Last week, Acer found out about my dissatisfaction with stuck pixels on their monitors and offered me a free LCD for review. They sent me an AL1916W and claimed their new manufacturing process nearly eliminated stuck and dead pixels. Skeptical about the claim, I took Acer up on their offer.

First Impressions

On Tuesday, my new Acer AL1916W arrived from UPS. For you spec lovers, this a 19-inch widescreen running at a native resolution of 1440×900 (same resolution as my MacBook Pro). Its response time is 5ms, has a 700:1 contrast ratio, and a brightness rating of 300 cd/m2. It supports VGA and DVI, and does not bare a power brick due to an internal power supply.

A gorgous monitor on my cluttered desk.

Upon unpacking and hooking up the monitor, I was thoroughly impressed by the picture right out of the box (this can be attributed to OS X’s color profile for the monitor). The AL1916W definitely looked better than any other non-Apple monitor I’ve used. Unfortunately, the default color profile still did not satisfy my color liking, so I ran a quick expert-setting color profile calibration. After calibrating, I could tell the monitor natively displays more in the red range, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Acer’s controls are simple and easy to use.

Does Acer’s Claim Holdup?

I know, what about Acer’s claim on stuck pixels? Well, I regret to inform you my AL1916W indeed has a stuck or dead pixel. Roughly one-third from the right and one-third from the bottom of the screen is a dimly-lit pixel that appears a dark purplish color on certain backgrounds. I believe the green sub-pixel is either stuck or dead since pure red, blue, and black colors appear normally. More than likely the sub-pixel is dead, since I’ve never heard of an always-off pixel coming back to life.

Approximate location of the stuck pixel.

Unlike my previous stuck pixels, this pixel is dark in color and less noticeable. Since the pixel pitch of the AL1916W is 0.284mm, the pixel is smaller and harder to see. I only notice it when I’m looking at a pure white background with little near the pixel. If I decide to use this monitor as my main one, I’m confident I can tolerate the pixel.

However, receiving a stuck pixel tells me Acer’s “new manufacturing process” is a load of bull. Their replacement policy still remains at four dead or stuck pixels, so regardless of any improvement in manufacturing, people will still get bad monitors. Unfortunately, that’s just a reality with all LCD monitors.

To be fair to Acer, I should disclose that every LCD monitor I have ever owned, with exception of my MacBook Pro (knock on wood), has suffered from some pixel anomaly. My first Acer monitor had a blue stuck pixel, my replacement Acer had a red stuck pixel, and my LG has a light blue stuck pixel on the far right of the screen. Even my MacBook had a blue stuck pixel at purchase, but I managed to rub the pixel to life, never seeing it again. I just seem to have bad luck with LCD monitors.

Final Thoughts

Excluding the pixel trouble, I feel this is a wonderful monitor. The color is sharp, it reaches a decent brightness level, and the features are numerous for a budget monitor. If you don’t mind the risk of a stuck pixel or two, I would highly recommend the Acer AL1916W as your next monitor.

One of the biggest issues which MacBook owners have reported are the heat issues. While my MacBook certainly does get hot, in my opinion it’s nothing out of the ordinary. My MacBook will idle around 55C and get up to 80C depending on how much processor power I require at the time. While the temperatures certainly are a little toasty, it hasn’t stopped me from using my MacBook on my lap in shorts. Sure, the first day I used it I thought it was a little uncomfortable, but since then I’ve either gotten used to the heat, or the first day damaged my skin cells so I can no longer feel pain. Either way, it works out in the end for me.

One of the other major problems with the MacBook in white has been discoloration. Fellow 9ruler Derek Punsalan has been raising awareness of the issue ever since it happened to him. In his unfortunate case, he went out of his way to cover up his MacBook to prevent discoloration, and was only rewarded with an ugly yellow finish. Due to his campaign against discoloration and the hundreds of bloggers who supported him, I can say that I don’t have the issue at all. Since Apple was made aware of the issue, they have changed the plastic to a much smoother material; one which doesn’t change with time. Since I have a later MacBook build, I have been lucky to get the new plastic and avoid the issue completely. For the unlucky MacBook owners with an ugly top case, Apple is replacing the affected portion with no questions asked, so be sure to get that done.

Out of the other well known issues, I have experienced none of them. I have yet to hear the mooing of a cow coming from the back of my MacBook, so I’m safe on that front. As far as AirPort reception goes, it couldn’t be better for me. I’ve taken my MacBook to previously thought WiFi dead zone in my house, and have been surfing with ease. I’ve also avoided power adapter humming and the ever so popular melted MagSafe. So, on the well known fronts, I’ve been good so far.

I’d wish that I could say I haven’t experienced any issues at all, but I can’t do that. I have experienced some very minor issues which aren’t that well known. One of the first issues which became apparent to me is crappy sleep times. While most of Apple’s laptop fleet can stay days in sleep while only loosing a few percentage points, my MacBook looses about 10% of its battery every eight hours. While it’s nothing that will greatly affect my battery life, since I’ll either be plugged in or shut off, it’s a minor inconvenience. Unfortunately there isn’t much I can do, as I’ve been told by the great people over at Broadband Reports that the extra 2GB of RAM installed is drawing more power than normal. Oh well.

Another minor issue which I have experienced has been insanely long Lead-Out times when burning a DVD. When burning a 2-3 minute DVD, my Lead-Out step can take as long as 6-10 minutes. That’s roughly 4x longer than it takes to burn the DVD. Luckily I’ve gotten some help from the Apple support forums and I have a few things to try for my next DVD. If I can’t resolve the issue, it’s nothing I’m going to worry about since I don’t burn DVDs that often.

In the that affects every manufacture category, my screen developed a stuck pixel a few days ago. Within minutes of noticing it I was able to successfully rub it out, only for it to reappear later that night. After seeing it a second time, I rubbed it out again, this time while playing one of the stuck pixel videos. Since then I haven’t seen it again, but if it decides to come back I feel confident that I’ll be able to take it down once again.

In the that’s freaking weird category, I’ve on occasion smelled some sort of burning chemical coming the MacBook. I initially thought it was just the MacBook’s “new car smell,” but since I don’t smell it all the time, and I still smell it almost two weeks after my purchase, I have a feeling that it’s not normal. Apparently a few other people have noticed this problem, claiming it irritates their nose and throat. It hasn’t irritated me at all; in fact, I think it smells quite good. Maybe I’m just a druggie at heart.

All in all, my MacBook has been wonderful. I’ve avoided all the well known major and minor issues, but have experience a few issues of my own. Luckily none of my issues have dramatically affected my MacBook, so it’s nothing which makes me doubt the MacBook and Apple’s quality control. If I can never find a solution to my problems, I will still love my MacBook for years to come.

So, if you’ve been reading all the issues about the MacBook Pro and the MacBook, and are thinking to yourself that every unit is broken, think again. Apple has at least one customer with a working MacBook with no complaints to file. I just think what we’ve been reading about these laptops is only the opinion of a small minority, much like Microsoft’s issues with its 360. Sure, a few people have units which are complete crap, but the majority of people’s MacBooks are working perfectly fine, giving them no reason to tell anyone about it.

As you may have guessed, this isn’t just an ordinary RMA. I basically had to prove my case for Newegg to even consider getting me a new monitor. See, Newegg’s policy is eight pixels or more. Since I only have one, I didn’t qualify for that replacement policy. Instead, I had to talk to Newegg’s customer service to get my own replacement plan.

So, what is my replacement plan? Let’s see, besides the fact that I can just ship my monitor back and get a new one, I won’t have to pay any restocking fees. Wait, it gets better. Newegg is covering the shipping fees of shipping my monitor back to California from Pennsylvania. Then, instead of exchanging the monitor, Newegg is going to give me a full refund. Why? So I can order the monitor today, get the new one on Wednesday, then ship my broken monitor back after I already have my replacement. Oh yeah, my monitor actually came down in price since I ordered it, so I’ll save more than I would have before. I’m very pleased with my replacement plan. I’ll have no downtime, save more money, and get a fully working monitor.

However, this plan obviously didn’t come very easy. I had to really push for it. So, tomorrow (if not, Wednesday) I’ll have something that will be useful for everyone. I’m going to write an article with tips on how to deal with customer service of any type. Hopefully this up and coming article will help people solve their product related issues the next time they arise.

So, yesterday the monitor arrived. I was a little nervous since this was my first LCD purchase, and I was hoping I had picked the best monitor for my situation. After spending about an hour cleaning up a massive cable mess, I finally installed the monitor. A big sigh of relief came over me; the monitor worked perfectly. At first I wasn’t too happy with the quality of the color, however, that was do to my previous monitor’s settings. It took me around another hour to fine tune my color settings in both Windows and Mac OS X so they would match. Once that was done I could finally enjoy the monitor

So far I haven’t had any grips about the monitor, besides one thing which I’ll address in the next paragraph. The color looks perfect, the text is sharp, the increased screen space comes in handy, and the monitor is made of high quality parts. I was a little worried about refresh times in games since LCDs tend to have a problem keeping up, but that hasn’t been an issue. The 8ms response time has done its job keeping up with my fast-paced visual usage.

However, there is one problem with my monitor, and I’m sure this is going to come as no surprise. I have a stuck pixel. The pixel is cyan and it’s on the bottom right of the screen. It shows up constantly unless the image is white. It’s not noticeable on certain colors, but a close inspection reveals it’s still there. I was well aware about dead/stuck pixels when I made my purchase, and I was hoping that wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately I got one, and there is nothing I can do about it. Newegg’s policy is eight pixels or more and Acer’s policy is four or more pixels. So, I’m just going to have to live with it.

I have tried fixing the stuck pixel myself. I ran a few of those color flashing videos, but none have worked yet. I’ve also tried rubbing the pixel back to life several different ways, and that’s failed also. I’m not going to stop, though. Every night I’m going to run a color flashing image until the pixel is gone. I’m also going to try and rub it out every once in awhile. Hopefully persistence will pay off eventually.

Excluding the stuck pixel, I’m very pleased with the monitor. Sure, it’s annoying knowing there is a stuck pixel on the monitor, but I don’t really notice it during most of my computing. I’m sure eventually the pixel will correct itself, so I would still recommend it to anyone who is in the market for an LCD and is short on cash. Stuck/dead pixels are a common thing with LCDs and we just have to live with them. Maybe one day LCD manufactures will up their quality control and we can all have error-free LCDs. Until then, we can come up with methods to fix the manufacturers’ errors. So, if you have any techniques to jump starting a stuck pixel, please let me know.