The Nexus 7 has some issues. People who’ve already received theirs are complaining that the screen is leaking light. And now an expert has gone on record saying the device’s display has its flaws.
But it’s not the only first generation of a product to ship in not completely mint condition.
Got your Nexus 7? Lucky you. Or maybe not so lucky, as the case may be. Some people are complaining their brand-spanking new Nexus 7 is leaking light form the screen, giving off a strange glow from the side. And now an expert has gone on record as claiming the device is at fault.
Raymond Soneria from DisplayMate Technologies says in a blog post that the Nexus 7′s display “falls short”. Looking at the standard photos DisplayMate uses to analyse displays, Soneira said: “Many of the images were noticeably washed out – they looked like over exposed photographs with missing highlights, reduced image contrast, and weak colours.”
He praises the LCD panel itself, saying it has good luminance, a high contrast ratio, excellent colour gamut and colour saturation. The problem, apparently, is the factory calibration of the display parameters, and that makes the images look washed out.
Though it is worth remembering most reviews of the Nexus 7 have been positive, and those complaining about the screen are in the minority. But still, which other gadgets have shipped with niggles of their own?
Antennagate with the iPhone 4
The iPhone 4 was greeted with a chorus of cheers when it arrived. Look at that redesign! The processor’s up to 1GHz! And a 5-megapixel camera! What customers didn’t bank on was how it actually worked as a phone.
The new design meant the antenna wrapped around the edge of the handset, and so when held in a certain way, reception dropped off a cliff. After dozens of videos surfaced online, Apple admitted the problem, and called a press conference. It offered free bumper cases to anyone with an iPhone 4 – put the handset in the case, and reception was fine.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus volume bug
Another flagship, another glitch. The Galaxy Nexus was the first Android handset to come running Ice Cream Sandwich, which nine months ago was the hottest OS in town. (Nine months later it remains pretty exclusive, with just 10 percent of Android devices running it.) And by all accounts it’s a great handset. The only problem? A glitch that caused the volume to drop, meaning calls would go silent and you’d miss notifications. Handy, that.
The glitch affected Galaxy Nexus devices that made calls over 2G using the 900MHz spectrum band. The volume would also drop when in airplane mode, if another mobile on the same spectrum was close by.
But happily both glitches were fixed by a software update pushed out by Google. So it all came out in the wash.
New iPad and the yellowing retina display
Look at the screen! It’s higher than high def! Colours are vibrant! Everything’s so sharp! Oh, what’s this…? Bit yellow isn’t it.
We can imagine that was the reaction of some people who bought the new iPad, when they discovered their retina display had a yellowish tint to it. Apparently the problem was the adhesive used to bond the layers of glass together not being given enough time to evaporate. This was due to Apple shipping them out in double quick time to meet demand. The trials of success, you see.
It wasn’t a massive problem though, with Apple happy to exchange any iPads tainted with it. And waiting a few days for the adhesive to evaporate did the trick for most. So all’s well that ends well.
