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Samsung Announces Zero Dead Pixel Policy
Kez writes "A result for the consumer as Samsung declares any TFT that they sell from today onwards should be guaranteed dead pixel free. Until now, purchasing a TFT has been a gamble, given that dead pixels, while extremely annoying, did not necessarily entitle the consumer to a replacement monitor. Unfortunately, anybody who bought a Samsung TFT before today is not covered by the new policy." Update: 01/01 19:49 GMT by M : The new policy only applies in S. Korea. Suck.
Lots of people notice them, and when they complain, they are told that 1 or 2 is an acceptable number due to the manufacturing process.
Hopefully Samsung's actions will set a standard for other's to follow.
Dead Pixels Policy: Replacement or Refund for 8 or more DEAD PIXELS ONLY!
Now I admit, maybe they haven't gotten "the memo" yet.
According to the article (which is really just a message board post), it's any that are purchased from today on, and it extends to six months after purchase. This is a major step forward for consumers, as it will save a lot of money for those of us who can't deal with the blemish of a couple dead pixels.
Here's a sign of the times. A Korean company is the first to announce a zero dead-pixel policy, a gesture of confidence sure to make an impression on customers and industry peers alike. Meanwhile, does anybody care to tell how many LCD monitors were even manufactured in the United States last year?
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
> most customers probably wont even notice 1 or 2 dead pixels..happy 2005
Sorry, but that's just not true. "dead" pixels do one of two things. They either stick open or stick closed. The end result is that you have a dot on the screen that either is very obviously dark when the surrounding material is light, or vice-versa.
While this isn't terribly noticible when playing movies or video games, it is quite noticible when using most traditional 2D desktop apps. A dark pixel in the middle of your otherwise mostly white word-processing session becomes obvious.
Case-in-point is the support wires in Sony Trinitron monitors. Very, very fine horizontal lines at the 1/3 and 2/3 levels on the screen are used to hold a mesh in place which gives the Trinitron series a great display. Every Trinitron style screen I've ever sold, I got asked, immediately, what the story was with the lines. Most customers balked somewhat, but all eventually agreed to live with it.
Dead pixels are, in fact, defects. I don't intend to purchase a defective product out of the box. A product should be free of manufacturing faults for the period of its warranty, or be replaced/repaired. Cosmetic damage to say a bezel, or a power cord is trivial to ignore, but a dead pixel is a flaw in the display's ability to display accurately what it's told to.
As such, I will never buy a laptop or LCD without being allowed to first verify its display is without flaw. A retailer who refuses to allow me to confirm the proper functioning of the device before purchase/departure is a retailer who loses my business. Period.
"Oh no... he found the
Many people aren't aware that font sizes and pixel sizes are independent issues, and get a bigger display so that the same pixel-size graphics are "bigger". Silly, I know, but the problem is particularly acute on Windows, because of Really Stupid (tm) windows third-party application coders who hardcode pixel sizes everywhere.
First rule of modern GUI design: Natural Units and Vector Graphics, not Pixels!
An 8 POINT font should be the same SIZE - 8 points (duh!) - on a 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 display - it should just be a bit clearer on a 1600x1200 display. When I set my document zoom to 100% and hold an A4 sheet up to the display, the A4 sheet on screen better be the same size as the physical sheet, or there'll be a bug report filed!
Why anyone would ever actually believe that you couldn't return an LCD (or laptop) with a dead pixel. This is a manufacturing defect, plain and simple.
You can. And chances are that the one you get to replace it will have bad pixels too. And you can feel free to return that one too.
I'm sure he is speculating, but Samsung's certainly not going to just throw them away. If there's a secondary market that's willing to pay money for them, then of course they're going to sell into it.
>Those who pass the most rigorous stability tests become server chips, the others may (unless scrap) be sold as desktops.
That's so incorrect, I almost lost some intelligence. High-quality processors (server ones) have to meet a higher level of stability, yes. But the ones that don't, simply aren't used. They aren't sold at a lower clock rate or at all for that matter. Or do you think Opterons somehow magically fit into Athlon FX boards? Or that a 3200 XP is just a really good 1900 XP?
In general, when shopping for an LCD monitor, look for low power-consumption, small screen-pitch (less than or equal to 0.26), and at least a three-year warranty.
But before you buy a Samsung LCD monitor, get your hands on the repair manual (PDFs can be found if you are good at using Google). In the parts diagram, ensure that the LCD screen and the screen controller circuit-board are SHOWN separately and can therefore be PURCHASED separately.
I am stuck with a Samsung TFT 770 whose screen is perfect but the screen-controller board has failed. They are considered by Samsung to be ONE part, although the LCD screen is worth over $600 and the screen-controller is likely worth $15.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Until now, purchasing a TFT has been a gamble, given that dead pixels, while extremely annoying, did not necessarily entitle the consumer to a replacement monitor
Whatever. Philips have been offering a zero dead pixel guarantee on all their DVI monitors for years. They only cost $20 - $50 more than the cheapo analogue ones and here in NZ they also come with a 3 year on site warranty.
Rep: So, when did you buy the monitor?
Me: In December 2001.
Rep: Do you have the receipt?
Me: No, but it had a 24-month warranty, the manufacture date on the back label was "October 2001", and it's only August 2003 now, so I can't have had it longer than 2 years, right?
Rep: [thinking] You know, I guess you're right. By the way, we don't make that model any more. Is it OK if we substitude our newer flatscreen model instead? If so, we can cross-ship the new one today.
I have nothing but good to say about Samsung and their support department. I now go out of my way to buy their stuff whenever it's an option.
Before anyone asks, no, I'm not a stockholder. :)
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Just three days ago I bought myself a 17" Samsung SyncMaster 710N for EUR 360. The salesman told me they never had a single dead pixel complaint with Samsung monitors. A few dead monitors yes, but no dead pixels. With some other brands (he didn't want to get more specific) the dead pixel problem seems to be more common.
A bit off-topic, but anyway: in case somebody is looking for a decent 17" TFT, based on the few days experience I can warmly recommend the 710N. There's a recent review of a bunch of 17" monitors at Tom's hardware page, the 710N became the "Editors Choice" label.
Ah, but they can, and do. If the customer is pissed off about the dead pixels in their display, you'd better believe they'll let the retailer know about it. In almost all electronics stores I patronize, you could just take the monitor back for a refund, even if it wasn't actually defective. Retailers would rather not buy items that get taken back all the time, so manufacturers have a motivation for improving display quality.
It is the very act of "whining" that drives improvements in both product and service. If manufacturers could get away with foisting crappy products on everbody, you'd better believe they would (see: Microsoft :P), and Samsung's new policy never would've happened. It is only because customer whining can have a tangible impact on profits that these companies realize they have to work harder to stay competitive.
I'd consider that wasteful. I'd be happy to buy a monitor with say 10 dead pixels at halfprice or so.
Recently, here in India the LCD of my laptop (bought in the US) went bust. HP replaced it for about US$350 (it was out of warranty), and the replacement has a pixel that's permanently red. Initially I found that annoying but now I don't even notice it. Very possibly they knew it was defective and that's why it was relatively cheap: I believe replacing a laptop screen costs at least $1000 in the US (and this one is a very good 1400x1050 15.3" screen), and that's not counting labour, I remember being told (by CompUSA, I think) that it costs $200 just to get someone to open the laptop and look at it if it's out of warranty.
If I'm right and it was cheap for that reason, I don't see why they can't formalise the process and sell "defective" monitors cheap. There could be quite a demand.
How many dead bits per megabyte of ram do you find acceptable in your computer?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Which leads to an interesting situation: Samsumg will be shipping all of their flawed displays outside of S. Korea. So rather than Samsung being the display that you should want to buy, it should be the display that you should avoid.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Dead bits in RAM is an actual performance and stability issue. Dead pixels are cosmetic, and barely so. (Unless there is like 5 or more, then its unacceptable)
I don't know where you live, but it is not West- or Northern Europe. Yes, customers get pissed off by dead pixels, but because of the production costs of LCD displays, their only option is to pay more for a guaranteed pixel perfect monitor. That is why it is called "pixel policy".
A dealer calling their distributor every time he gets a LCD with pixel faults, will get very very tired, as mostly warranty is handled by the manufacturer directly, not the distributor. If the dealer yells and screams enough, the distributor's only option then is to try to get the money back from the manufacturer. The manufacturer will then of course say "Hey, we have a pixel policy, didn't you read it?".
Check this document (Warning, PDF) from Philips, explaining what pixel faults are, and what the policies are on their current line of products. As you see, only three models have a zero pixel fault policy.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
Time machines dont work at all, a Class 2 TFT screen barely detracts from the expereince, but works perfectly for the purpose it was sold. Slight difference there.
If you had actually correctly read the thread parents post, it was full of 'ifs' 'maybes' 'possiblys' and such. Noone has been successfully prosecuted for misleading advertisements pertaining to TFT screens and dead pixels, and creditcard companies do refuse to refund purchases for items that were correctly sold, such as Class 2 TFT panels are. His claim of 'implied warranties' has no place in court, he was sold a Class 2 device and it is warrantied as such, including the limitation of a number of dead pixels. Just because he purchased it with the belief that it should be perfect does not alter the terms of which it was sold under, so long as the item was sold as a Class 2 item and not hyped up. These monitors are not 'obviously defective' because they are sold with the limitation of dead pixels, they arent sold as Class 1 items, and thus anyone taking a retailer to the small claims court would loose their court money.
As for your IRC conversation, its remarkable how easy it is to not notice a few dead pixels on a screen. For example, the Thinkpad I jsut sold had one dead pixel, and it was so unnoticable that it actually took me a few moments to look for and find it to point it out to the person i sold the laptop to. Four pixels out of 1.3million on a 17" TFT panel is a small amount and certainly is nowhere near your ridiculous analogy of a stereo system that only plays 3/4 of a song.