Faint Ghosting on X220 IPS screen

[dv_one]

Glad I came across this thread. It's making me reconsider purchasing a x220 now...

[JameZ]

@All,

I am still checking with the team on this. Will post back once I have a note on it.

//JameZ

[mogunus]

@above: if you at all care about display quality, wait until this mess is resolved. Nobody knows how widespread this is, which is an issue I will return to below.

So, an update on my status, for those interested in watching this unfold. There's a small shipment of ostensibly non-defective IPS LCD's coming to the North America depot system in the first week of July, and another in the first week of August. The depot actually shipped my unit back to me yesterday, "so they could get the parts order in and do an on-site repair." This doesn't make too much sense to me, but maybe that will work out. Basically, all they did with the unit at the depot was check that it had the issue, and then keep it there, from 06/06/2011 until 06/22/2011, while they waited for this parts order. 

What concerns me is that ALL my interactions so far (that have been "successful") have been with the depot repair people. My only interaction with sales, which seems like it might be more connected to manufacturing than the depot (maybe?) was that absurd "re-buy the laptop and RMA the one you have" incident. It seems like the different departments of lenovo have no idea what the other departments do, very poor communication channels. This is a manufacturing flaw, the extent of which is unknown. I have consistently (and politely) asked the numerous customer service reps that I have been "escalated" to for information on how they are communicating with the manufacturing arm of the company, and whether this problem will be fixed for the whole line or not, but they waffle on that. I want to be able to recommend (or not recommend) this unit to my department/lab at some point, so I want to see these problems fixed at the source. So it looks like your best bet for getting an x220 any time soon is buy one and hope, and then get into the queue for a non-defective panel if yours has the issue.

Note that I ordered an x220 (originally) on May 12th, which arrived on May 20th. It has, at this point, been more than a month, and a source of endless hassle for me. I want some kind of assurance that manufacturing quality control is being alerted to this, and I want to know when the problem is fixed, so that if I get more units I can be certain they won't have this problem.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

Mogunus,

Sales, service, depot are in fact on different systems.   From an outside perspective,  one would expect all employees of a company to have access to all information.  Unfortunately, it is not the case - large corporations, just like schools, government agencies, etc, do not operate with a "hive mind" so that there is a total and collective knowledge of everything.

As such, it is often easy to pick apart an experience, highlight different answers / awareness provided by employees in different areas of the company.

All,

We have a formal case open with engineering, but the contacts I have spoken with consider this a normal characteristic of the panel so far.    The general discussion is that images can ghost after about 10 mins, and will clear on their own after 15-20 mins.  

James will follow the case as engineering reviews some samples from the field and we will update again once we have a final answer, and recommendation on any setting or usage changes that may be applicable.

At the moment, there are not different levels of parts, so sending to the depot to swap displays, or returning and re-ordering are unlikely to produce differnent results than what might otherwise be seen as minor variations / tolerances within spec from one panel to the next.

I really appreciate the links to the posted pictures and everyone here who is sharing their experiences.   Very helpful!

Best regards,

Mark

[Amscram]

@Mark

Thanks for the follow up. I hope Lenovo will continue to pride themselves in good customer relations and fix the faulty screen problem. I have used IPS screens from other companies, and ghosting was never a problem. Since this is a professional product line, sold to professional users, a faulty screen with ghosting images is completely unacceptable.

I look forward to hearing back from James soon on Lenovo's decision. If the screen won't be fixed, I will be unable to use this tablet within my Photography studio. I'll need to return it for a refund and buy the Fujitsu t901 instead.

Thanks.

[turnstyle]

The problem is: if Lenovo considers ghosting that lingers for 15-20 minutes, following about 10 minutesof use -- if Lenovo considers that behavior "normal" then it seems, by definition, the panel isn't "faulty."

Gotta say, though, it's a pretty weird behavior to consider normal.

[mogunus]

@Amscram I totally agree.

Thanks for the follow-up, Mark, but I'm completely unsatisfied with this response. A common-sense definition of the normal characteristics of a professional IPS screen would not include ghosting. Please stand behind your product and fix this issue, as opposed to re-defining normal operation so as to include this defect. Except for the screen problems, it really is a great laptop, which I'd like to be able to own and unreservedly recommend to others. I'm also moving to something else if this isn't fixed.

[methanolninja]

Now I've been told it's a feature, it's great! Not only do you get a very cool alpha-blend effect with no GPU overhead, you also get a handy reminder of what you were doing last in case you've forgotten! I'm glad I paid extra for this feature. I didn't see it listed in the specs though.

[atomicminded]

After about a month of owining the machine, I see the ghosting now quite often.  As others have reported, its obvious in midtones and gradients the most.  Very annoying, as I've never see this happen in any other display I've owned.

[x220ghost]

This is very interesting!  I too mailed my machine to the depot in early June, and just received it on the 23rd.  With it came no indication that the problem had not been resolved.  However, once I began using it today, I found that the image retention issue had not been fixed at all.  If it is true that the shipment of panels is not arriving until next month, it seems completely impossible that Lenovo could have even replaced it.

I find it absurd that they held my machine for three weeks before sending it back unrepaired, with no explanation whatsoever!

The statement that this is not a problem, but in fact a feature of the panels, is similarly absurd.  With no other LCD, IPS or not, have I seen such a ghosting problem.  It is extremely distracting, and I cannot imagine a single consumer who would prefer an IPS panel with this behavior to a lower cost TFT without. 

Also, a friend of mine ordered the same x220 and has had no ghosting issues, so I hope that different results may be possible.

I agree that all other aspects of the machine are great, and I wish that I could fully recommend it to others.  My experience with the display and with Lenovo support has made that impossible.