Are 3:2 screens suffering from a notable quality issue?

This is my first forum post, so I thought I would ask a question to get started. Does anyone else have issues with the quality of 3:2 screens? I have purchased at least 3 Surface devices over time and, recently, an Acer laptop (Swift 3). They have had issues with their 3:2 display panels. I have had to return or replace two surface devices, a Surface Pro 6 and Surface X Gen 1. I also had to return the Acer laptop because the panels had issues. On all of them they had at least one of the following issues, dead pixels, white stuck pixels and small colour halo rings. It feels like the odds that I will have a problem with a 3:2 computer’s display, at least from my experience, are very high. I know I will have a lot of hate from Surface fan people that I am being nit-picky and I should just live with display defects on a computer that cost over $1000. I am hoping it isn’t just my bad luck that is making me have this issue.

Conversation 9 comments

  • rob_segal

    Premium Member
    18 November, 2020 - 12:07 pm

    <p>Dead or stuck pixels. It will hard to prove a quality issue with 3×2 screens using anecdotal evidence from a website forum. This happens to people on Macs, Dell, HP, and any manufacturer. I had stuck pixels on an HP 4k laptop and dead pixels on a Lenovo 1080 laptop. If something like this happened to me, I would just avoid 3×2 displays. If other people are not having issues and are happy, then good for them. </p>

    • lol3caring

      18 November, 2020 - 4:42 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#593994">In reply to rob_segal:</a></em></blockquote><p>I think this is why I was hesitant to post on here and why I probably won’t ever again. Was genuinely curious if I was on my own having issues but as expected I am being ridiculed as trying to gather “anecdotal evidence” and that I’m the problem. Lots of hate and big words for me just trying to engage with clearly a very hateful community of know it all’s.</p>

      • darkgrayknight

        Premium Member
        18 November, 2020 - 6:27 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#594077">In reply to lol3caring:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm sorry that you have had poor quality 3:2 screens. I have not had any issues with the ones I have. As for the people ridiculing and blaming you, welcome to the Internet, sadly, it has gotten worse over the years. Don't worry about the negativity.</p>

      • dmclaurin

        19 November, 2020 - 10:41 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#594077">In reply to lol3caring:</a></em></blockquote><p>Sorry to hear you feel that way. I don't feel as if we did such a thing such as "hate speech", but you are free to feel otherwise. Cheers!</p>

  • dmclaurin

    18 November, 2020 - 3:18 pm

    <p>Sad to hear about your experience :(</p><p>I own 3 different MS Surface devices…a Surface Go, Pro 7 and Laptop 2. No problems with the screens…no dead pixels.</p><p>Only issue I've had for months (and not alleviated) is with my Pro 7, that when I use my Surface Pen the screen goes black for a few seconds, then later again and finally the computer crashes. No problem if I use a rubber tip pen. This would be my only complaint with all 3 PCs.</p>

  • SWCetacean

    Premium Member
    18 November, 2020 - 3:52 pm

    <p>I've had 4 Surface devices (Pro 2, Pro 3, Pro 4, Pro X) and none of them had any major issues with their screens (no dead pixels or halos or discolorations, the worst I've experienced was some backlight bleed), but I would not be surprised if 3:2 screens had more issues than more common screens. 3:2 panels are a low-volume product, so the panel manufacturers have probably not done as intensive validation on the production process. It sucks, but it is likely a matter of cost vs benefit. A higher defect rate in 3:2 screens will affect like a few thousand Surface users, while a higher defect rate on the production line for 24" 16:9 monitors will affect hundreds of thousands of business users who buy those monitors for their offices.</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    18 November, 2020 - 6:13 pm

    <p>Welcome to the forum! I think someone mentioned that since the 3:2 panels are produced in lower numbers that the production isn’t as streamlined and more bad units get through. I’d bet that as the main reason. I’m sorry that you seem to have gotten more than your fair share though. It’s like my luck with iBooks. All of them had garbage hard disks. </p>

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    19 November, 2020 - 10:54 am

    <p>FWIW, I haven't personally seen a chronic issue and can't say that I've heard of widespread 3:2 issues. Surface devices are the only ones I've had with 3:2 screens. I've had a number since the original Surface and Surface Pro–seven devices between work and home. Of those, I've only had one develop a display issue–a Surface Pro 4 (work device). It had a white pixel. It wasn't bothersome at all, being in the upper right corner, so I did nothing about it. Of course, I also had it connected to external monitors most of the time. I currently have a Surface Book 2 and a Surface Laptop (wife's) at home. I have a Surface Pro 6 at the office. All of them have beautiful displays with none having the flaws you mention as of yet. The Surface Laptop is the oldest device at 3 years old. Maybe I'm just lucky and have generally gotten the good production lot.</p><p><br></p><p>I've certainly had display issues on other display form factors, but I wouldn't categorize those as chronic/widespread either. Had a Dell XPS 15z with FHD screen years ago that had crazy display issues. Move the mouse and the image would just turn to garbage. Stop and it would clear up. Clearly some type of hardware or driver issue. I never got it resolved. Had a 2012 MBP that had a dead pixel right in the center of the display. It was so annoying. Of course, it was out of warranty. I replaced the display myself and never had another issue. Just sold that device earlier this summer and the display was still perfect.</p><p><br></p>

  • StevenLayton

    21 December, 2020 - 2:24 pm

    <p>I bought a Surface Laptop Go 128Gb for work and after 3 weeks I got a display error, with a vertical line down the left of 5he screen, and a square area of fuzzy pixels. Gonna have to send it back to MS to be fixed in the New Year. My first monitor for ages, and it was a 3:2. Unlucky I guess.</p>

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