Those budget 27" IPS displays from Korea are for real

by geoffgasior • 14 years ago

289 155 14 years ago

There are numerous eBay listings for off-brand Korean monitors boasting 27" IPS panels with 2560x1440 display resolutions. These puppies cost less than $400, or roughly half as much as the name-brand alternatives. We've tested one against a 30" Dell, and a few caveats aside, it's nearly as good.

Xcelerate5• 14 years ago

These monitors a great deal. One thing that always bugs me on forums (or deal websites) where these are discussed is that people are quick to point out that these monitors have A- panels -- the rejects from the Apple and Dell supply.

While this is true for a few of the companies, it is not true for all of them. "Korean monitors" isn't one entity. There's a lot of companies selling these things, and a lot of them are A quality panels. (So the lesson is to not just repeat things you hear without finding a primary source first).

I believe most rumors point to Apple releasing a 27 or 30 inch super resolution display within the next year. I'll be waiting for these Korean companies to release their own version and then snatch it up for a cheap price.

pbreit2• 14 years ago

So is there any way to figure out if you're getting an A or an A-?

Xcelerate5• 14 years ago

Ask the group selling the monitors. They'll normally tell you.

devindotcom2• 14 years ago

Yeah, I'm hoping to pick up a generic version of whatever high-res monitor they introduce, if they don't clamp down supply too hard. Windows isn't quite ready for that kind of scaling, though...

josephcooney2• 14 years ago

re: windows - nonsense. GDI+ has been capable of doing resolution-independent rendering since 2000-ish. I think since vista there have been DPI-settings within easy reach. More recent UI platforms like WPF and silverlight are vector-based and resolution-independent. My primary monitor is 2560x1440 and it looks beautiful.

CamperBob22• 14 years ago

There's also a subtext that makes me a bit nervous. The OEM did not build these monitors as an act of charity. They were ordered by someone, with the intent of selling them at a much higher price.

When you see a deal like this -- especially if the monitors are actually of better quality than represented in the ad -- it means that someone at a major PC manufacturer ordered a metric assload too many monitors. Why/how did that happen? Does it signal a larger market collapse?

excuse-me3• 14 years ago

Probably signals a market collapse in the last 2years. Dell and co either ordered, or suppliers thought they would order lots of new big screen monitors, so fab lines were setup, components were bought, screens were made.

... and then the world (or at least those who still had jobs ) ... bought tablets.

gareim• 14 years ago

Or, you know, the panels just weren't up to the PC manufacturer's standards. Happens all the time.

eps• 14 years ago

... low price.

I don't always nitpick, but when I do, I go after "cheap prices".

Xcelerate5• 14 years ago

Then that explains the hesitation I felt when I typed that.

white_devil• 14 years ago

I'm curious, why is "low price" wrong?

kevhsu• 14 years ago

I got the Auria EQ276W from Microcenter for 400+tax last week. Fantastic purchase. Includes Displayport, HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA ports. Colors are vivid, and I don't believe I have any dead/stuck pixels. Mine has minor backlight bleed, but probably not more than the $700+ Apple and Dell displays.

adrianwaj2• 14 years ago

Big question is do they use LED or CCFL, and are they the cheaper e-IPS? What is their refresh rate, >10ms ?

devindotcom2• 14 years ago

Says LED on the panel, and they said refresh rate was just fine. Not sure what type of IPS it is, but given the explosion of IPS panels and demand these days I wouldn't be surprised if it was the real thing. $337 isn't cheap, after all.

hastur9• 14 years ago

The explosion of IPS panels is because LG figured out how to make them really cheaply. And those economic, low-quality variants are called e-IPS and I have absolutely no doubt that we're dealing with one here. (Despite the fact that specs on eBay say S-IPS.)

Also, $337 is not only cheap - it's dirt cheap.

$300 for 24'' IPS is cheap. Courtesy of e-IPS, of course. A Dell U2412M would be an example.

A decent 24'' IPS display, say a Dell U2410, will cost $500.

A high-quality 24'' IPS display, say a NEC PA241W, will cost $1000.

A high-quality 27'' IPS display, say a NEC PA271W, costs $1400.

Welcome to the real world.

ansible• 14 years ago

I am under the impression that most monitors these days are LED instead of CFL.

mappu• 14 years ago

A friend of mine bought one recently, and it arrived yesterday... his comments were along the lines of 'Build quality is not as good as Dell, but passable, and it's a third of the price'. He found a calibration file and seems very happy with the purchase.

The common brands to search for are the Yamakasi Catleap and (to a lesser extent) the Shimian QH270.

kakuri5• 14 years ago

I haven't seen the Yamakasi's or the Achieva Shimian's in person, but I have a Crossover 27Q and the monitor housing is sturdy metal and the stand is sturdy as well. Still overall very lightweight.

citricsquid• 14 years ago

Hmm, I currently have 3 x 24" Samsung monitors and I've been considering the Samsung MD230X6 (6 x 23", 1920 x 1080) but the cost (around $4,000) vs. the $1000 cost of getting 3 x 27" (2560 x 1440) means I'm tempted to try out these "korean" monitors.

My main concern is why are they so cheap. The article mentions that they're displays that companies didn't deem fit to sell, does that mean these are displays that were due to be destroyed and someone is just selling them on, or are they purchased in bulk at a big discount and then being resold? I figure all that matters is if they work and is only $1,000 but I would be much more comfortable purchasing if I knew exactly what their story was.

samstave2• 14 years ago

>why are they so cheap

Maybe they are made by slaves in North Korea underthe work exchange program they have...

EDIT: downvoted, but I was being serious... Maybe they are using labor such as that to make these. I dont know I cant think of another reason they are so cheap - unless they see an opportunity to steal the market by dropping margins and getting these to go in high volume ove rthe next months/year...

brador• 14 years ago

I'm not the downvoter, but since we can't know either way, is it of significance when making a purchasing decision?

moonchrome• 14 years ago

How likely is it that low skilled manual labor is the highest cost factor in high tech manufacturing of things like monitors.

fusiongyro2• 14 years ago

It's not a question to be tossed aside, but I don't think the evidence would bear it. For one thing, nothing made in DPRK is going to be sold through South Korea. They're at war still, not trading and communicating with each other.

Secondly, while DPRK has a lot of people in labor camps, they're starving and their education level is comparable to 4th grade. I don't think you can get exacting standards of quality out of starved forced laborers, but even if you could, you'd still be dealing with the complete lack of a supply chain in North Korea. There are plenty of countries in the area with established supply chains and populations experienced at making these kinds of things, but DPRK isn't one of them.

Third, there just isn't a lot coming out of DPRK in the first place. I've heard of paper flowers made in their labor camps being exported to China and Japan, but in general the trade situation is pretty much a trickle.

It's possible, and there are certainly people around better informed than me, but it doesn't sound like the best or most plausible explanation to me.

jrockway4• 14 years ago

How much labor is involved in making a monitor? The expensive part is the panel, and they are buying those from Samsung or LG.

Apple and Dell probably sell 27" and 30" monitors at a premium because they don't move many units, and the people that need them have the money to buy them. Some Korean company realized they could sell the same panels on eBay for $300 and still make a profit, so they did.

Tsagadai• 14 years ago

Kaesong Industrial Region area is run by Hyundai Asan (Hyundai is a big group of companies and Asan is not really connected to the Motors side). Kaesong mostly produces low-end, low-tech manufactured goods (think toothbrushes and plastic toys). Hyundai Asan is not run by idiots and there is no way they would put anything in North Korea that would allow North Korea to mass produce high-end, techncial goods like IPS displays. Some manufacturing is done by Chinese companies near the northern DPRK border but it is mainly stuff that requires human machines (labour is cheaper in North Korea than China!). Think, textiles and basket weaving. Power is even imported from China there and North Korea provides almost nothing to businesses except access to a limited labour supply.

Your post is conspiratorial and wrong. I know people who have worked at Kaesong (note that Kaesong has also been mostly closed for the last 3 years). Wages may be extremely low but anything that gets more food and money into North Korea while remaining outside the control of the government is a good thing. People can't fight tyranny when they are fighting to not starve to death.

mariusmg• 14 years ago

They're being sold at a price which guarantees a (probably good) profit. To compete on that market you basically need a name. Rather than trying to invest lots of money in marketing and try to "compete" with LG/Samsung/etc those guys prefer to sell them "cheaper" for a profit.

jsz0• 14 years ago

My understanding is with these 'B stock' parts the big guys will reject an entire batch / production run when the quality drops below a certain threshold. So these companies are probably salvaging the parts and either testing them or just passing the risk onto the consumer.

caw• 14 years ago

Some of these are also extremely barebones setups. On one of the models I've read about there's no on screen display, and only 1 input. There's sometimes buttons on the frame but they don't do anything besides power.

ars3• 14 years ago

You may like the Asus PA248Q. IPS, 24" 1920 x 1200, for $339.

dtf2• 14 years ago

I bought a PA238Q a while back, and I use it now as my second monitor. It has incredibly bad persistence... like 20 to 30 seconds of afterimage when I move a window full of text out of the way. Plus the backlight bleed on a black screen is pretty bad.

wesbos• 14 years ago

I've been researching these lately as well and I've found the Crossover 27Q LED to be the best build quality and the nicest casing.

Quite tempted to snap one of these up before they get popular and drive the price up..

kakuri5• 14 years ago

I've got a 27Q and it is excellent. The housing is metal, the stand is solid (if lacking in adjustment, but other models offer more adjustment - I replaced it with an Ergotron MX arm). It's very basic - just a DVI port. Crossover has multiple models offering different stands and different connectivity options. The major unknown at this point is longevity, but other than that I would recommend this without reservation.

majorlazer• 14 years ago

I have an Ergotron MX arm (one of the best purchases I ever made) supporting a 23" ViewSonic and I was planning to get one of these 27" monitors. How well do these arms support monitors that big?

polshaw• 14 years ago

These require 2 DVI connectors, right? Is there a similar one with HDMI? [E: ok.. it seems like 1 dual-link DVI, so-- can you simply use a basic HDMI-DVI socket converter as used on many video cards if you want to plug in an HDMI source?]

Also appear to be glossy, care to comment on your impressions of that aspect?

northisup• 14 years ago

We bought a bunch of them at DISQUS, our current failure rate is about 20-30% failed within the first three months of use. Would not buy again.

pavel_lishin• 14 years ago

If they're less than half the price of a comparable Dell, a 30% failure rate seems acceptable. Just buy some spares, right?

scott_s• 14 years ago

It depends on how much you value the extra time and effort it takes to replace them. If you buy spares ahead of time to negate that time and effort, then have you really saved money?

ww520• 14 years ago

It's 30% failure in 3 months. How high can that go in 6 months, in 12 months, or in the expected life span of a Dell monitor?

Xcelerate5• 14 years ago

All the same brand, or from multiple Korean sources?

fuzzythinker2• 14 years ago

If that's true, the HP ZR2740w is a much better choice. Got mine for ~$650 few months ago, so it'll be < 2x of these prices but no need to worry if they will fail or not.

bradfa• 14 years ago

How do you like the anti-glare on the ZR2740w?

I've found it to be rather intrusive and annoying, especially compared to the ZR2440w's coating.

hastur9• 14 years ago

How did warranty claims / returns work for you?

Did the seller honor them properly?

ntaylor• 14 years ago

Which model did you buy? (make, etc)

rogerbinns2• 14 years ago

Annoyingly they are 16:9 which means you lose some vertical resolution versus 16:10. I'm pretty sure I bought the last two displays with 16:10 in this area.

For those who care about colour checkout http://www.hughski.com for a device and http://lwn.net/Articles/499231/ for details. It turns out that manufacturers do ship displays with completely wrong colour calibration (yes I'm looking at you Lenovo).

kakuri5• 14 years ago

The dearth of 16:10 monitors available bothers me, but if you're going from 1920x1200 (or less) to 2560x1440, you're still gaining vertical space - you're just gaining more horizontal space. I replaced my 24" 1920x1200 with a Crossover 27Q 27" 2560x1400 and absolutely love it.

rogerbinns2• 14 years ago

Note that you only gain physical vertical space if you also increase the monitor size. eg replacing a 24" with another 24" will lose 11% vertical space even if there are more pixels. Consequently you have to significantly increase the diagonal size in order to get the same (or more) vertical.

pbreit2• 14 years ago

You pay another $300 for the 160 pixels (but I guess they are larger pixels!).

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=2560+1600+ips

But I agree, I much prefer 16:10 and am frustrated they are so much pricier and in shorter supply.

rcvassallo2• 14 years ago

Right on. I think the proximity to φ says it all:

φ = 1.618 16:10 = 1.6 16:9 = 1.777

rrmm• 14 years ago

The guy in the article mentions having trouble figuring out how to change the brightness using the non-OSD controls.

As great as LCD monitors are, the one thing I miss about CRT's is having an analogue brightness control. It made it really convenient to adjust the monitor at night.

(Also, I miss not having blue LED's and touch-sensitive controls. They really need to force designers to read Don Norman's book).

SoftwareMaven• 14 years ago

Blue LEDs are an evil scourge upon electronics. Most especially on alarm clocks.

overworkedasian• 14 years ago

there is alot of good information here on various 27" displays from korea. http://www.overclock.net/f/44/monitors-and-displays

theatrus23• 14 years ago

Sadly, not a good monitor review (from the likes of say Anandtech). If you're going to do a qualitative review, you need to check color accuracy, tracking, gamut, etc.

sliverstorm• 14 years ago

I think it can already be taken for granted that if you are concerned about color accuracy, gamut, et al, these are not the panels for you.

corin_• 14 years ago

Plenty of people are concerned about specifics when buying any tech product without buying the most expensive product. I'm concerned about specifications and benchmarks when I buy a graphics card, it doesn't mean I want the best possible, it just means I can judge quality vs. cost.

theatrus23• 14 years ago

They could be - lots of monitors, and especially IPS panels, do well when calibrated. The review is somewhat akin to saying a computer "boots Windows quickly" without ever mentioning the CPU clock speed or hard drive, but complaining the glossy front picks up finger prints and it doesn't fit under your desk nicely. Those may be important, but they aren't quantitative. This review falls into the same trap: adjusting color via on monitor controls and saying the color is "good" is not in any way a reasonable way to do a monitor review.

hastur9• 14 years ago

OK, so let's bring this hype down to Earth.

For this kind of money this can only be an e-IPS monitor. (The specs on e-bay say S-IPS, but it's certainly a lie.)

For those who don't differentiate between the different variants of IPS, e-IPS is a relatively new thing introduced around 2 years ago (by LG, I believe) and it's a simplified and much cheaper to manufacture version of IPS. Its characteristics are somewhere between TN and IPS.

Apart from the display itself, a monitor's quality is also very much dependent on its electronics. For this kind of money it's obvious they've put the absolute minimum into this thing.

(For a little comparison: I have an old, med-quality 19'' NEC 1990FX monitor and a cheap 23'' HP 2310ti touch monitor. The NEC weighs 9kg, the HP 8kg. How can a smaller monitor be heavier? It's all electronics.)

Same applies to other aspects: you can have no confidence in the monitor's electromagnetic emissions or reliability. And if the power supply fries for some reason in 3 months, don't count on your warranty.

I mean, you didn't believe for a second that a no-name brand that sells in the US purely thru e-bay will honor any kind of warranty, did you?

w1ntermute• 14 years ago

> if this piece of crap doesn't even have an ability to regulate brightness and contrast

Reread the article. You can adjust brightness just fine, he just wasn't pressing the button down for long enough at first.

hastur9• 14 years ago

Thank you for pointing that out. Corrected.

noxryan• 14 years ago

Actually, these are not e-IPS monitors. The panel inside the Catleap variants is a WS LG.Display H-IPS (LM270WQ1). TFT Central has the model number's listed in their database: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk

notatoad• 14 years ago

I've currently got an e-IPS dell and an IPS catleap from ebay sitting next to each other on my desk, and the catleap is considerably better. Make all the assumptions you want, the fact is that cheap 27" screens from korea can be damn good displays.

ImprovedSilence• 14 years ago

"The NEC's display must obviously be lighter. So it's all electronics."

It's not always the "electronics", and besides, who says better electronics need to weight more? A few years back, I interviewed with a company that makes high-end blu-ray players. They showed me how they put weights in the cases, so they were heavier, and felt "sturdier" and of higher quality.

brudgers• 14 years ago

There's an old saying that "Americans buy their cars by the pound." I suspect that it is a bit more universal.

jfb3• 14 years ago

It could also be as simple as the glass on the smaller monitor being marginally thicker.

Using weight as a metric for judging the quality of electronics seems … peculiar.

dman• 14 years ago

Yes lets bring down this hype down to earth without actually having used the product. Classic FUD.

Xcelerate5• 14 years ago

At least one of the Korean monitors has an identical panel to Apple's Cinema Display, so your claim of e-IPS is false. If you had checked some of the discussions on Overclock.net or HardForum first you would see that this has been proven true by users who have taken the monitors apart.

Secondly, I'm not sure if I agree with your claim that e-IPS is inferior to s-IPS. I read a document before (can't locate it now) implying that e-IPS had similar characteristics. If you can provide a primary source with more information on this, that would be great, and I'll happily agree with you.

And finally, there have been quite a few cases of sellers honoring the warranty. Check the aforementioned forums, or I can provide a direct link if you like.

nl• 14 years ago

How can a smaller monitor be heavier? It's all electronics"

That is so far off it isn't even wrong.

1) Electronics generally become more integrated, reliable and lighter as time passes. This is generally a good thing.

2) On most monitors a significant amount of weight is in the mounting hardware. Some use structured plastic, some use smaller steel parts. One isn't better than the other, but they do weigh different amounts.

ori_b3• 14 years ago

I wish that they were still making 4:3 LCDs. I like having 3 side by side, and I currently have that setup with 3 20" 1600x1200 monitors, but at some point I'll want to upgrade to something with higher pixel density. My concern is that with new wide screen displays, things will span too wide horizontally to be usable.

excuse-me3• 14 years ago

Me too - I'm buying ex-lease high end Dell 1600x1200 IPS screens because using 3x24" 16:9 is like watching a tennis match - you are constantly twisting your neck from left to right

im3w1l• 14 years ago

Put three screens in portrait and never look back.

rhizome• 14 years ago

It would be nice if sizes could be standardized in some way that I could have one large landscape monitor flanked by a couple of smaller ones in portrait, without looking lame.

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sp332• 14 years ago

Doesn't it bother you that the color and brightness change from one side of the screen to the other? I've had that problem with every LCD I've tried.

kitsune_• 14 years ago

The last thing I would compromise on with my set up is the monitor. After all, I'll be staring into this thing every day for at least two years if not more.

No TN-Panel. No glare. I also refuse to buy a 16:9 monitor.

kakuri5• 14 years ago

I have long felt similarly to you (minus the "no glare" part), but I bought a Crossover 27Q and have been thrilled by it.

I spent $800 on a high-quality 24" 1920x1200 BenQ about 5 years ago, and now it's playing 2nd fiddle to my 27".

As a programmer, it really bothers me that 16:10 is all but dead. However, when you go from a 1920x1200 to a 2560x1440 monitor, you're not losing vertical space - you're just gaining more horizontal space than vertical.

My other huge gripe is anti-glare coating. If you are in control of your lighting, AG coating does not benefit you - it just blurs the picture. A screen with no AG coating gives a crystal clear image.

The BenQ FP241W was one of the best rated & reviewed monitors when it was released. I'm thrilled to replace it with a "cheap" Korean monitor, and look forward to replacing it completely by adding a 2nd Crossover next to my current one. The big issue with the new monitor is longevity - my BenQ is still running perfectly, I hope I can say the same for the Crossover in 5+ years.

cbsmith3• 14 years ago

I like my vertical pixels as much as the next guy, but unless you are doing a lot of drawing work (and therefore really need a circle to look like a circle), I have a hard time seeing why one would not give a little on this.

You've got $300. You can either get a 1920x1200 display, or you can get a 2560x1440 display. If somehow there was another choice with a 2560x1600, I'm going to be strongly tempted to go with the 2560x1400 display unless it has some annoying display quality issues.

Even if you have more money, it'd be tempting to consider getting 2 of the 2560x1400 instead of one 2560x1600.

yardie• 14 years ago

Basing your display decisions by the price is like basing your car buying decisions on the monthly payment. Displays are some of the sturdiest, longest lasting piece of the system, and it's the part of the computer you most interact with, unless you are blind. My single 27" LG is 6 years old and has gone through 3.5 computers in that time.

In that regard, you've got $300 right now for a monitor, in 2 months you'll have $500. If it's possible to get a good monitor right now for $300 then I'd go for it. If I can't find anything that fits me (IPS, 16:10 are critical) I'd rather wait.

quotemstr• 14 years ago

> really need a circle to look like a circle

Why wouldn't a circle look like a circle in both places? All pixels are square these days, yes?

Scene_Cast2• 14 years ago

Anyone looking for a high-quality review of the panel, check out http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dgm_ips-2701wph.htm. The Pro/Con conclusion is at the very bottom of the page. I cannot recommend tftcentral enough as a monitor review site.

jfb3• 14 years ago

I rock the Cinema Display, but would seriously consider one or two of these as secondary displays. Of course, it the mooted third party Thunderbolt breakout boxes actually show up (and work), the economics change for me.

kristofferR2• 14 years ago

I've heard some great things about the Yamasaki Catleap, another cheap 27".

I might be ordering one of them soon.

The vast majority of the receivers have received perfect screens and been really happy with their purchase it seems, check out the reports in the table here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1225919/yamakasi-catleap-monitor-...

jaytaylor• 14 years ago

I've been loving mine! My co-worker also enjoys this same monitor as well.

eliasmacpherson• 14 years ago

the HDCP complaint he lists seems like a feature, not a bug.

josephlord2• 14 years ago

Why? An HDCP capable display can show content without HDCP or with HDCP so in what way is one that only supports non HDCP inputs better?

The only benefit is if only a small minority of people have HDCP displays then it makes no commercial sense to mandate HDCP for content. And in my view it is too late for that.

Edit: Note that it wouldn't be a show stopper for me with a product like this but I would regard HDCP support in a monitor to be a benefit.

Edit2: Added missing word to second sentence.

josephlord2• 14 years ago

Just wanted to add another item which is that HDCP is completely broken now anyway. The remaining security is mostly the fact that it is bloody hard to handle the massive datarate of the the uncompressed video without custom hardware.

And why bother; almost everything is available in the compressed form (e.g. Blu-ray) more easily accessible if you are trying to access the content.

riobard2• 14 years ago

Hmmm, LG panels...

These panels were available since a few years ago on Taobao.com (China's eBay if that helps) in small quantities, and there were lots of excitement to make your own “Cinema Display” at 1/3 the price. As a big screen lover, I was also intrigued. So I did some research.

Here's the background story I heard a year or two ago from an anonymous guy claiming he's working in LG's factories in China. I didn't verify if it's true (unless I saw LG's contract with Apple, which means impossible), but it makes a lot of sense to me anyway. You have to judge by yourselves.

These 27" S-IPS (yes, not e-IPS) panels were indeed manufactured for Apple's iMacs and Cinema/Thunderbolt Displays. Apparently Apple has pretty high and tight standard (which they do, if you've ever used authentic ones) about these panels. Once in a while a production run will not meet Apple's expectation for some reason (e.g. color/brightness/contrast uniformity). So Apple rejects the faulty batch, and LG has to find some creative ways to deal with the rejects without losing too much (these are expensive panels) AND not breaking the contract with Apple.

Turned out Apple forbids LG to resell rejected 27" panels to any well-known brands in meaningful quantity. The restriction makes a lot of business sense: you don't want a major brand suddenly floods the market with comparable displays but at less than half of the price of iMacs and Cinema/Thunderbolt Displays. Especially so when you had spent a lot of money to secure the supply of such giant panels.

So what does LG do in the end? They first sort the faulty batch into two categories: the better ones that can be salvaged by LG itself, and the worse ones that have to go somewhere else. LG re-cuts the slightly better ones into smaller panels (24" and below), and re-sells these to its partners as high grade IPS panels, as this is not forbidden by the contract with Apple (only 27" ones are forbidden). And worse ones? They go to various unknown brands in small quantities (again, this is not forbidden by the contract).

My bet is that these Korean panels are from the second category.

reedlaw• 14 years ago

Are these still available on Taobao? Do you know which brands to look for?

riobard2• 14 years ago

Not sure about it now. My conclusion from that research was that the risk of getting into trouble is too high and I don't want to waste my time worrying about a giant box of plastic.

est• 14 years ago

Sure, Search 27 IPS on any b2c c2c site in China. You can find plenty of them.

The cheapest I can find is about 1599 RMB on 360buy.com

andyjsong• 14 years ago

>LG re-cuts the slightly better ones into smaller panels (24" and below)

This is news to me, my father sell LCD inspection equipment that is part of the assembly line, if a screen doesn't meet the yield, it's rejected. Panels can't be tested until much later in the assembly line process so you can't just re-cut the glass like wood into smaller bits.

Apple probably doesn't inspect the panel until it's completely put together, which is too late. So there is no way they can just take back a bad batch and re-cut the screen. Most likely, Apple receives a shipment, tests a few panels, if it doesn't meet their yield, they reject the shipment and LG will sell the panels to a 3rd party that has lower standards and the 3rd party will rebrand them.

What Apple forbids and LG does are two completely different things. How would Apple even check? Also, once a shipment is rejected, Apple doesn't have any say, they didn't buy it, so why do they have the power to forbid reselling? Even if Apple does find out, it's not like they can kill the contract, there are only 2-3 players in the LCD business that can meet Apple's standards. AFAIK Apple mainly sources their panels from LG and Samsung. Apple would be at a huge disadvantage in getting a competitive price if they ended their relationship with LG.

dshep• 14 years ago

Was interested until I got to: "glossy anti-glare coating". I think I'd have just said it was glossy.

serialx• 14 years ago

Take a look at this: http://www.danawa.com/product/list.html?defSite=DISPLAY&...

Simply take 3 zeros in the price tag to match dollars. There's even 220 dollar display!

sachingulaya2• 14 years ago

As an owner of one I'll toss in my 0.02.

I purchased the Achieva Shimian 27" off of eBay for $290 a few weeks ago. It arrived within 5 days of purchase from Korea. There are no dead pixels or other defects. I hook it up to my macbook pro using: http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Dual...

This monitor only accepts dual-DVI input. You can buy the HDMI version for $350 if you want.

Other variations include "pixel perfect" displays. Pixel perfect means they opened the box and there were no dead pixels. 80% of people on hardocp reported no dead pixels.

The stand is definitely a bit wobbly.

For $290--it can't be beat.

nicholassmith• 14 years ago

I was just thinking about what I'd need for a MBA to do this, so thanks for the link!

sachingulaya2• 14 years ago

To clarify--80% of people who did not order pixel perfect displays received displays with no dead pixels.

"Pixel perfect" displays are ~$50 more.

brilyient• 14 years ago

I can't wait for "tablets" to be sold as "portable displays" that we can plug into small, low-power general purpose computers. We'll get the resolution of the Apple iPad butwe can use a real keyboard, a better, open-source kernel and we can do real programming without the Apple-style lockdown nonsense.

The title is a little misleading. The "non-budget" diplays are often made in the same place (Asia, not the U.S.), from the same parts, maybe even the same factories, by the same workers.

duncans• 14 years ago

Jeff Atwood got some, doesn't look like it worked out well:

"two of the 27" Korean $350 s-ips monitors arrived. They are amazing panels, but lack of hardware brightness control may be a showstopper." https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/224213213649190913

"beautiful S-IPS panels but no hardware LED backlight brightness control times 3 is untenable. Oh well, experiment over." https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/224217599746117632

vitalysh• 14 years ago

Article mentions that on 3rd page:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/23291/3

tl;dr; buttons work, just no OSD.

"Armed with a sense of how the buttons worked, I was soon adjusting the display brightness up and down, as well. I was able to dim the display to an acceptable level for the cave-like Damage Labs, and it wasn't even at the lowest possible setting."

luigip• 14 years ago

Some more discussion of these monitors here: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/news_archive/26.htm#korean_ips27

fersho311• 14 years ago

Just got it! Dead on Arrival, does not work at all. $337 junk. The only thing that woks on this is the piece of shit built in monitor speakers.

Those budget 27" IPS displays from Korea are for real

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