The release is full of half-truths, misrepresentations and disinformation. It reads like it was released by marketing as an attempt at damage control. Let's dissect it (all emphasis is mine):
> Some users have reported an image persistence phenomenon; they are able to create the image persistence by disabling screen savers and leaving a fixed image on their screen for extended periods of time
Completely false: most people reported having image retention after as little as 15 minutes (and some lower than 10!) -- by no means an "extended" period of time. Selected quotes from the thread, including Lenovo employees:
mogunus: "Note that the ghosting does not take hours to occur: all I need to do is leave my web browser open for about fifteen minutes and then switch to another screen with dark background, and the UI elements will appear faintly burned into the screen, all over whatever text I'm processing"
abesmith: "For example when I closed this browser there was a clear ghost image left from the form where I'm typing this message from. This happens after a very short time"
turnstyle: "I'd say 15 minutes is plenty (it's not as if it has to sit still with the screen on for hours)."
Mark_Lenovo: "The general discussion is that images can ghost after about 10 mins"
underst0rm: "the gosting is so strong, that you can read the text afterwards when you move the window"
zcool31: "After using the computer for more than 15 minutes, the windows taskbar will become burned in to the screen. Opening any application with a solid colored background lets me see a clear afterimage of the taskbar ant any programs I had open"
methanolninja: "15-30 minutes to burn in and then 30 minutes plus to fade unless the screen is rapidly switched (e.g. gaming, film etc)"
Amscram: "in my situation the ghosting begins in 5-10 minutes from use. It progressively gets worse until you can read text left on the screen and even see traces of color"
> the persistent image is viewed only with a very light grey or off white background
Completely false: the image retention is more visible on a light background but is also noticeable on a dark one. See the qoute from mogunus above (he uses a text editor with a dark background).
> Our testing indicates that the persistent images completely dissipated in a short time period
Completely false: the "short time" that it takes for the image retention to fade is longet than the "extended period of time" it takes it to appear. See quotes above plus some other choice quotes:
mogunus: "Normal use case: fullscreen browser. The UI elements of the browser (tabs, address bar, navigation tools, scroll bar arrows, bookmarks bar) will "burn in" after about 15 minutes. When you switch to a fullscreen text editor, especially with a grey background, all the UI elements are left on the screen for about half an hour, and slowly fade after that."
I am sorry but this release is a load of bovine manure.
The sad truth is that Lenovo has sourced a sub-standard IPS panel in order to cut costs.
Amscram said it best:
"Our displays start to show images after 5-10 minutes of work. So what you are saying is that we should run a screen saver nearly all the time instead of using our laptops, or that we should just accept the image persistence as an unfortunate side effect of Lenvovo using low quality parts in their laptops?
In either case, that is no solution, and little more than a slap in the face of your customers. Your "official statement" has officially scared off many new customers and convinced current ones to buy their next laptop from a different company."
Sorry Lenovo, until you decide to leave the lying to the politicians, I will be recommending competitor's models.
