What's the chance of getting a monitor with dead pixels? (great deal in US available on Asus ROG 32" monitor - thinking about shipping to Canada)

[Delicieuxz]

The (normally-overpriced, especially in Canada) ASUS ROG Swift PG329Q 32” 1440P Gaming Monitor is on sale at 27% off in the US, and can be shipped to Canada (B&H offers the cheapest shipping option to Canada), where I am - which means if I order it, it could be difficult or expensive to try to return it if it has dead pixels or other screen issues.

 

How likely is it that there will be dead pixels in a monitor like this?

[saintlouisbagels]

B&H doesn't offer free returns in Canada?

I went through 4 bad units of the AORUS FV43U (43-inch monitor) before getting a good one without egregious dead pixels cracked displays - all from B&H. I felt so bad because it has to be so expensive each time to ship such a big item! (I'm from United States)

 

Anyways, you're going to to have a chance of bad pixels regardless of any brand at any price. But keep in mind it usually takes like a cluster of ~3 pixels before warranties can be considered.

[Delicieuxz]

13 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

B&H doesn't offer free returns in Canada?

I went through 4 bad units of the AORUS FV43U (43-inch monitor) before getting a good one without egregious dead pixels cracked displays - all from B&H. I felt so bad because it has to be so expensive each time to ship such a big item! (I'm from United States)

 

Anyways, you're going to to have a chance of bad pixels regardless of any brand at any price. But keep in mind it usually takes like a cluster of ~3 pixels before warranties can be considered.

Yeah, based on reading posts online, it sounds like most monitors will have dead pixels, and so the only way to have a good chance of getting one with none is to buy at least a few and return any with dead pixels. Pretty sad state of things.

 

Because of that, I'll wait to find a good deal on a monitor that I can buy domestically, and return without issue. Though, monitor prices in Canada suck compared to in the US. And sales on monitors in Canada also suck compared to in the US - while the US routinely gets sales of 20 - 30+ percent off, Canada gets maybe 10 - 15 percent off. And the prices in Canada are already higher to begin with.

 

B&H offers relatively cheap shipping to Canada, $32 US. But if I have to go through a bunch of monitors before I get one without issues, that'll be $32 US I lose each time. And the return shipping might not be free, either.

 

I don't particularly like the visual design of the Asus ROG PG329Q, but it's probably the cheapest monitor I've seen with that range of specs. If this monitor had swivel, I might just find one without screen defects and call it good until I eventually buy a 32" 4k monitor with features like the PG329Q. 4k versions with relatable feature sets are insanely expensive right now.

[Delicieuxz]

Happily, I got an Asus ROG 32" PG329Q from an Asus refurbisher for $190 CA off the regular price, and it has no dead pixels.

 

The RMA work order for the monitor (from which I've blued-out all specific identifiers), which was included in the box, says its only issue was that some cables were missing. But I've noticed one of the rubber pads under the removable base is missing, and one of the clips for the removable rear port cover is broken. The monitor came with an Asus warranty, so I'm going to ask for replacements of those parts.

 

According to the work order, this monitor was received in April of 2022. I'm surprised it took from then until now to be sold. I wonder if it was lost in someone's inventory most of that time. It had Asus-branded packaging tape sealing up its outside and inside packaging when I got it.

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

What backlight-bleed looks like with local dimming disabled:

 

 

What it looks like with local dimming enabled (it has to be completely dark in the room for it to be noticeable):

 

[Delicieuxz]

So, the rear port-cover panel doesn't have a broken clip, that's its normal look. The only issue with the monitor I got is that it's missing one of the rubber feet for the removable base - which I'll want to get before I put the metal baseplate on a wooden desk.

 

 

Does anyone have this monitor and know how to enable ELMB and HDR at the same time? Linus mentions at 6:57 in his mini review of it that he was able to have both on after disabling local dimming.

 

 

Enabling local dimming does say that it disables ELMB, but I still can't select ELMB after I disable local dimming, while HDR is enabled.

 

This is the message shown when enabling ELMB, with HDR turned-off:

 

 

And if I turn on HDR in Windows while ELMB is selected, I get a message listing a handful of things that will be disabled while HDR is enabled, and ELMB is one of the things listed.

 

 

So, I'm thinking HDR and ELMB can't be simultaneously enabled - which is disappointing, because I think ELMB makes a noticeable difference to the clarity of the image when panning the screen quickly in an FPS, and it looks glorious with ELMB enabled.

 

ELMB also makes the screen a lot darker. And the brightness adjustment on the monitor is no longer selectable while ELMB is enabled. So, it seems that ELMB can only be enabled while HDR, local dimming, and brightness control are disabled. That's a huge trade-off that makes ELMB kind-of not practical to use. If I could at least have brightness control with ELMB, I might want to use it instead of HDR + local dimming.

[ewitte]

It has been forever since I've seen a dead pixel and I see hundreds of screens a year.

[Delicieuxz]

On 8/30/2023 at 10:39 AM, ewitte said:

It has been forever since I've seen a dead pixel and I see hundreds of screens a year.

Perhaps some panels are affected a lot more than others, while some are relatively immune. Are they all or mostly the same model that you see?

 

I found lots of semi-recent online reports mentioning people going through 3 - 5 monitors before getting one without any dead pixels. Asus' dead-pixel warranty doesn't kick in unless a monitor has at least 5 dead or dim pixels.