With the growing popularity of flat panel monitors and increasingly sophisticated portable devices, dead pixel policies aren't just for laptop manufacturers any more. How many bad pixels do you have -- and of what type, and in what area of the display, etc. - before a manufacturer considers replacing the product under warranty? And how can customers find out which convoluted dead pixel formula a particular vendor uses before they buy an expensive device?
Manufacturers' stated policies on dead pixels, if you can find them, can be one of the few things that differ significantly. One reader noted in our recent discussion on high-end laptops how that was a distinguishing factor among the highest priced units he reseached.
"First realization for me came when I read Alienware's dead pixel policy -- not so good," the reader wrote. "If I'm paying for a 1920x1200 screen, I at least want the opportunity to preview it before I'm stuck with it. Hypersonic allows you to pay extra for zero dead pixels, but allows one dead without it. Falcon includes it without an extra charge. Voodoo seems to let you have six dead pixels before they'll do anything -- seems worse than Alienware to me ... Between Hypersonic, Falcon, and Voodoo, Hypersonic seemed to have a much lower price for similarly configured systems, even if you pay Hypersonic's extra $100 for no dead pixel guarantee."
In fact, the policies for those high-end portables -- including Alienware's formula of one bad pixel in the middle of the screen or three on the outside portion -- are actually much better than the norm. More typical is the Acer policy another reader encountered on a web retailers website. "While doing some research on a laptop this morning I came across this: Dead Pixel Policy: There must be 7+ dead pixels in order to obtain a replacement notebook,' for an Acer computer," the reader wrote. "I recalled some of the people who have had trouble with laptop screens in the past and have written in to you. How have we come to the point where we are expected to pay $1,000 or more for a laptop and it not be fully functional? That seven, not six, little holes in our display have to be faulty before we can get it fixed? I have a 1966 Volvo P1800 S. It just runs and runs and runs. Nothing really breaks on it, except for the things I have played with. But I get a laptop for work and if there are six dead spots on my work computer then I am out of luck until a seventh one dies."
But even that was exceptional in the fact that the web retailer displayed the policy so prominently. "Just try to find Sony's policy for its flat panel displays," wrote another reader. "After finding nothing about it on their website, I started calling their sales and customer service lines. Most couldn't, or wouldn't, tell me a thing. One sales rep he was certain I could return a 19-inch for even one bad pixel. A tech said he believed it has to be ten or more. Sounds like the answer is however many bad pixels you have is within 'normal industry standards' as far as Sony is concerned."
And what appears to be a good policy on bad pixels may prove ultimately to be a mirage. "A few months back, there was a posting on your site from someone saying that Samsung had adopted a zero tolerance policy for bad pixels," another reader wrote. "Unfortunately, that turns out to no longer be the case. They told me their policy now is to support the ISO 13406-2 Class II standard, which means they can have up to ten defective pixels on a 17-inch monitor and up to seventeen bad pixels on a 21-inch without replacing it. SEVENTEEN!"
Dead pixel policies may come and go, but one thing never seems to change in all the years I've been hearing gripes about them. What the manufacturer's official policy states may not mean nearly as much as what the current LCD supply situation is like. When a company has accepted a lot of low-quality displays from its suppliers, the support reps start quoting chapter and verse from their defective pixel forumulas. The only time the customer is likely to be pleased with the dead pixel policy is when he or she doesn't even learn that such a thing exists.
Of course, that such things do exist is one of those dirty little secrets the industry would like us to know as little about as possible. So the more light we can shine on these policies, and how manufacturers actually implement them in practice, the better. Let's your hear tales of dead pixels, and the companies that make you count them. Post your comments on my website or write me directly at Foster@gripe2ed.com.
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