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Comment by arrrg | Hacker News Reader

You might have a Samsung screen. All the screens I tested were LG screens.

The test is quite easy but you wouldn’t notice the defect just like that. Change the background to the dark grey, open up Safari, leave it in one place for two minutes, hide the window. The outline of the address bar was very clearly recognisable on all four machines I tested in the Munich Apple Store.

It’s a bit harder to see on colourful background and you need more than two minutes, but it’s definitely also visible there.

With my replacement the image retention defect also only showed up after one week of daily use.

I think it’s very likely that a large number (likely quite a few more than one percent) are affected by this problem. I think it’s exceedingly unlikely that this is not a problem with shoddy quality control.

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So first you say these display got "horrible image persistence problems" and then you say "you wouldn't notice it just like that". So can't be that big of a problem? I have one with a LG panel, and the only time I noticed some ghosting is when someone on the internet told me to turn my screen completely gray - otherwise I wouldn't even know about it.

Not after two minutes, no. For me it’s plainly obvious even on a colourful background, but that takes ten minutes.

I’m astonished by the acceptance of this defect by so many people. I do not get it. That’s unacceptable.

Yep. I'm on my 2nd display with that problem. The thing is, when I replaced the first one in store, I (along with my father and the Apple employee) scrutinized the screen to see if it had image persistence. It did not. It does now, which indicates that the problem developed over time. Both screens have been LG -- I think all LG screens will eventually develop the problem to some degree. It's not noticeable except under certain circumstances (light to dark backgrounds).

It's heat related. It will only happen once the LCD gets warm.

So if you test it with a freshly booted up machine you won't see it.

If it bothers you severely, get a cheap USB fan and cool the screen. (Although that may be more annoying than the persistence......)

Just tried it on my clearly LG panel. Did not have the problem you mentioned. I've had the machine for a week, from CDW running 10.8.1 so perhaps they've figured it out?

All of a sudden, @jzw's iPad port of xscreensaver turns from "geek-joke" into "prescient foresight"… (assuming the iPad/iPhone retina displays exhibit similar defects…)

I have this issue on an iPad 1. It's not just 'retina' displays.

It doesn't bother me though.

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