Manufacturers could also directly choose Class I. According to another source, this operation would not be very profitable and would cause a 20% additional cost compared to a Class II. On the other hand buying Class III would reduce costs by 10-20 %.
In the end, the panel and components represent 80% of the monitor´s price.
