Panels a la carte: Mura, components, dead pixels... (page 4: Conclusion)

Conclusion

Dead pixel warranties aren’t great, but at least they related to the ISO norm13406-2. Components, power supplies and backlighting are also covered by warranties. If a manufacturer chooses the economical path, it will result in more or less satisfying results (see the noted quality differences between the ViewSonic VP191b and Fujitsu-Siemens C19-4), and in case of failure you will be covered.

Nothing protects you from the Mura Effect, however, or very average display quality because of poor quality components. It´s all the more unpleasant to learn that manufacturers know this before selling some of their products, like we have seen with Dell (bright halo) or Apple (dominance in pink). Those who simply produce panels and don´t resell them seem to be more straight forward. They sell panels with defects and it isn’t really their fault if some companies big or small, do things to reduce costs. One manufacturer who contributed to this article told us that we have to be realistic, 20 to 30 % of panels produced are defective…but nothing ends up to the trash.

The only way to protect you is to look at consumer protection laws and store policies. Like we said before in the dead pixel article, some stores have money back guarantees and you shouldn´t have to justify yourself for any reason in returning the monitor. For example, the presence of Mura effects.

Our last point is very important and concerns another risk. It´s quite common when a new brand shows up in stores and then disappears. Check who handles the warranty. The brand (serious or not?) or is it the store? If you buy a sub-sub brand monitor don’t do it from a small retail shop that maybe won’t do anything for you later.

To finish this article we are gong to sing (or to be accurate yell) our favourite same old story:

Part 1:
When will they finally revise the ISO 13406-2 norm?
We are fed up with fake claims,
Why do they tell us useless things?
When will they finally use a representative response time measurement?
When will there be a valid viewing angle measurement?
From now on the panel ranks should be indicated
Indicated MTBF must be the shorter whether it´s backlighting or component
Ideally all components should be indicated in the product characteristics

Part 2 :
Of course we have to be realistic
This info we will always to find ourselves
We´ll do our best in the next survey.